An amazing quote.

[Big Daddy]

I don't look at Obama as any kind of god. I don't fully agree with everything he is doing. He is definitely playing to the party to a degree. There's a lot of debts owed by public officials and there's no way to get around it. It requires hundreds of millions of dollars to get elected and a lot of campaign promises that can't be fulfilled. There have been some very good observations made on this thread fro both sides. As usual the whole problem can be attributed to greed.

Obama is just a man but I think his head in the right place. He realizes the limits of what he can do and understands how Washington politics are played. I hope he can do something. The economic situation keeps looking more and more bleak. I think everybody realizes it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Anybody that thinks there is anything anybody can do to change that is living in a fantasy. It sounds like a lot of people here have some good ideas. I wish I owned my house free and clear. I'd feel a lot better.

 

[reinbeau]

You know what amazes me? Some people give their lives for the benefit of the country, whether or not they agree with the missions they have been given. But when you ask those with the most means to sacrifice a little more of their money for the country's welfare you encounter some very nasty characters.

By nasty characters I assume you are referring to people who have worked hard, created a business, and become wealthy. Now it's time for them to share their wealth? Time to take their money via taxes because they have too much? Some see greedy rich people, others see hard working successful people.

Redistribution of wealth is for socialists. I do not want to see American go down that road, but it's where we're headed.

 

[Tallman]

I don't look at Obama as any kind of god.

You seem to look at Obama as a god over on the thread, "What's going on in Europe."

On page 8 of that thread, post #72 you stated, "Send your prayers to Obama."

 

[Big Daddy]

I don't look at Obama as any kind of god.

You seem to look at Obama as a god over on the thread, "What's going on in Europe."

On page 8 of that thread, post #72 you stated, "Send your prayers to Obama."

I meant send your prayers his way that he can get the country back on the road.. kind of like when someone on this line says "Please pray for me." I personally don't believe in prayer, but I realize a lot of people do.

 

[me&thegals]

Tulip fever. I am very familiar. I am also pretty confident in my understanding of business machinations. Personally I'm a great believer in Ocam's Razor - the simplest explanation is the correct one.

I also believe there is rot to the core of business in this country today, and therein lies the real problem. Fast Eddy accounting practices to get money from 'customers' to pass onto a few at the top. It's incestuous, and it's rampant. And it has brought this country to its knees.

I totally agree! I read about the tulip thing in one of Pollan's books. To think that people were speculating on tulips back there and then the way the did on homes here!

I think corporate greed is at the core of a lot of this. And people's desire to have more than they need.

NPR had a great program on tonight on This American Life. It was a 1-hour great segment on the banking system, brought to a lay-person's level. Very informative. Made a lot of sense. They talked about nationalizing the banking system, or leaving it to fail, or somewhere in between. Very interesting.

 

[me&thegals]

You know what amazes me? Some people give their lives for the benefit of the country, whether or not they agree with the missions they have been given. But when you ask those with the most means to sacrifice a little more of their money for the country's welfare you encounter some very nasty characters.

Now, that isn't to say I agree with the way government blows through money, or the deficits that BOTH PARTIES create while they are in power. It is just to say that money does quite a number on people's characters. JMO, and not directed at anyone here BTW.

How true. That's what concerns me about this depression in comparison to the Great Depression. You hear all these stories of people bonding together, pulling together and helping each other in the GD. Even strangers were allowed in off the street to have a bed in a family's home. I wonder if we still have that sense of community in America or if there are too many clinging to whatever money and resources they have left, unwilling to share.

Maybe part of that is people's sense that bad choices got us here and nobody wants to help fund that. I can understand that, but it makes me really uncomfortable when people are talking about stockpiling weapons and ammunition to take out anybody who tries to get their food. Just my thoughts...

 

[On Our own]

If you go by Occam's Razor then the simple answer which is correct is basic human greed. Which is largely what I was referring to.

Not one law, not one party, and certainly not one president, now in the past or in the future.

This crisis is NOT a little normal business cycle recession. It simply is not.

It is a systemic failure and cannot be "fixed" as is. It needs a serious overhaul.

And truly if people are serious about their worries about "socialism" look at 1950s America! We were FAR more socialist then than we are now or even would be if Obama got everything he was asking for!

If you refute ANYTHING that looks "socialist" and (golly do people misuse that word) - don't collect unemployment, worker's compensation, social security, medicare or medicaid, give up all those safety nets that people object to until it is their turn to need them.

 

[Big Daddy]

I think the only way they're going to fix it is to nationalize the banks. Right now the Fed has given all this money to the banks to loan out and get small businesses going, but the banks are sitting on it. The fed needs to take over and get things going then put them back in private control. Hopefully with different management.

 

[reinbeau]

The way to fix it is to - and no one wants to hear this - let it fall. Let the businesses that are bad fail. Someone with money will buy the assets (what's left) and run with them. Don't tell me we can't, it's too expensive, blah, blah, blah - what's being done in the name of bailout is too expensive! The budget deficit that's looming is too much (and that's not all money being spent for bailout, that's all the other malarkey stuffed in there, the liberal wish list for the last twelve years). Let the business cycle correct itself - it's doing it anyway - don't stand in the way of it. We can't spend our way out of this mess, we have to let it happen and then deal with what's left. It'll be painful - but over far quicker than having our great-great-great-great grandchildren still paying for the spending plan in place now.

 

[Homesteadmom]

If you refute ANYTHING that looks "socialist" and (golly do people misuse that word) - don't collect unemployment, worker's compensation, social security, medicare or medicaid, give up all those safety nets that people object to until it is their turn to need them.

Only problem I see with that part of your statement is we pay into these programs from the moment we start earning a paycheck. So they are not complete gov't giveaways.