17 August 2012

Allow me to retort (again) - polictal commentary ahead, skip if you like

Big Cheese didn't like the pump up jam I linked (and then re-linked, per feedback from the constituency - scroll down for the goods). I gave it another listen today and I still think it's a strong jam, in spite of the fact that it's all over the place.

In other news, it's election time! Mitt Romney is doing everything he can to get elected using the same bland platitudes that Obama used to get himself the big job four years ago. Specifics only invite criticism because then you have to answer actual questions and that can be challenging. The problem is that Obama would spout platitudes about the middle class but Romnyan like to talk about 'job creators' and 'broadening the base'. In other words they want to cut taxes on the richest people and raise taxes on the middle class to make up the difference. If you're wondering how it's possible that these types of people have even a glimmer of hope in a general election then you're not alone. The issue is income inequality: they want to make it worse. Why would you do that? Supposedly it's good for business. It's actually good for people who own businesses, not for people who buy goods from businesses. (If you give a rich person $100 they spend $25 and put the rest in the bank, if you give a poor person $100 they spend $80 and put $20 away. Spending is what drives the economy.) For more information review these slides and this text.

Speaking of Romney and inequality, why is he so full of himself? He was born on third base, thinks he hit a triple. The view was expressed very well in a comment on the New York Times:

How do these white men of privilege, born into prominent, wealthy families with vast connections that are pressed into service, to service their needs - a mission trip abroad to avoid the draft here, a coveted internship with a prominent senator there - come to regard themselves as self made and self reliant. In what fantasy world or which parallel universe do they live?
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Romney is absurdly out of touch with the middle class because he's never had to actually do anything with people that work for a living. He's been fabulously rich and cosseted his entire life. Even so, if he had a decent plan to revitalize the country that consisted of something besides "spend more money on defense, destroy environmental regulations, national parks, and public works, make rich people richer; also, if you're poor or elderly, fuck you", then I might take him seriously. The thing is, he IS serious, which I find both scary and depressing.

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