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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Don Lloyd who wrote (86479)	12/9/2000 11:05:13 AM
From: Freedom Fighter	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 132070

Don, You seem to be more concerned about the present situation than I am. One of my flaws is that I tend to form strong opinions based on limited knowledge. Those opinions then evolve into new strong opinions as I learn more. :-) Here's where I am now. IMO, the current state of affairs (the election) is an unpleasant one, but not too serious. I think part of the reason we got here is that much of the GDP is within the government already (all levels). That makes the stakes for winning or losing much higher than if both sides were fighting over control of a few peanuts. It's also my perception that the value placed on "winning" has escalated in the last 20 years to the point where it is more important than "how you play the game" (by far). That's the attitude that provokes my occasional diatribes that I wish I could take back 30 minutes after I post them. :-) But in the end, I think the consensus of opinion in the US is sharp enough to counter the stupidity on both sides of the political spectrum. I value personal liberty and responsibility - both economic and social - and sound money. So the country is unlikely to ever be what I want it to be. But I suspect that if we start losing too much of any of those and get to a point where people start getting uncomfortable, there will be a huge shift in the other direction. The only fears I have are that the left puts huge programs in place that fill a present public need, but that are totally unsound economically in the long run. I believe it's possible to sell unsound and unfair programs to the public if the pain is placed in the future. Some people don't care about the future as long as they get theirs. Some people won't understand it. Our value system has degenerated to that point. I also fear the Fed because it has the power to destroy the economy in such a subtile way that very few people will understand what's going on. If that happens, and huge economic dislocations occur, all bets are off. When people are hungry they will elect whomever promises to feed them. Wayne