The colored text below was sent to me via e-mail by a friend. I'm sure it's just another silly forward. But it did make me think.
And actually, I don't think that liberals should necessarily get all the credit for each of the items they are credited with below. However, all these things exist. All these things are, in fact, part of big government spending. And don't we want them? If not, which ones do you suggest we eliminate? I do get not expanding some of these rights because when you take anything too far, it's a bad idea. There truly is too much of a good thing.
I recently revealed my political party to someone I work with, and he said, "It always amuses me how many commercial lawyers think they are liberal when they really can't be." I looked him straight in the eye and said, "If I don't mind paying my taxes for the services I get, then I can be as liberal as I want." Ugh. Nice guy, but I did want to kick him in the shins.
So here's the e-mail. Play nice, please.
Joe gets up at 6:00am to prepare his morning coffee. He fills his pot full of good clean drinking water because some liberal fought for minimum water quality standards.
He takes his daily medication with his first swallow of coffee. His medications are safe to take because some liberal fought to insure their safety and work as advertised.
All but $10.00 of his medications are paid for by his employers medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance, now Joe gets it too. He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs this day. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.
Joe takes his morning shower reaching for his shampoo; His bottle is properly labeled with every ingredient and the amount of its contents because some liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained. Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some tree- hugging liberal fought for laws to stop industries from polluting our air.
He walks to the subway station for his government subsidized ride to work; it saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees. You see, some liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.
Joe begins his work day; he has a good job with excellent pay, medicals benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some liberal union members fought and died for these working standards.
Joe's employer pays these standards because Joe's employer doesn't want his employees to call the union.
If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed he'll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some liberal didn't think he should loose his home because of his temporary misfortune.
It's noon time, Joe needs to make a Bank Deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FDIC because some liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the depression.
Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae underwritten Mortgage and his below market federal student loan because some stupid liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime.
Joe is home from work, he plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive to dad's; his car is among the safest in the world because some liberal fought for car safety standards.
He arrives at his boyhood home. He was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans. The house didn't have electric until some big government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification. (Those rural Republicans would still be sitting in the dark).
He is happy to see his dad who is now retired. His dad lives on Social Security and his union pension because some liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to. After his visit with dad he gets back in his car for the ride home.
He turns on a radio talk show, the host keeps saying that liberals are bad
and conservatives are good. (He doesn't tell Joe that his beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day). Joe agrees, "We don't need those big government liberals ruining our lives; after all, I'm a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have."It's the political house.
4 comments:
I would comment, but you asked so nicely to play nice. Suffice it to say, I don't toe that line.
Hey, Russ, I'd love to hear your thoughts. I don't want to create a slam-fest. Rather, I was hoping for an intelligent exchange of ideas.
It's really a matter of simple (and not so simple) economics. The vast majority of the "letter" was government subsidized goods or services. Anytime you nationalize or socialize a company or an industry you are adding to the taxpayer burden. Current example, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, not sure the government should be stepping in.
Really the best example, sorry for the hurried response I'm cooking dinner now, is how the USSR crumbled from being so top heavy.
More later.
I think the government is definitely too big, but that has more to do with the way things are executed than the concept of what "the government" should be responsible. I think the biggest help would be to push more services down to state level, with basic oversight and coordination at the federal level. That would make it easier to adjust funding and such at a state-by-state and even city-by-city level.
Almost all Great Big Things are created by liberals-- it's the job of conservatives to help balance out the desire to change everything, to help weed out the unnecessary or unfeasible ideas. It's just textbook stuff.
Liberals and conservatives can come from either party, and I think it'd be easier for those individuals to act on their natures if we had 4 parties-- liberal/liberal, conservative/liberal, liberal/conservative, and conservative/conservative. Don't you think?
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