Vicious Rants of an Angry Yellow Man

I have not had much nice to say about McCain lately. So I am giving him credit for being a straight talker this week. He told the people in poor areas what he really thinks. As he had done in Mich. during the primaries he said that most of the blue-collar jobs that had left will not come back. He said that dismantling free trade agreements will not help to bring these jobs back either. This is unlike the Obama and Clinton who told people in the Midwest that they oppose NAFTA and that they can bring jobs back. I think McCain is more honest than the Democrats on this issue. If the wages in other countries is one tenth of the wages here, unskill work will never come back, free trade agreements or not. No president will be able to do anything about that. Displaced workers will have to learn new skills and young people will have to become better educated to compete in the global economy. Government can't do the learning for anyone. But the government can and should encourage changes in people's attitude about learning and make it easier for them to obtain higher levels of skills and education.

The problem I have with McCain is that while I agree with him that government is not always the answer, government is not always the problem either. If there is no government there will still be corruption and crime. If there are no rules or referees there will still be fouls but the cheaters will win. Rules and referees are there to make a level playing field. Laws and governments are there for the same reason. Government cannot change the economy by itself but it should make laws that are equitable. For example, McCain was against the Bush tax cut but now he is for it. As much as I like to lower my taxes, this tax cut was wrong. It helped wealthy people and has not and will not stimulate the economy. We are in a war that causes billions daily and we are cutting taxes? The deficit will just be passed on to future generations. McCain was right to be against it before but now in trying to get the conservative vote he has flip-flopped. So while I applaud him for his straight talk to the poor I think he is intimated by the wealthy people in his party.