Thursday, June 14, 2007

Great Economy or Greatest Failure?

The economy is great... on Wall Street, and some would argue on Main Street, too. If you have health insurance and a job, and look at only certain statistics, who could argue? I'll tell you who:
People who will pay the countless trillions of dollars borrowed from our children.
People who don't have healthcare.
People who've been giving up more pieces of the American dream than ever before.
People who know the environment is being bartered away in the name of short-term greed.

It's an interesting question especially for the fortunate among us, like myself, who have healthcare, an upper middle class job, and just enough security to pretend that all is well. But the national debt, the destruction of our environment, and the increasing disparity of wealth are enough cause to ask the following question: Is the current economy proof that George Bush is doing a great job or proof that the American economy is strong enough to absorb even the worst abuses and mismanagment it's seen in its 200+ years of existence?

Sadly, the answer is the latter. There won't be any proving it; it will be left entirely to our perceptions. But make no mistake, the balance of judgment will eventually demonstrate that the current administration is just spending every bank account that we've built up over our entire history.

Our country is incredibly strong. In terms of economic and industrial might, our country has just hit its stride. Technology and resources are perfected and powerful to an unprecedented extent and nowhere moreso than in the good ol' US of A. But it is only through our country's huge reservoir of talent, resources, cash, international goodwill, and military might that the outrageous blunders of W are absorbed at all, let alone converted into net gains. The Bushies aren't geniuses with their tax cuts, quite the contrary. They're breaking the bank one day at a time and hiding the damage with good spin, sucked up by a populace that apparently is 49% ignoramuses... Paris Hilton before her jailhouse epiphany.

Fueled substantially by the Cenezoic (?) era's oil deposits under the Middle East, we've spent the last 60 years paving suburban, private-motorized sprawl... training China how to manufacture enough goods to cover the entire surface of the planet ten times over... burning every drop of fossil fuel on earth... conquering outer and cellular space... wiring the world, from Al Qeada to Mountain View without censorship... and arming every militant to the teeth in the name of Liberty. Gold bless America.

Now all that history isn't George's doing, but he's the one steering the ship right now and at every turn he's choosing self-interest over society, wealth over distribution, dominance over interdependence, and moralism over morality.