.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

John Adams Blog

The blog of The Antient and Honourable John Adams Society, Minnesota's Conservative Debating Society www.johnadamssociety.org

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Webb Reveals Himself

Jim Webb just revealed his true insidious liberalism in this Op-ed piece. Too bad Allen didn't know the truth otherwise he could have campaigned on real issues rather than defending Macaca.

America's top tier has grown infinitely richer and more removed over the past 25 years. It is not unfair to say that they are literally living in a different country. Few among them send their children to public schools; fewer still send their loved ones to fight our wars. They own most of our stocks, making the stock market an unreliable indicator of the economic health of working people. The top 1% now takes in an astounding 16% of national income, up from 8% in 1980. The tax codes protect them, just as they protect corporate America, through a vast system of loopholes....

But the true challenge is for everyone to understand that the current economic divisions in society are harmful to our future. It should be the first order of business for the new Congress to begin addressing these divisions, and to work to bring true fairness back to economic life. Workers already understand this, as they see stagnant wages and disappearing jobs....

The politics of the Karl Rove era were designed to distract and divide the very people who would ordinarily be rebelling against the deterioration of their way of life. Working Americans have been repeatedly seduced at the polls by emotional issues such as the predictable mantra of "God, guns, gays, abortion and the flag" while their way of life shifted ineluctably beneath their feet. But this election cycle showed an electorate that intends to hold government leaders accountable for allowing every American a fair opportunity to succeed.


What is Webb talking about? Maybe people don't send their kids to public schools because the public schools in many places suck. In South Minneapolis, Washburn High School used to be considered decent. Today it is a cestpool.

What does Webb mean by this: "They own most of our stocks, making the stock market an unreliable indicator of the economic health of working people.." Is he referring back to the golden era where working people owned stocks? When was that? How ridiculous. In fact today the stock market is more spread out among the population then at any time in history, up to more than 40% from 20% in 1980.

It is true that the gap between the super wealthly and average Americans has widened recently, but it is also true that we went through a massive period of economic growth where billionares like Bill Gates grew out of nothing. At the same time, these new companies like Microsoft created a lot of wealth among a lot of people not just the super rich.

What does Webb mean by the tax code protecting the Super Rich. The last stat I saw showed that the top 1% paid 35% of all the taxes (yet according to Webb they only earn 16% of the national income). In 1980, the top 1% only paid 20% of income taxes.

In the end Webb is another equality over freedom politician. The last thing we need are socialists like Webb trying to make everyone equal. That will surely lead to ruin for us all.

And regarding who fights our wars, I am not sure what he means - does he think we should have a draft?

Blogger Harsh Pencil said...

I'm not sure I agree with this post. What's the economy for? That is, suppose we found out that if we institute the policies that Saurus wants, within ten years everyone but the top .1% would be very poor and the top .1% would be fabulously rich. Are we supposed to go along with these policies just because they are right? Even if you think the answer is yes, that's irrelevant since it would get voted out anyway. The conservative answer is that freedom doesn't benefit only the rich. Look at BestBuy. All those plasma TV's are not being bought by the top 1%.

2:56 PM, November 15, 2006  
Blogger Sloanasaurus said...

Har Har... I think I get it.

I thought it was the lack of policies advocated in my post that made it worth reading....

8:51 PM, November 15, 2006  
Blogger Harsh Pencil said...

I think we are both being misunderstood. I wasn't trying to be funny. I was trying to make the point that (IMHO) there is nothing unconservative about worrying whether too much of the economy's fruits are going to too small a segment of society.

6:38 AM, November 16, 2006  
Blogger Sloanasaurus said...

Well, I never made the point that it was not.

Worrying about something is one thing. What you do about it is another.

8:59 AM, November 16, 2006  
Blogger Scribbler de Stebbing said...

Let everyone own stock: Privatize Social Security!

1:37 PM, November 16, 2006  

Post a Comment