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"Are you better off than four years ago" is a pile of steaming...

2&2 Slider To Leyritz said:
We are just now learning how deep the recession was? Seriously? I think it was pretty clear at the time to anybody with a pulse.
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So you knew then it was so deep that it could be magically turned around in 4 years? damn

Oh, and the fix was just as simple, right? what was it?
 
WakeandBake said:
...bullshit. I agree with David Simon, it is horrible for the country. It diminishes the election and is self-defeating.

"Are you better off than you were four years ago?" is the most loaded question in American politics and diminishes the election:

The (De)industrialization's been going on for 50 years, the decline of organized labor's been going on for 40 years, globalization: 20-25 years, and you're gonna sit there and argue over this month's employment report? The fact that we can't have an adult electoral process is rooted in this kind of frenzy of who can we blame, and how fast.

Whether it's Bush's mess, or Obama's mess, or even Clinton's (who got the bank deregulation ball rolling) is immaterial to Simon. There is no quick fix. Campaigns need long-term solutions, but they are handcuffed by projections and results in the prism of the 24-hour news cycle. Is it any wonder that they've reverted to lying when they can't conform to the impulsive demands that the media has forced upon the people?

That business of four years being the metric for anything? We have a political culture that everyone plants annuals, they plant pretty flowers that come up the next spring. What we need is a political culture where somebody plants a fuckin' olive tree, which doesn't even give you an olive for seven years. That's how you fix an economy...When that olive tree becomes an orchard.

http://backtimetv.blogspot.com/2012/09/david-simon-on-real-time.html
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Fair enough. However what barometer should I use to judge the effectiveness of the sitting president? Should everyone just get 8 years?
 
WakeandBake said:
So you knew then it was so deep that it could be magically turned around in 4 years? damn

Oh, and the fix was just as simple, right? what was it?
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No, I knew that it wouldn't be turned around in 4 years, so some long-term plans were necessary, not shoot-from-the-hip garbage like Cash For Clunkers.

As for the fix, it is pretty much the George Costanza "do the opposite plan" applied to Obama, which I believe you will find me fully on record with going back through when he implemented each of these disasters.

 
BillBrasky said:
Fair enough. However what barometer should I use to judge the effectiveness of the sitting president? Should everyone just get 8 years?
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That's up to you. Just agreeing with Simon that this particular barometer is bad for the country and has potentially damaging results.
 
2&2 Slider To Leyritz said:
No, I knew that it wouldn't be turned around in 4 years, so some long-term plans were necessary, not shoot-from-the-hip garbage like Cash For Clunkers.

As for the fix, it is pretty much the George Costanza "do the opposite plan" applied to Obama, which I believe you will find me fully on record with going back through when he implemented each of these disasters.

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love that episode.

what long term plans? tax cuts and deregulation?
 
Actually, anything that paints liberals in a bad light is bullshit. Isn't that what you really mean? Let's get some transparency up in here
 
WakeandBake said:
love that episode.

what long term plans? tax cuts and deregulation?
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No, I wouldn't have cut any taxes. My plans are too lengthy for this thread in the middle of the day. At some point I need to type out my full-blown national reform manifesto as a stand-alone thread, to which I can refer back to specific sections whenever anyone wants to know how to fix a particular problem with our country.
 
2&2 Slider To Leyritz said:
No, I wouldn't have cut any taxes. My plans are too lengthy for this thread in the middle of the day. At some point I need to type out my full-blown national reform manifesto as a stand-alone thread, to which I can refer back to specific sections whenever anyone wants to know how to fix a particular problem with our country.
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I would love that.
 
PM please, 2&2.
 
2&2 Slider To Leyritz said:
No, I wouldn't have cut any taxes. My plans are too lengthy for this thread in the middle of the day. At some point I need to type out my full-blown national reform manifesto as a stand-alone thread, to which I can refer back to specific sections whenever anyone wants to know how to fix a particular problem with our country.
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I'm game. Let's see it. I'd bet if it's good stuff, the mods would be willing to post to the front page.
 
Okay. I've got a rough week this week, but I'll see if I can get it put together by the end of next weekend.
 
WakeandBake said:
That business of four years being the metric for anything? We have a political culture that everyone plants annuals, they plant pretty flowers that come up the next spring. What we need is a political culture where somebody plants a fuckin' olive tree, which doesn't even give you an olive for seven years. That's how you fix an economy...When that olive tree becomes an orchard.[/I]

http://backtimetv.blogspot.com/2012/09/david-simon-on-real-time.html
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Here's the issue - politically it's bullshit because whoever is running for President pulls this. Where the real bullshit is is that 4 years isn't the real measurement - it's every 3 fucking months. Wall St and the quarterly earnings reports have been driving this country and business decisions. Companies make all of their decisions focused on maximizing the past as well as the next 3 months and are rewarded by how well they can reduce expenses (aka slash jobs). Yes, you have to plant the olive tree and let it become an orchard - Wall St and stockholders don't have the patience for it. Until changes are made to focus an orchard building vs. give me my fucking olive now, we will remain stuck.

And by the way, giving the rich more olives only works if they decide to build orchards and not eat all of the olives themselves. If you want to give them the olives, make sure they don't eat them.
 
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