Exactly. I'm so sick of politician worshipping by the left and the right. Did Ted Kennedy ever have a real (i.e. private sector) job in his entire life? No. He was a drunken womanizer who spent other people's money. Good riddance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kennedy
I'm as sick of politician hatred by the peanut gallery. Think back 250 years in this country's history, when blacks were slaves, non-landowners couldn't vote, and women weren't sent to school. The difference between that world and today's world is due to the efforts of politicians and activists. Do you think that Johnson's Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act were not "real" accomplishments?
Interesting that you went straight for the "peanut gallery" categorization because my opinion happens to differ from yours. I paid just over $38,000 in Federal, state and local taxes last year. I simply don't like people (like Ted Kennedy) who have never worked an honest job in their entire lives and have contributed to bankrupting this country. The real heroes are not politicians who run up a massive credit card bill in our collective names. The true heroes are entrepreneurs who innovate, produce and create value. Politicians produce nothing. They simply take from the productive sectors of society and create huge distortions in the marketplace. Obviously, there have been some necessary and admirable laws passed in the brief history of this country, but they are the exception and not the rule.
Useless companies which simply take from the productive sectors of the economy are also the rule, with the few amazing companies being the exception. You can't have a new Google or Voting Rights Act every week.
The difference here is that any exchange with a useless company is on a voluntary basis, whereas any exchange with the government is completely compulsory. If I don't give Useless Company X my money, they go out of business for not adding enough value. If I don't give my money to the government, they garnish my wages, put liens on my house and put me in prison, and continue to run inefficiently whilst piling up massive debt in my name. See the difference?
Both of you, stop it. There is a place for both government and the free market in society. An unchecked free market is insanely unstable; an unchecked government is controlling and corrupt. To suggest that entrepreneurs are largely wasting money is as wrong as suggesting that politicians are leeches.
spking: Implying that Ted Kennedy didn't fight hard every day of his life in politics is as cruel and stupid as suggesting that a man can't grow up after a reckless youth is as cruel and stupid as a reaction to a man's death being "Good riddance." While I find the bickering on both sides to be tasteless, akd isn't being a douche the same way you are.
unalone: Having a strong opinion about something (or someone, in this case) doesn't make me tasteless or a douche. And frankly, the issue isn't whether or not Ted Kennedy fought "hard every day of his life in politics". Pirates fight very hard every day in their lives of theft. I'd say get off your high horse, but I think instead that you should enjoy your false sense of superiority. Clearly, it gives you great pleasure.
Yeah, superiority on a web site. Not everybody online with a sense of propriety has it to look good. Some of us might hope that people learn from what they read online.
The issue I'm talking about isn't whether Ted Kennedy is good or bad. The issue is that he was a man who spent a lifetime doing what he thought was right, and that it takes a fool or a sociopath to look at a lifetime and spit at it. There's a difference between being critical and being destructive. Your attitude is the latter.
If you're going to attempt to put me down, can you at least attempt to be clever with it? The only thing worse than negativity is bluster.
Actually, unalone, I think your quip is correct... I think entrepreneurs are largely wasting money, and politicians are mostly leeches. But it's the exceptions that make the whole enterprise worthwhile -- one Google makes up for the money wasted by literally 10,000 startups. And one Ted Kennedy makes up for several hundred leech politicians. It's why both professions, if you intend to do them well, are among the most important in our society.
I think this idea that we can punish ineffectiveness in the private sector is pleasant to think about, but doesn't reflect our actual experience.
Think of all the ineffective or downright hateful businesses you give your money to because there is no practical alternative: cable and internet providers, health insurers, banks, credit cards, ticketmaster, airlines, big box stores, domain registrars...
I find it strange that this comment is getting upvoted. For instance, you can fly to literally the other side of the world in one day for less than two week's pay at even a poorly paying job. Not that long ago, it took a few days to go from Boston to New York on horseback.
Credit cards facilitated online shopping and the internet as we know it. As someone whose taken credit cards, I hate giving up the 2.x%, but it's well worth it. Many businesses wouldn't be possible without credit cards. They're massively convenient. And AMEX totally washes the consumer's hands of fraud and damaged goods.
Business does well. Even the above cross-section of "downright hateful companies" are still pretty good businesses. And the scummiest ones are scummy because they're in bed with government. Cable/internet local monopolies, health insurers with the tax code, and banks with the... well, that's a long discussion and you've probably heard some of it.
Government branches can't go out of business. When they do poorly, they always say it's because they don't have enough money, and they get more. Business has a natural check on it - people have to like it enough to use it. You could skip airlines and take a boat or train or horse, you could use only cash and keep it in your mattress, you could use other alternatives. You don't, because those companies aren't perfect, but they do a pretty good job. I wish I could just "not use" the IRS, I wish I could just "not use" TSA, I wish I could just "pass" on going to the DMV and giving them money for a sticker or laminated piece of plastic.
No private sector company that isn't in bed with the government or run by powerful violent criminals is as nasty as the DMV, IRS, or TSA to its customers. And they don't go out of business.
I have experienced shockingly mean service in the quasi-private sector. Like idlewords said, it was something where I didn't have a choice.
At the University of Pittsburgh, Sodexho is the exclusive provider of on-campus food. The food and service have since gotten better, but my freshman year, Sodexho had a policy of hiring many ex-convicts for their food service positions. I ate at the sub place on campus a lot because it was close to my dorm and decent enough. The full-time workers there were two men 70+ in age, though maybe the hard living had aged them beyond their years. They had faded ink tattoos visible on their arms and had clearly recently been released from prison after near-lifetime sentences.
I cannot express how much these men hated their jobs. They hated their customers. Every time I ate there and made the mistake of looking them in the eye, I could tell that they wished death upon me and everyone that ever ate a sub made by their hands.
Since then, I have eaten in the private sector, and while every worker is not happy, they are usually at worst indifferent. Never has an employee wished death upon me with malice and hatred like those two sub shop workers.
Sodexho seems to have an exclusive contract to provide lousy, overpriced food at just about every US university I've been to. I've never understood how they keep getting these contracts. But this is, of course, the problem with the quasi-private sector... they don't have to please their customers, they just have to please the university administration once every N years so they get an exclusive monopoly on every outlet within walking distance.
I'm not quite sure as to what your preferred alternative is. You excoriate Kennedy for not having had a "real job," so the mere fact that he is a Senator, rather than the way he conducts himself as a Senator, is what gets your goat. So you would prefer not to have a Senate?
Well, I'm not him, but I'll weigh in - term limits on all civil service would probably be a good thing, and that includes changing roles/branches. Serving the country for a few years with passion and vigor is noble and heroic, but long term civil service risks stagnation, politicking, and corruption.
A Senator going out into the world to work on problems without government behind them would bolster their worldview. Perhaps after two terms in the Senate, a mandatory one or two terms off, then the Senator could run again. But definitely, lifetime politicians are a big potential problem. It certainly seems like they become more brazen and aristocratic over time.
Unless you live in a place like North Korea, no-one is forcing you to live in your country. If you don't think your government is spending your tax money wisely, then move. There are many developed nations out there that aren't accumulating huge amounts of debt.
Yes, let's think back to these ills you mentioned.... Who put them in place? Oh yes, it was politicians. I'm glad they eventually corrected their mistakes, but I won't deify them simply because they did so.
Hey, what have you got against drunken womanisers ...
edit: so it's immoral to drink and womanise or something? He was using those words in a perjorative manner. I complain and get downvoted, is this Church Day or something?
Hm, all this talk is making me thirsty .. (grabs beer)
