NYT/Ben Stein: A City on a Hill, or a Looting Opportunity?

[BlueEyedSon]

Uh-oh. I agree with Ben Stein....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/business/yourmoney/09every.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

(snip-snip)

Even at my own beloved General Motors, whose Cadillacs I love so much — precisely because I think of them being made by the sons and grandsons of men who fought in Vietnam and at Peleliu and other bloody World War II battlefields — there is severe action to have workers quit and to lower their pensions.

At the same time, however, spectacularly large executive pensions, coming straight out of profits, keep G.M.'s retired top dogs happily playing golf at the Vintage, while the men who actually made the cars are saying: "Welcome to Wal-Mart. How can I help you?"

As I endlessly point out, taxes for the rich are lower than they have ever been in my lifetime. (To be fair, taxes for the nonrich taxes are very low as well.) And this is occurring as we accumulate government liabilities that will kill us in the long run. (And cutting spending will not work. Most federal and state spending is for items that are untouchable, like Medicare, education, the military — and, most cruelly of all, interest on the national debt. Every president promises to cut spending and not one of them does it unless a war comes to an end.)

We are mortgaging ourselves to foreigners on a scale that would make George Washington cry. Every day — every single day — we borrow a billion dollars from foreigners to buy petroleum from abroad, often from countries that hate us. We are the beggars of the world, financing our lavish lifestyle by selling our family heirlooms and by enslaving our progeny with the need to service the debt.

[catzies]

1. I met Ben Stein on his game show (won his money) and I do like this

column, but I shed no tears at his late epiphanies.

Ben was an apologist for all those deplorable policies until recently. He was mean-spirited and dismissive toward those who disagreed, and now all of a sudden we were right all along?? :wtf:

I would have proposed a different title for this, maybe "Ben Stein Changes His Mind."

[wakeme2008]

2. The GM workers pensions fund is FAT

It is the Executives that are raiding it and that GM "pension" problems.

[OneBlueSky]

3. sounds like Ben got up on the left side of the bed today . . .

something that doesn't happen all that often, to be sure . . .

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

4. Holy Crap BatMan, there is hope for Ben

after all!

Welcome to the party, comrade.

[applegrove]

5. How many incarnations does this person have?

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

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