The Canyon of Economic Difference

This fantasy canyon is too wide for Evil Kenieval to attempt to jump over in a one man rocket. Getting quite a bit of media attention lately, on the floor of the canyon are more than ten thousand people, living in makeshift homes, lean-too, or just holes in the ground. The congregate here to avoid arrest. Tired of seeing their numbers incarcerated for every legal violation from public urination, to loitering, panhandling, truancy, theft of food, public nuisance, they wanted to be where they could not possibly face this oppression. Oblivious to their parent’s desperation their children scurry around playing hide and seek, while all too aware their parents sit on boulders staring at each other solemnly with their eyes drawn close together, they look downward and examine the dirt in a state of acute depression.

High above the desperate scene, on the Canyon’s top side, mulling around on the western edge are the Economic Conservatives (the EC), they range in level of extremity from the far right Lazaifare Economics of the Ayn Rand variety, to the right of center anti government regulation of all business Robber Barrons their exploitation would know no boundries and be excused as justice in the free-market.. Behind them are the social Conservatives, they want to reduce government spending to tiny fractions of their former levels, but they fear harming the poor too much because the poor vote (for now), they also want government out of the regulatory realm. The three groups of economic conservatives pace back and forth at the canyon’s edge protesting, stirring up a constant rising cloud of dust which marks their location for miles around. They march around not in an organized fashion, but bumping into each other and always uttering “excuse me, pardon me.” The three groups carry signs to get the attention of the present media towards their ideologies.:

Self Regulation Now!
Big Government Must End!
Unabated Competition!
Global Warming is Normal!
Privatize Our Schools – for the Children!
Sell Our Parks Lands!
Ban Unions Now!
Eliminate the Minimum Wage!
End all Welfare – Stop Cycle of Dependency!
More Tax Breaks for Wealthy! - We Pay Bigger Amounts!
Let Them Eat Cake!!

Barely visible to the relatively refrained mob of EC and due east more than three miles across the canyon, another mob mulls around at the edge of the canyon. They are the Economic Solutions Liberals (the ESL). There are not easily defined groups of the ESL. Some are centrist and would allocate plenty of money for war planning and readiness, continue with a death penalty and the war on drugs. Some would choke off funding for warring almost completely and stop the war on drugs. Some embrace Capitalism wholeheartedly, some find it to be almost evil, but all agree that Capitalism needs government checks to protect the people from exploitation and promote the general welfare. They bump into each other also, but far less than the group on the west side of the canyon, because their strong individualistic personalities reflect the passion of their individual ideology, making getting along with the other ESL difficult – no followers in this group. They too carry signs, but these signs are well designed, built with tension wire, white board, they have banners twenty feet long on silky white material. It would appear they are experienced at this type of activity. Their signs read:

Health Care for All Now!
Enforce Union Protections!!
Fund Schools as if YOUR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT!
A LIVING WAGE – is the ETHICAL thing to do!!
End Oil Dependency – Fund Mass Transit / Alt Fuels!
Protect OUR PARKS!
Break UP Media Monopolies!!
Free Tibet!
Fight Theocracy!
Animals FEEL!
NO Privatizing SOCIAL SECURITY!
END the DRUG WAR!
Death With Dignity!

The Liberals on the east side of the canyon were all told that this day’s protest would be an economic protest, but many just couldn’t help expressing their fringe issues at the same time, their passions would not constrain. So signs of all manner of issues overwhelmed the economic crisis represented by the hordes of homeless in the canyon below. News helicopters flying above took a lot of video of both sides, for an economic report on a news show, but on the east side where the ESLs where, video footage captured a muddled mix of issues and barely revealed one economic sign. Many Americans watching the news footage that evening muttered similar words “ . .those crazy ESLs, Free Tibet? Jeez!”

If the ESL would learn that their fringe issues could be faster addressed if the populace was happy economically, that in a capitalist system such as ours, money is everything whether you like it or not, they could address their fringe issues because there are strong economic factors behind each of them.

The Economic Conservatives on the western edge of the canyon also have fringe issues, but like the vast canyon between philosophies on economics, they are vastly different from the Liberals on the eastern ridge. They didn’t bring those signs today, just the money issue signs, but if they did, they would read like so:

Abortion is MURDER!
GAY is a SINFUL Lifestyle!
CHRISTIANS face DISCRIMINATION!
Stop JUDICIAL ACTIVISM!
BAN SEX EDUCATION!
CHOICE NOW! FUND PRIVATE SCHOOLS!
Condoms Cause SEX!
Guns are GOOD!
SELL OUR PARKS!

What is the economic measure of success for any nation? Liberals look at rises or declines in poverty, including homelessness, they look at health care affordability, and they look at productivity in education so children get the best of society’s ability. But they look at documents, long range statistical studies, economic and social studies with peer reviewed critiques, and historic trend as they relate to present time. Like an Economic Conservative a Liberal approaches economics with his or her stance already engrained. For instance the ESL might say: “ . . we the people should always do everything we can to help those with less than us – in fact if there a purpose to life it is likely this.” The EC might say “. . we the rich and those of us who just know in our hearts that we’ll be rich one day, are the caretakers of the economy, its all due to us, we are owed! Poor who? Didn’t he leave the Beatles?

What is the EC measure of success for any nation? It is that everyone they know is getting rich. It is the well paved suburban landscape where they live staying clean and shiny, and the cars they drive staying fast and luxurious. It is their children, white and bouncing, getting all the best stuff. They tend to take a narrow local view when examining indicators, they’ll look a their neighbors or the people at the grocery store and then make up their minds about conditions nationally. They’ll see the five teenagers and young adults working the Starbucks counter and assume that because they smile a lot and seem clean and healthy, that is the way is for everyone in that category “living wage my ass! They’re doing great, good kids.” It is a rather unenlightened behavior. Imagine life in a bubble universe. “I see it therefore it is ALL this way.” The EC will also conduct specious thinking and conclude with specious determinations, like a man finds a hammer on his front lawn and concludes his lawn is growing hammers.

Economic Conservative:

“I see we have millions of mothers with children on welfare. I see we keep giving them money to eat and house themselves, and they keep taking the money! It makes sense to me that if we take away the money, they’ll be off the welfare and then we’ll save money!”

Not questioned by the Economic Conservative is the state of poverty. The effect on the children of those “welfare mothers.” Whether or not the mother will be able to get a job which provides enough income to pay rent, feed the children, but a used car to get to work, train herself for a job, who will provide daycare for the children or will they have to be alone, what about their health care?

In fact the 1996 Welfare Reform Act was sent by a Conservative Congress, to President Clinton’s desk for signing, four times, containing no provisions to assist for mothers on welfare with job training, day care, transportation, food assistance and etcetera. In essence leaving welfare mother, newly denied her family funding with little choices, except perhaps prostitution. When the President got the provisions which would actually enable the welfare mother meet the requirements of life, placed into the bill, he agreed to sign the act into law.

The above example was not only of specious thinking but also of the seemingly heartless and ruthless thought process (or lack of thought) needed to propose and pass that kind of legislation. “Let them pull themselves up by the bootstraps! Like I did!” Problem is, most of “them,” did not use their boot straps, they used daddy’s gold plated ladder. 1 in 5 delegates to the last GOP convention were millionaires. Many of the same legislators are still in office today.

Another trait of the EC (and domestic issue Conservatives) is to accept the ideology of someone else, with little evidence of that ideology having worked, anywhere, anytime in the past. It is as if they pay someone else to do their book-reports, having learned nothing, having researched nothing for themselves. Perhaps the best example is that modern history has proven that in this post industrial age the economics often called "trickle down," just doesn't work. It does not work because it leaves the poor and lower middle class stagnating and being exploited. Sure they get some, but its more like “tinkle down,” and that does nothing to improve their conditions, usually only results in rising inflation rates, i.e. living poor costing more.

Remember: They'll continue to try and convince those who don't remember the 80's that more tax cuts for the wealthy are needed. Just not true, it's the poor and middle class who need a break if anyone, major payroll tax cuts if need be. Since the poorer of us spend every dime we make every paycheck, then consumerism powers the economy not hot tubs and trips to Bermuda.

When the end of the protest day arrived and the news crews and helicopters were preparing to leave, each side of the canyon had planned an end of day celebration in their own way. Each of the Economic Liberals had agreed to adopt a family from the floor of the canyon. A large truck backed up to the edge and the Liberal protestors removed and unraveled thick ropes that were hundreds of feet in length. They lowered the ropes with wooden platforms on their ends. The families slowly climbed aboard, tying themselves to the boards, grasping their filthy and hungry children in their arms, they clung to the trustworthy thick ropes as the ESLs above pulled them up to new lives. Up top, veggie burgers with tofu topping greeted them, with iced green tea with chamomile to wash it down.

On the western side of the canyon one of the EC had a brilliant idea, he arranged for a group of illegal immigrants to drive two truck loads of nearly rotten Artichokes to the protest grounds. The ten workers got twenty bucks. They backed up the trucks to the edge of the cliff and dumped the approximately ten thousand vegetables down the cliff sides, tumbling, bruising, flying out towards the center of the canyon. The Artichokes landed their prickly bristle coated shells onto the heads of the remaining poor and homeless, some of the green grenades broke open upon impacting the tops of the heads of the greatly startled and gaspingly dismayed, eyes wide with incredulous reaction, homeless campers. The Economic Conservatives all had their binoculars to their eyes and they grinned with glee, some laughing heartily, they watched as the green squashy mayhem ensued below them. “That’ll teach em!” One of them said.

The news people never came back and on several cable networks the “canyon people” as they were cutely dubbed, got preempted by a presidential announcement on the new Abortion Police Squad. Every day for months the ESL came back to the canyon’s edge, but their numbers dwindled to only a couple as a new war broke out in Venezuela.