its where we are going

Ya know i really want the blue pill.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/1/2/135553/9463/914/429271

I think I prefer life out of the matrix. Do you know how many crack pots can just post whatever they want on the web. If I buried my head too long maybe these idiots would actually get to make policy.

I mean what the government does, they fail at regardless and they're definitely doing too much where they shouldn't and too little where they should. And really the terrorists are already here and only the innocent get trodden on.

http://www.slate.com/id/2239935

You know the government should stay out of the business of making sure those who can't achieve manage to get by. I mean who needs a 9 - 5 job you can expect to retire from unless you have a finance degree or can afford a broker. Stay out big brother!


http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=5894

But you know the economy is really to blame. And of course nobody is really sure what to do. But we do know whatever the government does is wrong and we'd all be better off if they would just stay out. Because Wall-street and free market economies make sure that those who work hard are rewarded with at least a meager life they can be proud of. So any of my friends who happen to be unemployed simply need to try harder because if you're hoping for further government assistance you should just move to communist China. They may control all intellectual outlets but at least your lazy ass would have health care or food. Yeah! Free market and less government! Only those willing to shit on others should succeed to the point of being comfortable.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/careers/the-great-debate-do-unemployment-benefits-hurt-the-economy/19547249/

But you know stilted opinion pieces are always a good way to prove ones points....

Your grandparents lived through a great depression, the second world war and a lot of different congresses and administrations. Those leaders pulled a lot more shit that your parents didn't find out about until later than any current leader. And we find out way more as it's happening. The same conservatives who are elder republicans voted for segregation, more laws. And lot's of Democrats vote to empower the rich while giving lip service to the masses. Modern government is held to a level of accountability by the world and its civilians that is unheard of in the history of the world. Only fervency and extremism allow a window for dangerous shifts in governance. Fear of terrorists, fear of economic shifts, fear of each other is the real enemy and drives unnecessary laws.

So I prefer the red pill. I want to know the truth. The truth is not fear mongering drivel about facial profiling. The truth is our system promotes progress and effort towards the betterment of humanity. The truth is mistakes are made but our system allows for us to fix mistakes. The truth is the patriot act needs to be repealed. The truth is a whole lot of incumbents will most likely lose there jobs this fall and join the number of the unemployed they failed to extend benefits for. The truth is we are governed as much as we the people want and no more than we will allow and until they start taking guns and taking yearly census we're free to write opinion peices.

I don't really want the blue pill, its just sometimes shit like this really gets me down. Any semi governmental body that does not seem to really answer to anyone until it comes time to got paid stands as an affront to the constitution and my principles. Thats not to say town with the tsa and other governmental bodies, just that we need more oversight. As far as the economy goes our actual(not promised which is more) debt just exceeded our GDP and i cannot fathom how spending more and more is going to lead to recovery. The dollar is in the tank and all those new 500,000 jobs are temporary census jobs. We have little equity and production and i do not see that changing.

All of those are understandable concerns. Voting is as close you can get to having a governmental body answer for their stupidity, inability or inequity. The stock markets run on faith in the system. Right now if everybody got together and clapped their hands the economy would probably recover in a month. We would still have to put up with the repercussions of the recession for a bit longer because of the unemployment numbers but it would recover faster. There is quite literally nothing behind the dollar but the will and good feelings of the American people and how other countries value the dollar. Well most other countries are having financial woes, save China. So China gets to put on the big boy pants and we can play Britain for a while. This only becomes a problem if we have corporate leaders with no national ties and a populace who refuse to innovate. Innovation is a painful and upheaval riddled process but if we don't we'll pull a Rome. There are in fact enough American philanthropists who are heavily invested in our infrastructure and innovation to pull us out of this but we are also hit with the reality the work force has to retrain for more technical positions. That's where the government really needs to come in and give the lowest skill echelon time to retrain and get some experience. Yes we're debt but look at the rest of the world. Now we'll find out if anybody really learned from WWII. We're at the cusp of a financial revolution and my money is behind social subsidization. There are things that are best kept competitive through a government presence. Not just because they'll keep prices at a normative base but because they will drive innovation as private companies strive for patents that can't be touched by public works. But one of the biggest issues is a lack of innovation. We just killed the gulf because we can't figure out a cheap safer alternative. A solid government that wasn't weighted down by bloated lobbyists would have found a way to get out from under OPECs thumb a long time ago. We need to bitch slap Wall-street and drop serious coin on innovation, education and re-education. But a major problem is our information systems are light years ahead of our ability to use them effectively. We see the problems but can't figure how to move fast enough to prevent or fix them. However there is no real reason to be depressed. We just see more, this stuff has been going on for centuries. Take the opportunity to think of new ways to use what we have to improve situations and then use the media at your finger tips to make a difference if you're really concerned. But don't be depressed about it, that's when nothing really gets done.

Realistically the US is too big to fail at this point. Too many other countries count on our prosperity.

Side note: So I have this idea about a website that allows subject experts, locals and thinkers to get together and discuss any topic that fancies them. Essentially people would register with where they are and what their education is and every so often the community would remove people who are disruptive. It would link current events and discussions about future issues as well as explorations of different subjects. Then it would be divided out by subject and topic. Have you ever seen the presentations on TED? It could be called the Thought Sphere or Brain Trust... at one point I had a neat name for it. Essentially it's what going on, on the web anyway, but this would be a centralized focus like Wikipedia.