[snakeoil]

http://www.policymic.com/articles/87719 ... -democracy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This should change the focus of comments on this board but I doubt that it will.

From Wikipedia...Oligarchy (from Greek ὀλιγαρχία (oligarkhía); from ὀλίγος (olígos), meaning "few", and ἄρχω (arkho), meaning "to rule or to command")[1][2][3] is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with a small number of people. These people could be distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, education, corporate, or military control.

[johnforbes]

I don't believe a government should just benefit people with the name "Ollie."

[sillydaddy]

Tom McKay, the writer of this article is a liberal, and like all liberals is defending Obama's , " I have pen and I have a phone" policy by accusing previous administrations of paving the road with the government policies that have given him little or no choice but to set aside the Constitution.

[johnforbes]

Dems used to say Obamacare was "settled" and we had to accept it.

But then Obama changed Obamacare 38 times on his own, with no constitutional authority to do it.

What a mess.

[snakeoil]

ah, Silydaddy...Tom McKay's politics should have no impact on the discussion of this thread. The truth or untruth of the facts should be the basis for discussion. As so often on this board, members seem to disregard the subject of the posts and concentrate on esposing their own political agenda. Rmember...1% 0f the citizens own more wealth than the rest of the population.

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/10/fo ... e-top-0-1/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[sillydaddy]

You make a dollar....... and right away the liberals want to take it from you.

[snakeoil]

Sillydaddy...who is really taking your dollar?

1. Corporations. Corporate stock is judged by pofitablility, increased sales each year, lack of debt or managible debt, and growth. Corporations often make their stock reports look good by raising prices each year (or more often.) Many corporations eschew raising prices by hitting their product with a shrink ray (offering less product for the same money and hoping consumers won't notice.) Corporate CEO salaries, stock options and benefit plans today are many times what they were in US history and these high salaries must be made up with increased prices to keep the stockholders happy. A favorite trick of corporate raiders is to load a company up with debt and then declare bankruptcy. The penion obligations are then placed on the government entity that governs pensions (meaning that you pay those pensions with your taxes.)

2. Politicians. If you really study politics you will find out that there is little difference in any of them. Conservatives often keep taxes low by decreasing state benefits, failing to repair the infrastructure, decreasing state employees and raising fees. The result is that many that need the benefits and have no money to pay for them out of pocket are forced into poverty or a reduced living standard or the infrastruture fails and causes accidents and kills citizens. Financial Voodoo is used by all politicians. In my state (Maryland) my Governor has "borrowed" the Highway Trust Fund, The Farm Preservation Fund and the Environmental Fund to balance the budget in place of raising taxes and the citizens don't even know what he has done. Politicians of both stripes have, for years, underfunded the pension plans to keep from raising taxes and are now saying that the funds ae too generous and must be cut. The pension that many have counted on for retirement are greaty decreased or might even be lost. Another trick of politicians is to run the government on the credit card hoping that the citizens won't notice when the bill comes due. The politician becomes the good guy because he didn't raise taxes during his reign.

3. Citizizens. We all demand that the government be there when any bump in the road of life happens. This costs money better known as taxes. We all demand a better life than our parents, better schools, better health, protection from the troubles that life has a habit of throwing at us, and all kinds of help to get to where we feel we should be.

I know that these are ramblings and that many ideas are a bit disjointed, but all of these things have an end result of decreasing the money we have in our pockets. I personally feel that one of the main causes of our problems is the loss of fami;y that we once had. Family used to be the safety net that we now expect government to be.

[johnforbes]

The real goal of socialism is to substitute government for family.

Test scores have declined, but government still wants kindergarten and Head Start and now even more before that.

Now that Obama has ruined the private health insurance market, government is free to intrude on health care.

The goal is to make the state your parents, your family.

The only problem is that, over the past 5 years of Obama's horrible tenure, America has lost its former greatness with astounding speed.

Does anybody, on the Left or the Right, still believe America is as strong a country as it was just a decade ago?

[snakeoil]

John, it amazes me how people can't see the forest for the trees.

1. Since WWII we have fought in Korea, Viet Nam, Grenada, Panama, Columbia (undercover,) South America (undercover,) Iraq twice, the Cold War for almost forty years, the War On Terror and in Afghanistan. Wars cost tons of money and are a losing proposition (unless you loot the conquered country, which we never do.)

2. Bush (one and two) fought 2 wars in Iraq and one in Afghanistan on credit. When you used your credit card with abandon it takes a while before you find out that you are in over your head. Well, now the bill has come due and we try to blame Obama and the "liberal" politicians and their "Socialist" agenda.

3. Bush W cut taxes on the wealthy without cutting spending while borrowing tons of money. Bush W. started the prescription drug plan without funding it thereby greatly increasing the government's stake in health care on the credit card. The bill has now come due. But we can blame Obama and the "Liberals" and their "Socialist" agenda.

4. The reckless business praactices of Wall Street resulted in a worldwide financial meltdown that threatened to throw us back to the stone age. We bailed out the banks and investors and Chevrolet with almost a trillion dollars and the banks are bigger than ever and are practicing the same reckless tactics that brought down the financial system in the first place. I'm not saying that we should have saved the economy but no one has paid for driving the world int crisis.

5. Obama's ACA is largely unfunded and is based on pie in the sky predictions of huge savings in "the futire." Drug companies pay doctors up to 65 to prescribe their drugs but there is no incentive in the ACA to convince doctors to prescribe cheaper drugs.

I know that this post seems to favor Obama but that is not so. I am definately no fan of Obama. He is a perfect example of the Peter Principle...man rises to his own level of incompetence

[snakeoil]

This conservative vs liberal argument always seems so stupid to me. When you lock yourself into an idieology you limit your options. For the past thirty years the conservative ideology has ruled. But, 62% of workers make $20,000 a year or less. This means that the middle class is gone. The conservatives support free markets. So many, if not most, of our manufacturing jobs have gone overseas. Conservatives love to flex America's muscles. Wars have made us poor. Liberals love to give benefits to our citizens. Fraud and waste are the norm in such programs. Look at disability SS. The law says that to receive disability SS you must not be able to do any job in the workplace. There are almost 9 million Federal workers on disability; more than the population of New York City. Do you know that you can get SS benefits for your premature infant?

[johnforbes]

I agree that America has failed to profit from wars in which it engaged.

For example, what would have been wrong with taking some oil if we were going to risk our money and our young soldiers in Iraq?

Or some soldiers who were not so young in D Storm, such as some of us here.

History also supports the nexus between war and taxation.

Look at the Civil War and taxes later.

Look at WW I and what Treasury Secretary Mellon said about that and the revenue acts not long after the end of WW I.

Also, America has never even tried to really win a war since WW II, and what has that gotten us?