Grandpa the grump is now going by bunga, one of Amber's baby names for me; munga for g'ma. Last Saturday I went to a talk by Paul Krugman, a NYT columnist and Princeton econ professor. He fits my biases. He said we are now in a second "gilded age" (the first was just before the great depression where there were a few very very rich and the rest were fairly poor). We now have the same skewed income distribution where a few financial managers are vulgarly rich and the middle class and poor have seen no real income growth in decades. This stems from the "compassionate" Christian takeover of the republican party who see the unbridled free market as the panacea for all our problems and that to provide a safety net to the poor and "have nots" is "weakness". "Toughness" on the part of the gov't is an attribute. An example of this toughness is the conservative opposition to universal health care. 15% of Americans don't have health coverage and 24% have inadequate health insurance. Yet it would cost a family of four $14,000 to buy health care coverage. Average income is about $55,000. After paying rent and food, who could afford it? We are the only industrial nation who does not provide universal health care. (My thought; health care coverage is complicated by several things. First 50% of our U.S. health care costs are due to treating our poor lifestyle; obesity, lack of exercise, smoking and drugs. )
Krugman also said that if g. bush said that the world is flat, it would be reported in the press as, "disagreement on shape of the world". Krugman said that there are nevertheless some hopeful signs of the future. For one, the republicans will soon be out of power. I'm reading his book."Conscience of a Liberal".
Me talking now: I think Hillary is gonna be the next Pres. She's not all bad, but she is beholding to big money like the r's and I think she has a lot of dirt in her past. Given 8 years in power, the d's will end up as corrupt as the present regime. But at least they can't do anything as stupid as invade another country based on lies and deceit - or can they?
I've enjoyed a couple of good rides on my motor bike in the hills and curves before the rain came back.
More rants will follow. I'd like to hear from Amber, Laura, Jonathan and Maddog.
1 comment:
I appreciated the Christmas wish list--always helpful. I'm not so certain the family blog is a good outlet for political ranting. Don't worry--all your grandkids are being educated by liberals in public school and any state university they may attend, so unless they are smart enough to think for themselves (like Jonathan), you'll have little liberal followers living in a country with universal health care. We'll all be begging for bread and decent medical care. If it's so great, why is not working in Canada?
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