So, farewell then
two-thousand
and-eight -
end of Bush-folly
and the Bubble Of
The American Way.
To some
you were
eponymously
known as the
Year of The Rat.
To others
you were
just as aptly
annus horribilus
Volatility,
asset price destruction,
fear, greed, hubris,
fraud, collapse,
deleveraging and
revulsion were your
catch-phrases.
'Tis astonishing
what it takes to
convince The People
to live within
their collective
means.
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6 comments:
'Tis astonishing
what it takes to
convince The People
to live within
their collective
means.
Governments are the collective it would seem to me and the folks running the show haven't been convinced at all when it comes to living within their means.
Anonymous,
With all due respect, the Government was delivering what The People ordered - or at least the one's sufficeintly motivated to vote, and educated to express their parochial interest. No one has ever been elected on a "Less [consumption, debt, growth] is more" platform. The folks running the show (as you call them) are mere reflections of of the spineless jellyfish parent who can;t say No! or set boundaries for their ill-behaved ill-mannered brats. Leaders with backbone (and note: this is not a partisan statement for republicans have proved just if not more spineless than the dems) would never get elected (witness Mondale, Bill Bradley and others who highmindedly chose not to pander and got blown-out). Blaming "government" is puerile, for the real culpability lay beyond in the polity, and government cannot change until the polity matures.
-Cassandra
The style reminds me of Don Marquis's archy:
if you get gloomy just
take an hour off and sit
and think how
much better this world
is than hell
of course it won t cheer
you up much if
you expect to go there
Blaming "government" is puerile, for the real culpability lay beyond in the polity, and government cannot change until the polity matures.
Fair enough Casandra perhaps the polity will get what they crave.
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse (generous gifts) from the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy (which is) always followed by a dictatorship."
"The average age of the world's greatest civilization has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence. From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance, from abundance to complacency; from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back into bondage."
Alexander Tyler circa 1787 re the
fall of the Athenian Republic.
fantastic quote that sums up my sentiments with the exception that it is NOT inevitable. I still believe some peoples - the northern europeans for the moment - have the cultural stoicness and fortitude and educated polity to say as in Germany (pre-emptively raise the VAT to balance the books). Grasshoppers, Randian apologists would call this masochistic, but who's laughing now...!??!
I am not sure all the people are yet convinced.
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2008/12/72-of-conservatives-still-support-bush/
Also, I agree with what you say about the North Europeans in the above comment but I am not sure it carries over to the UK. I do not see any understanding of what is happening both at the gubmint level and amongst the people.
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