Yes, "redistribution" policies are only pejoratively labeled when the rich lose money. The rich like their money and want to keep it . . . all. And I agree with your points here. My only concern, and this is more of an idea than a concern (one I'm not sure I even believe in yet), is that a high level of wealth concentration in certain spheres is a component of the stratification of labor that we have in this country, and that will be hard to change. Or, conversely, we will see a thickening of very rich and very poor people and a drop in middle income (which has happened). Perhaps this is because we have a kind of tournament structure economy where the "winners" get a huge chunk of funding and the rest of us are stuck with the dregs. Also, I'm not saying hierarchy of income is "natural" in the sense that it is right, or fair, but it is, minimally, part of our country's history as well, one that has driven manifest destiny, and vapid individualism. The point of Obama's tax cuts is to hold some sort of floor on how low standards of living go, and that's good enough for me, at least for now. But it doesn't really prop people up into the middle class--it won't actually produce structural wealth distribution on its own.

Subject Line : Beat Long Poll Lines with Absentee Ballots from StateDemocracy.org

Many state and local election officials are encouraging voters to use Absentee Ballots to avoid the long lines and delays expected at the polls on November 4th due to the record-breaking surge in newly registered voters.

Voters in most states still have time to obtain an Absentee Ballot by simply downloading an official application form available through www.StateDemocracy.org, a completely FREE public service from the nonprofit StateDemocracy Foundation.

Read More: http://us-2008-election.blogspot.com/2008/10/beat-long-poll-lines-with-absentee.html

Subject Line : Beat Long Poll Lines with Absentee Ballots from StateDemocracy.org

Many state and local election officials are encouraging voters to use Absentee Ballots to avoid the long lines and delays expected at the polls on November 4th due to the record-breaking surge in newly registered voters.

Voters in most states still have time to obtain an Absentee Ballot by simply downloading an official application form available through www.StateDemocracy.org, a completely FREE public service from the nonprofit StateDemocracy Foundation.

Read More: http://us-2008-election.blogspot.com/2008/10/beat-long-poll-lines-with-absentee.html

Fortunately for us, the system in the US and the rest of the civilized world is a “mixed economy,” somewhere in between pure capitalism and pure socialism.

Pure capitalism allows the free market to reign supreme. The hard-core Ayn Rand* uber-Capitalists believe that government’s only function is to protect private property (via the military, police and courts). Any other use of taxes is a form of confiscation, like putting a gun to someone’s head and robbing them. So they oppose tax money for public works (transportation, sanitation, utilities, parks and recreation), public health (hospitals and clinics, research), public education (schools, libraries), culture (the arts), welfare, social security, unemployment or disability benefits, anything you can imagine. Everything should be funded through private enterprise. Those who can’t afford basic necessities should work harder or (if they can’t) rely on private charity. Furthermore, there should be no government regulation of businesses (no minimum wage, no worker safety laws, no child labor laws, no consumer protection laws, no anti-pollution laws, etc). Those businesses that mistreat their workers, produce dangerous or faulty products, use false advertising, pollute the environment, etc. will develop bad reputations and supposedly go out of business.

Obviously, this leads to a nightmare society. It’s a dog-eat-dog, Darwinian survival of the fittest. The rich live in gated communities with private roads, private schools, private hospitals, private parks, etc. while the poor live in filthy, disease-ridden slums without plumbing or electricity. If your family doesn’t have money to begin with, you’re out of luck – you can’t afford to go to school or get medical care. You can work at the factory for 50 cents an hour, and if the machine chops off your arm, you can beg in the streets. If no one gives you charity and you starve to death, then that’s just too bad. Eventually, the poor can’t take anymore and revolt, burning the fancy mansions to the ground.

The other extreme is pure socialism, with a centrally-planned economy. The government is all-powerful and determines where people live, where they go to school, where they work, what products get manufactured, what services are provided, etc. Everyone is expected to work equally hard, contributing to the best of their abilities, and every gets equally rewarded.

This too is a disaster. By substituting its own judgment for the desires of the marketplace, government makes poor decisions and misallocates resources. Oppressive stultifying bureaucracies prevent innovation and progress. By not offering extra profits to high achievers, the system kills incentive and everyone shirks and avoids work. The entire society stagnates.

Clearly, the best system is one somewhere in the middle of these two extremes – a “mixed economy.” The excesses of the free market are mitigated by safeguards and safety nets. Free enterprise can thrive, but businesses are regulated to prevent misbehavior. High achievers can get rich, but they give back to the system in the form of higher taxes. Various public services funded by taxes help the general population, providing relief to those who have fallen into destitution, and providing opportunity to those striving to get ahead; individuals have the opportunity to realize their potential.

In consideration of this, it was disingenuous for Republicans to be calling Obama a “socialist,” jumping all over his comment that we should “spread the wealth,” and accusing him of “class warfare.” Do these same Republicans truly want to repeal all taxes and eliminate all government functions (aside from funding the military, police and courts)? If so, they should state this publicly and see what kind of reaction they get. How is eliminating the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy a form of socialism? The rates would go up only a few percentage points. Plus the middle class will get a tax cut under Obama. (Ironically, it turned out that “Joe the Plumber” – like 99% of American plumbers – would benefit more from Obama’s tax plan than from McCain’s.) It’s all a matter of finding the right balance, where we provide for the general welfare without killing work incentive.

As the political theorist John Rawls has explained, wealth isn’t created solely through the sheer will of the individual. The individual benefits from living in an orderly, civilized society that allows him to get rich. The ideal system is a just and fair one, looking out for the most vulnerable and giving everyone a chance to achieve. If it’s an unfair and oppressive system, then there’s no moral argument to stop the poor from revolting and taking from the rich. Society is a kind of mutual agreement, and if a society is not just, then those suffering injustice will opt out of the agreement.

Warren Buffet has said that he’s happy to pay taxes because he owes something to the country that enabled him to become rich. He points out that if he had been born in a Third-World shantytown, he would never have been able to develop and make use of his talents and would have stayed in poverty. Bill Gates’ father has argued against eliminating the inheritance tax (which the Republicans strategically call the “death tax”) because it’s unhealthy for a society to pass down huge concentrations of wealth from generation to generation.

In conclusion, the issue of capitalism vs. socialism is much more complicated than the right-wing reactionaries would have us believe. If we look at the big picture and understand that we’re actually a mixed economy, neither purely capitalist nor purely socialist, we won’t get fooled by their inflammatory rhetoric.

* When Barak Obama said, “Some people would make a virtue out of selfishness,” he was referencing Ayn Rand’s book, “The Virtue of Selfishness.” Alan Greenspan was an early acolyte of Ayn Rand, which is why he opposed government regulation of the banking industry and was surprised when the free market failed to regulate itself with regard to risk.

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