Hi, My Name is Lib Utopian, and I’m here to Help…

Hello friend. I noticed you are economically challenged, but this is not your fault. I wanted to offer the brightest, smartest help a progressive Liberal can offer you today in our brave new world. This advice will help you improve your life and make you feel happy and tingly- like when you hear President Obama speak…

Alright. Let’s get to work. My name is Lib Utopian.
What’s yours? Bob? Nice to meet you, Bob.
How much do you make a year? $40,000 as a truck driver? Got it.
You ask how much I make? Well, I was making about $120,000 as a journalist. But, my paper folded up and now I’m doing this good charity and social work with you, Bob.

Do you have a family, Bob?
Wife and three kids?! Whew, that’s a load…
You ask what’s wrong with that? Easy, Bob- I was just amazed at how many-
Me? Well, I’m 55 and it’s just my wife and I right now in our condo in the city.
Kids? Sure, we had one and she’s helping poor kids in Africa.

Okay- anyway, let’s talk about how you can improve your life style.
Let’s start with transportation. You use mass transit to get around, don’t you?

Well- Okay, maybe it’s a little harder to find a bus out here in the suburbs, but you have a duty to save our planet. Less cars means less Carbon Dioxide and that’s good, Bob.
You say the bus doesn’t stop near your house? Fine. Then let’s talk about cars. Do you own one?

You own two. That’s a lot of carbon emissions. What about- what’s that? You say you are in the market for a new one?
Great! Have you thought about a green hybrid vehicle? How about the Prius?

Yes Bob, it does not have to be plugged in. It gets 44mpg and saves on gas. Isn’t that great?!
What? How much? Is that really important? I- You need to really know? Okay- they go for about $27,500. Whoops! Wow. That coffee came right out your nose…here’s a napkin.

You say you don’t think you can afford one, Bob? C’mon, my man, this is green, so it’s good…
What? The only green you think is good is money? Bob, what sort of capitalist comment is that?

Do you have an alternative in mind? Oh- you mean something cheaper? Well…
What’s that? You say you looked at a Kia Rio…it seats 5 also and gets 33mpg? Okay, but where’s the green- oh forget that, you’re only thinking money, not mother earth…

And it’s how much? $12,000…are you sure?…yeah, that is pretty cheap.

What’s the bottomline you ask? Well, that’s very corporate of you Bob…
Let’s see, if you drive it 10,000 miles a year…at 44mpg…that would be 227 gallons of gas for the Prius and 303 gallons for the Kia. At $3 (I know it’s not that, I’m just putting in a price that it should be, minimally) a gallon, that would be a savings of $228 a year in gas! Praise Gaia!

What’s that? You ask how long would it take to make up the difference in the price? C’mon Bob…

Fine. With a difference of $15,500, and $228 a year in gas savings, it would take 68.4 years to make up the difference. But that’s not important- the impact to the planet is priceless…

Jeez- don’t get so steamed up, Bob. Maybe we can do something right and progressive with your house.

How about solar energy? That would be huge in stopping your usage of electricity from your local, earth-raping coal-fired power plant. If only we could get that thing converted to wind energy.

Why hasn’t it, you ask? Well…I think that big business around here wants to pollute and make cheap profits at our expense. And…well, heh, heh… there is a bit of a problem if the wind slows down… or stops… or blows really hard… Alright. Forget it!

But, we digress. I know a guy that could put a solar panel system on your house and save you 80% on your energy bills! And it’s GREEN, Bob!! Hallelujah!

Sigh…you ask again, how much? Why does that always need to be-
Bob! No need to cuss at me, okay? Yes, I get it- you need to feed your family first.
Well, it would be around $40,000- but wait!- you could probably finance it.

What’s the pay off? Well, its green-
Okay! Okay! Stop shouting at me. I’m not a genius, but I can do the math here for you if I must.
I think I read some where that the big-ticket energy item on your house is the electric bill, especially in cold climates for households with electric heat. The average yearly bill is about $817. So 80% savings would be $640…that’s great, right?

Okay, $40,000 for the solar panel system divided by your $640 savings- you would break even in just 62.5 years…

What the?! Bob- why are you coming at me with that tire iron? Bob!! You are not being very progressive about this! Bob! Help! Help……!

Filed under: Culture, Conservatives, Culture, Democrats, Entertainment, Environment, Global Warming, Liberal, Life, Obama, Politics, Republicans, Society

Taxing the Productive and Successful…er, I mean the ‘Rich’

President Obama thinks that he will bring billions back into the treasury by raising taxes on the top 2%, also known as the ‘rich’. Of course they won’t call it that because that truth is too harsh. Instead they fudge it by calling it ‘allowing the Bush tax cuts on the rich to expire’.

What’s with the Democrats today? In their world view, there are only the ‘rich’ and the ‘poor’. They imply that we live in a feudal society where people are born into their economic strata, never to be able to move up, but always with the specter of moving down- unless they get the benevolent help of a Democrat hand out.

But first, let’s shine the light of truth on the President’s statement. The term ‘rich’ is at once vague and subjective. To a teenager, someone making $100,000 a year might seem ‘rich’. To a working adult, some making over $1,000,000 a year might seem ‘rich’. What is really being described is someone who is productive and/or successful at what they do.

Essentially what President Obama wants to do is increase the burden/take away more money from those who are the most productive and successful in our society. This is because they don’t pay their ‘fair share’, right?

Wrong. The facts are stark. An insanely small percentage of our citizenry are already paying the majority of our total income taxes.

According to IRS figures from 2006:

Top 1% of income earners paid 40% of our total income taxes.
Top 5% paid 60% of our total taxes.
Top 10% paid 71% of our total taxes.
Top 50% paid 97% of our total taxes!!

Bottom 50% paid 3% of our total taxes
Bottom 40% paid none of our total taxes!!!

Well come on, you might say- that top 1% or even top 10% must all be million-plus-dollar-a-year types, right? Again, not so. The Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) of these groups is as follows:

Top 1% AGI: $388,806 or more a year
Top 5% AGI: $153,542 or more a year
Top 10% AGI: $108,904 or more a year
Top 25% AGI: $64,702 or more a year
Top 50% AGI: $31,987 or more a year

Can you see what a myth it is that taxes are ‘unfair’ for the poor or how the ‘rich’ don’t pay their ‘fair share’? Most people have no idea how quickly they could find themselves as one of the ‘rich’ that Obama and Democrats want to fleece.

What will happen as a result of the Obama/Democrat tax increases? It’s a matter of human nature. Those productive people- seemingly unknown to Obama and the Democrats- are rational operators. Given less reward for hard work, they will labor less. Given less reward for running their small businesses, they will lay people off, they will defer expansion plans and therefore, the need for more employees. Given less reward for their investments, they will avoid the risk and pull their money out of the stock market and start-up funding and look for something that is less risky. The economy will continue to contract, joblessness will continue to rise, and everyone will- including the government- will end up with less money. Everyone loses until we go back to letting the free market operate.

Note to Obama and leftist Democrats: Get some common sense!

Filed under: Economy, Politics, Barack Obama, Business, Culture, Democrats, Economics, Economy, Leftism, Life, News, Obama, Philosophy, Politics, Socialism, Stimulus, Taxes

The Next American Tea Party Against Socialism

This short video, on the unlikely website of CNBC, is the best off-the-cuff statement of American values I’ve heard in a long time! Rick Santelli proposes the next American Tea Party in revolution against the Socialism of Obama and the Democrat majority.

Check it out: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1039849853

Filed under: American Values, Culture, Economy, Politics, Bailout, Barack Obama, Business, Congress, Democrats, Economy, Government, Life, News, Obama, Politics, Stimulus, Work

The Values Gulf Between Left and Right

Most people wonder at the sharp differences that separate people politically in the United States today. Those political differences are largely illustrated in the differences between the Democrat and Republican parties.

Instead of varying only on the methods of how to further American values and leadership, it has devolved into a range of Socialism to Communism with Democrats and partial to total free-market Capitalism for Republicans. Socialism and Communism run completely counter to the American ideals of individual liberties, financial freedoms, and property rights.

If you think this depth of moral/cultural value-gulf doesn’t exist, examine the below anecdote of an interaction with a typical liberal product of our modern academic/collegiate system:

In a recent column, Dennis Prager argues that American students know next to nothing about the evils of Communism and do not recognize the terrorist threat we face today. The column was inspired by an encounter with a UC Santa Barbara student who told Prager that Communism was never a real threat, and neither is terror now. Observes Prager, “I suspect this young woman represents many college students. If one wants to understand what left-wing dominance in university social sciences departments produces, one merely had to meet this young woman.” 

No doubt this ‘normal’ student voted exhultantly for Obama in the last election and likely sees no issue with his leftist policies negatively impacting our country today. As I haved blogged in the past, I think young adults should have to pass an American values competency test before they are allowed to vote.

Filed under: Academia, Philosophy, Politics, American Values, College, Communism, Democrat, Obama, Philosophy, Politics, Republican, Socialism

What the Obama Economic ‘Stimulus’ Plan Will Give Us

All we’ve heard about is how this economic downturn is so bad that it is compared to the Great Depression. Then we hear the blather how Obama is a modern-day Roosevelt. Well, if that’s true, here’s some historical fact (article link) on what we have to look forward to with Obama’s ‘New Deal’ and our economy:

It was May 1939. In less than two years, the Empire of Japan would spoil America’s splendid isolation … and drag us into World War II, thus ending the Great Depression.

But on that May afternoon, electric fans cooled the House Ways and Means Committee room as the congressmen puzzled over the economy’s persistent doldrums. No previous recession had lasted even half as long. The unemployment rate had again topped 20 percent — though it had been seven years since the New Deal began. Henry Morganthau, Roosevelt’s Treasury secretary, was testifying, and he was brutally honest about the results of the greatest (to that time) experiment in Keynesian fiscal policy:

“We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong . . . somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises. . . . I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started. . . . And an enormous debt to boot.”

The outcome is always the same when ever wishful ideological thinking is used in place of objective wisdom. Someone should coin a saying to the effect: ‘Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it’ or something like that…

Filed under: Economy, Philosophy, Politics, Economy, Finance, Great Depression, History, Life, Obama, Politics, President Obama

Calls for Firing NASA’s James Hansen

As with all zealots, their true activist goals will eventually show through. James Hansen, a government figure in charge of climate studies at NASA, has been one of the principle voices for climate alarmism since the inception of the unproven scientific theory of human-driven ‘Global Warming’. What his crusade of eco-doom has to do with our space program, I don’t know.

Having regularily acted beyond his role, he has inarguably crossed the line by singularly appearing in a private activist organization video calling for civil disobedience against his own government!

Noted in an article by The Heartland Institute:

“It is plainly improper for someone on the U.S. government payroll to advocate civil disobedience on behalf of a non-government advocacy group,” said Dan Miller, executive vice president of The Heartland Institute and former chairman of the Illinois Commerce Commission. “As long as a public official is on the public payroll, his first loyalty is to his constituency, not to some outside pressure group calling on people to break the law,” Miller said.

A video featuring Hansen is prominently displayed on the Web site of a group called Capitol Climate Action. In it, Hansen says “please join us” at a protest at a power plant in Washington, DC. The facility burns coal to generate electricity. The Web site calls on people to “surround the plant, disrupting access, and refusing to leave when asked.”

Beyond this, he has become unhinged in comments tarring those that transport or use coal as the cheap, abundant form of energy it is as Nazi’s:

Hansen has become increasingly strident in his condemnation of coal-fired plants, which he has compared to the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz during World War II. Incredibly, he has even called for Nuremberg-style trials for scientists who disagree with him about the causes and possible consequences of climate change.

 This guy is not only unhinged, but clearly no longer acting anything like an apolitical, government-paid scientist should be. Other experts note:

“If I did what Jim has done while I was a NASA employee, I would have been drawn and quartered … and then fired,” said Dr. Roy Spencer, principal research scientist for the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

“I have been following Jim Hansen’s travails over many years,” said Hans Labohm, a climate policy expert based in The Netherlands. “My impression is that he has been acting like a climate activist rather than a climate scientist. We in Europe tend to regard NASA as a serious scientific organisation. I have always wondered how someone like Jim Hansen could be part of it. As an expert reviewer of the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report, I believe I express the concerns of many people.”

“Hansen is primarily responsible for making climate and climate change a political rather than a scientific issue, and for that alone he should be fired, especially since his position as a scientist and a bureaucrat must be apolitical,” said Dr. Timothy Ball, former climatology professor at the University of Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada.

See the rest of the Heartland Institute’s article here:  http://www.heartland.org/full/24765/Calls_Mount_For_Obama_To_Fire_NASA_Climate_Chief.html

Filed under: Environment, Politics, Activism, Climate, Environment, Global Warming, NASA, Politics

Why Universal Health Care Equals Poor Health Care

I have posted before on this blog why Universal Health Care is a really bad idea. One of the those reasons was rationing.

As Sally C. Pipes notes in her book, “The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care“, socialized healthcare leads to rationing by causing shortages in key resources like doctors:

Part of the problem is a physician shortage. One out of ten Canadians is seeking a primary care doctor. According to Pipes, “Over the last decade, about 11 percent of physicians trained in Canadian medical schools have moved to the United States.” This is in large part due to a massive pay discrepancy. “The average Canadian doctor earns only 42 percent of what a doctor earns in the United States,” says Pipes.

This is what happens when Soviet-style centrally planned government sets what it sees as ‘proper’ pay for private citizen’s jobs.

Say, isn’t that exactly what they are proposing for private citizens in the financial services industry…?

Filed under: Health Care, Economy, Health Care, Life, Politics, Universal Health Care

What You Have to Look Forward to with Universal Health Care

Universal health care is pushed as the humane alternative to our mean-spirited and overly expensive US health care system. As is ususal with Leftist fare, it is a ‘good intentioned’ idea with the worst possible mechanism to implement it. The unfortunate truth is that universal health care is not what its misty-eyed propopents hope it will be if implemented here- or anywhere.

 As Sally C. Pipes notes in her book, “The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care“, socialized healthcare has already had major failings in several countries where it’s been implemented:

Canada’s waiting lists are legendary — over 800,000 Canadians are on lists for surgery and other necessary treatments. The average wait between a referral from a primary care doctor and treatment by a specialist is 18 weeks. “That’s almost double what doctors consider clinically reasonable,” Pipes points out.

In other socialized systems, things aren’t any better. “Sweden’s waiting lists have led some patients to visit veterinarians,” reveals Pipes.

Is this what we want in our country?! I’ve lived under this type of ‘healthcare’ and can’t stress enough how bad it was.

Filed under: Uncategorized, Economy, Health, Health Care, Life, Politics, Universal Health Care

California, Laboratory of Socialist Collectivism

The philosophical test of an idea is if it works in practice. So many ideas and worldviews (political and otherwise) being advanced today are of the type that are based on good intentions, but use really bad solutions to solve them. This situation has occurred in the past and gave rise to the wise adage: ‘The road to hell is paved with good intentions.’

 

The Leftist/Collectivist world view is rife with this basic flaw in almost all of its reasoning. If human nature is one of fundamental individualism based on rational self interest and your worldview is one of sacrificial collectivism, your ideas of changing the world will always fail. Period. It’s only a matter of how long it will take for the reality of rational self interest to spring back to it natural state/true north after being bent away by ‘well intentioned’ Socialism. On the flip side, a society that recognizes and incentivizes rational self interest will thrive. This is the reason socially, politically, and economically the US has been so successful as a country.

 

So, if this is an objectively true assessment, where ever Leftist/Collectivism is predominately implemented, you should see a partial to total breakdown of society. Currently, the political party primarily holding the Leftist worldview is the Democrat party. The Democrat party is the dominant party in California. This being the case, we should see, if they implement enough Socialism, a breakdown in that part of our society.

 

Today California is amongst those states reeling the hardest during this economic downturn. This state is a laboratory of Leftist politics and policies. Businesses are the engine of economic growth and jobs. They are also rational operators. So when California-based Intel decided to expand it operations, you would expect them to do that in their home state, right? Not so:

The world’s leading maker of microprocessors plans to create 7,000 jobs in new and expanded plants that will churn out computer chips 30% more powerful than the current generation of chips.

But California-based Intel won’t make them in California.

Instead, the company is expanding in Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico. Anywhere but California, which is now so unfriendly to business, even its home-grown firms don’t want to expand there.

But California has a large focus on high taxes so Government can redistribute income from those that have too much and reward those that are poor. Shouldn’t people understand the ‘good intentions’ of this approach/worldview and do their part to ensure that everyone has an equal outcome, regardless of their talents or efforts? Maybe Intel is only one selfish, unenlighted business in California. Surely the other businesses are doing their part? Instead, we find:

As Intel shows, businesses are struggling to stay and grow in California. In the first 10 months of last year, the state lost 25,000 high-quality manufacturing jobs — and has lost 25% of its industrial work force since 2001, according to the California Manufacturers & Technology Association.

Ok, but this must be singularly confined to the business sector in that state. The bright, talented and educated people of California should see the emotional rightness of Socialism and be happy with high taxes, restrictions, and government regulation designed to reach the collectivist ideal of equal outcomes? Once again, the reality of human nature rudely rejects the Leftist ideology:  

Well-trained, well-educated Californians are leaving in droves — and are being replaced by poor immigrants from Latin America and Asia. Since 2005, there’s been a net outflow of middle-class Californians — and 260,000 people left for other states in 2007.

This happens time and time again. Every time a bad idea is forced on people, they individually and collectively render their wisdom and assessment of the idea by moving or shifting away from its negative effects.

 

Even while this happens, California’s governor takes even worse actions in relation to the failing business climate there (pun intended):

This week, a business group criticized the Western Climate Initiative, an environmental pact among seven Western governors and four Canadian provincial premiers that seeks to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 15% by 2020.

Not only is the current ‘Global Warming’ debate not based on any sound science, the premature, radical, and costly solutions that are being proposed offer no tangible benefit to the citizenry. But this should be not surprise as environmentalism and eco-alarmism is also being used today as another way to force failed Leftist ideas and ideaologies onto American society. I predict, with the strongest confidence, that the above blunder will cost California even more of prosperity.

 

As this Investor’s Business Daily article notes, wrecking California’s state economy and prosperity didn’t happen over night: 

This didn’t just happen; it’s been going on for years. As the state’s leading historian, Kevin Starr, told author Joel Kotkin, “California is in no way a role model for anyone from outside the state.”

Sad, but true. At one time, California meant business. Today, its political leaders are almost entirely lacking in understanding how a free economy works. For the once-Golden State, it’s a real pity.

Filed under: American Values, Economy, Philosophy, Politics, Business, California, Capitalism, Economy, Environment, Global Warming, Government, Philosophy, Politics, Socialism

Are You a Real American? Take the Quiz!

Does anyone else feel like they are now a stranger in a strange land watching the government implement whole-scale Socialism in our country? Never have we had so many political leaders completely lacking in objective wisdom and American values.

 

They lack the wisdom (different from intelligence) to understand what works according to objective realities of human nature and the natural world/science. Instead, they desperately try to govern according to a wishful and collectivist worldview that is distinctly at odds with reality and what has proven to be successful (ex: free-market capitalism vs. communism).

 

They also have failed to understand our history and therefore lack an understanding of the American values that drove that history. These values that enshrine individual liberties have made this country prosperous and the beacon of freedom it was until recently. It makes our current political leaders wrong on all the important issues like how to keep our nation secure, on how an economy works, on how to fairly tax everyone for the common good, on what to ‘do’ about our climate, on how to create a viable healthcare market, and more.

 

Have you ever sometimes felt that people should have to take a test to qualify for citizenship so they can competently execute their civil responsibilities?

 

To this end, I have written a test called the ‘American Competency Quiz’. Take the test to find out if you are a person of common-sense American values or, at the other end of the spectrum, are an anti-American, socialist/collectivist or Leftist responsible for the current deconstruction of our country:

 

American Competency Quiz

Government Section

1. What is the main purpose of Government?

a. Take care of me

b. Run my life (because I can’t/am not qualified)

c. It takes a village

d. Protect the rights of individuals

 

2. Where does the Government get its money?

a. Mean, rich people

b. They just print it

c. By taking it from citizens through taxation

.

Economic Section

3. Where do businesses come from?

a. They just are

b. Rich people create them to oppress poor people or minorities

c. Thin air

d. Individuals that take the personal and financial risks to create them

 

4. Where do jobs come from?

a. Government

b. Capitalist oppressors

c. Don’t know- never worked one

d. Businesses

 

5. What happens when a business is run incompetently?

a. Its Capitalist oppressors are exposed

b. It’s rewarded with cash by the Government

c. It fails and competent companies take its place

 

6. What has always been the basis of the long term economic prosperity of the US?

a. Communism

b. Socialism

c. Government welfare/handouts/make-work jobs

d. Free-market capitalism

.

Housing section

7. If you have no credit history or significant income, do you think you are qualified to get a mortgage?

a. Yes, I have a right to a house (social justice)

b. Why does credit history or income matter?

c. Yes, I am an ‘under served’ demographic

d. No, because I will not be able to meet my financial obligations

.

8. If you don’t understand the terms of a Mortgage, should you enter into it?

a. Yes, It will be the bank’s fault if I can’t pay it

b. Yes, I have a right to a house

c. Don’t know what that ‘terms’ thing means

d. No, because I might not be able to meet my financial obligations

.

Tax Section

9. How much of our total US taxes does the top 1% of income earners pay?

a. Not enough

b. 1% of total taxes

c. 37% of total taxes (source: IRS.Gov)

.

10. How much of our total US taxes does the top 10% of income earners pay?

a. Not enough

b. 10% of total taxes

c. 71% of total taxes (source: IRS.Gov)

.

11. How much of our total US taxes does the top 50% of income earners pay?

a. Not enough

b. 50% of total taxes

c. 96.5% of total taxes (source: IRS.Gov)

.

12. How much of our total US taxes does the bottom 40% of income earners pay?

a. Way too much

b. Must be a lot

c. Zero Taxes (source: IRS.Gov); In fact most will get cash payments instead through Earned Income Tax Credits.

.

 

13. How can President Obama promise to give ‘tax cuts’ to 95% of Americans?

a. Because he said so and it made me feel tingly

b. I don’t know, but I heard the words ‘money’ and ‘check’!

c. He can’t, if they don’t pay taxes. What he promises to most people is a welfare payment.

 

14. What do real/actual tax cuts do?

a. Allow rich people to avoid paying their fair share

b. Means I get a ‘tax cut’ welfare check

c. Denies the Government its rightful money

d. Allows actual taxpayers to spend that extra money growing businesses (read: Jobs), use for personal consumption, or save it.

 

Healthcare Section

15. What will Universal Healthcare do for healthcare costs?

a. It will make healthcare free

b. It can’t possibly make it more expensive than now

c. It will explode costs and taxes unsustainably to pay for it because people will always over utilize a ‘free’ service

 

16. What will Universal Healthcare do for healthcare access?

a. It will finally allow all, especially the poor and illegal aliens, to get all of the care they deserve

b. It will disappear like Canada and people will die on increasingly long waiting lists.

 

17. What will Universal Healthcare do for healthcare quality?

a. It will ensure a high quality system with government watchdogs monitoring everything (even though it hasn’t worked anywhere else)

b. Quality will fall because bureaucrats will dictate ‘proper’ pay and price levels so fewer talented people will become doctors (not worth it) and companies will quit innovating new medical devices and pharmaceuticals (not worth it).

 

18. What will Universal Healthcare do for healthcare choice?

a. It will give me total choice

b. Boy, I have no idea what will happen

c. It will strip me of choice over my health; faceless bureaucrats will decide if I’m worth the cost of treatment or not. Don’t get old or costly.

 

Environmental Section

19. What would have happened if we had signed on to the Kyoto Protocol?

a. The world would have been saved

b. The world might be saved

c. The climate might cool 17 one-hundredths of a degree by 2050

d. Nothing. Nature primarily forces the climate, not Man or carbon dioxide.

 

20. How many climate models correctly predict any future climate trends?

a. All of them

b. Only the ones smart scientists or politicians use

c. The ones endorsed by Al Gore

d. None of them do. Zero. We don’t understand enough to model climate yet.

 

21. Should we destroy our economy and way of life to combat ‘Global Warming’?

a. Yes, it’s the only way to save humanity (and the cuddly polar bears)

b. Yes, it’s the best way to implement Socialism without the rubes knowing it

c. Absolutely, praise Mother Gaia and her disciple, Al Gore

d. No. No one understands how our climate works, so how can we fix a problem we don’t understand or even know if it exists? Is this a scientific question or a quasi-religious/activist/political issue?

 

American Values Section

22. Who is responsible for you and your life?

a. The Government

b. Somebody owes me

c. It’s not my fault

d. As an adult and citizen, I am responsible for who I am and what I do.

 

23. Was America founded on a socialist/collectivist model or that of a rugged, self-sufficient individual?

a. Must be the Socialist/collectivist model- look at how hip the Europeans are

b. The rugged individual model sounds mean and discriminatory

c. America should be the way that makes me feels good and tingly

d. The rugged, self-sufficient individual model.

 

24. What do you have rights to?

a. Everything

b. What I feel is owed to me

c. Anything that costs a lot or takes too much work

d. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The rest you have to earn.

 

25. Equality in America means:

a. Everyone should be forced to be the same

b. We need equality of outcome; It’s unfair that people are unequal

c. Everyone is equal, unless they come from a selected victim or minority group

d. You get equality of access, not equality of outcome. Differences in people are a natural thing and should be celebrated, not penalized.

.

Each highlighted/bold answer you chose equals one point towards being a common-sense American. Any other choice equals one point towards a socialist/collectivist worldview. How do you rank?

 

25 out of 25: You are a true American!

 

20 out of 25: You are mostly American (but were probably unaware of some of the tax inequality for people that are successful)

 

15 out of 25: You might still have potential to be an American (but really need to work on reading up on the issues; you need more common sense!)

 

10 out of 25: You are a Liberal (somebody, somewhere, owes you something)

 

5 out of 25: You are a Socialist (you should think about moving to Europe)

 

0 out of 25: You are a total Communist and Anti-American (everyone should do what you say for their own good, comrade)

Filed under: American Values, Economy, Philosophy, Politics, Economics, Economy, Environment, Finance, Financial Crisis, Global Warming, Life, News, Obama, Philosophy, Politics, Taxes