Comments on: The War Between the States (of corporate desperation) and a Short History of American Economic Time (and if this title was any longer it could never make it as a bumper sticker.) http://politicallunacy.wordpress.com/2008/07/12/the-war-between-the-states-of-corporate-desperationthe-war-between-the-states-of-corporate-desperation-and-a-short-history-of-american-economic-time-and-if-this-title-was-any-longer-it-could-never/ Carl Luna pontificates on San Diego politics Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:03:55 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: byncJoyboaddy http://politicallunacy.wordpress.com/2008/07/12/the-war-between-the-states-of-corporate-desperationthe-war-between-the-states-of-corporate-desperation-and-a-short-history-of-american-economic-time-and-if-this-title-was-any-longer-it-could-never/#comment-1481 byncJoyboaddy Wed, 20 May 2009 14:08:49 +0000 http://politicallunacy.wordpress.com/?p=122#comment-1481 Terrific post - hope to visit once more.. Terrific post – hope to visit once more..

]]> By: Bookmarks about Corporate http://politicallunacy.wordpress.com/2008/07/12/the-war-between-the-states-of-corporate-desperationthe-war-between-the-states-of-corporate-desperation-and-a-short-history-of-american-economic-time-and-if-this-title-was-any-longer-it-could-never/#comment-1339 Bookmarks about Corporate Sun, 19 Oct 2008 12:15:05 +0000 http://politicallunacy.wordpress.com/?p=122#comment-1339 [...] - bookmarked by 4 members originally found by Spirituse6 on 2008-09-30 The War Between the States (of corporate desperationThe War ... [...] [...] – bookmarked by 4 members originally found by Spirituse6 on 2008-09-30 The War Between the States (of corporate desperationThe War … [...]

]]> By: mlaiuppa http://politicallunacy.wordpress.com/2008/07/12/the-war-between-the-states-of-corporate-desperationthe-war-between-the-states-of-corporate-desperation-and-a-short-history-of-american-economic-time-and-if-this-title-was-any-longer-it-could-never/#comment-1239 mlaiuppa Tue, 15 Jul 2008 05:55:10 +0000 http://politicallunacy.wordpress.com/?p=122#comment-1239 Ah, yes. The good old days of children in the coal mines and rats in the meat packing houses. There's never a bootstrap to pull yourself up with when you need one. Ah, yes.

The good old days of children in the coal mines and rats in the meat packing houses.

There’s never a bootstrap to pull yourself up with when you need one.

]]> By: bill greene http://politicallunacy.wordpress.com/2008/07/12/the-war-between-the-states-of-corporate-desperationthe-war-between-the-states-of-corporate-desperation-and-a-short-history-of-american-economic-time-and-if-this-title-was-any-longer-it-could-never/#comment-1238 bill greene Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:23:40 +0000 http://politicallunacy.wordpress.com/?p=122#comment-1238 I would divide American economic history into two epochs: There were the first 250 years from 1620-1870 when there was limited government, easy entry to business, relatively fair and open competition, no foreign adventures, and minimum taxation and regulation. That benign scenario allowed the great majority of citizens to employ their imagination and initiative in pursuing their ecomonic well-being. Those generations, who asked for no handouts or assistance, built the wilderness into a great nation with railroads crossing the continent, and made us one of the most advanced industrial powers of the world. Then there was the last 100-150 years when all that good stuff commenced a slow death. In the 1900's, we allowed ourselves to become embroiled in major foreign wars, enacted so many laws and regulations that you can't do business without legal representation, burdened the people with a huge bureaucracy and oppressive taxes, diminshed the independence of the citizenry with huge subsidies and welfare transfers that put millions on the dole, and initiated a number of feel-good utopian schemes that waste the peoples' money, create injustices, and bring on harmful and unintended consequences. These negative trends of the last 100 plus years have been encouraged by an educational system that teaches victim dependency and anti-Americanism; politicians buying votes from the gullible; and a cadre of intellectuals who seek to rule from the top by administering centralized governmental programs. In short the self-reliant generations of Americans have been replaced by an effete elite who dictate political correctness, multi-culturalism, and socialism--with all the trappings of big government. The three eras described in this post are really just sub-parts of the final declining phase of the American State. Both Republicans and Democrats have fallen victim to these negative forces. History is replete with successful Republics that eventualluy succumbed to populist democracy and its related bloated bureaucracy. The lessons of history are being repeated, here in the USA--it's simply a case of "deja-vu all over again." I have fashioned the "Radzewicz Riddle" to illustrate the point: "Why do primitive start-up societies do so well and yet once they become affluent, their people better educated and more sophisticated, their leaders more compassionate, and with their new elites employing the latest scientifically crafted government programs, then, somehow, things start to go downhill? Of course, the answer is that the academics and intelligentsias have taken over, the common people are bamboozled, and economic freedom is smothered in a miasma of oppressive regulatory burdens. I would divide American economic history into two epochs: There were the first 250 years from 1620-1870 when there was limited government, easy entry to business, relatively fair and open competition, no foreign adventures, and minimum taxation and regulation. That benign scenario allowed the great majority of citizens to employ their imagination and initiative in pursuing their ecomonic well-being. Those generations, who asked for no handouts or assistance, built the wilderness into a great nation with railroads crossing the continent, and made us one of the most advanced industrial powers of the world.
Then there was the last 100-150 years when all that good stuff commenced a slow death. In the 1900’s, we allowed ourselves to become embroiled in major foreign wars, enacted so many laws and regulations that you can’t do business without legal representation, burdened the people with a huge bureaucracy and oppressive taxes, diminshed the independence of the citizenry with huge subsidies and welfare transfers that put millions on the dole, and initiated a number of feel-good utopian schemes that waste the peoples’ money, create injustices, and bring on harmful and unintended consequences. These negative trends of the last 100 plus years have been encouraged by an educational system that teaches victim dependency and anti-Americanism; politicians buying votes from the gullible; and a cadre of intellectuals who seek to rule from the top by administering centralized governmental programs. In short the self-reliant generations of Americans have been replaced by an effete elite who dictate political correctness, multi-culturalism, and socialism–with all the trappings of big government.
The three eras described in this post are really just sub-parts of the final declining phase of the American State. Both Republicans and Democrats have fallen victim to these negative forces. History is replete with successful Republics that eventualluy succumbed to populist democracy and its related bloated bureaucracy. The lessons of history are being repeated, here in the USA–it’s simply a case of “deja-vu all over again.” I have fashioned the “Radzewicz Riddle” to illustrate the point: “Why do primitive start-up societies do so well and yet once they become affluent, their people better educated and more sophisticated, their leaders more compassionate, and with their new elites employing the latest scientifically crafted government programs, then, somehow, things start to go downhill? Of course, the answer is that the academics and intelligentsias have taken over, the common people are bamboozled, and economic freedom is smothered in a miasma of oppressive regulatory burdens.

]]> By: mlaiuppa http://politicallunacy.wordpress.com/2008/07/12/the-war-between-the-states-of-corporate-desperationthe-war-between-the-states-of-corporate-desperation-and-a-short-history-of-american-economic-time-and-if-this-title-was-any-longer-it-could-never/#comment-1234 mlaiuppa Sun, 13 Jul 2008 07:38:17 +0000 http://politicallunacy.wordpress.com/?p=122#comment-1234 Okay. All that. But oil has peaked (and natural gas quickly following) and the airlines as well as everyone else needs to get a clue and suck it up. Rail needs to come back in a big way. Long distance travelers need to learn to plan in advance and then sit back and relax. Rail is 18% more efficient than air and 17% more efficient than auto. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Time to start reserving oil for that for which there is no substitute and start substituting in a big way now. That means more solar, more wind, more geothermal, more bio, more alternatives. We need a NEW New Deal. One based on green, to both retrain and employ those out of work and to produce the green we need. (Double entendre intended.) Retool factories to produce wind turbines, solar panels, inverters. Fine the dirty and wasteful to reward the clean and efficient. Light a fire under coal fired plants: clean or gone. No cap and trade. If they can't clean up their emissions, then they're shut down. That of course means we need to bring in a substitute. Instead of flushing all of that animal waste away to provide the e.coli in the next crop of spinach, contain it for the methane. Caging animals up in farms and feeding them what they weren't designed to digest and then pumping them full of drugs to combat the effects of a lousy diet isn't a good business model for food production any more. We're going to have to modify our diets to eat smarter, thrifty and more.....green. We need to eat a lot less beef. The cows need to get off of their corn diet. The grass can both feed them and sequester carbon. Free range isn't cheap but it's healthy for the cows and the earth. There's a lot more. Yes, oil speculation needs to stop. But that is a very small part of a very large and very complicated problem. Have you put a PV array on your roof yet? How many mpg does your car get? Biking and walking more? Do you reuse your cloth bags, forgoing both paper and plastic? Programable thermostat. Microsprinklers on timers. Composting. Everyone can do more. And the more we do, the better it gets for everyone. Reaganomics is over and we're entering the fourth epoch. Time will tell what it will be. Okay. All that.

But oil has peaked (and natural gas quickly following) and the airlines as well as everyone else needs to get a clue and suck it up.

Rail needs to come back in a big way. Long distance travelers need to learn to plan in advance and then sit back and relax. Rail is 18% more efficient than air and 17% more efficient than auto.

Reduce, reuse, recycle. Time to start reserving oil for that for which there is no substitute and start substituting in a big way now. That means more solar, more wind, more geothermal, more bio, more alternatives.

We need a NEW New Deal. One based on green, to both retrain and employ those out of work and to produce the green we need. (Double entendre intended.) Retool factories to produce wind turbines, solar panels, inverters. Fine the dirty and wasteful to reward the clean and efficient. Light a fire under coal fired plants: clean or gone. No cap and trade. If they can’t clean up their emissions, then they’re shut down. That of course means we need to bring in a substitute.

Instead of flushing all of that animal waste away to provide the e.coli in the next crop of spinach, contain it for the methane.

Caging animals up in farms and feeding them what they weren’t designed to digest and then pumping them full of drugs to combat the effects of a lousy diet isn’t a good business model for food production any more. We’re going to have to modify our diets to eat smarter, thrifty and more…..green.

We need to eat a lot less beef. The cows need to get off of their corn diet. The grass can both feed them and sequester carbon. Free range isn’t cheap but it’s healthy for the cows and the earth.

There’s a lot more.

Yes, oil speculation needs to stop. But that is a very small part of a very large and very complicated problem.

Have you put a PV array on your roof yet? How many mpg does your car get? Biking and walking more? Do you reuse your cloth bags, forgoing both paper and plastic? Programable thermostat. Microsprinklers on timers. Composting. Everyone can do more. And the more we do, the better it gets for everyone.

Reaganomics is over and we’re entering the fourth epoch. Time will tell what it will be.

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