"Don't worry; I'm a politician"

[wcoltd]

There is a doctor and a patient with some kind of tumor below his neck, and the doctor says,
"this tumor is pretty bad, we can make an incision through the neck, but you probably won't be able to talk for a while, it will be painful, lengthy and difficult operation, so what I'm going to do instead is cut your head off and remove the tumor that way."

Patient says "Won't that kill me?"

Doctor says; "Probably, but don't worry; I'm a doctor"

__________________________________________________________________________________

Politician "This economic crisis is pretty rough, in order to deal with the crisis we could cut spending and force people to save money and incentivize manufacturing production, but you won't be able to work for a while, it will be a painful, lengthy and difficult operation, so what I'm going to do instead is go into debt and spend a bunch of money.

Citizen: "Won't that destroy our future and load us up with an impossible amount of debt we can never repay?"

Politician: "Probably, but don't worry; I'm a politician"

[sstoy]

Beautiful and 100% true. Well said!!

[Jace: Johanson]

Good, but take it further.

Politician "This economic crisis is pretty rough, in order to deal with the crisis we could cut spending and NOT force people to do ANYTHING and incentive manufacturing production, but you won't be able to work for a while, it will be a painful, lengthy and difficult operation, so what I'm going to do instead is go into debt and spend a bunch of money."

Leave them the presumption that they can force anyone to do ANYTHING, and we're always gonna be in trouble.

Peace.

[wcoltd]

yeah thanks for that (what a gaffe!), the only way government can incentivise production is by doing nothing. I was just trying to mimick the form of the doctor dialogue - I couldn't think of a smoother way of writing it. It sounds like I am saying that the government should actually do something to incentivise production.

"What I can do is cut spending, allow the free market to function, but that will be painful, it will be a lenghy and difficult operation, so what I am going to do instead is blah blah blah blah blah."

[I don't want to edit it because it will just confuse anyone who comes across this post.]

[sstoy]

This seems like the perfect spot for this video.
Trust the government?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRB_SJxK3AM

[wcoltd]

Colin Powell visited my High school right after he retired, and I was going to ask him the question "When your personal convictions conflict with your loyalty to the president what do you do?" But the guy with the microphone just ignored me and walked passed me.

[Jace: Johanson]

I bet if he'd had the opportunity to hear the question, he would have been thinking in his head, "What makes you think my loyalty is to the 'President?'," right before giving some canned deflective "response" and quickly switching to the next question.

[sstoy]

I bet if he'd had the opportunity to hear the question, he would have been thinking in his head, "What makes you think my loyalty is to the 'President?'," right before giving some canned deflective "response" and quickly switching to the next question.

Right? Exactly!

[wcoltd]

I am a firm believer in innocent until proven guilty - I think Colin Powell is a good man as I think nearly all politicians are. I can't claim to know one way or the other what the dynamics inside the oval office, call me naive but I do not think of politicians as working towards some grand conspiracy or that they are evil or subversive.

[Jace: Johanson]

I agree, although sstoy's video does show Powell selling Bush's administration's lies. But, it's not as much a matter of whether all or a majority or just an elite few actually are conspirators, but whether what they claim to provide is 1. actually valuable 2. could only be provided by the "government" 3. Is actually even being provided 4. and whether it's being voluntarily offered or forcibly administered. A sociopath doesn't have to belong to a group of fellow sociopaths to still be mentally ill. Since when is self-awareness a symptom of mental illness? And it doesn't have to be the extreme case to qualify either. If an honest man wishes to remain that way and also retain a reputation for it then he best stay out of "government."