The Final Hours...The Final Post (maybe)

We've just about made it. Election day is in sight. Obama holds a comfortable lead in the national polls and all signs point to a democratic congress to boot. My fingers are frail from the typing and my voice is horse from telling the same story, "America has problems right now, there's no doubt about it....but, give us a chance, give us another look come election day as we vote in a new era in our country. Don't give up on us yet (insert country from where listener calls home)." This is the political turning point in my generations lifetime. We've cast our ballots before, but many of us have never been on the winning side of the coin flip. It's a disconnect that infects the wounds that one day we (not the older majority that passed on this burden to us) will attempt to stitch shut from our salaries and daily salt. Bitterness aside there is one last stake I must drive in this fight.

Nazi, socialist, communist.....80% of the American population couldn't accurately detail the differences between those labels and over half probably don't know there is a difference in them to begin with. Oddly enough, that same counter cult insists on blurting them out at McCain/Palin rallies in defiance of any mention of that tickets current election opponent. Joe the plumbers, Tito the construction workers, and all the other single name + the + occupation puppets that have sprung up in the waning hours of this campaign can rest assured that Obama doesn't intend to take their wealth and redistribute it....No Joe, your wealth has already disappeared. There's nothing left to spread.

The concept of wealth distribution has been publicized by the 'right' media ever since the race took an undesired turn to the 'left'. The image they present involves the 'left' taking everyone's money out of their pockets, laying it on a table, and dividing it up equally. Overnight you'd have a homogeneous society that occupied a tightly constricted wealth band. A kitchen table cure to the age old disease of 'mo money, mo problems'.....I bet you could even find a few bankers that need a day job who could help out with bean counting.

The real redistribution of wealth, that is mis-represented by the above portrayal, involves fundamental class warfare waged on the lesser by the more over the last 6-8 years. It's a bold claim, but luckily I don't have to make the point alone. My alley in this cage match is none other than the much published, always feather ruffling, Noam Chomsky.

Noam Chomsky is a well known MIT professor whose published work spans the better part of 6 decades. He's known for his controversial stands on American foreign policy, his philosophical views on humanity, his contributions to modern linguistics, and last but not least, his infamous cameo on Ted Kaczynski's (Unabomber) hit list.

One of Chomsky's greatest works (in my opinion) over the last decade has been his American Empire Project. This work is a series of papers, books, interviews, and muses related to our countries actions in a global world since early 2000. A recurring theme in these works is the relationship of social inequality to the puppet strings our government pulls to dictate which direction we'll move. Let me explain in a bit more detail. Picture the annual tax revenues (regardless of their source) that the government collects. Picture those same revenues being pressure loaded into a giant fire hydrant with a hose attached. When budget time comes around the government basically decides which direction they're going to point the hose, how wide open the valve is going to be when they finally turn it on, and how long they're going to let it run to ensure the 'fire' is out. In recent history, democrats (Clinton) have pointed that hose at domestic issues that needed addressed in hopes of having a bottom up effect, whereas republicans (Bush I, Bush II) have pointed it at defense spending and institutional subsidies that are intended to trickle down (from the top) through society. Nothing stimulates an economy like fighting a war (especially on credit)! Current history aside, there are completely valid arguments on both sides of this debate as to which policy is better, when and why. I could make a case for both...this is not the point.

What is the point? The downside is the point. What happens if you bet wrong as a nation? What if what is behind door one turns out to be a lemon? Then what? Under the one scenario you get limited return (if any) when it fails. You get softening in the overall economy, you get some cooling in consumption and perhaps some new strains on social (oh no, not that word) welfare programs. Bottom line, is you're not really that much worse off than when you began. Failure under scenario two leaves a bit more of a wake. One side effect, and perhaps the most notorious, is the potential to accumulate a massive national debt. Now, who ultimately gets to pay for that? That's right, Joe the plumber, Tito the construction worker, (insert name here) the taxpayer. Yes Joe, you get to make payments on this well into the future....long after the smoke cleared from the fire fight it funded you'll get to pay for that fighter jet instead of receiving an SBA loan that may have been used to grow your business. Tito gets to pay for it by footing the full bill to send his kids to college whereas before there may have been educational assistance programs that could have helped him out. So, the next time you hear something about wealth redistribution from the McCain camp, spend less time thinking about what they'd like you to perceive that Obama is proposing to do and spend more time thinking about what HAS been done to you already. I rest my case...go vote.