Quote from hoodooman:
When the boat is leaking, the solution is not to get a bigger pail. All you have to do in the case of the economy is to undue all the laws and agreements that got us into this mess. But you can't do that if you are corrupt and cow tow to the bastards that got us into this mess.
Dooman, you have made what should be for everyone a rather obvious observation: If things are not working out to your liking then change what you are doing and do something else!
As we all know, their are powerful minority interests that make money from the status quo, i.e., the "bastards" you refer to. Here is an obvious example. Everyone agrees, even CPA's and tax lawyers, that the income tax code in the US is absurdly complex, inefficient and loaded to the gills with special interest perks. Yet it is because of CPA's and tax lawyers that their won't be meaningful reform. The organizations that these folks are part of have enough financial resources and political clout to see that any alternative way of taxing that would be much simpler to administer, and far more fair and efficient too, will be DOA. Ditto any reform that might eliminate the mortgage deduction. The Real Estate lobby will see to it that that's DOA.
How about defense spending reform and an end to fear mongering and endless unproductive wars. The defense industry will see to it that any meaningful changes there will be DOA.
How about introducing more competition into the medical or insurance industries. The respective lobbying organizations for those industries will see to it that any meaningful reforms in those areas will be DOA.
The only reforms possible will be those that don't impinge on profits. Obama care is an example of the half baked results to be expected. The version that passed will increase net insurance profits and not harm profits in other medical related sectors. Most likely total costs will escalate, which is
counter to the professed intent, which if I remember correctly, was to make "affordable" care widely available to just about everyone. What is "affordable" about costs two to eight times higher than in any nation and rising much faster than inflation in general?
Meaningful reform in any area protected by a strong lobby is virtually impossible because of the structure of the political system in the US and its obsolescent constitution.
At the moment the US needs job creation in the worst way; the obvious and logical way to achieve that is to grow the middle class and put money in their pockets so that they have money for discretionary spending. Growing the middle class and making it more prosperous will require, obviously, "redistribution of wealth". Just uttering those words will cause some to turn purple with rage; these purple-faced folks are envisioning confiscative redistribution. But of course redistribution can come about in a benign way via reform of the policies that resulted in wealth polarization in the first place! My guess is that instead of doing the logical, we will create jobs via borrowed money and government expenditure, or via tax incentives to businesses, and either approach will result in larger deficits, more borrowing, inflation, and possibly even further wealth polarization. Instead, the logical approach is to redistribute wealth by simply ceasing to do what devastated the middle class in the first place, and revert back to the policies that worked well in the past.
Revolution in another hundred years or so will ultimately result in a new constitution and the necessary reforms, but I won't live to see it.
"Insanity is to keep doing the same thing and expect different results." -- Albert Einstein
Perhaps more respect is due for mobsters than the Left, mobsters aren't posing as the saviors of the population albeit when the SHTF scenario comes over the horizon they sometimes are the only surviving part of an economy and can indeed help people...