Déjà Vu ~ Times: Wealth Redistribution! ! !

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Wealth Redistribution! ! !

It seems as a nation we have been persistently blind to the wealth redistribution that has been going on for decades, chiefly presided over by laissez-faire Republican capitalists.* Wealth redistribution that is abundantly documented except for those who are so ideologically reflexive they have become functionally blind in the right eye—their only focus devoted to leftist sins.

Blind to wealth redistribution via corporate/industry subsidies; commonwealth giveaways; tax concessions/waivers/deferrals that off-load the burden to the less-wealthy (i.e., less-deserving of wealth?); no-bid contracts with no significant oversight; massive overcharges by prestigious, private-industry contractors for products and services (remember the $25.00/real value:15¢ bolt, the $748.00/rv:$10.00 pliers, the $15,000.00/rv:$700.00 sofa, etc., etc.); abusive earmarks; etc. etc.; and now the $700B bailout of “casino/bookie capitalists.”

Blind to wealth redistribution as business and investors maximize profits (or CEO salaries) through union-busting, employee wage and benefit roll-backs, wage suppression, down-sizing, fraudulent accounting, manipulation of markets and market information, insider trading, collusion, outsourcing beyond accountability, externalizing of costs and risks to government/ taxpayers, excessive CEO incentive and severance packages (a shaft of shareholders?), etc., etc., etc. Again, the list is endless and endlessly documented for those who care to see 360º.

Wealth redistribution is marvelous when voluntary, but in our present system, the right-wing spinmeisters—the authoritarian conservatives devoid of reflective analysis (the AC180s)—have been the main wealth redistributors in an elitist, hypocritical up-flow, firewalled in rhetoric and “free-market” charades.

Let us please cast off our blinders and truthfully look at the whole landscape, left and right. Then maybe we can begin to find a better way beyond the “sins” of the left and the “self-regulating” free-market crimes and charades of the right.

(*Interesting how so many can despise collectivized labor while worshipping collectivized capital.)

Revolving Accounts

"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us." (OT:Ecclesiastes 1:9-10)

"Dwell in the past and you'll lose an eye. Forget the past and you'll lose both eyes." (Old Russian Proverb)

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Déjà Vu ~ Times blog © 2008 - 2020 by SMSmith (unless otherwise noted). Some Rights Reserved. See Creative Commons License at the end of this column/page. NOTE: all quotes from others are subject to the terms of their copyrights and do not fall under my CC licensing.

Déjà Vu ~ Times blog was established April 24, 2008 while the author was living in southern Utah.

My World / Transworld View

(Subject to change over time: experience/learning/ evidence)

▪ Life is a three-act drama with pre-mortal, mortal, and post-mortal stages.
▪ The second act boils us down toward test one:^[1] the test of power.
▪ Abusers of power lose it in Act Three when justice and equity take the bench.
▪ Tipping points happen—over time and a fulcrum.
▪ Motes and beams are everywhere.[2]
▪ Folly is a shadow of every ism, including capitalism.
▪ Money talks louder than morals—all the way to the tipping point.
▪ The direction you are facing, matters.[3]
▪ Extremism in the defense of liberty is extremism.[4]
▪ When the blind follow the blind, it is time to blow the whistle.[5]
▪ Opposites attract the same lobbyists.
▪ Solon of Athens espoused, “Nothing in excess;” laissez-faire capitalists pursue “Everything in excess” (except the costs of gross profit).
▪ “Simplify” displayed on the counter-top of a new 21,000 sq. ft. home does not compute.
▪ High fructose corn syrup is not the staff of life. Unfortunately, sweets can twirl your teeth.
▪ Revolving doors between government and business do not admit sufficient fresh air.
▪ The common good doesn’t seem to be very common.
▪ N. American football is a testosterone pageant in tights.[6]
▪ Exploitation is a delusion of grandeur. Stewardship is a grander conclusion.
▪ The excesses of major religions occur when members fail their espoused values. The excesses of ideological tyrannies occur when tyrants act upon theirs.[7]
▪ Praise is best deflected toward God.
▪ Too many who say, “I do, I do,” don’t.
▪ Electronic media has become the Roman Coliseum of the 21st Century.
▪ The First Law of Attraction[8]: the Devil is more obsessed with persons striving to do and be good than with persons who are not.
▪ The trans-rational[9] is beyond most of us, so if it’s “turtles all the way down,”[10] maybe it is “revelation all the way up.”[11]
▪ Egoism accounts for 80% of human problems. The remaining 27% lies with rhetoric and propaganda.

In the near words of Groucho Marx, “These are my [views]; if you don’t like them, I have others.”

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[1] New Testament: Matt. 4:2-4—The first temptation presented to Jesus, to misuse His power to satisfy self-interest/-will/-gratification.
[2] Ref: Matthew 7:3-5
[3] Old Testament: Jer. 32:33
[4] A Barry Goldwater phrase “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” A phrase applauded by some of the GOP. (Suggestion: reverse liberty and justice to see if it sounds more palatable, or is the latter half merely castor-oil for the first?)
[5] Ref: Matthew 15:14
[6] Observation of a friend, MS, who wishes to remain anonymous for obvious reasons.
[7] Ref: Ravi Zacharias
[8] Ref: Adam & Eve; Biblical Job; Jesus in the Wilderness; CS Lewis’ Screwtape Letters, etc., etc., etc.
[9] Ref: Flatland by Edwin Abbott. In summary, circles, squares and other flatlanders can’t get a fix on spheres and cubes; can’t quite reason themselves into the properties of those in 3-D space. Enlightenment of things beyond (i.e., trans-) Flatland takes condescension from those above & beyond. Any parallels here in 3-D?
[10] Google this phrase if you have not heard of it. It’s just one way of saying we don’t have a rational explanation for some things.
[11] Conditional on the will of the Revelator and the willingness/ ability of the revelatee to receive.

About SMS

A few 6-to-7-Word Memoirs:
▪ Hope for the world comes and goes.
▪ Loves to read more than eat.
▪ Loves to think more than eat.
▪ Eats too much while reading and thinking.
▪ Always running out of time and daylight.
▪ Finds extremes too far from the center.
▪ Troubled by the world’s failure of memory.
▪ Has a tendency to counsel God.
▪ Learned gratitude before it was too late.
▪ Apparently hasn't learned enough gratitude yet.

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No Comments Rationale

1) Time & more needful priorities;
2) Problems observed with many open-comment blogs as so bluntly expressed at http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/comment-policy/ ;

3) People are free to post divergent or convergent views on their own blogs;
4) Learning from comments here would be preferable, but— (see 1, 2, & 3).

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Thursday, October 30, 2008

Wealth Redistribution! ! !

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