Nope, not talking about progressive rock, which is heaven-sent...I'm talking about something different. I read this in the Examiner....which was a comment from a reader. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Isn't that great!? Everything about our constitution screams conservativism/libertarianism....not-socialist leaning. Yet the 60's-on +demographics have degraded our country into becoming the next France. Which leads me to my last thought:the reason why the Republican party is in shambles, is that the people inside it think that the alternative is so bad, that they could get away with being what they are. The parties are both regressing in my view....each losing inside of them what made them once descent picks. Note:The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) is the single largest caucus in the United States House of Representatives. How can we prevent the regressiveness of both parties?
Progressive, as with 'liberal' and 'conservative', is a term that has real meaning but also an alternate political meaning. The article you quoted is highly biased against socialism. Saying socialism is regressive is an opinion, not a statement of fact.
I don't know how people can be so comforted with the thought that our nation is moving toward socialism, when absolutely everything about it isn't.
It's not an article, chief; I wrote it was a 'reader's comment'. Most reputable economists look down-upon socialism. The vast majority of them lean-right...not necessarily making them Republican or Libertarian...but they understand that a fundamentally free-economy is better than the idealism/practicality of socialism. It's common sense, really.
No, not really. I don't favour any one doctrine but take a view on individual policy matters. I think American political discourse has a problem with using negative labels to dismiss opposing views. I have never seen a 'high brow' serious debate on a political issue on US TV.
Well, I don't indentify all Democrats with Socialism, but I do think it's an idealogy alien of America. The best of Europe's idealogy came here intially...and we left almost all of the stupidity of Europe behind. Now it seems to be ever-so-slowly coming back to haunt us. I continuely think the vast majority of it has been put in via a coup ie it's politically manipulated into America's system. And while I don't like our growth via current 'right'-wing leadership, I fear socialism a lot more. It's true introduction in the 60's, along with Nixon's split with the gold-standard has really put an unhealthy political gear in place...pitting extreme leftism vs coporate interests. I see America slowly moving towards Mexico's present. Just a shitload of poor people, with extensive growth in taxes. Although I think all of this will come to a head with ultimate fall-out of medicare. It's one or the other...either the left scrambles to reduce America's military strength to nationalize medical care or the left finds their highlighted programs going down the tube. Either way it's not ideal to me.
I don't think there will be a "shitload" of poor people. Ideally the poor people should be teenagers and young adults who have no bills to pay. The problem is that our society wants to subsidize laziness (welfare) so fewer and fewer teenagers and young adults move past their crappy minimum wage job that was intended to prepare them for a real job. I've quadrupled my salary in less than a year after getting out into the real world instead of mooching off of other people's generosity. Foruntatly while I was mooching I was prepping myself for a real job. Lots of people don't do that. They become dependent on the mooching rather than just benefiting from it. It's rediculous how many adults now work at these jobs that teenagers used to dominate. Part of the reason is because companies have to pay so much that they can't risk hiring slackers. If we'd drop the minimum wage back to a lower level to encourage adults to find real work, there'd be less poor people. The slackers would get jobs and maybe learn to not be slackers and the adults would have a real job making a real wage. Why educate yourself past burger flipper if burger flipping pays a living wage (for now until inflation catches up again and you need the government to give you a raise because everyone knows you don't deserve it). It's not the illegal immigrants takin er jerbs so much as the uneducated adult population that has little to no interest in bettering itself.
Well, I see significant problems in retirement...both SS and 401ks. SS, will over the years be raised to higher ages, just to maintain some semblence. 401k's are commonly not funded enough (because most people are ignorant on how to do it), so a lot people will be working till their grave. That, and medicare will die probably within 25 years. That or be severly reduced. We have an interesting transition ahead of us. It's going to take a lot of people by suprise. Our country is moving left, and more apt to entitlement. We're use to it. A generation of people feeling someone owes them something. It's not really even about immigrants in general. America as a whole must realize that we're no-longer in the industrialism age. Almost 90% of the jobs in the past required absolutely nothing but two hands and two legs...that age is at it's eclipse. Mechanization and advanced technologies will put that pressure on everyone. This process only really started very loosely in the 1860's... Small speed bumps, considering the technologies are just arriving to do this on a competitive level. Yes, ultimately I think this will be good. But I think any time you put a shitload of people back into the market, you're going to see a resurgence of lefists idealogy...after all they're the only ones that 'care'. One I continuely note is the retail business. One goal that is not hidden to any investor, is that they're going after eliminating all cashier positions via 'walk-through registers'....more advanced then you see today. Where the product has the info inside (to both elimate theft and labor). There is heavy work in those companies to eliminate almost all labor through computer assistance and mechanized stocking (which is already done in their warehouses). Some suggest this will happen as early as 2025. Education, as we know it is being flooded with extreme demand. These sort of changes will exacerbate the needs. While people think this can exclusively be solved by free-market solutions, I'm not one to adore things which don't always come to be true. I'm a leaning-libertarian in a general sense, but the government has a duty to relay the future and interests of America. Americans in general will not realize deficits just by mere chance. Our gov thinks you throw money at something, and it will all be solved, rather than just communicating future interests. We're going to see huge changes, IMO. It's not all bad, but it's an odd mixture of good and bad. I'm not sure most Americans will be ready for this, nor do I think our structure is fully capable of such changes...but I guess I could be wrong.
I always equated "progressives" with a group of nutjobs that took on a positive word (progress) to describe otherwise negative (unpopular) world views. Sort of an oxymoron; progress is positive, but their views are anti-positive, hence the need to equalize those unpopular views with something positive to describe them.
I went to McDonald's today and one of the worker's recognized me from Peter Piper Pizza. A job I had 7 years ago. I'd like to think he's at least management.
"Progressive" politicians are people with a lust for power, they use false hopes and promises to further the peoples dependence on them and eventually to become more rulers than decision makers.