The tea party debacle shutdown of the federal government
kept us busy in weeks past. In that time good ideas were bandied about the
internet and I reproduce a few in this posting.
Cory Booker, newly elected interim Senator from New Jersey and most recent mayor of Newark , New Jersey
“Before you speak to me about
your religion, first show it to me in how you treat other people. Before you
tell me how much you love your God, show me in how much you love all His
children.”
With wisdom like this I have high hopes for Cory Booker and
his service in the US Senate! He has a
gift of distilling important ideas to their core meaning and making it easy for
all to understand. He reminds me of Bernie Sanders, Vermont ’s
independent US
Senator, who said:
“At a time when the middle class
in America is disappearing and wealth and income inequality is greater than at
any time since the Roaring ‘20’s, we must not balance the budget on the backs
of the weak and the vulnerable.”
Balance the budget is a good thing to work on. It need not
be immediately managed. We can restore balanced budgets over time. It takes
time to do this sort of task. Long term results count here, not short term
ones. Remember the role of macro and micro economics? Macro pertains to nations
and their internal economy. Micro economics pertain to households and
businesses. The latter do not control the printing of money or the control of
banking enterprises. Macro economics does. Deficit spending in the short term
is a tool to invest in the nation’s ability to produce solutions to outstanding
problems as well as fund the long term vision of quality of life for the
masses. It is our mortgage for the
future.
Taking economic principles in pieces to serve ideological
ends without justice profoundly destroys the mechanism of economics itself. We
need to watch the whole picture, not bits of it.
Here is a quote on clearing up a myth on Obamacare:
“Myth: The Affordable Care Act is
socialized medicine and a government
takeover of health care
Fact:
Obamacare allows us all to purchase our own private insurance in a regulated
market place. This embraces the ideas of capitalism, regulated free market and
freedom of choice, along with the government’s protection of your new health
care related rights.”
If anyone doubts that just look at the Medicare Advantage
programs rolling out right now. The choices are huge. The pricing is market
determined, not government determined. Elders have a bewildering array of plans
to choose from. The same is true of plans the uninsured and under-insured folks
have under Affordable Care Act provisions. The objective is to increase access
to appropriate health care levels to everyone. Everyone pays. Everyone is part
of the national health care industry. Private providers, hospitals, clinics,
doctors and insurance companies abound. Competitive interests are served.
Consumer protections are provided.
This is socialized medicine? I think not!
On a broader topic this quote is offered:
“The real threat to this world is
not terrorism or socialism. The real threat is the fact that the greed of
billionaires is out of control.”
This is a global issue. There are billionaires in Russia , China ,
the Middle East, Europe and the Americas
(north, central and south!). These individuals have gathered control of
specific regional markets and parlayed them into global monopoly chips. They
make vast sums of money. They gather enormous wealth without thinking what it
is buying or will buy in the future.
At some point they have to ask: “What’s it all about?” It is not about wealth alone; or power; or
influence. No it has to be about something more than that if it is about
lasting value and purpose to the individual and his/her family.
What might that be? Is it religion? Is it historical
significance? Is it pure luxury? Is it seeking and procuring pleasure? Over
done or not, such seeking and acquiring has diminishing value to the
individual. To what end are they amassing their wealth? And at what cost to
others is this being done?
Justice is a funny thing. It is earned in the largest of
public squares or the tiniest corners of one person’s mind. But justice in the
end will be had. Better the participants understand this sooner rather than
later.
October 23, 2013
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