The Better Life

A recent e-mail from my (Republican, of course) U. S. Senator said something about the American Dream of one's children having a better life than the parents.   On face value, this looks like something reasonable.  Don't all parents (except the psychotic ones, and there are quite a few of those around) want Better for their children?  What the e-mail was aiming at was another better and blisteringly hot and surging economy where each generation is able to earn mo' money, mo' money than the previous one.

I thought we learned this lesson in the 60s and 70s when the boomer children turned on, dropped out, and forsook the values of their parents - which drove their parents totally wild. [In the interest of discretion, I will admit to having been a Young Republican and missing out on all of that somehow.  But I saw it happening, if only by being documented in the popular culture of the day - AKA sitcoms, etc.]  Even today I see Boomer parents looking on in disbelief as their children avoid the Professions or any full-time work that involves Benefits.  People who sweated through years of collecting bachelors and masters degrees see their kids, those that actually went to and finished college, waiting tables or travelling around the world camping out on strangers' sofas.  Many of these parents don't understand why these kids are happy.

It strikes me that this particular American Dream was the one where the parents escaped a war-torn geography or totalitarianism and worked hard so that their kids could have the freedom to decide what they wanted to be.  A few of those children may have decided to go on and be financial or industrial moguls, but you can only have so many of those, even in America.   If the American Dream is for your children to be rich beyond your wildest dreams, then you have a sad, sad imagination.

I'm not an economist or know anything about math for that matter, but it's common sense to me that an economy cannot grow endlessly.  I have finally accepted the fact that our economy is based on the endless manufacture and purchase of shit.  If we stopped buying shit, our world would collapse.  If we don't stop manufacturing shit, we're going to drown in it.  I don't see a way out of this conundrum.  If my dad taught me anything, it was the Law of Diminishing Returns.  If being a woman has taught me anything, it's that things go in cycles.  Yes, the economy has a downturn, but it comes back up again.  Then it goes down again.  We cannot keep making it go up.  All we can do is protect ourselves for the times when it goes down.  That may mean protecting people we think don't deserve a hand-out, but that's not our call because when it comes to Stuff, we can't be trusted.  We turn into the formerly docile chimps suddenly fighting over bananas.

People are greedy.  Don't argue with me.  Some may be less greedy than others, but it's programmed into us for when we need it to survive.  However, if we aren't starving, we should leave that tool in the box.  If you have shelter and enough to eat, you are doing well.  In a civilized society, you shouldn't have to worry about not having food or shelter.  If you have more than one house (and I'm speaking as someone who does have more than one house, but would like to get rid of one of them - let me know if you need one), you have excess shelter.  If you, like I, have trouble deciding whether to have Ginger Delight with Pork and Thai iced tea or Keema Mattar and Chai for dinner, then you have an excess of food.  If you begrudge anyone else having any of your excess, you are greedy.  If you have five houses and wonder which country to have dinner in and you still begrudge anyone having  any of your excess, then you are a hopeless bastard.

Where did this dislike of paying taxes come from?  In all my years with my parents, I never heard any bellyaching about paying taxes or where it was going.  You think a Republican apple fell from a Democratic tree?  Guess again.  They would get all excited about Republican candidates [that is, until Reagan].  My parents were middle-class people with a single income and two kids.  We were raised to value Fiscal Responsibility at home.  You don't come much tighter with a penny than Depression Era parents.   You bought a house you could pay for, not the biggest you could afford.  [ In her later years my mother wondered if that were a mistake.  I wish I could tell them now that it wasn't.]  Taxes were not the issue.  "Tax" was not a bad word.

The only problem I have with paying taxes is the forms.  They're so needlessly complicated. I used to solve that problem by organizing all my 1099s and forms and pouring myself a big glass of bourbon.  I figure that if I don't have a problem paying taxes, then rich people shouldn't either.

I also don't believe that rich people create jobs.  I think people with ideas create jobs.  Rich people only create ideas to hold onto what they've got: tax loopholes, Political Action Committees, Credit Default Swaps, etc.  Those things don't help anyone but rich people and then when some of their ideas go bad, everyone suffers.

So what is the American Dream?

I think the kids know: it's the freedom to find what you really want to be doing, what you really do well.  It's being free to be yourself, to love and be loved by someone of your choosing.  It's giving everyone else the same consideration.  It's having enough money to pay your fair share of taxes to keep that Dream available to everyone, maybe.

Sunday Afternoon Humanist Meeting

First of all, we meet on a Sunday, and I think that's just hilarious.

I had tried to nudge the online conversation toward "Lying" because we'd been talking about "Good" and "Bad" and when they finally bit, I was totally unprepared. So, here's the exchange between Husbob and me:

M: Quick! Who's the Apostolic Father who said lying was always wrong?!
H: Ummm, ummmm, ummmm - would you know it if I said it?
M: Yeah, yeah!
H: [Goes through a quick succession of names I don't recognize as being it.]
M: Maybe it wasn't an Apostolic Father.
H: Was it in Ehrman's book?
M: Yeah, yeah!
H: [Heads off for the bedroom.]
M: Oh, do you have it?
H: [From bedroom] I thought I did. I don't see it. Where is it?
M: [Helplessly watching the chat morph into something else as I start gesticulating in the direction the book should be.]
H: [Gazes dumbly at my wild gesticulations.]
M: AW, SHHHHUGAR! THE INTERNET'S GONE INTERMITTENT ON ME!!! Umm, thataway - Shelves. Counter. Stack of books.
H: [Returns with book.] Oh, this is helpful; you've marked it.
M: Have I?
H: Well, you've marked a lot of things in here.  St. Augustine?
M: That's it! That's it! Starts with an "A"!!!
H: He says it's never, never, ever okay to lie.
M: [Starts typing even though that ship has sailed.]
H: That's not a direct quote ...
M: Close enough!!