Quote:
Originally Posted by Vampyr
More power to him.
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Well, you're getting your wish. There is definitely more power to him. And I understand your argument completely when it comes to California and the stimulus money., but I think you've missed mine.
And quite honestly I find a lot of the opinions here more than a little troubling. They are basically tacit agreement's with fascist economic philosophy, a philosophy that has led to more than a little hardship in recent history. You think that it's ok for the Federal government to essentially extort and micromanage states into doing what they say by lording billions of dollars over their head? What gives them the RIGHT? I use that term expressly. Nothing does. They have simply taken that power, and are using billions in dollars that are borrowed from American citizens to do it, instead of using it for what we entrusted them to use it for. There is such a thing as states rights in America as written in the Constitution and Bill of Rights, or at least there used to be. I'm not sure anyone knows anymore, because it's all become so convoluted and murky.
I forget who said the following quote, but I tend to agree with it: "People want to privatize economic gains, and socialize losses" Unfortunately, like with most things, you can't have it both ways.
As for Chrysler, while you might think that it's ok for the Federal government to come in and decide direction, hiring, firing and the budget of private business, we'll see how this works in the long run. As I mentioned before, history does not agree with that assessment. I also don't see how an auto commission or government group can effectively guide a supposedly private company. I don;t really see any other government programs turning profits, do you? I fear all we have gains is an albatross around our necks; a failed company that we will not allow to fail and will instead haunt us for decades, sucking more and more money as we continue the mantra of "this time it will work... this time it will work...". But again, this waits to be seen.
For a government to pick economic winners and losers (the UAW and Chrysler's bond holders, respectively) is oppressive (whether the oppression is "good" or "bad" is irrelevant) and toes the line of destroying the entire concept of contract law, if not breaking contract law outright. If we are not a nation of laws, and each law is respected regardless of whether or not we subjectively agree, we are nothing. If you disagree with a law, then work to change the law. For a government to ignore any law is to eliminate the rule of law.
The proposed "truth commissions" going after Bush administration lawyers over water boarding is a perfect example of this. If these lawyers are charged it will be an obvious break of "ex post facto". You charge people for breaking a current law or legal decision that wasn't against the law at the time. Law does not work backwards, only forwards. I don't blame the administration for this, but instead the Congress, but as a former lawyer Pres. Obama should have spoken out against it instead of taking the "hey, who knows?" opinion that seems to be so popular in politics these days.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ex_post_facto_law
And Ric, while I understand your point of view as a European and having grown up in what is essentially a socialized democracy, I certainly would never want American to follow in Europe's economic footsteps. It would reduce our country from being an economic powerhouse to simply an also-ran. Thats not meant as a pejorative, simply an observation. The fact that your country was so affected by an American recession is an example of why I wouldn't want to follow in those footsteps. I prefer our inevitable recessions to come from our mistakes, not someone else's.
I also find it interesting that much of Europe is moving away from government controls in economics to a more free market ideology (France and Germany to be more specific, Ireland did it a while ago). If these fascistic economic tactics are so successful why are these nations starting to move away from them?