Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards. With his first swallow of water, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to ensure their safety and that they work as advertised. All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer's medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance - now Joe gets it too. He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry. In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.

Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for the laws to stop industries from polluting our air. He walks to the subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe's employer pays these standards because Joe's employer doesn't want his employees to call the union. If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn't think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

It's noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FDIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression. Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime. Joe is home from work.

He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards. He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers' Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans. The house didn't have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification.

He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to.

Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn't mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day. Joe agrees: "We don't need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I'm a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have."

Author Unknown to me, but good points made!!!

Too bad a lot of this stuff was bi-partisan. For example, FDR and the republicans passed legislation banning banks from gambling with depositors money and created the FDIC, and it was both Democrats and Republicans who changed that law in 1999!

This is the most innacruate thing I have ever seen.

That's absolutely true. One thing I don't think Conservatives don't appreciate is how disgusted many of us Liberals are about the performance of Congressional Democrats.

So so true. IF the republicanscan build their utopia it would look like the world of Mad Max.

I am with you on this. I knew we were in trouble when Bush/Cheney were absolved of war crimes. That should have been the first order of business.

Yes!

Actually, it would more resemble Hong Kong.

Republicans and Democrats all want what they think is best, they are equally American

their PRIORIITES and IDEAS Of how to achieve what is best is all that differs


but both sides have humans, lots of them, which means there is nothing being done on one side that isnt also being done on the other

Ahhh. John Stossel's dream world. Hong Kong is a pure capitalist paradise. So much money to be made in the world of international trading.

Hong Kong also has one of the highest GINI indexes in the advanced world. GINI is an index that indicates the degree of wealth inequality. The scale goes from 0 to 1.0.(Or 1 to 100) 0 would be perfect equality, where everybody owns exactoly the same amount of wealth. 1.0 would be perfect inequality, where one person owns all the wealth. Anything over .4 is considered bad.

Here is a fairly recent listing of GINIs in the world. You can see where Hong Kong sits and you can see the company Hong Kong keeps. This is not my idea of a good economy.

Ahhh. John Stossel's dream world. Hong Kong is a pure capitalist paradise. So much money to be made in the world of international trading.

Hong Kong also has one of the highest GINI indexes in the advanced world. GINI is an index that indicates the degree of wealth inequality. The scale goes from 0 to 1.0.(Or 1 to 100) 0 would be perfect equality, where everybody owns exactoly the same amount of wealth. 1.0 would be perfect inequality, where one person owns all the wealth. Anything over .4 is considered bad.

Here is a fairly recent listing of GINIs in the world.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2172rank.html

You can see where Hong Kong sits and you can see the company Hong Kong keeps. This is not my idea of a good economy.

(Sorry about the double post. Something seems to go wrong when I try to imbed a link).

And, who brought up the idea of letting them off the hook?

I don't know what this means. who is "them"?

Bush/Cheney

Most likely, President Obama. He really, really wanted to be b-partisan.

GINI is a single descriptive. Standing alone that is a simplistic and inaccurate example somewhat like "America is about lawyers". I have been to Hong Kong and it has many positive factors.

However, since you did not understand the point of my post, it was to describe a form of government MORE indicative of Republican ideals in contrast to the stupidity of "Mad Max".

No, I think you misunderstand. I am agreeing with you. I think it WOULD look more like Hong Kong, at least initially, I described what I think that would look like. The Mad Maxx scenerio would most likely be the end-game, IMO.

I'm sure there are a lot of good things about Hong Kong, depending on who you are. But that doesn't change the fact that it has a very high GINI. That's not my idea of a good economy.

The reference to Mad Max as the "end-game" was the stupidity I was referring to. Lax laws and "taking instead of earning" are liberal ideals, not conservative... and the opposite of conditions in Hong Kong.

quote]The reference to Mad Max as the "end-game" was the stupidity I was referring to.Aside from the crass offensiveness of this remark, I don't know why you would say this. What "lax laws" would you be referring to? I thought you people were anti-regulation, or am I stereotyping?; Are you saying that hong Kong is characterized by tough laws governing the way business is done in Hong Kong.

Oddly, I think that the dominating of Hong Kong by The Republic of China may be what will ultimately save Hong Kong from degrading into a Mad Maxx scenerio.