Interesting Convo

I had an interesting conversation yesterday with a died-in-the-wool business owner-conservative.  According to this fella, the rich deserve to be rich because they 'worked' for their money.  The poor are poor because they are at the government teat because they like it and won't get off cause they don't have to work.  Plus, the problems we are facing economically are caused by President Clinton/Obama even though during his [Clinton's] term, we were working with an economic 'surplus.' [That's the first time we've had a surplus in decades.]

In a nutshell, this is what Conservatives think.  1.  Clinton/Obama caused this problem [whatever the problem might be].  2.  The poor are lazy and are in the government system because they basically like it.  3.  The rich are rich because they worked hard for their money and deserve to bet treated 'special.'  All other Conservative ideation kinda swirls around those three precepts.

Why?  Well let's look at them closely:

1. Clinton caused this problem.  All Cons need and have a scapegoat; Roosevelt/Clinton/Obama, it doesn't make any difference as long as it's a Dem.  They, the Cons, never take any responsibility for the way things are.  The Bush's were not at fault.  His Majesty King Ronald Reagan, God forbid, could never have any fault-bearing responsibility for the way things are today.  All these ideas are blatantly false.  I've gone into a great deal of depth about this area in my blogs in the past, so I won't go into it in depth here.
2. The poor are lazy.  What planet did this guy grow up on?  The poor are lazy?  Hey, I'm the first to admit that there are Medicare/Medicaid frauds out there and a relatively few poor people are sucking on the government teat cause they 'like' it, but, in general, the poor are poor because they are 1, uneducated or under-educated but are working at menial jobs for menial pay, or 2, they are unemployed and cannot find a job because they are structurally [their jobs no longer exist] unemployed, or, 3, they are ill/injured and unable to work, or 4, they are educated, but they have been laid off and are drawing unemployment.  But, the lion's share of the poor are not poor because they are lazy.  They are not poor because they like to be on the government's welfare system programs.  Nobody with any pride at all finds it odious to be taking welfare and can't wait to get off it.  The Cons simply need more scapegoats to blame for the way things are.  You hear this scapegoat-ism on Faux News nightly over and over again.  The poor made themselves poor by their own hand, or the government makes 'em poor by giving them hand outs.  Nothing could be further from the truth.
3. The rich are rich because they worked hard for their money.  While this might or might not be true, does that mean they deserve 'special' treatment under existing taxation laws?  A working stiff doesn't get the same tax benefits.  But shouldn't he?  Shouldn't he get the same consideration as a rich man?  Today, the rich get richer via government handouts [a kind of welfare in reverse] and 'special' tax code exemptions [a gubmint hand out] and we don't dare tell 'em no because they'll take their companies overseas.  So, the USA keeps the rich, rich out of fear that they will not fund someone's reelection or will move out of the US to another country.  Here's an idea.  Okay Mr. Rich Man Business Owner, if you take your company overseas, then we say you need to move your entire holdings overseas including your family.  If you do not do business out of America, then you need to live where you work.  We would never do this, but wouldn't that be fair?  Wouldn't it keep businesses in the US?

I'm getting real tired of the practice of scapegoating and extolling the richy-rich cause they must be good for the USA cause they are rich.  If you want to see-hear some silly answers to today's problems, just tune into Fox News or listen to Glenn Beck or any other Conservative radio blabber to learn just exactly what's wrong with America, to find out just what it'll take to put the US on the 'right track.'

I've had it with the Right's political ploys.  Not only are they completely wrong about what's wrong with the country, they are completely wrong regarding the causes of this situation.  Rule of thumb:  find out what the Cons believe and believe the exact opposite and you'll probably be right.