All of Trump’s Policies Are Good for Somebody. Maybe You’re Among Them.
Jerry Schiano, a fellow I met through 2GreenEnergy from Rhode Island, comments on a post I wrote criticizing president Trump’s policies on the environment, healthcare and public education writes: I can take eight years of this, can you?
If you’re talking about me, personally, sure. The stock market (which is perfectly indifferent to the well-being of the 7.4 billion people on this planet) was up again today. Like all privileged people, I’m getting rich!
But if you’re talking about me as a citizen of the Earth, concerned as I am for the others around me, I’m not so sure. We’re obviously on a path whereby all but the rich will be suffering at unprecedented levels.
I’m glad you’re happy, but I’m not sure what that says about you as a person. You may want to think about that.
Craig,
The negative impact of the new administrations energy and environmental policies has been wildly exaggerated.
The new administration, like the Obama administration has been left with a crippling National Debt.
The tax contribution form the “old economy “, is under stress, while the “new Economy” either doesn’t pay tax or requires heavy subsidies.
The Obama administration identified $1.8 billion waste in the EPA judgement but refused act. At every level of government, money must be cut from the budget and returned to consumers and the private sector if economic renewal is to occur.
The task of budget reform is gigantic, but any delay will just make it worse.
Can you explain where the money is to come from ?
You could take the Saunders approach and tax the rich. In the modern world this doesn’t really work. The rich just arrange their affairs outside the US jurisdiction, or really move overseas.
The US economy then takes an even greater downturn.
My question is sincere, if you were President, where you you find the money ?
Without the present oil bonanza, the US economy would have collapsed.
If there is no way to tax big corporations and the uber-wealthy fairly because of their lawyers’ skill in finding loopholes, we’re doomed. I’m not sure that’s the case, however.
Imagine Trump was honest, and his presidency was built around restoring a level playing field for the working class, and ridding government of the influence of Wall Street, corporate lobbyists, etc. Of course, the precise opposite is the case, but forget about that for a moment. Such a change, along with government investment aimed at preparing the U.S. to remain relevant in the 21st Century cleantech economy, would have put this country on the right course.
Again, in reality, Trump is an inveterate liar, and we’re headed exactly the wrong direction.
Craig,
You seem fixated on the President for all real or imagined ills.
In fact the problems of a globalized economic system, nationalized legal and political systems, and a yearning in a large part of the population for even smaller administrative devolution, is far older and more complex than the current Presidency.
“restoring a level playing field for the working class, and ridding government of the influence of Wall Street, corporate lobbyists, etc. ”
It really doesn’t help assessing complex problems in simplistic terms of “moral” virtue, as if the world is run by comic book hero’s and villains.
I understand your frustration, but the US is beset with economic and social problems far greater than any simplistic solutions can address.
The Trump Presidency is unfortunate, yet it has achieved some changes and may in time prove more successful.
Both the traditional US political parties were stagnant, neither could galvanize the nation. Neither can Trump. Trump is by nature a divisive individual, yet his election did bring those divisions into the open.
For years you demanded a President who wasn’t a Washington insider, or a professional politician, well that’s exactly who has won the Presidency. He may not be who you like, or hoped for, but that the chance you take when an unqualified candidate is elected.
Craig, in mean no offense when I say the idealized “Main Street” America you dream of may not exist, or ever existed.
The old “Wall Street” no longer exists. “Wall Street” really exists in borderless cyberspace. The movement of modern capital and structure of corporations such as Apple, Google, Amazon etc render these corporation beyond the effective jurisdiction of old fashioned nation states.
Your “working class” is becoming increasingly non existent. When the “work” disappears, this “class” becomes the institutionalized poor, at best surviving on subsidies.
While I applaud your dreams of vast new clean tech industries transforming America and the world in a new age of industrial prosperity, in reality it’s not a panacea, more of a band-aid.
It’s also unaffordable for a nation drowning in debt.
IMO there is no magic cure, no grand “New Deal”, the position of the US is precarious. The US is beset by formidable competition from rivals and crippled by debt and social decay.
You are quite correct when you say Donald Trump doesn’t have the answers, but neither did his predecessors or the old man in Vermont.
Joe Public has grown weary of grand plans, and over optimistic claims requiring taxpayer funding.
It’s my considered belief the only way to win back the faith of Joe Public is toning down the political rhetoric and encouraging smaller, practical clean tech products, that Joe Public can understand and see the value.
Spending the next 3 year yelling hysterically at the President, is a waste of energy.