Why are we letting a handful of Snotty Little Boys Ruin the World?

[Philosoraptor]

And please, keep your answers short, I'm not too bright.

[Warpy]

1. Because those snotty little boys stole all the money

and used it to buy institutions and machines to keep them in power.

[Beaverhausen]

2. Because we are too damn nice

fat lot of good it has done us.

[Norquist Nemesis]

3. I'm not "letting" them do any thing of the sort

They don't get a pass from me for anything. Not one single, solitary thing.

[oscar111]

4. racist voters love them. The hidden strength of the GOP.

never mentioned any more, but such a virulent theory of society's ills, that racism needs no preaching. It spreads parent to kid.

we dems have forgotten about it, but it is our greatest obstacle to winning. Rednecks will give up on economic issues, to get some closet racists in office and deliver racism.

The corporate leaders of the GOP are after low wages, but are willing to deliver racism to get needed volume of votes. It is an alliance.. greedheads and racists.

[Asgaya Dihi]

5. Because it leaves us time to watch American Idol

I hate to say it but we deserve the nation we have today. Not all of us individually, but as a nation. We sat on our ass as the media was consolidated through the 80's and the 90's, we figured the great market growth of the Clinton years was a sign of sure success and never considered the cost of corporate domination, and we made ourselves feel big and bad in our "tough on crime" efforts at the expense of making ourselves the most imprisoned nation in the world with a racial balance in our prisons that makes South Africa at the height of apartheid look good.

Even after all of this I read a comment here the other day about someone considering an investment in Halliburton to save their portfolio but it was too late to catch the wave. We talk about the middle class more than we do about those who really suffer.

I can understand wanting better for ourselves, but if that's all we care about then we deserve it when it comes home to us. We have the nation we allowed, the one we helped to build. If we want different that's going to take paying attention and a little effort.

[Philosoraptor]

6. I feel like Captain Obvious on the Planet of the Dense.

Invest in Halliburton? Jeez. We got what we deserve, though many hate to admit it.

[Asgaya Dihi]

10. Yeah

It was someone I actually like a fair bit, I know they are on the right side of most issues and has good instincts most of the time. They were just scared at seeing their retirement damaged. I'm sure it was that rather than greed. We need to adjust to the idea that we are all collectively responsible, it might be just a drop in the bucket but those drops add up over a few million of us and we need to consider the ways we contribute to it and how we can change it. We are a part of the market forces that shape things if we choose to be.

[Mythsaje]

12. Except that the middle class is actually

the best means for assuring greater prosperity for everyone. A large and well-functioning middle class not only affords opportunity for those on the bottom rungs to ascend, it also tends to feed more money into the economy and into social programs that help the worst off. The rich give back and take back what they give in tax write-offs. They aren't actually "giving" anything.

Without a strong middle class, there is nothing left for those struggling at the bottom. Nothing.

[Asgaya Dihi]

14. Agreed

And how is that working out these days? ;)

I'm all for a strong middle class, but just maybe they should consider the bottom as well. We know that trickle down was just the top pissing on the middle and it's the exact same from the middle to the bottom. For too long we forgot the bottom. For example consider this quote. "Mandatory sentencing laws disproportionately affect people of color. African-Americans make up 15% of the country’s drug users, yet they make up 37% of those arrested for drug violations, 59% of those convicted, and 74% of those sentenced to prison for a drug offense."
http://www.idpi.us/resources/factsheets/mm_factsheet.htm

How can something like that exist in a world that even cares? Want to see the results (in brief) of our concern for the middle class over the poor? More at the site. http://www.prisonsucks.com/

U.S. incarceration rates by race, June 30, 2004:

* Whites: 393 per 100,000
* Latinos: 957 per 100,000
* Blacks: 2,531 per 100,000

If you look at males aged 25-29 and by race, you can see what is going on even clearer, June 30, 2004:

* For White males ages 25-29: 1,666 per 100,000.
* For Latino males ages 25-29: 3,606 per 100,000.
* For Black males ages 25-29: 12,603 per 100,000. (That's 12.6% of Black men in their late 20s.)

Or you can make some international comparisons:
South Africa under Apartheid was internationally condemned as a racist society.

* South Africa under apartheid (1993), Black males: 851 per 100,000
* U.S. under George Bush (2004), Black males: 4,919 per 100,000


That's just a few highlights to keep this short and because I think you're probably already aware, but when we do things like that to the bottom over a period of decades I lose all worry, concern, or respect for the middle. They seem to have done fine. When they allow the bottom to be treated like that they didn't consider that it just makes room for them at the bottom as well. If they learn that lesson, good.

[Mythsaje]

18. I'm totally opposed to the drug war...

For this reason, as well as the fact that it's a waste of time and energy, and our resources should be spent on prosecuting people guilty of actual crimes with actual victims rather than people who, if anything, are only harming themselves.

The effects of a strong middle class expand outward in ripples, providing greater opportunity for everyone in that class and below. An effective middle class provides greater possibilities for advanced education for those even on the lower rungs, giving the chance for the children of those inflicted with poverty more chances to succeed.

[Asgaya Dihi]

19. I fully agree with you

It just drives me nuts to see people wish we could do something more for the poor when those mothers could maybe feed those kids if we'd just quit locking up their fathers. That 12.6% of all black men between 25 and 29 didn't go in without an effect on the people they leave behind, and even once they are out their chances are slim because we strip them of benefits and saddle them with a record.

But we should do something for the poor. Would be a bigger help if we'd just quit doing something to them. I do agree with you about the middle class needing to be strong, I just hate to hear about if someone can retire in comfort when we've got preventable cases of people not being able to feed their kids.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. Any suggestions?

[Philosoraptor]

9. I'm askin' YOU.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

11. I'm stumped.

:shrug:

[debbierlus]

8. The corporations that are the puppeteers are ruining the world

Bush & co. are symptoms.

This is what happens when greed and consumerism drive the American dream.

And, the military industrial complex depends on war to keep itself afloat.

Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld...& all the others are HORRIBLE, TERRIBLE people. But, they are consequence of a lazy society that has been fine to go along with unethical and inhumane global policies, now only being riled because it is starting to affect US.

[The2ndWheel]

13. Is it really a lazy society?

Or just not enough energy to sustain its growth? People have things to do. That's why we need career representatives in Washington. That's why we need specialization. The more complex society gets, the more energy is required to keep it going. The scale of society lends itself to a "lazy" state, for lack of a better term. Yes, there is more information out there, but people need the time to look at it. But with increasing complexity, and since we don't increase time, there is only so much that the mass of people can do.

We live in a global village, and it just seems to be too big. It's not managable without the help of giant organizations that mirror the complexity of society. In my mind, it's not lazyness, it's scale.

[debbierlus]

17. It is a lazy society

Average number of hours of t.v. for the American viewer PER DAY

Four

Lazy.

[quiet.american]

15. Because they're in charge of the military.

Yours is a good question. I keep asking myself why millions of us don't surround the WH, take to the streets. Sometimes I think what stops us is the image of being gunned down in the street, blown up, beaten to death by our own military, called to move against us by the "little boys," all in the name of "national security."

[Donald Ian Rankin]

16. I think the word you're looking for is

"Democracy".

[ladjf]

20. A number of reasons, but , the most significant one is that

about 50 million religious people have been duped by the media, their government and their preachers into supporting a coup d'etat. They supplied the extra votes needed to supplement the other forms of voting fraud that allowed the criminals to take over.

[Avalux]

21. They think differently than we do.

They don't have consciences, so those of us who do can't understand their thought processes. That's why they're always ahead of us and we're pissed off asking "why?" They never ask why and they never think. They just DO.