[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
|
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
Opinions/Editorials Title: Is Wisconsin the Real Republican Waterloo? After the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, conservative writer David Frum called the passage of the bill the GOP’s “Waterloo” referencing Napoleon Bonaparte’s crushing defeat at the hands of the Duke of Wellington. This earned him the ire of his fellow conservatives and pushed him further outside the conservative movement. But David was wrong. If anything, the healthcare reform victory was the GOP’s Siege of Acre. Wisconsin is shaping up to be the real Waterloo. And not just Wisconsin, but also Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Arizona, Florida, and the rest of the over- reaching state Republicans. Governors like Scott Walker, Rick Scott, and Jan Brewer are riding on the coattails of the Tea Party, but they’ve become blind to the dangers of their radical policies. In Wisconsin, Democrats are already promising to step-up recall efforts. But the recalls are only a small part of what is likely going to be a huge anti-Republican backlash across the nation, as working Americans finally realize what that party actually stands for: an playing field heavily tilted toward the rich and powerful, toward corporate power, and against worker rights. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 16. Utter nonsense. What we are actually witnessing here is the final death of the 20th century. It isn't just the GOP proposing to make radical change. Look at governor Cuomo in New York. He's beating up on government bureaucrat unions too. He's now also proposing radical tort reform and part of his efforts to reign in healthcare costs. Reactionaries from government bureaucrats to trial lawyers are lashing out. It's not a surprise. The bottom line is that this is all simple math. We can no longer afford to have the unproductive segment of society leach off of the productive segment. We can no longer afford to fund schools and teachers that pump out functional illiterates. We can no longer afford to hand people checks to putter around in Florida in their lime green golf pants for 15 or 20 years. We are in a competitive global economy. This can't work anymore.
#3. To: jwpegler, go65 (#2) The bottom like is that this is all simple math. We can no longer afford to have the unproductive segment of society leach off of the productive segment. We can no longer afford to fund schools and teachers that pump out functional illiterates. We can no longer afford to hand people checks to putter around in Florida in their lime green golf pants for 15 or 20 years. So your solution is to under pay teachers who will educate the next generation? Ok, you will come back and say - no you don't to pay for this current crop of teachers. OK, let's say we fire them all and hire MIT geniuses as teachers. You think MIT grads will work for public schools that pay 50 grand a year? So then we will have to raise taxes and pay teachers 100K to 200K a year for the quality you are claiming would justify the increased taxes. I will leave out the part about keeping old people alive and just concentrate on the educational matters. By the way, we can afford all this if we tax the unproductive rich in America. I don't get this rich worship as if the rich somehow earned it and they are responsible for keeping all us lowly serfs from living in dirt.
#8. To: Godwinson, jwpegler (#3) Ok, you will come back and say - no you don't to pay for this current crop of teachers. OK, let's say we fire them all and hire MIT geniuses as teachers. You think MIT grads will work for public schools that pay 50 grand a year? So then we will have to raise taxes and pay teachers 100K to 200K a year for the quality you are claiming would justify the increased taxes. MIT geniuses make far less than say the CEO of ExxonMobil, which makes them less productive. What Jwpegler really wants is for the productive members of society, those making in the tens or hundreds of millions a year, do educate our students. I'm waiting to hear his plan as to how he's going to make that happen.
#9. To: go65 (#8) (Edited) What Jwpegler really wants is for the productive members of society, those making in the tens or hundreds of millions a year, do educate our students. What are you babbling about? Here's my plan: Supply and Demand in a Competitive Market. Supply and demand does a great job setting the price for computer programmers, all sorts of engineers, lawyers, accountants, and even auto mechanics. Supply and demand will set the right price for teachers as well. It's just that simple.
#10. To: jwpegler, go65 (#9) Supply and demand will set the right price for teachers as well. Yea, because the market is correct in valuing the salary of say, sports stars over say teachers.......
You so called conservative types have no clue what to do when you get the helm of the ship other than spout ideological slogans. You don't even want to copy the successful educational models from around the world because maybe a sex ed class would slip in and Americans may become like Scandinavians or something.
#11. To: Godwinson, capitalist eric (#10) (Edited) Yea, because the market is correct in valuing the salary of say, sports stars over say teachers....... So who should decide how much a sports star earns? You? Obama??? Or the tens of millions of people who decide for themselves to spend their own money to watch a game??? The free market is the ultimate democracy because it requires that people vote with their hard earned money. I don't spend my money going to sports games, buying burgers at McDonalds, and on a whole bunch of other things that many Americans enjoy. But unlike you, I am not angry and resentful of the people who deliver products and services that others like and I don't. I am angry when I am FORCED to pay for things that I don't want and just don't work, like the rotten government monopoly schools.
#12. To: jwpegler, capitalist eric, go65 (#11) (Edited) So who should decide how much a sports star earns? You? Obama??? Or the tens of millions of people who decide for themselves to spend their own money to watch a game??? A) The free market is not a democracy but if it was our founding fathers had bad things to say about democracy - tyranny of the majority and all that - so if we hold your analogy to be true and the free market is a democracy we need to have checks and balances in place to protect the poor (minority in a democracy) from the tyranny of the rich (majority) and from each other, just like we do in this republic. B) We can correct the stupidity/irrational free market practice of paying athletes or actors or rock stars millions by taxing them higher.
Thank you.
#15. To: Godwinson (#12) if the free market is a democracy we need to have checks and balances in place It's called competition.
#16. To: jwpegler (#15) It's called competition. Capitalism leads to the elimination of competition which is why Republicans like Teddy Roosevelt broke up monopolies so again you have the govt involved as a check and balance.
Replies to Comment # 16. #18. To: Godwinson (#16) (Edited) Capitalism leads to the elimination of competition Oh please... Get your face out of your text books and join the real world. Capitalism leads to a dynamic economy where competition expands or narrows in a cycle depending on the circumstances. It does this a market segment at a time (e.g., airlines versus computers could be on very different trajectories simultaneously). Every time competition in a market narrows, something (like a disruptive technology or disruptive business model) comes and blows the market open again. It's a cycle of innovation, imitation, intense competition, drive to efficiency, consolidation... start again. That's how it works. We don't need no stinking government distorting this process.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 16. Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest |
|
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
|