MSNBC’s Chris Matthews was on Bill Maher’s show on HBO last night, and got into a debate with conservative right wing talk show host Roger Hedgecock, formerly Mayor of San Diego, regarding how to measure “success”.
Matthews asked why we worship money so much, that only if one earns a lot of money is he or she considered a “success”.
Matthews asked about the high school teacher who is a “success” in educating the future generation, but makes only $70,000 a year at the end of his career; or the soldier in Afghanistan who sacrifices his safety to help protect America and is paid even less. Is he not a “success”?
What Matthews is saying is so true! “Success” should not be how much money you earn; how much money you avoid paying in taxes; how big your home is, or how fancy your car is; how much you cheat your workers in benefits and work conditions; how much you exploit consumers because of greed of a business owner to trick consumers into paying top price while claiming to have a “sale”; spending one’s money to gain an advantage from a politician, so as to avoid regulation in the public interest; and other examples of the worship of money for its own sake!
“Success” is not only the teacher and the soldier, but also the nurse, the police officer, the firefighter, the librarian, the social worker, and the many other occupations and fields of work where workers make our lives better. This also includes the so called ‘little people”, such as the server at a restaurant, a bartender, a maid, a sanitation worker, and numerous other fields of work, where often rich people look down on these people as the scum of the earth, because they do not earn a lot of money!
This new “Gilded Age” we are in, which makes one “worship” people whose job is to enrich themselves at the expense of “average” people, and brag about it; and have parties in Boca Raton, where they disparage half the citizenry; and pay as much for seeing a politician speak as the average annual salary of a family of four, who pays more tax percentage wise they they do, must be made out to be what it is—a white collar crime which should be exposed and prosecuted under the laws, and condemned as unpatriotic and selfish!
Romney is not slamming people for being poor, he is saying that America was built on successes of individuals… yes they get rich, big deal. As for paying the average salary of a family of four to see a politician… Obama has those very same dinners… he has not ever been poor… and as for being racist because I or other disagree with the fallacies he is perpetuating… then if that is definition of being racist… I guess I am… he is not qualified to be the leader of the Nation… he has had no real experience… whether he was black, pink, purple, brown or white… he is not the man to run our country…
@Conservative and Proud
Here is some in-depth info about the successful Progressive accomplishments made by Obama and the Democrats
http://www.winningprogressive.org/president-obamas-accomplishments
Thanks so much, although I am sure it will NOT have an effect on Conservative and Proud, who seems very set in belief that Obama is not qualified to be President.
The fact that other Presidents had very little experience before becoming President–including Lincoln, TR, Wilson, and Carter among others—and that other Presidents, including Buchanan and Andrew Johnson had tons of experience but were failures—does not matter if one is ideological and refuses to give credit where credit is due!
And while we are at it, Romney’s one term as Governor puts him as less experienced in public office than anyone nominated in the past century except Wendell Willkie in 1940, the only other businessman to run, and in his case, lose, because business experience is not what is needed in the White House, but rather political and governmental experience! I have written about this in an earlier entry!