Defeating Greed At All Costs
Never underestimate a person's ability to underestimate another person's ability. This was the thought that walloped me on the head as I listened to Nancy Pelosi preachify about equality and greed, and the lack of one or the other. Speaking to the United Steelworkers a couple of days ago, she had an epiphany:
We're talking about addressing the disparity of income where the wealthy people continue to get wealthier and some people are falling out of the middle class. But that disparity is not just about wages alone, that disparity is about ownership and equity. It's all about fairness in our country.
After listening to her, and after that severe blow to the head, it all makes sense. The Speaker, the President, the Majority Leader, and the horses they came in on, are all simply fighting back against greed, see? It's undeniable that some have more wealth than others, and in a fair society this inequity must be fought. And like most fights, this battle cannot be waged on an empty stomach. Therefore, these leaders must acquire prodigious quantities of certain things needed to fight the good fight against greed. Among the things they require are:
- Your money. Now, don't go on sobbing that you earned it, and ought to be able to dispense it as you see fit. That won't do. Best to hand it over to these deliriously selfless beings in Washington DC, who will spend it with the wisdom of Solomon and the nobility of an ACORN office manager.
- Your freedom to make individual choices. Yes, they will tell you what light bulbs to buy, what kind of car to drive, and how many gallons of water your toilets will be allowed to flush, but isn't that what Thomas Jefferson envisioned when he wrote the Declaration of Independence? Besides, its greed we are fighting, and sometimes the political class must amass a huge amount of power for itself, the better with which to stamp out greed of course.
- Your children's education. Church schools produce good church members. Military schools produce good military members. Government schools produce, ...people who will eradicate greed through the aggressive seizure of other people's property. This is why the President turned a deaf ear to the pleas of lower income parents who wanted their children to be able to attend the school the President's own children attend. He didn't want to deny the lower income kids the opportunity to fight greed.
The unrelenting and unsparing munificence of Pelosi, Obama, and their orchestra is a thing of wonder when you stop to ponder at it. So urgent is their urge to defeat greed that they will spare no expense in the process. From one vacation resort to the next, the President encourages our frugality. "We can't drive our SUVs, eat as much as we want and keep our homes at 72 degrees at all times, ..." he reminds us. Of course we can't! After cap and trade, we won't be able to afford any of that stuff in the first place. And we will be better for it, because the government will have relieved us of the means to be greedy. Now that's the stuff of hope and change.
As for Speaker Pelosi, her campaign against greed has required some 85 trips aboard Air Force aircraft in the last couple of years, totalling over 206,000 miles and at a cost to the Air Force of over $2.1 million, according to Judicial Watch.
No one ever said that income equality would be cheap. Why, on one trip to Israel and Iraq back in 2008, the Speaker's government expenses included having bottles of Johnny Walker Red, J&W Brandy, Grey Goose Vodka, Bailey's Irish Creme, Makers Mark, Bombay Saffire Gin, Jack Daniels, and various other spirits on hand, the better with which to fight inequality and selfishness, ... and sobriety.
So remember, when people in high office demand more of your earnings, more of your children's inheritance, more of your property, more power to order your life according to their grand designs, it's not they who are greedy. It's you. Why? Because they said so, from the comfort of their SUVs, and mansions, and aircraft, and vacation resorts.
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Jul '10
Re: Defeating Greed At All Costs
This is what I hate about Ricochet.
We're all having perfectly civil discussions about VAT taxes and the philosophical/theological origins of Islamic revanchism and then you come along, spouting this hateful Teabagger nonsense.
Why don't you just TYPE IN CAPS while you're at it? And, yeah, we know Obama was born in a mosque in Nairobi, so just stuff it.
Jun '10
Re: Defeating Greed At All Costs
For me, it's hard to even enter the same universe as Democrats like Pelosi. I have absolutely nothing against rich people, and I don't understand where all the envy comes from. If someone can earn a thousand times (or more) what I can, well, good for them. Unlike the federal government, no rich person has ever stopped by on April 15th and threatened to lock me up if I don't sign over the remaining contents of my checking account.
Jun '10
Re: Defeating Greed At All Costs
Yes, this is what gets me. We live in the richest country in history and yet there is this raging envy going around. I'd love to start the philosophical/psychological debate about that on Ricochet. What's eating these people? There was a rage for fairness during the Russian Revolution, but at least there was a reason for them to gripe back then. What's our excuse? I'm one of those people that tends to believe that it is not just that they want power. There's something else going on.
And as you said, there are plenty of people who make more money than I do, but, for god's sake, I don't expect them to give it to me.
Jul '10
Re: Defeating Greed At All Costs
At one time, I worked for one of the wealthiest men in the world. He worked like a coal-miner, day and night.
One evening I asked him, "Don, ten years ago you were a bankrupt real-estate agent and now you're worth all this money. Doesn't it ever occur to you to just cash it in, buy an island and stock it with blondes?"
He looked at me as though I were a poodle and answered, "Let me tell you something. If I was the kinda guy who would do that kinda thing with the kinda money I've made, I never would have made it in the first place."
That's the kind of guy who creates hundreds of thousands of jobs that improve the lives of people all over the planet. It wasn't about greed to him, it was about the sort of entrepreneurial motivation that Democrats are determined to extinguish.
Re: Defeating Greed At All Costs
Yes, Kenneth. Exactly. And why is it that Democrats are so threatened by the entrepreneurial spirit your boss embodied? Their own envy, or greed, perhaps?
Jul '10
Re: Defeating Greed At All Costs
Yep, simple projection, as we've previously discussed.
Oct '10
Re: Defeating Greed At All Costs
I wonder how much of her own rhetoric Pelosi actually believes. How much of her own personal wealth would she be willing to redistribute in the name of "equity?"
Socialism is all fine and good until you have to sacrifice for it.
Most of the loudest Sozis seem to entertain this illusion that in this glorious egalitarian fantasy of theirs, they will be the ones steering the ship. I'd wager they'd be the loudest whiners when they find themselves among the swabbies instead.
May '10
Re: Defeating Greed At All Costs
So remember, when people in high office demand more of your earnings, more of your children's inheritance, more of your property, more power to order your life according to their grand designs, it's not they who are greedy. It's you.
My nomination for Ricochet Line of the Year.
Re: Defeating Greed At All Costs
Mark Wilson: So remember, when people in high office demand more of your earnings, more of your children's inheritance, more of your property, more power to order your life according to their grand designs, it's not they who are greedy. It's you.
My nomination for Ricochet Line of the Year. · Oct 21 at 12:38am
I second Mark. Dave, this is brilliant, absolutely brilliant. I can't add a thing, which my colleagues will tell you is a real (and welcome) rarity.
Jul '10
Re: Defeating Greed At All Costs
For some it ain't envy, but ego. If it weren't for the backs of the poor on which to stand, they wouldn't be able to elevate themselves above others. If there were no poor people, they'd have to create them.
Oh, wait... that ain't stopping 'em.
Jul '10
Re: Defeating Greed At All Costs
You can gauge a politician's ego by measuring the affects of their policies on the individual.
Jun '10
Re: Defeating Greed At All Costs
There is nothing like the smell of a Dave Carter piece in the morning. Or is that my Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee brewing in the kitchen? Oh whatever...beautifully expressed, Dave. Thanks for starting my day.
Had a conversation with my sister once. She's a well-meaning, but perfect example of a limousine liberal, kinda like our Rob, but a lot less rational. She was literally brought to tears because the 10 year head of the NY Stock Exchange had just retired and had the gall to accept his accrued $100 million bonus compensation. Her disgust was palpable as the tears ran down her face. The unfairness of it all, she exclaimed. I said, wait sis. I never heard you complain about the $25 million per year your favorite star for your favorite team, Kobe Bryant, makes. Who's more valuable and responsible between these two men? But it's not right, she insisted. Our conversation was taking place in her kitchen, overlooking her swimming pool, which overlooked her tennis court, which overlooked LA from the hills above and west of Sunset Blvd. Her passion was truly inspiring...about like Pelosi.
Re: Defeating Greed At All Costs
Mark, George, cdor, thanks much for the kind comments. Cdor, got any more of Jamaican coffee this morning? I think this truck stop strains their coffee through a gym sock.
Jun '10
Re: Defeating Greed At All Costs
It was an amazing find, Dave. I,m standing in line at TJ Max (almost a dollar store) and I smell this heavenly smell as I look up to see packages of Jamaican Blue Mountain for $7 per lb whole bean!! Goin back today to buy em out.
Re: Defeating Greed At All Costs
Jeremias, you raise the key point, above. For the liberal elite, it's all about repaying your debt to society with someone else's money. Look at the level of charitable giving from conservatives versus progressives, and you will see that the former are much more generous with their resources while the latter relies on government to to enforce "charity." As for Pelosi and company having to "sacrifice," remember, in their mind, they are sacrificing their time and intellect to improve our miserable existence, and that should be quite enough. Too much, if you ask me. I wish they would go inflict their intellect elsewhere and leave us alone.
Sep '10
Re: Defeating Greed At All Costs
It's the socialist way. In 1994 I was at a International Solidarity with Cuba conference in Havana. All day long representatives of Leftish-to-Communist parties from around the world took to the podium to denounce the Yankee blockade that was starving the Cuban People. There was no food in the city because the gringos were starving them. Being the naive country boy who'd fallen for this "moral" calling of socialism to help the oppressed peoples of the world, imagine my surprise when we arrived at that evening's reception and found a ~50 yard-long table covered with the finest foods, a dance floor with two open bars, and Los Van Van & another Cuban band playing for the hundreds of the international solidarity brigades to party the night away. Calling Mr. Orwell...these pigs are walking on two.
Just another way to power without having to compete in that grubby business world. As a worker for The People, yes there are few perks, but one has to work such long hours sitting in all those meetings. Paul Johnson wrote something like Stalin gained power because of his ability to sit longer than his rivals.
May '10
Re: Defeating Greed At All Costs
While ego and hubris obviously play a big part, I honestly believe it to be all about power. Enjoying all the trappings of power while bending/browbeating others to your will is a heady and addictive experience. Lefty Profs have a similar power over their students. Ditto lefty judicial dictators.
They have convinced themselves that they have right on their side because they are left - and thus are entitled to the power trip, which is kind of cool.
God help us if the expected tsunami on Nov. 2 turns out to be a false alarm.
Re: Defeating Greed At All Costs
CitizenOfTheRepublic, thanks for telling your remarkable story. While not surprising, it is very telling. In 1994, I was in Korea waiting for the Communists to do something foolish. Glad you and I are on the same side now.
Sep '10
Re: Defeating Greed At All Costs
Dave: I agree with your comments; however I view them as the usual comments directed against the usual culprits. The country has been steadily moving toward socialism for 60 years. While I view what the Democrats have done as abhorrent none of it surprised me. Their supposed opposition on the other hand seem to me to be saying “we want to stop them were just too incompetent.” They embrace Reagan and Goldwater as icons, when in fact they were RINOS. Neither embraced the GOP’s big government, anti-competition, and pro-hyper-regulation style of governing. If we direct more ire against this group; perhaps this time around we may see them walking the walk instead of just talking the talk. I have my doubts though.
Re: Defeating Greed At All Costs
Excellent post. In one of those clips Claire posted the other day, Mrs. Thatcher rightly pointed out that the left has no interest in increasing aggregate wealth, as long as they can say they reduced "inequality."
But I wish you hadn't included the bit about "Johnny Walker Red, J&W Brandy, Grey Goose Vodka, Bailey's Irish Creme, Makers Mark, Bombay Saffire Gin, Jack Daniels, and various other spirits." It gives me some respect for old Nancy.