Our Socioeconomic Position is at Risk

All depends on just what kind of businesses he's looking for, just what kinds of 'jobs' and 'futures' he plans on creating...Would you like fries with that, anyone?

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Check out No webpage found at provided URL: Apollo's Temple!
Ignorance is temporary; you should be able to overcome it. - nwr

Let me just add here that we might be forgetting one of the best quotations ever in the world, from a modest anthropologist, who also happened to be a woman - the superb Dr. Margaret Mead, who I actually now have to paraphrase here because I am a faulty memory machine: Edited by xongsmith, : No reason given.

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- xongsmith, 5.7d

Woken or stirred? And for how long? History shows us that Americans are pretty quick to forget once someone pulls out the shiny metal and distracts them.The Revolution has not yet come; best not to put all your money into the first battle cry you hear.Jon

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Check out No webpage found at provided URL: Apollo's Temple!
Ignorance is temporary; you should be able to overcome it. - nwr

you know, its an interesting notion that the conspiracy theorists have...that we Americans need to become isolationists from the rest of the world and take care only of our own. Ones such concept among many is Liberty VillagesYes, I realize that these are simply quacks selling stuff, but assume for grins that one could build a liberty village nation.Yes, we do have the resources to support "our own". Yes, it would work if we all worked harder to make it happen. There would be problems, however. Most of our industrial base has moved overseas.Also...could we so called Americans get along with each other in such a scenario?Edited by Phat, : No reason given.

Jar, you continue to cryptically state that we got what we wanted.We are talking about today, however. Not twenty years ago. Not what we decided to do when we deregulated the utility companies under Reagan, or when we decided to borrow money.Tell me...if you hypothetically had a fireside chat with all English speaking working Americans one evening, what advice would you give them to turn things around now.?What course of action should we adopt now to slowly swing the trend back in our favor in the next twenty five years or longer?

You seem to have shifted your position from making the silly assertion that every individual has equal influence over the world as per Message 15. To now making some sort of tautological statement that humanity as a whole shapes human society. Frankly you seem to be intent on being intentionally vague and cryptic which suggests you don't really have a position at all. I thought "We live in the world we create". Some are more easily ignored than others. Access to, and opportunity for, influence are not equal for all are they? Well given that you say your voice counted for very little this seems to be exactly what you are saying. It may not care what you think but socio-economic reality is shaped by some more than others. You, as is the case for many others, seem to feel that your particular influence is rather minimal. The US isn't the world and democracy is a hard fought concession that many (but not all) have achieved in the world. But if you think even this gives everyone equal say or influence you are a fool.

Whatever.The world is still the world we created.If it is not as you would like then it is up to you to try to create one that does meet your needs.If you feel you do not have equal opportunity to voice your opinion, then guess what? That is because you created a world where the media could be controlled by a very small number of people. If you feel that money talks, then that is because you voted for people that created the laws that allowed that.

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Anyone so limited that they can only spell a word one way is severely handicapped!

If you did not foresee the outcome that would come from deregulation, then tough. It was patently obvious.When we blew all the money on wars, it was patently obvious that the return on that investment would suck.There is no way to turn things around quickly. I'm not at all sure that the US will be able to do much of anything.

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Anyone so limited that they can only spell a word one way is severely handicapped!

Only in the tautological sense of human society being created by humanity. I know several people who are practically professional campaigners. From nuclear disarmament to ant-globalisation. I have yet to see any of them have any significant success. The world certainly isn't as they would choose it and that isn't for lack of effort on their part. Did I personally create that world? If so I should be able to just as easily uncreate it shouldn't I? So how do you suggest I go about undoing this situation? But if those available to be voted for are those with the financial backing of those who talk with their money then what choice was there?

I love this quote, however, it sort of ends before the process really gets going.A small and determined group of people can make a temporary change, but without getting a majority of the people that the change affects to get behind it, the change quickly slides back to the old status quo.

Very true. I'm worried that people will roll back over and hit snooze if this just becomes another fait accompli. The fact that there are recall efforts still ongoing, protests still being planned, and that the protests are a pretty good representative of the whole state (farmers are planning on surrounding the capitol with tractors today), I'm cautiously optimistic.

It will take at least 25-50 years minimum to effect change unfortunately, and realistically, likely longer if we are to do it with minimum pain.Looking at history the more likely scenario is that we reach a point of a revolutionary change.The problem is that until there is an enlightened population with the education and wisdom to take a long term view and also willing to make short term sacrifices for long term gain, I don't see even a revolution doing much good.But the world is still what we created, it is the world we built.

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Anyone so limited that they can only spell a word one way is severely handicapped!

Then practically by definition the world is not as those under the age of 25 (or maybe even 50) would choose. Revolutionary change generally occurs when a mass of the population are so oppressed that they feel that they have little to lose by risking their individual lives to affect drastic change. So you keep saying. But nobody here, including yourself, seems to think that the world is as they would have shaped it. Only if you use the term we in such a generic fashion as to be entirely pointless does your little assertion make any sense. And then it becomes so all encompassing as to be simply tautological.

Whatever. If that makes you happy, so be it.

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Anyone so limited that they can only spell a word one way is severely handicapped!

Why even bother responding if you are not going to explain yourself?Do you acknowledge that some individuals have significantly more influence over the future shape of the world than others? They do. So what is your point?