bostonbubble.com

[mpr]

[Boston ITer]

[Kaidran]

I hardly think you need to be labeled a "snob" to mistrust FOX news. I think the vast majority of people can see it for what it is: GOP propaganda. If someone was to quote Keith Oberman to you how much credibility would you give them?

It is the double standard that pisses me off.

Frankly I'd welcome the GOP taking one or both houses, that way they would actually be responsible for something and could not just get away with being obstructionist.

[Boston ITer]

[john p]

MPR:

I get your analogy about the hospital emergency procedure, but it would be more accurate if it wasn't George W. Bush who slashed America's throat, it was Subprime Lending that created a toxic that poisoned America.

They are two very legitimate arguments and I understand the frustration on both sides, and both types of people are salt of the earth, decent, intelligent people and it is kind of frustrating when people lob out insults (me included).

The two sides are:

Bush started two Wars and then decided to cut Taxes with most of the benefits going to the Rich.

versus

The Rich have always paid the overwhelming majority of taxes so of course the benefits of cutting taxes would benefit them and it was septic shock of a confluence of subprime lending, credit default swaps, securitization of subprime loans, lax oversight which caused a toxic poison.

Now moving forward, which is really what is important, will depend on what you think caused the problem. If you see it as a poison, you try to root it out and never let it happen again. To these folks, we see the same lending going on today and we see people getting their mortgages paid for them for a period just go belly up again after their subsidized periord. To those that see it as the Rich not paying their fair share, they want more entitlements and more wealth redistribution.

MPR: I get that you think that it would have been worse if we didn't Deficit spend, but if we didn't have George W. Bush and those tax cuts, the United States would have been worse. I mean look at the worst fiscally performing States, and they are almost all Blue States. I analyzed the growth of full time equivalents at the State and Federal Level. Even after waging a War on Terror and creating a new Homeland Security, the Federal Government grew LESS in percentage than California, Illinois, etc. Also, what would the world look like if we didn't get rid of Saddam Hussein?

When you drill down to try to evaluate this, you hit a nerve of politics. To avoid drilling down due to this is intellectual cowardice. Checking your own political baggage at the door is necessary. What I'm saying guys, is that I have done this and went into this deep dive as a Democrat and came out not as a Democrat. My goal isn't to have everyone agree with me, but to try to get people to check their politics at the door and look at it rationally.

My issue with Obama's vanity is that vain people want a monument to themselves. I came from a little town of Lynnfield and the reason why it remained a beautiful little town isn't because it wanted to grow large, but because it wanted to remain small. Towns that got excited to have all kinds of development got crowded. Right now, we need to reduce government and make hard choices about what entitlements we can in fact afford. Obama wanted to be the guy who did what no Democrat was able to achieve in 40 years: Universal Health Care. What he hasn't realized is that if it was realistic in the past 40 years we would have already had it. Other nations without a $650 Billion Military can afford it, but we have to subsidze their security.

Because of all of this, Obama wants this monument to himself: Universal Health Care, and doesn't want to cut anything because he wants to remain popular, so the only solution is to put the expense on the credit card and then later have a massive tax increase. He is going to get away with some of this because he convinced people that Bush and the Rich slashed our throats versus what I believe to be true in that we were poisoned by toxic assets. If you see it as a toxic asset poison, you'll also see Obama's fingerprints all over it (getting the second most graft from Fannie Mae).

In most instances, I'd say, "whatever" and move on, but Obama's course of action isn't going to play out well. Even with the best intentions, a Nation with a $650 Billion Military isn't going to starve; we will become predators and we'll have a new War. If we don't get out of this delusion we will become desperate and we will brainwash ourselves to do evil things and a lot of innocent people will suffer. The Unions wanted too much money and they bankrupted many industries. Then, they didn't save enough for their members Pension, so they want the Government to bail them out, and the Government to subsidize the Companies that they drove into bankrupcy. What's next? When you see these loud meatheads acting like thugs holding up political signs they are just intimidating voters. They even now want to get rid of the private balloting so they can really intimidate others. These Unions were pushing for Casinos so they are just like Pinkertons protecting a predatory industry and the Unions are absolutely killing State Governments. So yes, these people are delusional, unproductive, and aggressive and CONTROL the Democratic Party. Is it possible that they just eat the host and have to go beyond our borders? The Subprime Poison hurt us and the lesson ought to be to make sure that we don't get poisoned again or let the parasites within our Nation kill us either.

The Challenge is that the Republicans believe that if the Rich control the Capital, they will invest in growing companies that will presumably hire a lot of workers and you empower the most industrious in our society, and from those industrious people, you grow the abundance necessary to sustain a lot of entitlements. The Unions say b.s. because they know that the Rich look for profitable companies not necessarily companies that employ a lot of people and with manufacturing you can make a lot of profit with not many employees. Now the flip side is that cheap production gets us cheap stuff which has a benefit. People complain about this being the worst economy since the Great Depression, yet people have more stuff than in any time in Human History. So how does a 300 million person Nation with a $650 Billion Military function long term as a consumer society without becoming a predator? Many would argue that we are already an empire carnivore with our occupation of Iraq. So the answer is that we learn to start making shit here, but labor is too expensive for us to compete.

I worked on a design of a large public institution and I wanted to change out existing poor energy performing light fixtures (hundreds of them). When we ran the numbers, it was too expensive to upgrade the lights to the next generation of "Green" because the Union labor was too expensive to run a second wire to them. Basically they had a high and low setting (low for the daytime, high for at night). To think that all those developers and engineers who created that new generation light fixture weren't making an impact there because of these overpaid lazy union guys. These Union guys drive up the cost of every construction project they are on and taxpayers have to subsidize this, and the Union guys if they aren't working collect unemployment. Basically they earn a very comfortable income working 8 to 10 months and then collect unemployment (which is subsidized by taxpayers as well). These guys are the bullies.

The other bullies are the rich who pump out the profits and fight off competition who pay their workers better and try to attract talent away. This low cost of capital has made it easy for large companies to buy smaller companies. Think about it, a major company is losing profits to three competitiors who say have an 8% profit margin. They borrow money at 2% and buy their competition and still profit. Then, they lower everyone's salary across the board and pump out more profit.

The younger, smaller companies keep captialism competitive and the best results come of it so the current climate is empowering the lazy bullies and the rich bullies and this is where my passion comes from.

[balor123]

Other countries can afford universal healthcare because their healthcare costs are substantially lower than ours by virtually any metric. I just read an article that healthcare IT will finally get substantial spending thanks to subsidies from government with healthcare reform, not just from hospitals but also from insurers, and because they are now forced to look for ways to cut costs. They have been operating under never need to cut costs but always guaranteed income conditions for decades. Sure these systems always made financial sense over the long run but why invest in them when you're already making a steady profit without the risk that the investment might not pay off? Framingham has one hospital. NWH wanted to move in but the city fended them off so that their existing hospital would maintain a monopoly in the area. Protectionism. The cost of healthcare rises for those in the area but thanks to health insurance the cost is largely paid but other people. Meanwhile, those workers get to enjoy working for healthy wages and that money stays within the city. Many insurers operate in areas where by law there can be only one insurer. MA seems to be decent here with at least a few choices though we have big shortages of healthcare workers. Anyway, healthcare reform may have helped a little bit but the system is still royally broken. We have something closer to universal healthcare now but Obama sold us a different package than was originally advertised: "Healthcare is bankrupting this country". Healthcare is still going to bankrupt this country and well before social security or defense does it. My estimate is somewhere between 2020 and 2030. If it is fixed with a patch as is typical in American politics these days, then you'll certainly see this country under immense pressure around 2040 when social security starts to become a burden. Pensions and decades of states kicking the can down the road will build up from 2020 - 2040 though so we may not have to wait that long for our day of reckoning.

[Renting in Mass]

[john p]

Are these people imaginary?

http://obamamessiah.blogspot.com/2008/02/ill-collect-paper-cups-off-ground-to.html

from above:

[Kaidran]

And this differs to Reagan worship because?

Anyway, on universal health care I just wanted to point out that I have seen zero difference between the US and the UK in terms of quality. I think the only substantial difference I could point to would be that if you go to hospital you are much more likely to get a private room in the US (or at least MA). Having no insurance company as a barrier to treatment in the UK is a difference too I suppose.

[Boston ITer]

Reagan was more the cuddly handsome old man than a Jesus figure. Everyone can identify with the kind uncle or grandparent, not everyone's looking for Jesus's return to the physical plane.... at least not until the end of days for those who're really into the old book.

I believe much of the Reagan worship grew, during the post-Cold War late 90s, when he was hailed as the big GOP hero who told Gorby to tear down the wall and thus, hastened the end of the Soviet Union. At that point in time, over a decade ago, Iran-Contra was forgotten and the Alzheimer's 2nd term had *faded from the nation's memory*.

[john p]

I don't like any kind of hero worship.

I even think it is a little weird when grown men wear a uniform shirt of their favorite sports player.

My brother in law keeps buying them for me for Christmas, however.....

I got tickets to two Red Sox games, the first got rained out last week, and tomorrow night we've got Hurricane Earl.

I'm showing up with my shirt and maybe I'll be one of those grown ups that brings a GLOVE. I'll go up to the field and yell "Oh my God Dustin Pedroia, I TOTALLY LOVE YOU MAN!!!!!".

Now that I think about it, the only man a grown up can worship without looking like a school girl pansy is Neil Diamond.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbu1EU9f-d4

[mpr]

[Boston ITer]

[mpr]

[mpr]