What’s in the water these people are drinking?
Bookworm on Jun 27 2009 at 3:15 pm | Filed under: Uncategorized
A very bright Marin professional told me she’s incredibly excited about the proposed Obama health care plan, because the government is certain to be more efficient than the market. When I suggested that the market might be more efficient if we took away the thousands of regulations that impeded it, allowing it to function more cheaply, she brushed that off: “The insurance companies are raking in the money. The government should take over.” This is what 30 years of anti-capitalistic, Marxist education has created. People who think they can stay rich in a government run economy — because it’s not fair that others make money.
Related posts:
- Giving the people what they want
- Can anyone explain the stock market to me?
- Obama plays with other people’s money
Email This Post To A Friend
61 Responses to “What’s in the water these people are drinking?”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Did you by any chance ask her if she had any investments in any of those insurance companies? and if not, why not?
To paraphrase a certain Mr. Goebbels, “Whenever I heard the phrase ‘very bright Marin professional,’ I reach for my gun AND my wallet.”
I’ve had it up to here with dunces who can’t be bothered to think but are somehow considered bright. By what possible measuring stick are they bright? Certificates and degrees on the wall? Hell, the Wizard of Oz was handing those out like candy at the end.
Sort of like what Harvard is doing now.
Professional accomplishments? How bright is it, for instance, to be a well-regarded doctor, which requires scrupulous adherence to science and the reality principle, who can then turn around and spew duckspeak nonsense about global warming or socialized medicine? It’s called doublethink, and it’s the product of a weak mind, not a bright one.
Yup. Magicians and charlatans have long known this sad, human failing: the ability to believe almost anything you really want to believe even in the face of, indeed, even because of overwhelming facts to the contrary. They, you see, exist on a higher plane, where we pitiable urchins cannot go, or even conceive of.
I mean, these people believe that the gas — which is the bubbles in their designer water — is now a pollutant! They want so, so much to BELONG — don’t you see — and to see themselves as bright, and superior.
Trouble is, their folly is going to drag us all down, and many of them will never grasp that they did it to themselves. No, they will simply turn their considerable power of self delusion to creating villains, and blame them.
Watch out.
Greetings:
Government regulations, in and of themselves, are not necessarily an impedance to a free market economy. Simplistically, think of traffic signs; “Stop”, “50 mph”, etc.
In his “The Road to Serfdom”, F.A. Hayek asserts that as long as the regulations are publicly known and effect all similarly situated, they should not have an negative effect on a competitive economy. It’s when government regulations begin to determine who will be successful and who will not that totalitarian socialism rears its ugly head.
Ah yes, 11B40. Sort of like when the government opens up it’s own shop and doesn’t have to follow any of the rules the others follow? You know…like for example selling health insurance across state lines? (I know that’s really simple, but I’m not a health insurance professional, and that’s the only one I know off hand.)
What does this bright young Marin professional do for a living? Would he or she want to see his or her industry or profession run by the government? If health care is a right, and should not be subject to the vagaries of the market or to profit-taking, what about food and shelter? Aren’t those rights too, and human necessities, and thus shouldn’t home building and agriculture and the food industry be subject to government regulation if not control, in order to assure a just distribution?
I am always amazed when I hear supposedly intelligent people make these far fetched claims about government efficiency. Exactly which program is she thiking about as a basis for her claims? Let’s ponder this for a moment……
……………………………
Wait, I came up with a few!
Medicaid, oops, more red tape to drive up prices. In Illinois they aren’t even paying doctors on time if not at all.
Let’s try Social Security. Darn, a paltry 2% rate of return for an insolvent government program. They are pretty efficient however at keeping our money and not letting us pass off what we paid in to our kids.
The IRS. I suppose some whacko could claim that the IRS is efficient, unless of course we count the number of government officials that manage to rip off the system.
The INS, now called ICE. How many illegals are in the country?
I believe that every government programs is riddled with waste. What may appear as efficient to some is simply wishful thinking for ideologues that sadly don’t have enough insight and honesty to truly examine what the government does with our taxpayer money.
There is one area where the government is efficient. They are very good at making themselves and their friends rich off of taxpayer money. How many millionaires are in congress?
What a joke.
There is, in at least one European country — or so I’ve heard — something like a “right” to take a dump in anyone’s house. Most houses have a small lavatory right inside the front door which by custom is there for the use of passers by — or just passers in this case, I suppose.
We have something like it. Most places that serve food are required to have a public john which anyone can walk in and use. Will they soon be required to have a table where anyone can walk in and have a free meal?
We seem to be rapidly approaching a tipping point where either enough people will wake up, and recognize this insanity for what it is, or where we will hurtle down into the maw of PC Group Think where belonging to the group is prized above all things, logic becomes heresy, everything is somebody else’s fault, but nobody is responsible themselves for anything — and where one group after another will be pillaged, and destroyed for imagined crimes against “The People,” and Freedom disappears utterly. Those who were guilty OF producing, will later be guilty of NOT producing to feed all those who have a “right” to heat, food, and shelter, but no responsibility to provide it for themselves — just the right to take it from you.
And all of this will be called Good, and all hardships will be blamed on the evil individuals who used to provide for themselves, and many others by starting businesses, and industries, and farms. Having it will be prima facie evidence that you stole it, and so you deserve to have it taken from you.
I had a thought the other day. Envy is just a form of Greed. The envious can feel virtuous while lusting after the earnings of the people who actually earned it. Projection, don’t you know. Greed by proxy.
“What’s in the water these people are drinking?”
and
“The insurance companies are raking in the money. The government should take over.”
I’m afraid that it is the same “polluted” water that they drink in NYC. Every year there is a NYC Rent Guidelines Board vote on raising (or not raising) the amount landlords can raise rents. As one can imagine there are emotions all around. Tenants claim that they will have to move if their already “high” rents are raised; while landloards claim they are “losing” money and will go out of business. Mind you they are BOTH still here year after year.
Just a couple of weeks ago when this was back in the news they had a woman (an tenant) claim that the landlords had a right to make money “but not from us”! I so wanted to scream – if the landlords don’t have the right to make money from tenants who do they have the right to make money from?
So, yea. It is from over 30 years of leftist indoctrination instead of education that we have so many people that don’t or can’t think.
The movie industry in southern California is raking in the money too. Perhaps we should nationalize Steven Spielberg.
Book,
I too am interested in your response to the question: Why do you consider the woman to be “a very bright Marin professional”?
Was it the quality of her other statements about health care, during your discussion with her? Because based on the excerpts you provided, her intellectual capacity and depth seems, well, nonexistent.
Is she extraordinarily verbally fluent and does she proceed through points and bring them to a conclusion (verbally) with ease and grace? That is what I call “Obama brightness”; the verbally deft constructions of argument and conclusion.
Does she show a depth and breadth of knowledge across a lot of areas, but unfortunately keeps them constrained within her Statist viewpoints only?
Based on what you wrote above, I don’t see any indication of being very bright, so I too am wondering about why she is considered to be very bright.
When companies “rake in the money” over long periods of time and in ways not justified by their economic contribution, it is almost always because government regulations are tilting the playing field in their favor.
If she is a professional and she is living in Marin County, she is raking it in. She may not realize it yet, but she is also one of the people that is going to get raked.
Book, I too would like to know what you mean by “bright”. I have experienced many kinds of intelligence in people…starting at the low end of the spectrum, there is glib, knowledgeable, book smart, street smart, commonsensical, and at the very tippy point of the apex, “wise”. Some of the most intellectual brilliant people that I have met are so lost in abstractions that they can barely tie their shoes. So, which is it?
My very bright medical professional daughter became exasperated with me the other day and said (sic) “Why do you object to the government getting involved to help people?” She really is smart and capable but has a huge blind spot. To make it worse she works for Los Angelos County and we frequently hear of the “drama”, waste, inefficiency, incompetence and corruption But somehow she thinks that government can get it right. Maybe she believes that the bigger the government entity, (Federal) the more effective it will be. I cannot explain it.
Well, I can explain it. Washington has the money. All blessings flow from Washington. Some used to flow from Sacremento, but that is history.
It is clear that Obama and his flying monkeys want to take us back many decades. For those who grew up in the 40s and 50s, it will be unwelcome, but not a great shock. For those who were born post-WWII, and especially the Boomers, Gen Xers and Yers, it would be unbearable. I am thinking one car per family (if that); one bathroom per household (but not every household); no air conditioning in houses; no central heat, stoke the coal stove (oh wait no coal). Medical care as a right would be considered a joke in those days. Many people could not even get to a Doctors; he came around to your house when he could get to it, and gave you some pills–or a shot. No sophisticated tests. You worked out a payment plan with the Dr. My Dad lost his home and business as my mother’s terminal cancer lingered on for a year. You see there was no greedy medical insurance industry to cushion the disasterous blows. Of course there were very few tort lawyers, and most people were as likely to sue their grand parents as they were to sue their doctor. We just knew they were doing their best. Their tools were fairly rudimentary, because the big pharmaceuticals had not reached their present level of sophistication. My old Doctor saved my foot because he had penicillin, hooray. Of course that is all he had and I got a lot of it. But, then again, what if the Doctors don’t accept being “managed” by government bureaucrats and Obama drives them out of practice (see GB and Canada)? What if they decided it is easier to become become lobbyists, government Czars, tort lawyers? Or maybe they will all run for the Congress and live off the fat of the land and enjoy their “special” medical benefits.
I get the impression that many young people are now redirecting their career interests toward jobs either in government itself, or in the vast array of “nonprofit” organizations that surround government in DC.
Oldflyer,
They are no longer taught history — not true history anyway — or critical thinking. It’s all sound bytes and bumper stickers. Some wise man once said that government solutions are always Easy, Obvious, and Wrong. Without having learned any real history young people don’t know that.
You’re right about the money — they think it flows from Washington, not out of their own pockets. The way Washington operates makes it seem as if tax money sent there somehow gets multiplied, when in reality it gets wasted. They truly believe there is an inexhaustible supply of it. They don’t think it’s possible to kill the goose. It’s not even a concept to them, anymore than running out of air is.
I join those who question the characterization of this person as “very bright.” She doesn’t sound particularly bright to me. I no longer assume that people with degree(s) from “elite” schools are even educated. With affirmative action, grade inflation and a curriculum based on rote recitation of political indoctrination, a degree from Harvard or Berkeley is more likely to indicate the opposite of very bright. The madrasas teach their students to memorized and recite the Koran. Much of what passes for “higher” education in the US today is the same.
<>
Although I believe that one has to be fanatically passionate about an occupation to become successful at it, there are noticeable trends in what types of jobs young graduates pursue. This is especially true at a place like Harvard Business School where some years many grads go to Wall Street, in other years consulting, and perhaps now more MBAs are going to NGOs. Austen Goolsbee is the new poster boy for this government wunderkind.
My memory is there is a bubble like quality to these job trends for graduates. It may appear that Obama has set the country on an irreversible course toward an era when the only jobs will be in government or in organizations that feed off the public trough.
I am not so sure. While everyone should follow his/her passion, without which success will probably not occur, I think there will still be room for good old traditional entrepreneurs, businesses and (yes even this) the construction industry.
This government job bubble may not last. I think today’s graduates are going to have to be broadly educated, have a wide variety of skills, be able to write clearly, speak articulately and be flexible enough to change jobs/careers several times.
Two quick comments.
First, I still remember the shock of recognition at my college graduation ceremony when I heard one mellifluous adjective piled upon another in the formulaic granting of degrees — where had I heard those sonorous tones before? Oh yeah, of course, the Wizard of Oz! I about cracked up, and never took it too seriously afterwards.
Secondly, re: Zhombre’s comment asking if that bright young Marin professional would “want to see his or her industry run by the government”. Calls to mind the observation that we are all conservative about those things that we know or love best. Too bad limousine liberals think they know better than those they would like to regulate.
Interesting argument.
First she asserted that the government should take over health care “because it is certain to be more efficient than the market”. When you objected to that line of reasoning, she responded that “the insurance companies are raking in the money.”
Note that this second assertion has nothing whatever to do with the first or with your objection. It is simply another — and in this case unrelated — liberal meme.
Liberal memes like these pop up quite frequently in public discourse. Some of them have been around so long that they have entered the realm of “what everybody knows” and are accepted uncritically even by otherwise bright people like your Marin professional.
The problem, of course, is that they are actually false, like the commonly accepted notion that the total amount of wealth in the world is fixed. This false idea leads in turn to a second-generation meme, namely, that in order for some people to have more wealth, others must make do with less. The truth, however, is that wealth is variable, and it is the proper function of business — not government — to expand it.
Not only are these liberal memes false, they are exceedingly toxic. They are viral ideas multiplying and infecting our body politic. The siren call of socialism which has seduced our liberal establishment is based on memes such as these. That is why so many of them were purposely implanted in our national thinking by the KGB during the Cold War.
Socialism is a whore with an intellectual venereal disease. How can socialism continue to be attractive when the aftermath of her infection is still visible in Russia and eastern Europe? Those who are attracted by socialism are looking at her painted face, not at the open sores still visible on her body.
Is that too strong? I think not.
To answer your question, then, what’s in the water are infectious viral liberal memes, which spread the disease of socialism like fecal matter spreads cholera.
As libertarians and conservatives, I believe our main task in the next few years must be to identify these liberal memes, to disinfect them, and especially to replace them with healthy ideas. Of all the blogs I visit, yours, Bookworm, is the most effective at doing this. Please keep up the good work.
Oldflyer, thank you for comment #14. I consider it a classic!
I wasn’t born yet, in the 50s, yet everything I read from that era matches exactly what you are describing. And your comparisons to all the ways in which things are different, and often better, is compelling.
What surprised me about the 50s the most, I guess, is the lack of air conditioning. NO ONE, not even the rich, used it. Even the rich sweltered in the heat or escaped to summer cottages.
I did not know that most (or all?) people waited for the doctor to visit THEM.
And we take for granted how sophisticated our medical system has become, compared to then. For all our complaints about the current system, if you take a good look at what was available in the 50s, would anyone want to go back to that?
Clearly, to me, what Oldflyer describes guarantees that in the Obama America, we will all suffer a severe decline in our standard of living. I also think Oldflyer is correct in that everyone younger than, say, 50, is going to be absolutely shocked when they encounter this decline. They may resist it once it becomes obvious, but will it by then be too late?
Yes, Highlander, the pernicious Zero Sum Game (not “gain”) model.
Sometimes I try to walk them back to the original cave man, and ask where he had all this wealth stashed. I mean, if there is only a finite amount of wealth in the world, then he must have had all of it stored somewhere, and lived a primitive lifestyle out of choice, right?
Then you get the deer in the headlights. They can’t grasp what you are saying, because they haven’t the critical thinking tools. We expect that they will see the error of their logic, but they don’t, because they can’t. Logic is foreign. To understand how your chess move was in error you must first understand the rules of the game, or at least want to. They don’t.
As long as water comes out of their faucet in the morning, as long as there is food in the stores, as long as there is gas in the gas stations, and their media of choice works, they think you are crazy, and that all is right with the world.
Just for grins, ask the manager of the biggest supermarket in your town how many days of food he has that’s actually in the building; ask the service station manager how many days of gasoline he has in his tanks. Don’t be surprised when they tell you it is way less than a week. Ask your liberal friend what will happen when all that runs out?
If this actually happens the instant, easy answer will be hoarding. The evil oil companies are hoarding it. Agribusiness is hoarding it, etc. They will not believe that it is they themselves who have killed the life spark of an economy that produces such abundance on a daily basis, and that it might take decades to rebuild the trust that it takes to keep it going.
Smith, you have identified the mindset that I describe as belonging to the people “who think food comes from grocery stores and money comes from Washington D.C.”
By what possible measuring stick are they bright?
Well, in the same way that a computer is bright. And just as much a slave to the User, which would be me, btw. So long as the right access codes were entered.
Perhaps we should nationalize Steven Spielberg.
Hear hear. At least then we will not be in the delusion that anything from Hollywood is “independent” or “anti-government”.
Then you get the deer in the headlights.
That is when you know that conscience redactor is hard at work reformatting, erasing, and ensuring that there are no gaps in the consciousness stream. What was erased will never be remembered or missed. What was replaced will always seem to have always been there.
To understand how your chess move was in error you must first understand the rules of the game, or at least want to. They don’t.
And part of that has to do with foresight as well. Computation speed can make up for foresight, but experience is actually the best indictator/predictor. Computer programs, to a high enough level, can even emulate certain human chess decisions As computer chess programs have proved against Grand Masters.
A pretty good comment list so far. Book must be proud.
Good suggestions, Bill. I’m gonna try them just for fun and see what happens.
>>For all our complaints about the current system, if you take a good look at what was available in the 50s, would anyone want to go back to that?>>
Hey! I was there…! It really wasn’t so bad! Although I’d miss the internet and blogs! Still, everything was a bit slower, but really…yeah….I wouldn’t mind going back to that. I had the car one day a week – just like my Mom did when I was growing up. Laundry was one day a week, and if you had a dryer, that wasn’t so bad. Of course, if you didn’t, then you had to hang laundry up outside, or maybe up in the attic if it was raining – but that was ok. Have you even _seen_ clothespins lately? We did all dishes by hand – a dishwasher was a luxury. One tv, only in the living room – there weren’t family rooms then – and everybody watched the same shows. On the other hand, the shows were much better quality, I think, than they are now. When my TV dies – which probably won’t be so far away – I’m definitely considering not getting another one. There just isn’t anything worth watching.
One of my closest friends in HS lived out in the country. Her neighbor died, and the first thing his wife did was have the house plumbed with _indoor_ plumbing – and this was in the mid-50s about 20 or so miles outside of Dayton, Ohio. So you’re right…things weren’t as comfortable then. But worse? I’m not so sure about that.
“How can socialism continue to be attractive when the aftermath of her infection is still visible in Russia and eastern Europe?”
Because it is a highly seductive promise involving — in the mind of the person wanting it — little work, and less responsibility.
I was once sitting by the fire in a nice country inn sipping on a very nice single malt. I got to chatting with a guy who — it developed over the evening — was a tout. He told people, for a price, what horse, or what team was going to win. He was clearly quite successful at it.
It being the early 80s, and I being in the computer industry peripherally, I told him he should get a PC, and keep track of his predictions to show prospects his prowess. He listened to me rattle on for a while about charts and graphs, and then said that that wouldn’t be necessary.
Why not? Simple. “I convince them that I know,” he said. Actually, I think he knew how to identify his kind of people. Those are the ones who WANT to be convinced — and being right just often enough didn’t hurt either, but probably wasn’t necessary to keep them coming back. Knowing how to tap into their desire for an easy score WAS.
We have allowed to develop a media/scholastic — who’d ever have thought those two words would be linked like that?! — culture that denigrates true excellence, hard work, and success in favor of never hurting anyone’s feelings, that gives everyone a blue ribbon just for showing up. Group think. Be a good sheep, and don’t question the shepherds. BA A A A A A A A A!
NON COGITO ERGO SUM
>>If this actually happens the instant, easy answer will be hoarding.>>
I’ve considered this. Started looking online for info on storage etc. Did you know the Mormon Church urges its members to keep one year’s food on hand? That surprised me.
To make matters worse, there’s a potential threat to the world wide wheat supply – ug99 or something like that. It’s a rust that attacks the plant and wipes it out within days. Geneticists are working on breeding plants that can resist it, but so far have not succeeded. This would be a major crisis if it can’t be controlled. I posted about my daughter’s gluten intolerance – have you _any_ idea how omnipresent gluten is? and while all grains – except rice – have gluten, wheat is where most of it comes from. Gluten is the protein that allows bread to rise with the action of yeast. Can you imagine a world without bread?
>>…the first thing his wife did was have the house plumbed with _indoor_ plumbing …>>
Thinking about this – would they even allow her to continue living in the house today? I’d bet it would be condemned…
About that “efficient” government…
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/low-ball-lies-of-medicare-part-d
Link
Here’s some humor.
For the dark times we live in.
Courtesy of armchair pessimist at Neo-neocon’s comment section.
That was a painfully good one, Y, Heh heh.
Hobo and his mangey mutt walk into a bar. Bartender tells them to get out.
“But my dog can talk!” says the bum.
“Gwan, GIT!” says the barkeep.
“No, really! He talks!”
It was a slow Tuesday afternoon, so the barkeep agrees to an audition.
“What’s on top of the building right now?” he asks the dog.
Dog sits up, looks up, and says “ROOF! ROOF!”
“Gwan, Beat it,” says the barkeep.
“What keeps the trees warm?” the bum persists.
“BARK! BARK!” says the mutt.
By this time the barkeep’s on his way around the bar with an axe handle…
“Quick! Who’s the best hitter the Yankees ever had?”
“RUTH! RUTH!”
By this time the barkeep was throwing them out the side door into the alley.
Dog picks himself up, shakes himself off, and says “DiMaggio?”
When liberals say that government will be more efficient than the “market” in delivering health care, do they mean in the sense that Medicare is more efficient than private insurance companies or in the sense of public ownership of health care facilities like the Veterans Administration health care?
When liberals say more efficient, do they mean at a lower cost, or timeliness of services?
Now if the VA was a good model, we could just expand VA to cover all the poor, elderly and uninsured and be done with it. But nobody is suggesting that because the VA may be efficient (don’t know) but the quality of care is often questioned.
Since the CBO says Medicare and Medicaid spending is increasing in per capita costs and all the efficiencies that are claimed in the proposed health care bill (no profit, billing efficiencies, cost containment, etc.) are already present in Medicare I would like to know how nationalizing health care insurance will be more efficient.
We already realize the cost shifting that is going on in the health care industry, especially as to Medicaid, but also Medicare as the government sets prices for services the unpaid cost of which are then passed on to those with private insurance or no insurance, the question I have is if the health care industry had no choice but to accept the payments dictated by the government, would there be more or less health care available (would people in the industry change careers or go to some private system outside the government system?
When Medicare began in 1965 about 50% of the SMI costs (Part B) were paid by Medicare premiums. Currently 25% is paid by premiums, the rest essentially coming from general revenues into the trust funds. Part D is funded similarly. The other component, HI, is funded from payroll taxes and some creative government accounting staved off its insolvency
I was listening to CNN this morning and one of the talking heads in defense of government insurance program said 14% of private insurance overhead went to the “bureaucracy” inside the insurance company. This figure is lower then the 15-30% figure usually cited, so the liberals are ratcheting down this claim of gains in efficiency.
His other argument was surprisingly monopoly based. He claimed that in his state 71% of private insurance is handled by one company, so he was arguing that a public component would provide competition to this company, of course, ignoring the argument that this company has 71% of the business because it may be already offering lower priced coverage. So in the liberal mind, a monopoly (well it’s not exactly a monopoly) by a private company should be offset by a government plan that will be cheaper than the private insurance plans—insuring a government monopoly as companies move to the cheaper insurance.
Last time I checked, I didn’t have a say in what coverage my company offered. In fact in the last three years we have had three different companies handling claims.
Which brings me to an important point. Whatever direction the future of health insurance takes, portability should be high on the list. Since most workers will have four or five “careers” in their working life, insurance shouldn’t be tied to a company, which is why I’m intrigued about the Patient Choice Act.
OK, Bill, I got ya.
A String goes into a bar and orders a beer. The bartender says We don’t serve Strings here. Get out.
Humiliated and angry, the String leaves, hides in the alley, and loops and knots himself, and whips his ends until they start to wear out and fray. Then he goes back into the bar, boldly, and orders a beer.
Aren’t you the String I just threw out? demands the bartender.
No, huff the String defiantly, I’m afraid not!
“bright Marin professional”
With all due respect to BW … does the word oxymoron come to mind (emphasis on the 3rd/4th syllables).
Highlander:
Socialism is a whore with an intellectual venereal disease….
That’s a classic and no, not too strong and a perfect description for the myopically impaired.
Note to suek:
For your daughter’s gluten intolerant system – quinoa.
Suek, I certainly did not mean to imply that the 50s were “bad”. In fact the 50s were great to me. I graduated from high school, got my Navy Wings, married my high school sweetheart and we had our first daughter. All in the 50s.
On a personal note, the 40s weren’t bad either. But, mainly because I was too young to let a small thing like a war put me off stride. Sure Dad was gone for three years, and the boy next door and the boy across the street were shot down and lost. Mother had to move us into a one room apartment in which brother, sister, Mother and I, all slept and ate in the same room. But, we were all focused on the war. The country was pretty damn united and “most” everyone was in the same boat. Every kid was collecting scrap iron, newspapers and grease for the war effort. (Junior Commandos, we had caps and arm bands and marched on the school grounds. My first trip to town alone was for a Jr Commando parade when I was in 3rd grade. It was considered safe to launch kids on the trolley in those day.). Of course we didn’t yet know how easy life could be, and had no other expectations.
My primary memory of the ’30s was Mother and some long-suffering ladies trying to get me in the front door of Kindergarten. They never made it. Of course, I heard the stories of the depression and how career paths were usually determined by what job–if any– was available. The mantra that kids born in the 30s often heard was: “there is no such thing as a bad job”.
I do think I would have a hard time going back now. Too soft.
I just returned from three weeks in Orange County, Ca. I am convinced that those people have no conception of what life might be like under the Obama plan. I presume that they will adjust, but it is going to be pretty traumatic.
Funny story about the plumbing. I thought it was only the South that FDR forgot with his vaunted rural electrification program. My last summer on my uncle’s farm was 1947; no electricity and no running water–which of course implies no indoor bath facilities.
If health care is a right to be provided by the government, surely healthy food is too, and might this be the next progressive crusade? Check this out: http://www.foodincmovie.com/
Sorry to be so long getting back to everyone’s question, although OldFlyer, in describing his daughter, described my friend. She’s Ivy League educated, has a science PhD, and is a recognized name in her field of research. In other words, she’s got a really high functioning brain. She is also one of the kindest people I’ve ever known, at a personal level. As human being, she is top notch. She simply lives entirely in the liberal world, and it completely defines her values and factual reality. As you know, I finally figured out that conservatives deal with facts and reach conclusions; liberals have conclusions and sell them as facts.
Suek..
I remember those days, too. There were red boards with white writing on them nailed to farmers’ fence posts, usually five in a row.
She rounded the corner
Car was whizzin
Fault was her’n
Funeral hizz’n
Burma Shave
TV stations shut down for the night at 11:00 or 12:00.
Almost everything was closed on Sundays.
The teacher’s word was law, and you said the Lord’s Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance every day.
If you broke your arm falling out of a neighbor’s tree, YOUR parents paid the doctor, and apologized to the neighbor.
You really could get help from the Operator.
The little triangular windows at the front of the car windows were almost as good as A/C.
Sleeping on the porch in summer was fun.
Bikes had fat tires and baskets.
Gasoline smelled good, and you could see it go round and round in a glass windmill thing in the pump. When you drove up to the pump there was a bell that went DING! and a man in uniform pumped your gas, checked the oil, and washed your windshield.
The Coke machine was an insulated box with ice water in it.
Absolutely no one would have had the slightest idea what a play date is.
Nobody knew their teacher’s first name. They didn’t really HAVE first names.
Mail came three times a day. Yes.
You could burn your leaves in the fall without needing to hire a lawyer. And it smelled good.
People knew the difference between a spanking and a beating.
Boys and some girls were given real guns on their 12th birthday, and nobody had ever heard of a school shooting.
Firearms could be taken to school for hunting on the way home after school. They were kept in the cloak room with your coat.
All boys had pocket knives, and took them to school, too.
Teachers knew the difference between an aspirin and heroin.
Dodge ball was fun not damaging to the psyches of frail minds.
Losing was a lesson, not a crisis.
Parents and children ALL had the same last name.
Since there were no digital clocks, there was no such time as 12 AM!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And there still isn’t, dammit. It’s 12 NOON!
Hearing the prayer of someone of a different faith was not regarded as an offense. It was evidence of our freedom.
Veterans and the Flag were respected.
Standard shift cars and B&W film cost LESS.
You couldn’t open a can of beer with your finger.
Nobody “graduated” from anything until high school.
Radios and TVs had tubes, and needed to warm up first.
It took a Family to raise a child, not a village, but all adults were to be respected and obeyed, not sued.
You wore your best clothes to go on the train or a plane.
People still took “boats” to travel to Europe.
People still communicated by telegrams which were delivered to your door.
Placing a Long Distance call was a big deal involving several operators from here to there.
“Sound as a Dollar” was something we were proud to say, because it was true.
There was a difference between secret and private.
Shame was a healthy feeling you had when you did something bad.
2 + 2 = 22 was a mistake. Stealing was bad. There was a difference.
I could go on, but why don’t you add to the list?
Zhombre:
Get ready to live on granola bars and designer organic water with a federal stamp of approval or some logo that indicates it has the ‘Good White House Keeping Seal’.
Toured the site and found it’s bloggers/agenda. I know you will not be shocked to learn that several of them have worked for the Huffington Post, no one looks older than 20-something and oh yes…let me name drop here – Tipper Gore.
http://www.takepart.com/blog/bloggers/
Although I agree that we can wax nostalgic about the ’50s and that there was much for which to be nostalgic, let’s not go overboard. There was also Korea, southern poverty, racial hostility, the Red Menace, the beginning of the Vietnam war. Sure there were a lot of good things, but bad things happened to. We just tend to forget them.
I am sure that after Obamatopia has done its damage, many people (including BDS Lib/Lefties) will be waxing nostalgic over the 1990s Bush Era and the standard of living they enjoyed but never appreciated during those years before American voted itself into Third World membership.
Re. Book’s “conservatives deal with facts and reach conclusions; liberals have conclusions and sell them as facts.” Nothing more really needs to be said. Perfect!
Heh…Bill…
Found this…probably lots more for your list if you go to the main page, but I didn’t.
http://www.fiftiesweb.com/burma1.htm
I’ve been cutting out magazine pages for the last 40+ years. It’s interesting to see the same themes played out and recycled. The difference is the application. For example, at one time fish and flank steak were budget saver recipes. Not any more. In the budget issues, the “cost per serving” is _very_ interesting to compare with today. Of course, I can remember when I first got married that chicken legs/thighs were .19 on sale – .26 when not. And my budget was roughly $1 per person per day – for many years. I don’t figure what I spend these days. We’re not pinched, and I think I just don’t want to see! On the other hand, Vons has a mark down section in their meat area, and if you time your visit right, you can buy the “last date of sale” meat for 30-50% off. Last date is usually 24 hours away, but if you go at the “wrong” time, there won’t be anything left. My Dad used to go to the gym every day at something like 6AM, and stop in after his workout. I usually go before noon. If you wait until 5PM…nothing there. And you know what I never see there? soup bones (beef hocks)! They freeze them and sell them as dog bones…! And the price! about $2.50 a pound! For _bones_!
Z…
_Organic_ water???? Thanks very much, but we spend huge amounts on keeping the water free of organic material, and I’d just as soon keep it that way. Totally natural and chemical free is _not_ my preference. We have a source of agricultural water for the horses. It’s been tested and is theoretically safe to drink from the standpoint of bacterial contamination, but if you saw the sediment and smelled it … yuck! I’ll take the treated filtered kind, thank you very much.
Yes, Bookie gets the ONLY blue ribbon for that succinct distinction!
Thinking about this post & discussion while driving to the mall today, and I had an idea: nationalize the fashion industry. (Not really, of course, but as a proposal to offer to Book’s friend and others who think like her.) After all, fashion is very important to a whole lot of women, and to many men as well.
Nationalize the whole thing. Designers will be at the top of the GS-scale, still very well paid but not pulling down the tens of millions that some of them get today. All product to be made in the U.S., from fiber and fabric up through final cutting and sewing, and sold at government-run stores. Factories and stores to be run exclusively with union labor.
To ensure fairness, every American will be guaranteed a minimum annual allocation of high-fashion merchandise. This will be paid for by a tax on ALL fashion-related purchases (which will already be much more expensive, because the income cuts for the designers won’t begin to make up for the increased costs of all-domestic all-union manufacturing.) To avoid waste, there will be absolute maxima on various kinds of product purchases: for instance, no one will be allowed to own more than 10 pairs of shoes (unless they can provide a certificate of special medical need), and to buy a new pair, they must show a certificate proving than an old paid has been turned in.
The responses to this proposal should prove both amusing and interesting.
Davis, You are brilliant!
Forgot one key point: fashion designers, like all key employees, will be chosen on the basis of the Civil Service written exam, combined with college credentials and grades.
Uh, David, don’t forget race, gender, sexual orientation and an essay on the topic of “Dominance of the fashion industry by the male patriarchy and Republicapitalfascist warmongering slaveholding complex”. We can’t make it too easy.
“Forgot one key point: fashion designers, like all key employees, will be chosen on the basis of the Civil Service written exam, combined with college credentials and grades.”
Don’t forget points for veterans preference. Which among fashion designers, could be a double entendre.
I said in #21:
And we take for granted how sophisticated our medical system has become, compared to then. For all our complaints about the current system, if you take a good look at what was available in the 50s, would anyone want to go back to that?
Which prompted comments along the lines of, hey, the 50s were preferable in many ways.
I agree. In saying, “would anyone want to go back to that?”, I was referring specifically to the quality of the medical system. I wanted only to make the point that our medical system today, for all of its faults, is an incredibly good one.
After they make the obvious response that health care is life-and-death but fashion is not an essential of survival, you can bring up the grocery industry.
Mike..you are correct that the level of skilled care has been elevated along with medical equipment – but, boy oh boy, do I miss my doctor who made house calls (he looked just like Hopalong Cassidy, too). He was like a cowboy that came to my rescue!
Bill, add this one to your list.
Last house call for me was 1973. RIP Dr. Millman and RIP House Calls.
The first adult Jew I ever had a chance to have a long chat with, outside of my mother’s best friend, Sylvia, was the woman doctor who came to my house to nurse me through a bad flu attack on Christmas day 1956.
I asked her why she was missing Christmas with her family to be with me and she told me that in her religion Christmas was not a holiday. That led to a wonderful discussion of comparative religion between an 8-year-old Catholic and a 60-year old Jew.
She had an accent, which my mother later told me was probably Eastern European, perhaps even Russian.
Anyway, I have always been thankful to that lady on several counts: for seeing me on Christmas day; for talking to me in a wonderfully adult and skillful way; and for being a creature that God loved so much He helped her escape from a socialist hellhole.
So, yes, Sadie, RIP house calls.
The government will not decide who lives and dies. Which baby needs to be terminated or not.
Without any due process whatsoever.
Correction. The government, without any due process whatsoever, will decide who is worth the cost of keeping alive. What decided whether you would die or not would not be the government. Oh, that would be the basic cost of living, genetics, or luck .The government is simply the bearer of bad news.
Thus the Leftist based eugenics of exterminating blacks and other inferiors have gotten a much needed boost. Such is the difference the Democrat party and all the other parties who are actually loyal to the original American vision of a better humanity.
Almost, everyone came out of the woodwork on this thread.
I am curious BW…did you have any idea that you asked such a loaded question?
Hoo-boy, Ymar, in #55 and #56 you’ve outlined the crux of a problem, for sure!
Government-run health care will inevitably result in waiting lists, denials, or other such restrictions. And those restrictions will be CHOSEN by the government as well. How in the world are they going to choose.
As Obama said, in reply to the brilliant question as to whether he would allow his wife or his children to be denied care under the national health care mandate, “No, I’d seek the best care possible for my wife or my children, of course.”
You can be sure that those in power will ensure that *they*, and their friends and allies, do not suffer the same restrictions that the rest of us will. The special interest maneuvering on that alone will be very ugly indeed. The sordidness will be breathtaking to behold.
Sadie:
In answer to your question, I have a miserable track record when it comes to predicting in advance whether something I write will take off or will start this kind of wonderful discussion. I had no idea you guys would roll with this the way you did. I’m awfully glad you did, though, especially since family commitments meant this was not a blogging day.
I think what this means, Book, is that you don’t need Leftists on this blog to start comment storms. All you need is to quote them, verbatim, in your blog posts and it is just as good in challenging certain tendencies to circle dance ; )
Heh. This post seems to apply. Comments are good too…
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2009/06/common-sense-illiteracy-one-emp-burst.html