I wake up most mornings to NPR news on my clock radio. One of the places that I work, the bartender like to turn the TV to Fox News at about the time that Glen Beck is on. I have heard a bit about the health care debate from both ends of the political spectrum, I think.
Here's my take:
It reminds me of the second verse of the Underdog theme song:
When in this world the headlines read of those whose hearts are filled with greed,
Who rob and steel from those in need,
To right this wrong with blinding speed goes
Underdog!
Anyways, I think both the liberals and the conservatives would relate those words to the health care issue, but have strongly different definitions of need, greed, and rob.
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Monday, April 12, 2010
Monday, October 6, 2008
Another political rant
If anybody were to ask me what's wrong with the democratic republic system of government in the United States of America, which nobody will because I work at a Burrito Gong, I would say: lawyer politicians and professional politicians. These two problems serve to disenfranchise the common man by making the law inaccessible to him.
I mentioned working at a Burrito Gong. Our current store manager is a latina, and she hires mostly latinas and latinos. Many of them speak little English and have even less literacy in English. They often get put into the kitchen making food because they don't speak English well enough to ring up orders. The trouble is, they are often being taught how to make food by native English speakers with little or no Spanish language skills. Also, the electronic screens displaying the orders, once they are rung up by an order taker, so the kitchen crew can see what to make, are in English.
It's not too hard to imaginge that quite often orders get screwed up because the people making food don't understand why +ON ON ON (for add onion three times) means mucho seboya. Here's where I'm going with this: The law is a specialized language. Lawyers learn it well, if they are good at their job. Legislators make laws that apply to everybody, lawyer and lay man alike. Electing a lawyer to legislate ensures that future laws get written in legalese. This means that a lay man can look at a bill that his legislator wrote affecting his life, in possibly drastic ways, and have no idea what it means.
To make laws that will serve lay people, like folks who work at the Burrito Gong, well we need lay people legislating. There are a few barriers to entry though, one of which is professional politicians, that is to say incumbents who win and keep on getting re-elected. I believe that politics should not be a viable long-term career choice.
First we shouldn't need as much government as we get. I really think that law-makers should only need to put in three hour days and not every day, either. Now that we've got the basics down already: murder is against state laws and is either a death penalty or a life sentence, depending on the state; rape is against the law; theft is against the law with size of the theft affecting the severity of the charge which affects the sentence; there's really nothing that law-makers can do except build highways to nowhere in Alaska and allocate funds to the Lawrence Welk museum. And name post offices.
Second, law-making isn't real work, so it shouldn't really pay. Besides salaries, pensions, and health benefits paid for by people who work at the Burrito Gong, politicians have many unofficial streams of revenue available, including book deals, speaking gigs, and gifts from lobbyists.
This brings me to my third point against professional politicians, lobbyists. Lobbyists seek influence with politicians through gifts. Every time someone forces politicians to clean up their act by setting limits on what lobbyists can do for politicians and how, the lobbyists find new loopholes. No politician is aboe the influence. Time in this system is inherently corrupting.
I mentioned working at a Burrito Gong. Our current store manager is a latina, and she hires mostly latinas and latinos. Many of them speak little English and have even less literacy in English. They often get put into the kitchen making food because they don't speak English well enough to ring up orders. The trouble is, they are often being taught how to make food by native English speakers with little or no Spanish language skills. Also, the electronic screens displaying the orders, once they are rung up by an order taker, so the kitchen crew can see what to make, are in English.
It's not too hard to imaginge that quite often orders get screwed up because the people making food don't understand why +ON ON ON (for add onion three times) means mucho seboya. Here's where I'm going with this: The law is a specialized language. Lawyers learn it well, if they are good at their job. Legislators make laws that apply to everybody, lawyer and lay man alike. Electing a lawyer to legislate ensures that future laws get written in legalese. This means that a lay man can look at a bill that his legislator wrote affecting his life, in possibly drastic ways, and have no idea what it means.
To make laws that will serve lay people, like folks who work at the Burrito Gong, well we need lay people legislating. There are a few barriers to entry though, one of which is professional politicians, that is to say incumbents who win and keep on getting re-elected. I believe that politics should not be a viable long-term career choice.
First we shouldn't need as much government as we get. I really think that law-makers should only need to put in three hour days and not every day, either. Now that we've got the basics down already: murder is against state laws and is either a death penalty or a life sentence, depending on the state; rape is against the law; theft is against the law with size of the theft affecting the severity of the charge which affects the sentence; there's really nothing that law-makers can do except build highways to nowhere in Alaska and allocate funds to the Lawrence Welk museum. And name post offices.
Second, law-making isn't real work, so it shouldn't really pay. Besides salaries, pensions, and health benefits paid for by people who work at the Burrito Gong, politicians have many unofficial streams of revenue available, including book deals, speaking gigs, and gifts from lobbyists.
This brings me to my third point against professional politicians, lobbyists. Lobbyists seek influence with politicians through gifts. Every time someone forces politicians to clean up their act by setting limits on what lobbyists can do for politicians and how, the lobbyists find new loopholes. No politician is aboe the influence. Time in this system is inherently corrupting.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Another Political Rant
I realized something today. I dislike unfairness, injustice, inequality, and inequity. I'm also not a big fan of dishonesty. This may be why I find concepts like anarchism and socialism interesting. They are intended to be a means of making things fair for everyone.
The Democratic Republic with a Capitalist economy is supposed to be the free-est, fairest, best system possible. Yet, unfairness persists. Take the United States of America... please! (rimshot sound effect)
The United States of America is supposed to be founded on the premise that all humanity is created equal, even though it took about a hundred years before the government recognized the created equal status of non-whites and females. Yet certain people within the United states are not equal to others.
Let us assume you have an annoying neighbor. You or I coudln't order a tactical nuclear strike on this annoying neighbor. However, the President of the United States of America, if he found Canada to be an annoynace, could order a tactical nuclear strike against Canada. This is an inequity.
I have never been treated to an expensive dinner by a lobbyist. I hear it happens to congressmen all the time. For me, a fact-finding mission is a trip to the public library using the city's mass transit system, paid for out of my own pocket. For congressmen, fact-finding missions are essentially vacations to five-star resorts on tropical islands, and it's paid for by lobbyists. This is an inequity.
Yeah, I know, we all get a vote to decide who is going to be treated to these privileges. That's a nice idea, but an even nicer idea would be to give them to all of us.
The Democratic Republic with a Capitalist economy is supposed to be the free-est, fairest, best system possible. Yet, unfairness persists. Take the United States of America... please! (rimshot sound effect)
The United States of America is supposed to be founded on the premise that all humanity is created equal, even though it took about a hundred years before the government recognized the created equal status of non-whites and females. Yet certain people within the United states are not equal to others.
Let us assume you have an annoying neighbor. You or I coudln't order a tactical nuclear strike on this annoying neighbor. However, the President of the United States of America, if he found Canada to be an annoynace, could order a tactical nuclear strike against Canada. This is an inequity.
I have never been treated to an expensive dinner by a lobbyist. I hear it happens to congressmen all the time. For me, a fact-finding mission is a trip to the public library using the city's mass transit system, paid for out of my own pocket. For congressmen, fact-finding missions are essentially vacations to five-star resorts on tropical islands, and it's paid for by lobbyists. This is an inequity.
Yeah, I know, we all get a vote to decide who is going to be treated to these privileges. That's a nice idea, but an even nicer idea would be to give them to all of us.
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