the end of the road

What I was trying to do with my last post was establish that economic equality is a good goal, something worth striving for.  Then if that was agreed we could discuss ways of going about it. It didn't get the ringing endorsement I had hoped for, maybe it got grudging agreement, I guess that's pretty good, with the pertinent caveat that it depends on how you do it. 

If we destroyed all wealth, then nobody would have nothing and we would have economic equality, but I don't think we want to do that, or to slay the rich in their beds and split the loot equally, that's probably not a way to go.

The Russkies tried to do it by brute force and that didn't turn out very well, of course that was the Russkies, but Americans are more cantankerous then they are and likely we would make an even bigger hash of it. 

And do we need to do it at all?  Even now, in the new gilded age the poor are not starving while the lords are enjoying palace balls. They do have some pricey mansions and condos approaching castles but the poor are doing a little better than hovels though less than adequate housing.  A certain amount  of economic disparity is necessary to get the economy going, I agree on that.

Well here's a thing, remember how things were when we were growing up in Chicago?  Not bad right?  Maybe it's just me, but I see wealth as a lot less equally distributed these days and statistics just a google away will back me up, and in fact it is accelerating, and just wait till this new tax bill slashes the taxes on the rich and depletes the treasury so that when we go to get our social security the larder will be bare.  The rich are muy powerful.

So isn't it best that we put out a shoulder to halt their wheel?  We liberals think so, we think whatever the state of the economic equality is, it could be better, so it is a good fight.  Good methods would include more steeply graduated income taxes, higher minimum wages, better public institutions, say like schools, so public schools are as good as public schools.

Well there I've said it.


The Liberal Agenda:
1.  Everybody should be equal.
2. Economic equality is a goal worth striving for.
3. Sometimes you have to pass laws to move these things forward.

The End of the World
1. The Liberal Agenda is stalled.
2. The very people it is meant to help are rejecting it in favor of the current regime
3. This is happening across Europe too, the lamps are going out and who knows if we shall see them lit  again.

There is my thesis, I nailed it to the ivied walls the day after Thanksgiving and I've devoted every post since then to it.  I was more interested in explaining what I believe than proving I was right.  Of course I do believe I am right, but if I had to squabble every point, I'd still be doing this a year from now.  Sometimes it's good to lay out what you believe in a systematic manner to examine it for errors and get a clearer picture of who you are and where you are going.  The examined life, you know, worth living.