I'm not hiding - I only put that there to keep it off the list at the
request of another - I didn't start the rant, I just nuked it!

gunslinger13x once said,
always out numbered, but never out-gunned

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeffrey Schwaia" <jeff@VANAGONPARTS.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Friday, July 22, 2005 11:00 AM
Subject: Re: LVC/ Re: Why Americans Are the Jerks of the World!

> Politics aside, don't you just love it when people rant on the list then
> follow it up with "you can comment off-list"?  It's basically the
> equivalent
> of those a-hole radio talk show hosts who hang up on a caller so they can
> spout off without rebuttal.
>
> Happee Fryeday.  Feel free to respond ON-LIST.... ;-)
>
> Jeff
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM]On Behalf
> Of turbodieseltrooper
> Sent: Friday, July 22, 2005 10:25 AM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: LVC/ Re: Why Americans Are the Jerks of the World!
>
>
> Sorry - But I don't feel guilty at all for being an American.
>
> I can't help it if Liberals like yourself, are so willing to have the
> United States fail. Capitalism is not perfect, but, up to this point, ALL
> of
> the alternatives have FAILED. Communism failed in the Soviet Union, is
> failing in Cuba and the ChiComs are moving away from it. Double Digit
> unemployment in the EU,the inability to produce products that can complete
> in the open market,the rise of hate groups in France, Immgration problems
> in
> the Netherlands prove that Socialism doesn't work. Need I mention the
> utter
> failure of the Wefare State, here in America???
>
> Why is it that Liberals do nothing but whine? You press them to come up
> with
> a solution and they whine more.They act like they are smarter that
> everybody
> else.Only they can solve the problems of the World. Just give up you
> freedom, tax money and stem cells and Utopia will be just around the
> corner.
>
> My solution for them is simple - put down the crack pipe and take off rose
> collored glasses.
>
> You can conment on my rant off-list
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jim Felder" <felder@KNOLOGY.NET>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Sent: Friday, July 22, 2005 7:56 AM
> Subject: Re: LVC/ Re: Why Americans Are the Jerks of the World!
>
>
>>>  I mean what is the  actual
>>> cost.
>>
>>
>> This is the question we should all be asking ourselves, and demanding
>> from our so-called leaders.
>>
>> What is the cost of a chicken-growing plant that passes along all of
>> its  environmental impact to its neighbors, and not the consumers who
>> buy the product?
>>
>> What's the real cost of land destroyed forever in order to put
>> nice-looking landscaping rocks in Home Depot for cheap?
>>
>> What's the real cost of a gallon of gas when the result of keeping a
>> steady supply of it is that people fly airplanes into our buildings and
>> blow up our subways?
>>
>> What's the real cost of a gallon of gas when you factor in how much of
>> your income tax goes to support the huge armed forces that keep the
>> shipping lanes open?
>>
>> What's the real cost of that thing you bought at walmart what came in
>> the huge cardboard box that you paid more in your garbage fee to have
>> hauled to the landfill than you paid in the sales tax you complain
>> about?
>>
>> What we Americans have become good at is not creating wealth based on
>> any kind of real value, but creating wealth based on moving costs
>> around and passing them along to someone else.
>>
>> In the last 25 or 30 years, your purchasing power has increased about
>> 5%. For the wealthiest Americans, it has increased several hundred
>> percent, 1100% I seem to recall for the top 3% of the country, but I'm
>> not certain. Anyway it's a lot. Adjusting for inflation, most of us are
>> going backwards economically. So that we will feel that we are moving
>> forward and becoming prosperous, we're flooded with cheap junk from all
>> over the world, not just China. If we had to buy American goods, the
>> gap that's been created would be exposed, and the economic failure that
>> we've participated in over the last 30 years would be exposed.
>>
>> As long as the cheap stuff keeps coming in, we're happy. When Bubba
>> walks out of Walmart with a $200 television, he's too stupid to realize
>> that it cost him his job. And it doesn't help that in many cases, the
>> quality of the import is higher (toyota vs GM) than the US version it
>> competes with.
>>
>> Nor does it help that we have a tremendous industry in technology,
>> which always drives cost downward. Fifteen years back I had a major
>> modem manufacturer as a client. Modems were $700 apiece. There was a
>> lot of money in each modem for marketing materials and tradeshows and
>> therefore there was money for me. Today, modems are free in that you
>> can't buy a computer without one. The client is gone, the building is
>> empty, the engineers and designers were laid off, the trade shows
>> aren't held anymore and the printer who printed all the marketing
>> materials is out of business.
>>
>> Technology is crack. We who control and use it aren't even as smart as
>> a virus, which knows that if you don't control your ability to kill
>> your host, you run out of hosts to kill. We have allowed our technology
>> to create wealth for a few who, backed by a system of economics and
>> laws that promote hiding the real costs of what we are doing while
>> driving down the cost of our own livelihoods to the point of economic
>> extinction.
>>
>> It's not the Chinese. It's not the Indians. It's us.
>>
>> Jim