Write to the candidates: What would you ask Americans to sacrifice?

[netmouse]

I appreciate the positive feedback I've gotten on my post about my letter to Senator Obama about donating blood, etc, and I'll appreciate it even more if you'd chime in and send the same message to him through the campaign's debate feedback form. That will make it more likely someone will take notice. (Feel free to spread the word, and/or link to my post).

While you're thinking about it, what would *you* ask America to do, to sacrifice, if you had the the kind of national attention these candidates can get, both as candidates and potentially as President? Write to them about that too.

In addition to the question of giving blood, one big thing I saw missing from both of their discussions of an energy plan was manpower. George Bush has made some somewhat lame mentions of the fact that some Americans are dealing with the gas price problems by driving less and riding bikes and such. Sure we are! And we should do more! Don't we have a national struggle with obesity and diabetes? We can address that and gas shortages and prices at the same time, by using old-fashioned manpower to get around. By hooking up generators to the stationary bikes and other exercise equipment we use at the home and the gym, so they generate electricity instead of using it up. By building bike-powered drive-in theaters and other such alternative energy solutions. Part of dealing with the energy crisis should include encouraging bike-friendly urban design and rules of the road. Hybrid and electric public transit as well as personal cars.

There are a lot of things they aren't talking about. So go call them on it!

(you can contact the McCain campaign here).

Comments

[sardonical1.livejournal.com]

Also, I do not support punishing the most productive, intelligent, educated, and successful members of our population (which includes those who earn the highest incomes in this nation). Perhaps you do. I think that the successful should be rewarded for their efforts, and should live for their own sake, and not that of another (the federal government).

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

Some of those who earn high incomes in this country are, in fact, "productive, intelligent, educated, and successful." (can you back up your assertion that that group includes the highest earners with references and facts?)

And then there are people like George Bush. I do not believe being born with a golden spoon in your mouth should be rewarded more than being productive, intelligent, and educated, but all too often in this country the best path to financial success is based on how much money (and highly-placed connections) you started off with in the first place.

[sardonical1.livejournal.com]

I do not need to provide a citation for common sense. Common sense says that no one wants to pay anyone far more than they have to. Thus, if one is receiving a high salary, that person has something to provide, whether it is high productivity, an advanced degree plus a great deal of experience, good social contacts that are not found within the general population, or -- in some cases, have a great deal of charisma and good looks that are not randomly found within the general population.

Thus, with these abstract principles in mind, we can see that it actually works out in practice. Who receives very high salaries? CEOs (usually an MBA + a lifetime's worth of experience), athletes (rare ability: height, speed, agility, etc--anyone who has seen this year's Olympics can state that), actors (charisma, acting ability, likability, name recognition), lawyers (J.D. degree + passage of the state bar --- thus, limits the number of potential competitors in the legal field)

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

You mean with abstract principles in mind we can make-believe that it actually works well in practice. While ignoring the fact that 50-80 percent of companies fail.

That's okay for many top executives. Failure doesn't hurt them. After all, it's a learning process, right? Besides, their earnings aren't tied to the success rates and profits of their companies. If they were, they would be motivated to invest time and effort back into their companies. Unlike a bunch of AIG executives, who allegedly took an earlier bundle of money from the feds and immediately spent half a million of it on a vacation for themselves.

No, I think the picture is more complex than that. Some of it *is* based on rewarding skill, and a lot of it rewards connections, and even plain dumb luck. A lot of people who have succeeded will tell you that - they stood out among their equally talented and diligent peers because they had the right stroke of luck at the right time.

However, I do hope that you attribute all of the failures you experience in life to your own skills and intelligence. As well as your successes, I mean. Because if that's what it's all about, that's what it's always all about, right?