Plunging Towards Gomorrah
Posts tagged Utopia
Where’s My Bailout?
Mar 3rd
I suppose this will be the Climate Change Project Manager's office. Nice six-figure BS job if you can get it.
With the economy still in the tank and unemployment continuing to hover around ten percent, a lot of people are starting to wonder, “Where’s my bailout?” Well, if you look at the salary and employment stats in the public sector (city, county, state and federal government) you’ll see exactly where your bailout went.
Your bailout – or at least your hard-earned tax dollars that are partially funding the corporate fat-cat bailouts (the other portion being financed by the Chinese, among others) – is also being used to create make-work six-figure nonsense jobs, such as Climate Change Program Manager at the National Park Service. This ridiculous job, with a pay scale between $103,000 and $155,000, is just the tip of the iceberg (pun intended). According to the Dec. 11, 2009 edition of USA Today:
Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession’s first 18 months — and that’s before overtime pay and bonuses are counted. Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time — in pay and hiring — during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector… When the recession started, the Transportation Department had only one person earning a salary of $170,000 or more. Eighteen months later, 1,690 employees had salaries above $170,000.
Moreover, the New York Times reported in August of 2009 that while the private sector lost 6.9 million jobs, state and local governments added 110,000 new jobs. All of this data – and it goes on and on and on, if you care to look into it – strikes me as horribly backwards.
I’m no economist, but if deficits are skyrocketing and companies are looking for relief so they can begin hiring again, wouldn’t logic dictate that government cut jobs, siphoning those people into the private sector, while providing tax incentives to individuals and private sector companies?
In December of 2009, 382,758 federal employees were making $100,000 or more annually. That’s more than $38 billion in what is largely bureaucratic largesse. Last I checked it’s the private sector that actually produces our GDP, not government jobs that essentially produce nothing. That’s a lot of nothing we’re getting for our billions.
Why we’re headed down the same road as western Europe, California, Massachusetts, New York, etc., etc., which ultimately leads to economic crisis and bankruptcy, I’ll never know. Or, maybe I do know…
It’s all about power and payoffs. The more the private sector and citizens cede to the state, the more power and money that’s funneled to the state and its dependants. It’s simple mathematics with the additional wild card of human nature (it’s corrupt, by the way).
While some see this as a Utopian system, rational people recognize that an all-powerful, controlling state destroys liberty and freedom. The explosive growth of public sector payrolls and jobs is simply another data point in a trend line that shows America headed toward the abyss. If you’re not concerned about it, you should be.
The Heather Graham Plan
Oct 30th
Have you seen the new commercial with Heather Graham promoting universal health care? In it, Heather races a bunch of fat, lazy people in what appears to be the 100-yard dash. The lovely and lithe Heather represents The Public Option (it says so on her race tag). The lovable but lazy fat people represent the private health insurance market.
I love this commercial produced by MoveOn.org, for both the obvious and more subtle reasons. But let’s get right to the subtle reasons since they’re, well… subtle.
MoveOn got the symbolism backwards, which is always awesome. In my dealings with government at the local, state and federal levels, I’ve never had the “Heather Graham” experience. I’ve certainly had the “Jabba the Hut” experience, and I don’t expect that will change in the near future.
Has any government program ever conjured up the image of a fleet-footed goddess? I’ve repeatedly encountered this figurative goddess in the private market, but never in the public sector, where I always run into the bloated Star Wars figure… Boonowa tweepie, Han Solo! Ha ha ha ha ha!
I’m also huge fan of the old “do as I say, not as I do” mentality, particularly when it comes from pampered, filthy rich celebrities. In this case, Heather promotes the idea that we – “we” being the unwashed, non-celebrity masses – should be part of a rationed system in which we may or may not get the treatment we need.
Meanwhile, Heather and her peers will still receive the finest health care the world has to offer. Having loads of money tends to shield you from the consequences of your pet social engineering projects. “Let them wait in line!” will join “Let them drive clown cars!” as the rallying cries for our 21st Century Marie Antoinettes.
How I enjoy being told by celebrities to grin and bear it while they merely grin it! They know what’s best for us… and for them. I may not get that MRI for two years, but I should feel so much better that I’m being forced by the state to make sacrifices for the common good as we edge ever closer to Utopia.
Though we all know Utopia is really a small town in Texas, Heather Graham’s Utopia includes making sure that I can’t have what she has. Nor does any American, other than those who are Graham-approved, have the opportunity to have what she has.
Socialists from the beginning have always pitted the haves against the have-nots; it’s how they agitate for socialist “reform” and revolution. The great irony of this tactic, that’s maybe less ironic and more purposeful, is how power and wealth tends to accumulate in fewer hands in these Utopian systems. Oh well, at least I’ll be able to stand in line with the rest of the proletariat.
Uto·pia
Jul 29th
Pronunciation:
\yu̇-ˈtō-pē-ə\
Function: noun
Etymology: Utopia, imaginary and ideal country in Utopia (1516) by Sir Thomas More, from Greek ou not, no + topos place
Date: 1597
1: an imaginary and indefinitely remote place
2 often capitalized : a place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions
3: an impractical scheme for social improvement
I had a really good time mocking rock worshipers the past few weeks in the run-up to Fire the Grid. Covering this event is my cross to bear so I followed some of the action the past twenty-four hours on Twitter. I have to admit that I’m strangely fascinated by this fantasy-world mindset. It’s odd to believe in a “perfect world” when history has so clearly rejected it. Reality isn’t always clear to people. For example, take Twitter user suryadevi. Her take on the event is a feast for the senses.
the fire the grid meditation was very powerful…i will share some of the messages i recieved….firstly we need to clean up the oceans that is vital, it will be like cleaning the blood of humanity. also its time for women to own their power but not in a dominating manner men and women will begin to work together and heal the divide between them. there was an energetic shift that cut away a very heavy energy of survival mentality & lack consciousness. with this removed it will be easier to manifest and support others because there will be a knowing that everything is provided for. some street gangs and criminal organizations will soon begin to shift away from violence and exist more as social institutions. we need to continue to pour LOVE upon those people who run the world, even those we view as corrupt big changes are coming…stay strong and do not get caught up in fear…thats what i got…love & blessings to all….
Far be it from me to question a musician, angel whisperer, and benevolent gangsta dakini. The most startling part of the seven-tweet grid prophecy is the tasty nugget about street gangs and criminal organizations. Not only are they going to shift away from violence (Tom Harkin), but they’re going to exist more as social institutions. The Red Cross better watch out, because the Crips are going to take over. This kind of fantasy world concerns me. I wonder how many people actually think this way. If a person really believes that the Al Capones of the world are suddenly going to become Mother Teresa because a bunch of people meditated about light for an hour, how can they make logical choices about government?
Now obviously someone is always going to incorporate religion into this discussion, but that would be a stretch. As far as Christianity is concerned, the U.S. government was built in part on the Christian idea that man cannot be trusted (original sin). The whole tenet of Christianity is that man by nature is sinful. Christians know that that any man-made enterprise, government, or bureaucracy will inevitably fail. The great achievement by the founding fathers was creating a government that is able to correct itself after many failures. Even so, the U.S. government has always been corrupt on some level. Look at New Jersey, Louisiana, and Illinois; these states are a bastion of political corruption.
Government will always be corrupt. Gang members will not exist more as social institutions (unless we’re talking about Bill Ayers and the New Left). Anyone who believes that we’ll awake one day to find peace on Earth is living in a fantasy land called Utopia.
