Greg: I agree that we nearly had it made, 4 or 5 decades ago, but I don't agree with the cause of the change.
We are people who have a responsibility to each other, and as the people, we must maintain that the work so it is not done by our government but by the people to maintain our control. Our government, like many others is a cold heartless entity that exists not to be charitable but to protect us from the outside world of other governments, and we allow that government to exist for that reason, not to food or cloth someone.
When you say governments job is to ensure that we can be independentt & self sufficient, that's what changed:
We are people who have a responsibility to each other, and as the people, we must maintain that the work so it is not done by our government but by the people to maintain our control. Our government, like many others is a cold heartless entity that exists not to be charitable but to protect us from the outside world of other governments, and we allow that government to exist for that reason, not to food or cloth someone.
government became pro business, which is no longer in the people's best interests.
Government has NEVER ever been pro-business and there is absolutely no proof of that, laying off people is not proof. If this was the case, no business would pay taxes, have to deal with regulations and have the freedom to vote. IT is quite the opposite when you examine other countries and other governments and see what they have been doing, Hong Kong is one such country - communist but very pro-business.
What made - past tense - the country in the early part of our history was a hands off approach to all of it which we need to return to which will help all of us. Building our foundation in the latter part of the 19th century from the start of the industrial revolution uplifted the people and made the country a player on the world stage. It was the non-involvement of the government up until the 1890's that propelled us into the mid-20th century - nothing else.
The very thing that you think is happening is the opposite of what the government has done in the past 10 years, intervened in business to make things right and they have messed everything up. So pretty much you can't get a more anti-business government than you can with this one for the past 60 years.
Business [not all, but too many] will throw anyone & everyone under the bus if it will increase their profits, and as long as government enables that, unemployment and low income lives will be the best many have to look forward to.
Business is not there to provide jobs or share profits with workers, that is a Marxist position that has failed in most places it was tried. Throwing people under the bus is also a bunch of BS, the government provides a safety net of sort to get the people by but with that said, the premise of having a wage that is worth working at while also having the protection that is there to ensure they keep working produces the exact problems we have today, creating closed shops and no competition among the workers.
Having job security and a closed shop sounds great but when you look at how it is the responsibility of the individual to find their own way in life, the closed shop mentality limits that individual to the point that they have no options in life unless they are handing it by the government - period.
So what is the solution?
Many seem to think that more laws and regulations are the answer, while a lot of people are convinced to return to time when there was no laws protecting unions and closed shops. Returning competition into the workforce and on top of that having people actually better themselves to secure the work they want to have. It seems to work and it seems to move the country forward in times when the government didn't intervene in things like Boeing.
One thing that has popped up in the last couple days may be a great example for you is the right to work law. We have a big whoop brewing over teachers and the right to work law here. Someone introduced a bill that would strip the requirement of teachers to be in a union to work but got to tell you it is a great start but I think we need to go a bit more deeper and return to the idea that anyone who can teach be allowed to teach without the "special" training or being part of a special class of professional. See once we had the best schools and once anyone could become a teacher, just apply, go through the interview and you are a teacher. Once they closed the "shop" to the outside and made rather stupid requirements of teaching degrees and so on (all I may add is a profit for those businesses called Colleges and there is a bit of collusion), the education system went right down hill, FAST. We are more concern with teaching the kids how to be nice and fair and not enough on how to actually use their knowledge to do something in the real world. I know it is not the only problem but it is a big factor involved with it. BUT to think that we had an education system that was the best in the world, kids knew where France was and some even spoke French - all using people who were not college educated, not federally certified and not union. WOW. Amazing we could actually be smart at one time.
America was on top of the world, until greed crept in and shoved humanity out.
Well we were on the top of the world only for a small amount of time, from 1943 to 1965. Since than we are just like anyone else. BUT who said we had any humanity?
I mean we ignored the plight of the European Jew for most of the war, there were groups who fought the government to allow European Jews to land on US shores.
What about the 50's and our exploration of other parts of the world for our dominance?
You pointed out that a civilized nation does not crap on their people, but really no one seems to understand that there are no civilized nations and with that last quote, there is an assumption that we, as a government and nation had some sort of humanity means that we were civilized at one time, when we were not.
If you are counting social programs, like those in the 60's, they messed up our society more than they helped. Forget about the urban issues, the rural issues were intensified by the idea that the government could help them out, especially when they didn't want help. Maybe you need to research what happened in the early 60's in Appalachia Mountains and how insulting it was for them to be told they were poor.
BUT the biggest thing is that we are a nation of people, unless we allow ourselves to become subjects of the government, we are the only real citizens that exist. Sorry for those who think otherwise but it seems to be true. IF we want to have a pro-business government as you assume, then we have given up not just our rights and freedoms but our mindset that we can do things as an individual on our own.
Nothing prevents anyone from bettering themselves, it is part of their mindset and the government can't help them with that. For those who expect a hand out, as a hand out without an effort of a step up with it, then I can't feel for them. The same goes for those who have been unemployed and have to have the stuff like the new car, it is not my problem to support them nor anyone else's for that matter. You can call that inhuman or what ever but until people want to help themselves, pull together and move forward in life, it won't matter.
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