Ok, I just had to put the picture up. I have no idea how good the book is going to be, but I think the subject is full of possibilities. I always thought that certain of Roosevelt's programs, the CCC for instance, were reminiscent of some of the fascist and communist programs of the era. Not that I think the CCC was evil, there are trails and dams here in Utah that were built by the CCC and my dad dreamed of joining up, but it would be interesting to see the genesis of those programs examined and put into historical context. I'm not sure Goldberg is up to it though, he might be too partisan and concerned with recent events to render a balanced judgement. We will see.Saturday, October 29, 2005
I Love The Smiley
Ok, I just had to put the picture up. I have no idea how good the book is going to be, but I think the subject is full of possibilities. I always thought that certain of Roosevelt's programs, the CCC for instance, were reminiscent of some of the fascist and communist programs of the era. Not that I think the CCC was evil, there are trails and dams here in Utah that were built by the CCC and my dad dreamed of joining up, but it would be interesting to see the genesis of those programs examined and put into historical context. I'm not sure Goldberg is up to it though, he might be too partisan and concerned with recent events to render a balanced judgement. We will see.
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4 comments:
Speaking of totalitarian impulses. All your base are belong to us!
My uncle Robert got a job with the WPA [we piddle around] during the Depression. The job was building bridges. Things were pretty desperate in Oklahoma so he went around burning down bridges to make sure he would get work.
true story.
He also joined the National Guard and was activated in Novemeber before the December 7 bombing of Pear Harbor. Makes you wonder.
I think the gvernment can go too far, but I have to say that laissez faire government is every bit as dead as communism.
As it should be.
terrye,
I agree. The government isn't going away, nor should it. The libertarian fantasy is just that. It's much harder to deal with a complicated government situation that reaches into our lives in various ways and is proscripted in various ways than it is to make one of the two most obvious simplifying assumptions: no government (libertarians) or all government (socialists). The situation is too complicated for the human mind to fully grasp and reason with, so these two simplifying assumptions are both very tempting.
I think the truth is that no matter what kind of system we come up with it will have its flaws and we'll still find ourselves unhappy and miserable at times.
Still, I think our present system is probably the closest to perfection that has ever been created in human history. A system built upon distrust of systems is nearly ideal. Skepticism of the government, sanctioned officially, can only be healthy. A system built upon faith in the inherent goodness of man, such as the UN über-government, can only fail spectacularly to live up to its expectations, as we have already seen with Oil-For-Palaces.
meaningless:
I don't think very many people can imagine our economy running without the FDIC or the SEC or the Federal Reserve...but they all represent some kind of government control.
All one has to do is look at history and see the effects of cyclical economic depressions to realize that a little stability is not a bad thing.
And without some government involvement there will be stability.
Imagine what would have happened in the last bad recession if there was no such thing as unemployment insurance.
Like it or not social security has helped make older people independent of their children in away they might not otherwise be.
If you had to make a choice between sending your kid to college or taking care of parent who could no longer care for themselves, which would you chose?
Sometimes people still have to make these choices, but without government they would be making them a lot more.
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