I’ve enjoyed reading your opinions and value your dedication to civility in regard to political discourse. For the purpose of furthering the discussion I would like to respectfully request your opinion on a few things.
One is a chapter 4 from a book called ” the Peoples History of the United States” it specifically deals with the environment leading up to the Declaration of Independence and the forces that led to it’s creation.
heres the link:
http://books.google.com/books?id=P8V7J5qm5-YC&dq=peoples+history+of+the+united+states&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=WYWNSuy2A6HBtwfX1rH4DQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4#v=onepage&q=&f=false
Derek,
I read the chapter you mentioned and I have a few comments. First, I am not exactly sure what it is you are wanting me to comment on from the chapter. I was only able to ready some of it because they remove a few pages because it is free. (Ex. pages 61-62 and pages (71-72)
I can assume a couple of things that you wanted me to comment on; Item one is the obvious class “wars” that were being waged between upper class and lower class colonists. This included the middle class as a sort of fence straddler that had to be swayed to one side of the fence. I understand the ideas that are put forth concerning motivations for the “revolution” from Britain and the ideas of controlling the middle class to gain control of “the people”. However I must say this “point of view” is one of perception from neighborhood you grow up in, the family origins and experiences all mold an individual into who they become. It seems as though the thoughts and ideas of this well known author, who sells 100,000 copies of this book per year, also has his own story from his own neighborhood and cultural background. My point, the view from one side of the tracks is always different from the other side of the track.
The second thing that I think you are wanting me to understand from this reading, is the similarities of the times then and now. Upper class own most everything in the country. They hold much of the wealth and power, as they did back then. I think he states that the land ownership was something like 66% owned by top 10%. What I get is this; You can never have everyman have the exact same amount of power, wealth, experience, or abilities. Someone is always going to work harder than someone else. There are always going to be people that are smarter, better thinkers, more creative and more able to do certain things. To think that everyone can be more perfectly equal is a utopian idea.
Side note; Have you ever worked for a poor man? Poor men do not employ very many people. There are going to be rich people unless you take away private ownership completely.
(Continued) However, equal opportunity is something that is in place, it just take time to balance it out. The colonists had it wrong with slavery and discrimination against women. They were flat out wrong. With that being said, those wrongs were finally made right within the last 120 years with the adaptations to our constitution. I do not disagree with that one bit. Unfortunately I do not think that you can speed up the process arbitrarily of complete equal opportunity without swinging the pendulum in the other direction where ancestors of those who made the mistakes are punished out the idea of socialist justice. This is the viewpoint I feel this chapter is written from. It is meant to show the other side of the story. Which is fine. People are supposed to be able to see both side of the story and make their own judgements.
Just as in economic ideas and theories, equilibrium can be attained by the system, if the government would do the job it is supposed to. Uphold the rules, values and principles of “good people”. Not Democrat. Not republican. Americans! That means getting the hands out of the cookie jar. Both of them!
A lot of American citizens have lost the idea of what is right! Those citizens need to be held accountable. I am all for greedy people who drive banks, business’s, etc into the ground but make billions of dollars themselves beign punished. But, you can not take the wind out of the American sail of enginiuity by strangling the business development opportunities either. Taxes can and will be the death of American business. It, unions, and yes even things like the cost of health care have killed our industrial business here in the states. We make essentially nothing here anymore. We are almost completely a service industry! This is bad. Everything is a fine balance. I have always believed that. Hopefully we can get to one, before ideals, agendas, and ridiculous people tear the country apart.
I will watch the video on health care later and comment on it. Thanks for the opportunity for a healthy debate. Sorry to give you so much to read.
Good night,
Richard
