In article ,
"Robert Green" wrote:

I don't like spending on "welfare" myself.

Nor do I. I am for spending more to hire investigators and auditors to find
waste and cheats and deal with them. Harshly.
One of the shots at Medicare "reform" during the Bush years included
Congress specifically funding a troop of FBI agents to deal with nothing
but MCare fraud. The results have been spotty at best.


But the answer to that is jobs.
The problem with that is to get good jobs back here requires taking a
whip to the "free trade" principles these guys got rich from.

Not going to happen. Like that movie, those jobs are "Gone, Baby, Gone."
There doesn't seem to be anything like the PC revolution coming along to
save us this time. Computer technology is one of the few things that are
basically keeping the US economy afloat:

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt...y%20health.png

And also causing us problems. If you look at manufacturing output,
even measured in constant dollars, it has actually gone up since the
80s. What has happened is mfg productivity gains since then have cut the
number of JOBS. We haven't lost nearly as many mfg jobs to the Chinese
as we have to the Robots.





So outfits like the Heritage Foundation are fighting a losing battle
anyway.
America will always take care of the poor to prevent rioting and
subsequent "socialism," and just become more of a welfare state until
jobs come back.

Like Warren Buffet said, government is the only entity large enough to act
as a counterbalance to the boom/bust cycles that are an inherent part of
capitalism. What we're seeing in the world is the Chinese and Russians
moving away from pure socialism as we move away from pure capitalism.
Everything in moderation comes to mind.

And name one country where the government has actually been able
to act as a counterbalance to the boom and bust cycle? I haven't seen
it.

occurs. It's why our manufacturing plants often got broken down and
shipped
in crates to China.

Not really. See above.

When the Republicans regain control, and I think that they will, and they
are unable to reverse the downward spiral, which I think is also likely, I
wonder what they'll say?
My guess is that they will do what the Dems are doing now and blame
the other party. Pretty much a given. Don't know why you even bothered
to ask the question (g).

--
People thought cybersex was a safe alternative,
until patients started presenting with sexually
acquired carpal tunnel syndrome.-Howard Berkowitz