with love. <3

I submit the answer is clearly ‘NO’.

Reading or re-reading Atlas Shrugged will make clear that looters expect producers to keep things going regardless of the price to the producers. We see this reflected today in the refusal of the administration (e.g. Robert Reich) to acknowledge that increasing tax rates will reduce tax revenues until the marginal rate is over 60%, and Obama’s waffling between overt hostility to capitalists and calling on those same capitalists to ‘partner’ with the government and buy up toxic assets the government has subsdized.

The looters refuse to acknowledge reality – for them, hope is a buisness strategy – so the economic crisis must occur, and it’s less hard on the general population to hit bottom from here, than to go through all the pain and instability it took to get here again. Also, delaying the crisis will allow the administration to impose even more looter laws that will have to be undone, and allow the government schools to indoctrinate even more children in the idea that enlightened self-interest (‘selfishness’ in the liberal lexicon) is evil, rather than a virtue. One of the above negative postings actually argues this point – validating John’s position that jousting is pointless.

It may be that it is already too late, and that a majority of the population has already discovered that it can “vote itself largesse from the public purse”. Certainly the administration’s class warfare rhetoric and ‘refundable tax credits’ for non-productive people suggest a desire to foster looting (all in the name of good intentions, of course.)

In either case, the time is NOW to accelerate the inevitable decline and bring the larger society to a rapid understanding that respect for enlightened self-interest, i.e. selfishness, is THE essential value that drives development of a sustainable, prosperous and free society.

The movers in society want uncluttered loyalty to their “causes” and too often they get it with no effort other than practiced, repeated rhetoric to rally new members as well as old. This “John Galt” nonsense from the borderline fascist and unredemptive elitist, Ayn Rand, and her decidedly asinine notions of how society should work is another ploy.

Here’s the thought for the day: Everybody loves a Western in America and all over the world. Cowboys with guns at their hips, throwing lead for frontier justice, it all seemed pretty grand. The good guy riding up out of nowhere and protecting the small town on the prairie and save the gal he loves.
Well, that place never existed. Even the filmmakers over the last half century know this and the best “Westerns” reflect just how harsh that life really was. If the mythological frontier justice was so great, why, if it even existed, did it change? Because the simple truth is it didn’t exist. What did exest were people like the cattle barons. Some of them hired thugs to beat those townfolk into submission and forced their water “rights” down people’s throats by buying votes and other undemocratic practices.
That’s why schools and churches and sheriffs and other lawmen and lawyers and doctors had to move to those places and bring civility to the lawlessness. Oh, and taxes to pay for it all, except those churches (though, the churches eventually were made tax exempt for good or ill).
Unfortunately, there also were the business men. There has to be a snake in every garden and some snakes aren’t so bad. Some “snakes” came up with ideas, employed folks who didn’t have any ideas. But sometimes those “snakes” just ran off lesser influential “snakes”. The remaining “snake” often had a monopoly on the only employment around and the greedier ones paid the least wages and exploited those who made them wealthy through their labors. Too much of this resulted in Unions. When people are dying to feed their families there will always be people who rise up.
Were Unions perfect?
Ha! It was better than nothing but the same greed that afflicted the industry owners soon infected the working force.
So what you see here is the beginning of a very complex system that is now tumbling down. To blame the unions is pretty simplistic considering why the unions came about to begin with.
Then our tax dollars are wasted routinely but to believe it’s all wasted on the unemployed (accused of being lazy and wanting a handout) is the craziest thing I’ve ever read. I’ve seen how the upper half lives. For them to whine about paying too much in taxes is absurd. For the wealthy to complain abuot how unfair the tax rules are written is even more absurd when their loopholes, paid for through lobbying efforts no middle class person can afford. Look at the stranglehold they have over Washington. They can cover vast tracks of wealth through the creative accounting methods they can afford to employ and still look like they’re paying through the nose. That’s a nice trick, but anyone looking hard enough can easily see the slight-of-hand employed to make the illusion look real.
If it were true that the American elite are too put upon why don’t they relocate to a better place?
Because they know that in those other industrialized countries they’d be routinely taxed more and have even fewer loopholes to hide their excess. Ironically they’d still be riding higher on the hog than they’d care to admit.
In the poorer countries they have to deal with even more corrupt political leaders than they’ve ever had to buy in the USA. Then there’s the fact that welfare for the rich in this country is routinely greater in the pure dollar ammount than anything the poor receive, and they know this. That’s why they have to create myths around the occasional welfare mom, making them seem like legions, draining the coffers of their taxed wealth.
We’re never going to achieve the balance required for every one to be treated fairly. That’s life. It’s just not human nature to be generous as a rule. We’re good in a pinch but otherwise we want it all. In fact, we’ve been routinely told that to be rich is the goal and unfortunately we believe it more than we don’t. The new “fair share” is a vacation home in the mountains or on the coast and any way we get it is fine from unnoticed theft, scheming, excessive lawsuits to exploiting friends and family members. Of course the old method of exploiting politics with your money is still the most reliable way to stay rich and laugh at the new money people who thought winning the lottery would fix their problems for life.
We also have a class warfare issue looming large. So far the fight has been relegated to the op-ed page and other forms of political punditry. There is no “liberal press”, but even as the architects of that lie have admitted as much the guy on the street doesn’t bother to keep up with those admissions of guilt (example of a type: there are catholics who refuse to acknowledge that their last pope admitted that evolution, as a concept and as a scientific theory is fine because it doesn’t jeopardize the existence (belief) of the human soul. All they had to do was read the official statement but they can’t be bothered. Ignorance means never having to make an effort to become informed).
So, a well read populace would be ideal. Sadly, with guys like “John” sowing the seeds of populist ignorance and fear in a time of financial crisis to those who are worried, his nonsense sounds much more enticing than holding the government and even society responsible for the failings in our economy, and indicting the greedy scum who looted our banks.

End note: folks, financing a big screen TV with a credit card was just plain stupid and irresponsible. It’s not okay that so many did this but it is the past (I hope ). We all have a stake in what went wrong and how we fix it. Class warfare, social ignorance and aspirations of greed are getting us nowhere, fast.
For those working: If you can, go out to eat but pay cash. Get your car fixed but wash it yourself. Not spending money just puts other people out of work. Saving money is a great idea and it should be part of your routine. Hoarding it, on the other hand, is not helping.
For those without work: do not spend any more than you have to. Do not be ashamed to ask for help. We all need help sometimes. We’re a society. We should also be humane and help those who need it.
We can do better in spite of our history. We have to choose to be better today than we were before.

you say you are for personal responsibility when it applies to somebody w/o a job or healthcare or a home to pick themselves up by their bootstraps but you provide a free pass on personal responsibility when it comes to taking care of your employees or your community… it is a self serving philosophy that actually endangers our country… i would rather live in a country of well educated, healthy critical thinkers than whatever it is that the other side offers… it’s a romantic ideal but its day has passed…

THANK GOD!!!