Months ago AndyI posted about SinceSlicedBread. The goal of the website was to collect ideas and enable voting to determine the next great idea since sliced bread. Says AndyI:
I have never seen so may socialist/communist/just plain silly ideas. Go on and get a laugh at what some people write.
Well they’ve gotten down to the 7 finalists and they are supremely laughable, right along the lines Andy mentioned. Remember my post about the Missouri legislator who wanted to ban the sale of cold beer? Well the ideas are pretty much that bad.
In jest, I suggested a law to mandate conservation. We clearly use electricity we don’t need all the time: tvs, computers, christmas lights, etc. It would be simple to destroy, outlaw, and penalize to accomplish this goal. Little did I know that my joke was operating at just about the same wavelength of the people taking it seriously.
What’s the summary of the top 7 ideas? In no particular order:
1. universal health care (it should be a right) — I ask how much is a right and how much is just extra..
2. education reform (tax the rich and give to the poor)
3. save social security by taxing the rich more
4. tie minimum wage to inflation
5. Create “Civil Works Corps”
6. outlaw job-based health care, mandate “national healtcare insurance”, pay it with a sales tax
7. Sustainable Resource Industries (taxing the bejeezus out of anything that doesn’t make tree huggers happy. where globalized “labor, production, and ideas” — also known as letting other countries use their minds and assets to compete, which is bad — has “marginalized [our] quality of life”)
Actually, let me just block quote #7:
Globalization of labor, production, and ideas and an industrial economy based on subsidized fossil fuels have set the stage for economic and social instability, continued outsourcing of jobs, and marginalized quality of life. We can create a new economy based on environmentally benign industries and energy.
Impose a “resource tax” on pollution, development, and fossil fuel to pay for development of renewable energy and environmental restoration. Promoting sustainable localized energy industries (solar, wind, hydro, tidal, biofuels) will provide reliable, clean homegrown energy, exportable technologies, and bring energy jobs home. Funding widespread environmental restoration will expand existing industries (farming, recreation, tourism, and commercial fisheries) that are dependent on ecological services and will foster research, design and technology industries.
Working families will benefit from a stable economy and millions of new economy jobs. These solutions are inherently local – they create decentralized resources and require skilled local labor, forever. They pay for themselves and provide capital for entrepreneurs to develop industries and exportable technologies. And they foster community and collaboration essential to surviving in a global economy.
See what I’m saying? This is the same kind of tripe you get from 5th graders.
There are so many more worthy critiques. I’d like to know how you go about “widespread environmental restoration” while expanding farming. And doesn’t tourism usually have a negative effect on nature? I could seriously go on and on about this post all day. (”Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I got spare time.”*)
My summary is thus: if we just tax ourselves enough, then the government will have enough money to give us all huge checks and we’ll be rich.
I love that logic. I think I’m going to open my own business. I’ll be a rope lengthener. “Got a rope that’s too short? Bring it to Ol’ Nobrainer. Using advanced technology I’ll remove useless material at the bottom of your rope and tie it to the top where it’s really needed! My work is guaranteed!”
And here’s the shit that I just don’t understand. No, wait, I completely understand and I hate all the motherfuckers who do it. The Democrats and liberals are generally painted as the all-knowing, uber-intelligentsia with a vast, unceasing ability to think, articulate, and govern wisely. Nearly everyone else is some uneducated hick by default. So what does the left come up with? They address nearly every issue at face value without thought or insight into the deeper causes of the problem or the future ramifications of their fixes. Usually this means moving money from the rich to the poor. Robin Hoodism is the cure of all ills it seems — better than Nyquil and ‘Tussin combined. (Remember though, I generally hate all the politicians not just lefties and Democrats, but I repeat myself.)
Damnit, I went off on another rant today. My apologies.
Thomas Gwyn Says:
Here’s my idea. All those misplaced Katrina/Rita folks that have no place to live and are becoming a burden on the private/for profit businesses they are clogging up, you have heard of them. Let’s build them tent cities and supply it fully with living needs and building supplies and anything they need to…Voila! Be employed and rebuild their cities and homes. Oh wow, what a concept. I know it’s very socialist. No problem. Turn it over to private companies, let them build the cities and privately employ the people accordingly. Suspend some of this EEOC crap and give first dibs on jobs to former residents then the general public. Last time I checked having your living expenses paid for goes a long way to covering that cash you may be lacking in your regular paycheck. Bitching about tent cities? If our soldiers in the Middle East can hack it, a bunch of people living off the gov’t and providing a much less crucial service can definitely survive without problem.