one pleases me greatly, the other fills me with horror [i'll leave you to figure out which is which].
first, this one:
[h/t tom iacono]
whoever said growth never occurs in a straight line surely never reckoned on the combined ambitions of the municipal, county, state and federal politicians who run the united states of america--i mean, just look at that red line go, wouldya?
in 2007, the inevitable finally happened--the number of government workers in this country surpassed the number of workers in industries which actually manufacture and produce shit.
and now, in 2010, the gap between manufacturing- and public-sector has risen to about 4 million jobs--and looking at that chart and doing a little extrapolating, i don't see any reason to imagine a reversal of this trend, do you?
do you finally get it, people?
this simple chart demonstrates an eternal truth far more effectively than any of my inarticulate rants ever could: government is a ravening beast, and its only imperative, regardless of whichever party's at the reins, is to grow--even if that growth ultimately results in the strangulation and death of its host.
which is why i almost peed down both legs with incredulous joy when scott brown won teddy kennedy's senate seat last week.
is he gonna be a good senator? who the fuck cares--long as he serves as a roadblock to the healthcare fiasco and whatever other dumbass shit these idiots had planned to further grow the beast of government and erode the productivity of this once-great country, i'll be happy.
and speaking of happy, here's the other chart that caught my eye this week:
as it does every year, the pew research center recently polled the public on its priorities for the president and congress for the upcoming year. the results were very similar to last year's, with one major exception.
whether due to all the inconvenient truths that have recently emerged concerning the manipulation of facts and downright self-serving dishonesty surrounding mr. gore's "settled" science, or merely because everybody woke up and looked at what the weather's actually been doing for the last ten or so years, global warming as an area of concern has in the hearts and minds of the public dropped to--get this--dead last.
once again: any of you naifs who still cling to the notion that the global warming movement is merely a coalition of well-meaning scientists and world leaders intent on saving the planet, rather than the pure and simple power/money-grab by governments and greedy, messianic public figures facilitated by bought-and-paid-for "research" and manufactured hysteria it actually is, go spend a little time on this site.
or if you don't have the necessary attention span, just go back up to chart #1 and look at it until it sinks in.
1 comment:
It is hard for me to take this post seriously.
Basically, there are very serious and difficult problems we are facing today as a nation. The reign of GWB was an absolute disaster. It is not only what he did, but what he did not do. Eight years and no progress on entitlement reform, global warming, a national energy policy, school improvement (NCLB was ineffective because it was never funded), economic policy, and whatever other serious goal or marker of national progress you would care to name.
This is serious business. Your inability to see that puzzles me.
Instead, you absolutely see government as the problem. While that was a neat idea in 1981 -- see Reagan's first inaugural address -- it is nonsense now. Government is the only institution that can effectively tackle and lead on the numerous national issues and problems we are confronting today. That you fail to see that is regrettable.
Having said that, what you are right about is that government can do bad things -- see above, GWB and eight years of incompetence and malfeasance. The Bush administration acted as a patronage jobs program for incompetent right wing nut cases.
But that does not mean that government in inherently bad. It is true that good government is never easy. But, surely, you can see the necessity of it.
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