tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-771892655051987797.post1302396505435752674..comments2023-07-26T05:01:10.813-07:00Comments on DC's Musings: What If We Ignored Politicians?Dennis C Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914332467365539148noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-771892655051987797.post-72909690486207033582010-06-22T05:19:48.252-07:002010-06-22T05:19:48.252-07:00Bob: Until you begin treating union campaign contr...Bob: Until you begin treating union campaign contributions as you do corporate contributions you will not see any change in governance. Our state and city budget issues are not the result of the influence of private side donations so much as labor side donations.<br /><br />As for closest to the problems, I would continue to argue that in fact we are the closer than government. It is easy to pull one issue out and say, "but look at this I/we can't do this..." You may not be able to cap a well, but the private sector can and does; maybe not yet at the 5000+ feet they were forced to drill, but when it gets capped it won't be government doing the job.<br /><br />Perhaps the slide out of middle class is inevitable when they have less and less control of their wages, investments and savings. <br /><br />Thanks for your comments.Dennis C Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00914332467365539148noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-771892655051987797.post-13565875354079016882010-06-21T23:55:09.644-07:002010-06-21T23:55:09.644-07:00One of the issues in our world is that a perfect s...One of the issues in our world is that a perfect solution for one person or group is not so perfect for others. We probably can't find an optimum solutions. Muddling through, unsatisfying though it may be, is all we have available for some issues.<br /><br />And we're NOT "closest to most issues." We don't know how to cap the well in the Gulf, and we don't, as citizens, know what to do about the oil that's come ashore. Some problems really do require more expertise than fair-mindedness and common sense. Some problems require technical expertise.<br /><br />It may be that poverty is less than it was 100 years ago -- though we should be careful about our measurements here -- but it's also true that more people are sliding slowly out of the middle class. Our country has a sad roster of closed mines, logged-our forests, and sterile fisheries that no longer support middle-class working men and women. That may, in some respects, be worse than the poverty we had 100 years ago, which was at least eased by hope.<br /><br />As the size and power of large corporations has grown, the ability of any one person to find fairness and redress of grievances has proportionately shrunk. So we need the Interstate Commerce Commission to protect farmers against predatory railroad shipping rates, and we need the FAA. We need consumer protection agencies to help to keep the unscrupulous from selling toys with lead paint and Transformer toys with small, easily broken choking hazards. <br /><br />I'm frustrated with elected officials as well, though perhaps in a different way. I think that unless we get corporate money out of politics our republic is doomed. I think they've corrupted everything and everyone they come into contact with. If we let them continue, they'll wreck our country.Bob Schillingnoreply@blogger.com