Friday, October 10, 2008

Grass roots for bottoms up economy & Lincoln's warning

I don't know a lot about the stock market,and speak from the viewpoint of a retired small business owner. I quit my regular job in the mid 1980's, and went into the second hand and then antique business with my brother, which is maybe one of the last vestiges of free enterprise. Now what I heard in discussions by members of the global elite was about solving problems from the top down, while in my opinion there are many problems down here on the bottom. The grass roots aren't doing so well these days, what with all of the chemical farming going on and no one hoeing their weeds because they seen an ad on TV & believe that Roundup is God's gift to the suburban lawn. This once great country was built on the concept of free enterprise and anyone could jump in without having to worry about restrictions and rules from every branch of government that quickly stifle any attempts to build something like, say, a more effecient automobile. In the 1910's & 20's there were at least two hundred makes of automobiles and trucks, many of them from small companies: they ran on gas, electricity, kerosene,or steam. If you owned a small farm you could buy a truck to haul your produce to market, of which there were many, or your grain to the family that owned an elevator. It was free enterprise and at that time was built from the bottom up. I'm not saying that its as simple as all this, but do think that this must be considered, and who knows, if this downhill slide continues with no brakes, we may be doing just that...G:

An early Republican viewpoint:

"The prudent, penniless beginner in the world, labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself, then labors on his own account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him. This is the just and generous and prosperous system, which opens the way to all, gives hope to all, and consequent energy and progress, and improvement of condition to all. No men living are more worthy to be trusted than those who toil up from poverty--none less inclined to take or touch aught which they have not honestly earned. Let them beware of surrendering a political power which they already possess, and which, if surrendered, will surely be used to close the door of advancement against such as they, and to fix new disabilities and burdens upon them, till all of liberty shall be lost."

Abraham Lincoln

3 comments:

  1. Whenever the modern Republican Party tout themselves as the party of Lincoln you should respond with a quote like yours, or this one,

    "Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital.
    Capital is only the fruit of labor,
    and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed.
    Labor is superior to capital,
    and deserves much the higher consideration." -- Abraham Lincoln

    Today's Repukes are invariably anti-worker, especially anti-union worker. Unworthy of the name if you ask me.

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  2. Well, Republicans aren't even Republicans in the classical sense anymore, they are Federalist Fascists.

    The original party was the party of Jefferson, Republican/Democrat, which morphed into Democrat.

    Lincoln originally was a Whig.

    The Civil War Republican Party was formed because it offered an antislavery platform. And it was considered very liberal.

    The Democratic Party was the more conservative back then.

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  3. Yep, the current repugs are a bunch of unilateral despots and should be arrested before they can escape.

    Lincoln was also kind of a pioneer Republican, and tied in with the big money of that time. He was helped in his election with railroad money...G:

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