We are fighting the wrong war.

[kohodog]

Until we gain public finance of elections and deep six the special interest groups we can only expect incremental or sideways change for major issues like healthcare, bank reform (including bankruptcy, credit cards, mortgages etc), not to mention the insane military budget and just about everything else. I will accept this milk toast healthcare bill if it helps somebody somewhere without making it worse for everyone else, but until we sew up the politicians' pockets and get rid of corporate bucks there can be no real change. I challenge any one anywhere to tell me my letters, phone calls and even donations have much more effect than barking at the moon. We the people do not sit at the same table as the pols and their money changers.

For now I call and fight for real healthcare but I think we need to focus on the money. It is too easy for congress to sway the media and many of us by throwing us a crumb.

Hey Joe (Lieberman) where're you going with that flower in your hair? Yes, go to 'frisco, get the crabs and take the bus back home. (props to Zappa, "We're only in it for the Money")

[Goldstein1984]

1. This health care bill is more of the same

It mandates customers and profits for the insurance companies, and it gives taxpayer dollars to insurance companies if subsidies are needed. There is no mechanism for price controls. No prescription drug price controls.

This is one more example of Wall Street getting it's way over the people.

I send the letters and emails, and I make the phone calls, and I don't think it matters. Congressional staff are handling my calls and letters while my elected representatives are dining with Wall Street.

I'm not mad. I'm waiting for some leader with the ear of the public to be willing to step outside of the system and propose something earthshaking to send a message to the fatcats.

Here's what I'm thinking--Stop all discretionary spending for an entire fiscal quarter. The Republicans and the apathetic will keep on shopping and keep the working class employed, but the fatcats would see a difference. If progressives could reduce consumption by only 5%, in an economy based 70% on consumption that would show up as a 3.5% drop in consumer spending. Then we threaten boycotts, arbitrarily targeting specific businesses. We just need someone willing to stick their neck out and coordinate.

[StarfarerBill]

2. I think it matters, Goldstein.

It matters because you're there, fighting the good fight, but never alone. More will join us everyday, I think, because the center cannot hold; this barbaric system is inherently unstable, as it's built on a high, narrow pedestal of power, greed, corruption, and contempt. Every new pair of hands on that pedestal makes it wobble a little more; when it falls, we'll be there to bury the pieces and build a new society on a solid, compassionate foundation.

Stay the course!

:fistbump:

[EmeraldCityGrl]

4. Might I suggest you be the man/woman to do it?

I'm growing my own food (weather permitting), no longer go to the movies, rarely eat out, shop in consignment shops. I've moved my banking to a credit union and use cash.
Slowly, this becomes a way of life and I actually enjoy the challenge of surviving off the consumer grid.

[kohodog]

6. That certainly is a great answer, perhaps the best if sustainable.

But too many people have no options given what is happening. We need to ferment change while we ditch the grid. Business as usual will lead to great hurt for all, financially, environmentally, systemically. Except perhaps for those in their gated communities at the top of the heap.

[Goldstein1984]

9. Yes, and I know not everybody is in a position to do this

We are fortunate enough to have the resources to financially assist relatives who have been severely impacted by this economic adjustment (I don't believe it's just a recession, I think things are not going back to where they were for the working class).

While doing that, we've also had the opportunity to encourage them to make their changes to a more frugal, less consumptive life permanent.

And I think you are right, that those at the top of the heap have far less to lose, until, that is, things become so bad that they find themselves threatened. I think that's why those who run businesses are so cavalier about things like climate change--they have the resources to move wherever it's comfortable, they aren't stuck in the path on natural disaster the way the poor were abandoned in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.

[Goldstein1984]

8. I've done much the same. To name some things...

-Moved all money from our bank to our credit union.
-Stopped using credit cards--cash or debit only.
-Moved all retirement savings from stocks.
-Minimized 401k contribution to only that required to get employer matching contribution (With all the deficit spending, I don't believe tax rates are going to be lower later on, regardless of my income level during retirement).
-Rather than buying a home after relocating, we letting an underemployed relative use our old home and renting a very small home (and enjoying getting rid of junk we've been accumulating for decades).
-We've stopped eating out.
-Stopped going to movie theaters (We went to see "Capitalism: A Love Affair" because I wanted a good theater showing to send a message)
-We are making no major purchases
-We've cut Christmas spending by 90% this year.
-Replaced expensive prescription medications with alternatives (that turn out to be as effective, in my case)
-We live in Alaska, so "weather permitting" is a major issue for raising our own food, but we buy as local as possible.
-I buy a lot of books, but only shop at a used book store (fortunately, we have a good one in Anchorage)
-Patronize locally owned businesses, rather than big corporate box stores.
-Buy American anytime it is possible

And you're right. It becomes a way of life, and a game to find more ways to drop out of the consumer culture.

This is individually satisfying, but if practiced by many would shake things up again.

[walldude]

3. K&R I've been saying this for years..

Lobbying and Campaign finance reform is the only way out of this circular logic.

[AllentownJake]

5. President Obama by his own doing in 2008

Has assured that he needs to raise 1 billion dollars in 2012.

The President for all the talks of chess is one of the shortest term political thinkers in the world.

[OnionPatch]

7. Happy to k&r

Boy are you right. I'd recommend this twenty times if I could.

I've been active in the Democratic party up until now. I'm switching my efforts over to campaign reform. The only way we're going to have a real democracy is when we get money out of politics.

[Union Yes]

10. Election reform needs to be our first reform. Then HC, knr nt