Subject: Re: Spy down another 4 percent,
Taking both Elan's and Jim's last comments together paints a reasonable snapshot of the self-inflicted wound which has only just begun to bleed. If our 250-year legacy of reasonably free elections and adherence to the Constitution continues, there will be another team trying to pick up the shards in another four years (minus the two months it has taken to socially and economically trash much of what has made America great).

So, let's examine what is going on from a domestic standpoint. This has not been limited to any specific political party. Our peculiar type of "democracy" (that's a word that would require a paragraph or two of closer description) fosters our politicians accepted massive "donations" in order to get reelected (as, if they lose an election, they can no longer continue "doing the good work of government"). It takes a real stretch of faith to believe that a six-figure donation (let alone Musk's largess) doesn't buy influence or, at the least, access to the politician’s sympathies. They also heavily participate in the legalized bribery we call "lobbying" to become more familiar with places they can best apply their influence. And our senators and Congresspersons are exempt from insider trading regulations. And, as long as they don't become too greedy and cross the line, all legal, so they can claim that they are not corrupt. That means that the 3% of politicians who put their constituents’ interests before their own (Mike Bloomberg, former mayor of NYC, a Warren Buffet-type character, is one of the few I can think of) give the rest of politicians a bad name.

Western European countries, in general, have elected to use much higher income tax rates than we pay in the US (somewhat assisted by the assumption that they could save on defense spending because the US would protect them) to provide their society with a substantial standard of living level. Essentially free education, high-paying jobs, liberal vacations, attention to food quality, pensions, national health programs and such are taken for granted - along with what, to USians, would be considered onerous tax rates on high earners.

In the meantime, since the 1980's, the US has continually worked to reduce the tax rates assigned to the higher strata of income-earners. Simultaneously, (partially because "home economics" is not taught in school) our population is constantly besieged by the concept that buying "on credit" is a good idea and it is "common knowledge" that our domestic economy is built on a large portion of the population living in perpetual debt in order to afford all the shiny objects that a person of the social status they hope to join one day are supposed to own.

From the standpoint of those at the top of the economic food chain, the optimal scenario seems to be discontinuing an income tax. In order to accomplish this, all "social" programs, such as food assistance, medical assistance, educational assistance, financial assistance and so on should not be the responsibility of the federal government. Also, the infrastructure to support government regulations which reduce the profitability of their companies have got to go. That they were put into place to protect the general population is not as important as maximizing profit. Similarly, in the face of a constant string of "once in a generation" weather events adding up to "climate change", accepting the concept would mean lower profits.

In the past, I had a personal challenge trying to find a post-Civil War decade (other than 1945-1955 when all of our competitors were still digging out of the rubble) was the one great enough to emulate and I couldn't come up with one. Apparently, I didn't notice how great the end of the 19th Century was. While it was called the "Gilded Age" from the standpoint of guys like Rockerfeller, Carnegie, J.P. Morgan and Vanderbilt, for most of the country, the conditions were more like something out of a Dickens novel. In those days, riff-raff like Jews, Irish and Italians were not yet considered "White" by society and were lumped in with "other races". Ethnic (or other) diversity was not even a topic of conversation.

We are currently in the thralls of social, economic and political regression to a time which is romanticized by the robber barons at the top, protected by tall tariff walls and where cowboys roamed the plains (and who cared about anyone else?). There is an awful lot of tearing down before we get there, but there is a lot of tearing down being done.

It amazes me how easy it seems to be to manipulate enough of the crowd to think that this is a good thing and to convince them that the higher standard of living of Europeans is built on the shoulders of the American workers.

Jeff