Gas Prices

[BigMat]

I'll throw my hat in on this one, more to the point, President Roosevelts, who I agree with on a lot.

Sorry for the bulk, but I felt such a great man didn't deserve to be demoted to...internet-ees. but I did highlight!

"Unfortunately, those dealing with the subject have tended to divide into two camps, each as unwise as the other. One camp has fixed its eyes only on the need of prosperity, loudly announcing that our attention must be confined to securing it in bulk, and that the division must be left to take care of itself. This is merely the plan, already tested and found wanting, of giving prosperity to the big men on top, and trusting to their mercy to let something leak through to the mass of their countrymen below–which, in effect, means that there shall be no attempt to regulate the ferocious scramble in which greed and cunning reap the largest rewards. The other set has fixed its eyes purely on the injustices of distribution, omitting all consideration of the need of having something to distribute, and advocates action which, it is true, would abolish most of the inequalities of the distribution of prosperity, but only by the unfortunately simple process of abolishing the prosperity itself. This means merely that conditions are to be evened, not up, but down, so that all shall stand on a common level, where nobody has any prosperity at all. The task of the wise radical must be to refuse to be misled by either set of false advisers; he must both favor and promote the agencies that make for prosperity, and at the same time see to it that these agencies are so used as to be primarily of service to the average man."
-1912

"We grudge no man a fortune in civil life if it is honorably obtained and well used. It is not even enough that it should have been gained without doing damage to the community. We should permit it to be gained only so long as the gaining represents benefit to the community … The really big fortune, the swollen fortune, by the mere fact of its size, acquires qualities which differentiate it in kind as well as in degree from what is possessed by men of relatively small means. Therefore, I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes, and … a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, properly safeguarded against evasion, and increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate."
-1910




For what little it is worth, I agree with both of you, sort of. I think "trickle-down" is a worthless theory, I submit the past 10 years as evidence, Bush tax cuts in place for a while now. Results- rich, rich as ever...poor, still poor, maybe even poorer. No need to find numbers, this is common knowledge, if not, very easy to find. The empirical evidence just doesn't match up. Beyond that, TR has my back.

As to hand out to the lazy-
I say lazy on purpose, I worked on an ambulance and drove lazy people around for most of my job. I have seen a LOT of lazy people. I think we could even add a 3 letter organization to the .gov for this one. hear me out. You want welfare, cool, you show up at the welfare office and you do a job (you can handle) for 8 hours, build a trail, fix a road, clean a park, whatever, then and only then, you get a check. You can't do that and you need disability, cool, you just got a transcription/envelope packing/filing job at home. You are in lecherous turd in prison, guess what you are a farmer now! Would these programs be inefficient, probably, but at least we get something and the desire to live on welfare would dry right up.

As to the hand outs to illegals-
secure the border, create a good work visa program. this is the only fix worth half a damn and until this is done all the other fixes are like trying to pump a bilge without bothering to patch the giant hole in the boat. Someday, you're gonna sink. Everything else is a waste of the paper its written on.


-for the OP, I ride a bike a lot, tons of trails in Denver and frankly, I prefer it. Worth note its 17.7 miles, each way, and I still prefer it. Traffic sucks and there is nothing like cruising on a nice bike at good speed on an empty trail listening to some really good music. My wife takes a scooter most days, 113 mpg and her work is 4 miles away, its a cool $5 a month gas bill for her.