“Income Inequality” is the next boogieman Obama is going to address, in order to save us all from ourselves. He has declared Obamacare to be successful or, at least, on track. Exactly where the tracks lead is unclear. Probably towards oblivion. Via the “train wreck” now visible even to the generation “X-ers” who see themselves paying for the more costly passengers-victims of the “Wreck” (ie; duffers like me).
Only the dimmest among us haven’t realized how catastrophic this “Wreck” will be when the real goal of Obamacare (healthcare reform) is fired up by the bureaucrats in DC. Faceless unaccountable drones in Washington (under the aegis of the IRS) will be calling the shots about just how the limited medical resources are to be distributed to you by your doctor(s). You know, very insensitive people (?) with lots of power who look forward with glee towards their retirement with pensions much larger than their civilian counterparts in Realsville, where the rest of us reside, and who get little gold stars for every $400 aspirin they save by denying it to you. Just like the German trainmasters who were applauded by their Nazi bosses for keeping the trains running on time to Auschwitz and other festive destinations in Poland, until the Allies and our Dads put a stop to that little slice of Socialist Utopia.
Look on the bright side. Train wrecks are always fun to watch …in the movies. Of course, the problem with this “Wreck” is it ain’t on Netflicks or on your flatscreen. No. Your viewing perspective will be from somewhere inside the “Wreck.” Hopefully, your seat will be well cushioned and have big airbags. And hopefully, your hospital will provide enough comfortable seating for the “death squad” when they visit you in your room …or on a gurney in some dank and dark hospital hallway. Hopefully they won’t bump into the rolling tree-like do-hickey holding the intra-venous drip bag containing your meds. Or, maybe, your placeboes. And with any luck, maybe they won’t accidentally trip over the electric chord to your life-support monitor. Keep an eye on them. They may “trip” intentionally. They like gold stars, too. Everybody needs love and approval.
I mention the “Wreck” because it shows a pattern. Look at Dodd-Frank and your vanishing home values and retirement investments. They are the handiwork of cretins just like the idiots who authored the hundreds of pages of unread Obamacare legislation. Obamacare can be considered a “practice Wreck.” Now we learn Obama and his dull-witted minions are about to create another Socialist Utopian panacea for something they call “Income Inequality.”
You may have heard of this problem. It’s called poverty by some. Many people have survived its cruel grasp. One of our greatest leaders grew up in a fatherless (almost) environment in a log cabin in Kentucky and Indiana. His loving mother died and he witnessed his grandfather murdered by marauding Native Americans as a small boy hiding in the bushes. (In case you’ve never seen one, log cabins, which has been greatly romanticized by historians, were nothing more than shacks made from tree trunks. Never very weatherproof, particularly if it only has three sides like the child Lincoln’s house in Indiana.) The point is Lincoln escaped his youthful poverty unaided by socialist “do-gooders” in DC. He educated himself mostly by candlelight after days filled with hard physical labor. He didn’t enjoy the dubious advantages of “Common Core.” No computer, either.
Like the “Wreck” that is coming our way, whatever the Obama-ites have in mind to fix “Income Inequality” will also be fun to watch, unless, again, you are seated inside that “wreck” … or have to pay for it. Who knows what it will be dubbed by the Media? Something creative, like “Obamacare,” which the Media no longer uses. Maybe something clever like “Obamapovertyprevention.” (Awkward, but alliterative.)
In any event, it will just be more socialist “wand-waving.” It won’t work. Unless you are only counting the people who will be enriched by the new and poorly defined governmental departments created to eliminate the factors associated with “poverty.” Or, maybe the goal will be more nebulously defined (since no one will read the legislation before enacted), and maybe it will be along the lines of China’s Great Leap Forward in the 1970’s, which magically (earlier wand-waving) “modernized” China and eliminated many of China’s poor folks, by creating “shovel ready” jobs for gravediggers who had to dig about 20,000,000 holes during that decade to accommodate the beneficiaries of Mao’s “modernization.” Apparently, “modernization” to socialists does not include any correlative program to prevent starvation. No Socialist is perfect. Correction, maybe One.
I was recently reminded of how charlatans or some politicians (an unfortunate redundancy) are always coming up with new problems to solve. Sometimes the problem is new-fangled like Obamacare. Cicero lamented the influx of “physicians” among the Greek slaves who had been sent to Rome during the early conquests. He said, “Rome has gotten by for five hundred years without physicians and now they’re everywhere,” or words to that effect. The lack of healthcare in Republican Rome didn’t seem to bother Cicero. It was some new thing (which, it is always hoped, never arises). A crisis. But Cicero and the Roman patriarchs cared for none of those things.
However, “poverty” is different. It’s been around much longer than “healthcare.” According to One Expert, “the poor you have always with you.” The issue of helping the poor was once raised by a follower of Jesus of Nazereth when a woman had just spent a very large and costly sum to anoint Jesus, which He noted as being motivated by the woman’s devotion and in preparation for His impending Death and Burial. The follower who objected to the woman’s lavish act of devotion voiced the opinion the gift would have been better utilized by selling the expensive ointment and giving the proceeds to “the poor.” Jesus replied as noted above. Apparently, Jesus knew the opportunity to help the “poor” would always be around.
Interestingly, He never seemed to have given money to “the poor.” He did admonish The Rich Young Ruler, who was too attached to his personal wealth, to “sell everything and give it to the poor.” But the only thing I recall Jesus did to help people, aside from forgiving their Sin, was healing them. In fact, the Psalmist said the Messiah would both heal bodies and forgive sins. The two went together.
Sometimes He would forgive sins first, which His detractors considered blasphemous, after which He would heal, thereby proving His authority to forgive sin. His enemies went nuts. He healed everywhere he went. He healed withered limbs, issues of blood, demon possession, congenital blindness and crippling infirmity. He made people able to care for themselves. (What are bureaucrats good for when everyone can care for themselves?) He “healed” Death. He even conquered Death. Everywhere he went He left a swath of healthy (and forgiven) people. Now THAT is Healthcare.
I don’t mean people who have physical infirmities shouldn’t be helped. Buy I am saying the least efficient way ever conceived by the minds of men to help them is handing the gargantuan hand of government the task.
One other little footnote to the foregoing story about Jesus and His overly unctuous “do-gooder” follower is the comment in the Gospel that this particular follower’s objection was motivated by his desire to help himself, not the poor. The writer noted that the objector was the keeper of the communal purse and “was a thief.”
Of course, there are no analogies between this story and modern politicians. Judas Iscariot has had no philosophical or spiritual progeny in history … or now.
See the associated cartoon about the two guys living on the curb. My beautiful wife thought it was a little vague. (She always crushes me.) The first guy notes fixing “Income Inequality” will probably be as successful as Obamacare. The second guy is aware of the failed Obamacare website launch and wonders if a computer will be necessary to apply for “Income Equalizing.” The first guy then wonders if owning a computer will be a prerequisite to applying for assistance, which of course is probably beyond the means of two bums on the curb.
Oh the cruel irony.
Speaking of cruelty, my lovely wife then asked why the “doggie didn’t have any lines.” She’ll be the death of me. But, whatta’ way to go!
