Poker Perambulation

In Space Balls – the movie, the parody reached ludicrous levels.  Ludicrous became a catchy term there.  The Darth Vadar clone flung ludicrous around with ludicrous abandon. Meet the sequel:  Washington Balls – only wish it were just a movie. 

Well, the clunker stimulus came and went before we knew it.  I'm reminded of that civil war or Irish marching song.  Here it is with Otis and Doc's favorite band:

The clunker thing is a great example of the band-aid that is costing trillions. 

The problem has been that we've lost manufacturing jobs in homes and vehicles. Manufacturing is still a major component in our economy.  I remember it when it was a much bigger part.  Although the steel mills were the day's big box operation, they supported dozen upon dozen small business in the area.  As we improved the economy, we began pricing ourselves out of the market and those machine shops and electronics repair places dried up or consolidated.  Such entrepreneurial spirit ran into the reality of cost structures that lost their edge.  You can still see such inefficient business elsewhere.  It is called China and the vehicle is cheap labor.

Addressing this issue has always been a problem.  It is the land of small business and Washington has never figured that out.  Even with our cost structures, many business have the savvy to prosper and create jobs.  That is our economy's great strength and the new idea is to tax it into submission.

With those tax dollar we will all live forever because we get health care.  And the economy will prosper with give aways and new programs.  We will then be headed for a Great Society. Oops, let change that a bit.  The term got taken in the 60's when we solved poverty and handed out free medical care. 

It boils down to this.  We are investing in the ephemeral.  The job losses are real and in important areas.  The jobs lost are permanent when they happen in declining industries.  The jobs being created are – for the most part – temporary jobs.  When the clunker rebate is gone, the industry only reduced inventories.  That is a short term success.  When the new highway construction ends,  the job is over. 

Go down the list of Bridges to Nowhere that we're building.  We're treating symptoms and going broke in the process.

“Engage Ludicrous Level” 

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