[Vision2020] Say What?

Fri Dec 2 11:29:56 PST 2011

My response:  while “trickle down economics” has been proven not to work, the same cannot be said for “trickle down greed.”

Certainly not everyone who is greedy caught the bug from Wall Street & Big Business, but it seems pretty undeniable to me that the culture of obscene greed that’s a significant negative factor in  this country’s culture started from the top and worked its way down.

And, while it’s not right, I don’t blame Mary & John Smith, who both work 40 hours a week a jobs they’ve held for a decade or longer, for wanting a modest home when they see people on Wall Street & in Big Business playing golf five days a week & buying three or more fancy homes, new cars every year, luxury vacations, etc.

Particularly when they’ve got the recognized experts telling them that they can afford that modest house & then they can use the equity they’ll undoubtedly build up to finance the college educations of their children because lord knows that’s they only way they’ll be able to afford it given the wage erosion of those who actually work for a living.

Saundra

From: Paul Rumelhart [mailto:godshatter at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Friday, December 02, 2011 10:29 AM
To: Saundra Lund; 'Tom Hansen'; 'Moscow Vision 2020'
Cc: 'Penni Cyr'
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Say What?

I have to reply to your "99% against those morally bankrupt on Wall Street & in Big Business" turn of phrase.  I feel compelled to note that it's not as simple as the 99% being taken advantage of by the evil 1%.  For proof, I offer up the lady that thought it was a good idea to pepper spray other shoppers when she was trying to get a good deal on a video game console on Black Friday.  There's enough blame for our current financial system in so many different areas that it can't be summed quite up this easily.  Take the housing bubble, for instance.  For every greedy banker that tried to saddle someone with a loan they couldn't handle, there was someone on the other end of that transaction that had no business even trying to take out such a loan.  Greedy bankers can't force loans on people unwilling to take on more debt than they can handle.

Don't get me wrong - there's lots of blame that can be foisted on people on Wall Street and in big business.  I'm just saying that it's not the entirety of the problem.

Paul

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From: Saundra Lund <v2020 at ssl1.fastmail.fm>
To: 'Tom Hansen' <thansen at moscow.com>; 'Moscow Vision 2020' <vision2020 at moscow.com> 
Cc: 'Penni Cyr' <cpenni at gmail.com> 
Sent: Friday, December 2, 2011 10:08 AM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Say What?

I know I’m late adding my two cents & that some really great comments have already been made, but I’m absolutely stunned that at a time when virtually everyone with a brain understands that our children need more – not less – education, Nasty Newt apparently finds education so unimportant for children from economically challenged families that they can “afford” to lose academic time out of their school day to learn work habits.

And, I’m even more stunned that at a time when some have incessantly whined about the imaginary “class warfare” of the 99% against those morally bankrupt on Wall Street & in Big Business, those same folks aren’t complaining about Nasty Newt’s very real class warfare against the children from socio-economically disadvantaged families by advocating cutting their academic time.    And, frankly, I don’t know what’s wrong with people who don’t find the grossly inaccurate stereotyping behind Nasty Newt’s “plan” absolutely disgusting.

I also found myself wondering where Nasty Newt thinks the money to pay for his brilliant <snort> idea would come from, particularly at a time when all too many schools lack funding for basics like textbooks, health & safety facilities repairs, etc.?  I guess he thinks money must grow on trees to pay for his inane ideas.

Now, remind me again:  which groups support class warfare???

Saundra Lund

From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com] On Behalf Of Tom Hansen
Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2011 6:08 PM
To: Moscow Vision 2020
Cc: Penni Cyr
Subject: [Vision2020] Say What?

"A very poor neighborhood. You have kids that who are under law required to go to school. They have no money. They have no habit of work. What if you paid them part-time in the afternoon to sit in the clerical office, and greet people when they came in? What if you paid them to work as an assistant librarian? 

Let me get down to the janitor thing, and these letters are written that janitorial work is really hard and really dangerous and this and that.  Fine.  So what if they became assistant janitors and their job was to mop the floor and clean the bathroom. And you pay them."

- Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich (December 1, 2011)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gsc9ElmJEs

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen

Moscow, Idaho

"If not us, who?

If not now, when?"

- Unknown

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