Just Let Me -- G -- Indoctrinate You!

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

It's Round and Round with Hard Work and Fair Play Thing

Dear America,

"The economy is getting stronger.
 The recovery is speeding up. 
And now is the time to keep our foot on the gas."  
President Obama
speech to the United Auto Workers 
today

 going full throttle, he goes on to say this:

"We will not settle for a country where a few people do really well, and everyone else struggles to get by. We’re fighting for an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same rules. We will not go back to an economy weakened by outsourcing, bad debt, and phony profits. We’re fighting for an economy that’s built to last – one built on things like education, energy, manufacturing things the rest of the world wants to buy, and restoring the values that made this country great: Hard work. Fair play. The opportunity to make it if you try. And the responsibility to reach back and help someone else make it, too."

Is this really a country where only "a few do really well, and everyone else struggles to get by?"

seriously?
cuz, when I think of a country like that, I envision a place more like Africa, India, Russia, Afghanistan.


Our "poor" live with televisions, mobile phones, access to fresh water and toilets and refrigeration -- and food stamps...lots and lots of food stamps.

If you care to read the full transcript of the president's speech, go here.

"Restoring the values that made this country great: Hard work.  Fair play.  The opportunity to make it if you try.  And the responsibility to reach back and help someone else make it, too."

It was worth repeating.

When I think of a country like that, I envision a true story turning into a movie like The Blind Side -- the African-American boy taken in by a warm, loving Christian family who guided him with the endearing values our country was made leading the way: to work hard... play fair... to try... and when you finally make it, to reach back and help someone else...(becoming a star NFL football player with a humble, grateful, HUGE heart)

What is confusing to me is that the president can't have it both ways.  He can't tell people to do their fair share and work hard and play fair, if in fact in the end, he intends to redistribute 'the shares' anyway.  He can't instill free market principles, while holding 'a few' hostage in order to hold up 'a few' who struggle.  He can't tell everyone to do their fair share, except you....and you...and maybe you, too.

It's not like Obama turns to Hollywood and tells them, everyone must be paid the same rate.

It's not like Obama turns to his buddy Jamie Dimon, the CEO of Chase Bank, and tells him he is being paid too much, asking him to share his good fortune evenly among his tellers.

It's not like Obama turns to his community organizer counterparts over the years, like Andy Stern... and when president of SEIU... expected him to be paid a salary in step and "fair and square" with the SEIU union workers who labored underneath him.  Which, by the way, all unions are top heavy within the upper echelon and paid handsomely, flagrantly askew from the average union worker.  What's fair about that?

He is talking to the audience of UAW as if his work is done and it is good.

But here's another angle from The Morning Bell.   Featured this morning from The Heritage Foundation:  How Chrysler Can Actually Help Detroit.

The freedom to live in a country honoring the Right to Work -- a founding principle and value on multiple levels -- is the answer for nearly all of our economic woes.   The freedom to start at the bottom and work up.  The freedom to earn millions of dollars for acting, in banking, in community organizing, in auto making...It is all connected to the inherent ability for all of us to WORK HARD, play fair, and give back.  We all start at entry level jobs and do our best to aspire to bigger, better opportunities.

What troubles me is the handpicking of winners and losers of industry; what concerns me are the exceptions being made for some millionaires and billionaires in a few businesses, while villain-izing some millionaires and billionaires of others -- while also making it sound like the 1% give nothing in return.  WHICH IS A LIE.

But this yahoo! headline says it all about today's mindset:  Are the Rich Unethical?

[G note: given human nature, my belief is that the rich are no more unethical than the poor...for it always falls back to the individual, of which we cannot generalize....for that wouldn't be fair, now would it?] 

But this president seems unable to make the appropriate free market connections to how the whole thing works (the whole thing, as in the WHOLE of America); the free market must be free -- and, like he said, it relies on HARD WORK, playing fair, and a whole lot of trying from everyone.  The equal opportunity does not always equate to equal outcome in a free society.

And the thing is, in order to succeed in manufacturing anything -- there will always be a need for the upper echelon of presidents and vice presidents and chairmen and investors (those who put up the money in the first place and take the initial risk), along with the inherent need for secretaries, janitors, with plenty of worker bees on the line (those who simply show up and work hard and play fair and get a paycheck with benefits).

Is this really a country where only "a few do really well, and everyone else struggles to get by?"

Look around you.  Let's be real. Who is selling who the snake oil this time?

Make it a Good Day, G

Here's going off on a totally whacky tangent -- I'm surprised the president hasn't criminalized racing this week....NASCAR, Formula One, Daytona, Indy, all of it.  I mean, you know, given the gas crunch, given the inequality of distribution of winnings isn't fair, given the abuses to the environment, given his relationship within the race car world is pretty sketchy, at best, all the way around....think about it.  Why hasn't he waved the red flag and brought down the whole sport altogether, considering the averages of 5/mpg and the clear and present danger of wasting away our liquid gold at a rate of 200,000 gallons/year, just to cover NASCAR races alone?  Think about it.  It's a good question.  Did you see what happened yesterday?  Fuel, burned, by the tanker full.  What a waste.

But just to be clear: I'm playing.  I love car racing. Go Danica [oh this is funny -- just looked her up real quick to check the spelling of her name and discovered we share a birthday...the kicker, we are twenty years apart!  I hate her now.   makes my head spin just a wee bit.  need to lay down...]

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