Nothing is forever, Johannes.
And that includes nations and ways of life. It is doubtless that an entire nation of people, many of whom are increasingly pressed by personal debt and rising health costs, would permit an administration to come forth and peacefully remove from them the manifold handouts they now take for granted. Changes in paradigm almost never occur like this. It takes upheaval, and of the sort that got us into the current paradigm.
You got that right! It's a systemic failure.
Now how is such an innate failure to be changed? It cannot be done incrementally, by relatively small shifts in debt accrual. If the underlying political culture remains intact, the general trend will also remain intact, merely possessing the typical peaks and valleys inherent to trends. We must appeal to changes in culture and to get that, we are talking a change in morality.
No, I don't... nor do I imply it. I simply stated the economic statistics, I did not say the limited progress made was 'sufficient', because I do not believe that is so.
Well yeah. Okay. I accept that fluctuations are taking place. But it is just nothing to cheer about when the horrid trend is established and unchangeble by almost all currently suggested attempts. When people whine today about the burden "our children" will bear and how to change it, they almost never think to look into the mirror at the problem.
Still, the evidence seems to indicate that --- in recent decades --- single Party control has been bad for government spending (it's up the most then, as the controlling Party seeks to reward it's backers) and the size of government has increased the most under those conditions.
No doubt about it. Each party has its special interests and those interests all want public money. Eliminate the paradigm and all of this goes away. Of course, eliminating the paradigm is the task that no one wishes to undertake - and yet it is the only real way. I think it will be best for all to undertake the needed cultural revolution willingly, deliberately rather than let nature take its course. Kerry is certainly not the guy to lead us here. Indeed America will suffer even more under Kerry. But Bush is obviously not the guy either. I had hoped that bush would be something of a placeholder. But he spends like a Jackass too. |
