Ravings of a political lunatic

It's been an interesting week in politics... Obama is castigating the Republicans for not passing his "jobs bill" while the Democrats are not bringing it to a vote in the Senate (which they control). The "usual suspects" are "occupying" Wall Street without a clear idea what they want (something about "those greedy bankers" that Obama gave money to in the bailouts).

I never knew it was a crime to be rich before. I thought everyone wanted to be rich. My dear mother always wanted to be rich. Heck, I'd like to be rich. I just never wanted to make the effort required. Now that I think about it, I have never met anyone who would have minded being rich. When I was living in West Palm Beach, I had a friend who used to rant and rave about sports stars getting millions of dollars. He thought they were grossly overpaid. I used to just ask him how his life would have been any better if they weren't paid so much. That usually shut him up.

Everyone seems to be complaining. I'm not. Well, maybe a little. I am not unhappy with the division in politics, I figured that's how the system was designed. That was based on my knowledge of history. I always thought the worst thing that can happen to a nation is when all the politicians agree and cooperate. That's how it was in the old Soviet Union (and may soon be again if Putin gets his way) and how it is in China and Cuba. We could have that here... all we need to do is outlaw all political parties but one. Then everyone in Congress will get along and cooperate.

Back to the rich... They are the ones who run the businesses and employ people. And start and fund charities. And buy the high end items that other rich people's businesses make using the labor of the rest of us. You know that flat panel TV you just bought? You know how it got cheap enough for you to buy it? Because rich people bought them first for outrageous amounts of money and created a demand which meant that other rich people who ran electronics companies would try to meet that demand. Then, of course, they ran out of rich people to pay the high prices and had to make them cheaper so the rest of us could buy them which would keep those electronic businesses alive.

On the one hand, we have people protesting the rich and, on the other, we have people mourning the passing of a Very Rich man named Steve Jobs. Know how he got rich? He sold very innovative products at high prices and controlled his patents well, suing anyone he thought was infringing on them. Did you know that Apple has some $70 Billion stashed away? Have you noticed those protestors are using iPhones and iPads and Macbooks to arrange their protests?

And people wonder why I am cynical...