kristajan

In addition to griping about how Maher bullied David Hogg, I have some more gripes. When a female congressperson was on ( I think it was Katie Porter ), she was continually cut off, unable to finish her points. Laura Coates did exceptionally well compared to other women when she was on. More recently, Maher, Mark Cuban and Joe Scarborough had a discussion on how great it is to be American right now. It's true that most people in the world are worse off, BUT, it's pretty easy for millionaires or billinonaires to brag. There was no mention of income/wealth inequality. The middle class has fallen farther and farther toward the poverty level since Reagan's trickle down idiocy. Not just governments can be tyranical, so can big business. We know from history that unchecked, they create artificial scarcity and monopolies. They abuse labor, produce unsafe products for consumers, and pollute the environment. Of course bureaucratic inefficiencies should be fixed. Of course there need to be incentives to motivate people and some people rich enough to have sports teams, pharmaceutical research, and gorgeous homes. Of course we will be happier if grateful for what we have. But a government needs to take care of their middle class, their labor class, their youth, and their intellectuals. Without strength in those groups, we will fail. Without regulations, aggressive, powerful people will return society to something like feudalism, with lords and serfs.

Another consideration about American success is the beginning of this country. Because indiginous people suffered so greatly from war and disease, immigrants (white ones) received free real estate and resources that generations of families could build on. We have natural borders for protection. We have had public education for a long time. We're luckier than most countries. But back to middle class issues - even with inflation going down, it's really tough for the modern middle class to afford rent or mortgage and buy groceries and fuel. Have a heart. Three books that impressed me about America's politics are The Wrecking Crew and Listen, Liberal, both by Thomas Frank, and The Fifth Risk, by Michael Lewis. I've also been shocked by some articles in Mother Jones (1) about how venture capitalists buy small businesses, fire most workers, sell off assets, give themselves huge bonuses, and then declare bankruptcy. (2) was about rich people buying housing in NYC, forcing out people with lower rents, renovating the building, and then charging rents that are unaffordable to the former residents. Three other tidbits - (1) rules about student loans are different and much more restrictive than other loans, (2) before Nixon, I think most medical insurers were non-profit, (3) when the bankruptcy laws were changed by some republican congress, they made it so that personal bankruptcy is now allowed to take the person's home. Before that, individuals were protected from that.

Well, Bill Maher is not responsible for all that, and I'll probably continue to watch Real Time.