When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

Thomas Jefferson


"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."

Thomas Jefferson


"The Framers [of the Constitution] knew that free speech is the friend of change and revolution. But they also knew that it is always the deadliest enemy of tyranny."

Hugo Black

Interesting...any thoughts?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeYscnFpEyA&feature=related

I liked much of what he said. At least he was non-partisan. I also thought some of it was over blown, or fear tactics. For every criticism he had, you know there is a lot of unpacking to do to get to the bottom of it. It is never as simple as it sounds. For instance, he starts out implying our current administration called us a nation of cowards. Well, thats not quite what was said.

My problem is I am not an expert on so many of the subjects discussed. He thinks we should have let the financial system fail, rather than bail them out. Sounds good to me, until I hear a chorus of others saying that would throw this country into something akin to the dirty thirties, and that we have no choice.

Two centuries ago, things were not so complex, and the average citizen could usually make an informed opinion based on common sense and a little self-education. Our world is so complex today, that is much more difficult to do.

Stan, I agree that we live in a very complex situation right now and there doesn't appear to be any easy answers. I know, it seems incomprehensible to just let banks and auto industries fail but Warren Buffet said yesterday that most of the banks the U.S. government is evaluating with stress tests are not too big to fail. A statement like that coming from him might just carry some weight. A lot of these failures stem from poor management and too much leveraging.
The car manufacturers would be in much better shape if it weren't for the United Auto Worker Unions. And too much government interference. You just cannot have unions that basically dictate your bottom line. The more you make the more they take. The way the government is handling this Chrysler bankruptcy is violating the 5th Amendment.
Apparently an attorney [Thomas Lauria] representing some of Chryslers creditors says the Obama administrations car czar Steven Rattner threatened strong retribution against one of the creditors if it didnt comply with the White Houses plan to rescue Chrysler. Since when does a government have the right to threaten a company to comply to it's wishes? This is getting scary.

My Daddy thought a new car should cost 650/00 brand new and paid cash for it.

His son thinks a new car should cost 3500/00 loaded and willing to finance it for six months.

My son seems to be okay with a new car costing between 20 and 30 thousand fully loaded and is willing to finance it for 5 or 6 years.

If Henry Ford was making money by building and financing cars that sold for 650/00 then car makers should be getting rich now. Bad management is simply bad management. [Labor] is said not to be the real issue even though the wages they pay are extremely high.

Wall street began to move in dangerous paths as far back as the mid-eighties. Runaway greed drove the machine. The money is still somewhere.

There was plenty of time to make it better but it kept getting worser and worser. If they can drive the thing into the ground by selling home financing paper to Europe and other places, I suppose I can violate the English! Now they insist on help and we insist on helping.

Then I take a close look as does Stan at the voices that say if we do not pull them out we lose even greater.

If the train has already left the station we may easily be reduced to a very average nation.

I am not so sure the new world order [who ever that is] wants America in leadership. We may have to be content to be [just one of the boys] while we drive ten year old cars and and live in one story houses and have the huge garden out back out of necessity rather than because we like to see things grow.