Monday, July 11, 2011

Uncle Scrooge vs Uncle Sam

Growing up, one of my sisters was fairly serious from an early age. She was playful too, but she always had a bit more awareness of the temporariness of childhood.  We were raised in a household where there was no TV viewing during the week. We were allowed to watch on Friday nights and Saturdays. In the era where every child watched Saturday morning cartoons, we all had our favorites. This sister did not. She would choose a good book over a silly cartoon every time. UNLESS, the cartoon was about Uncle Scrooge McDuck.  He who was so wealthy he had his own money building!

I think,
in the beginning, it wasn't the riches which attracted. It was that Uncle Scrooge had no patience for
Uncle Donald's  pursuit of foolish endeavors. Not to mention his poor example for nephews Huey, Dewey and Louey.  Mostly I think she liked the equation. Uncle Scrooge was the smartest and the most disciplined and had the rewards to prove it. This particular sister also loved monopoly the best of all the games; until she played Risk. World domination was vastly more satisfying than  taking over Park Place with hotels. Early on she got the equation of money, power and autonomy.

No, she did not grow up to have her very own money building. Nor, piles of money big enough to ski down.
She did however follow Scrooge's example of being informed, hard working and always in pursuit of security.
I am not sure, but I think of all the cartoon characters, Uncle Scrooge was the only one who could have been Catholic in her view. Between the Church's teachings and Uncle Scrooge's examples, she's done very well.
She shares well with others too, I have a treasured Fendi  clutch she brought from Europe with love.

I also liked Uncle Scrooge, but at some point in our youth her reasons for liking Uncle Scrooge the most seemed ...burdensome. As we matured, her focus did not alter much and neither did mine. While I am not a frivolous person there are some subjects I don't cotton too all that well. Understanding the world wide money games is at the top of the charts. I intensely loathe the world population being treated as cannon fodder while the players ..... play.  I have known for a very long time, I cannot change the game. No surprise. I hated the game of Risk too. One holiday, long after we were grown and fledged, we had so many gathered around we played in teams, There came a time when I could make a big play. I saw the play, understood the play and just did not want to take it.
" Make the play Fishy!", she hissed into my ear.
" No".
" Don't be stupid."
"No"
" ATTACK!"
Yes, I knew it was the winning decision.  Maybe it was growing up in a house with a Dad who had served in a war or maybe because I worked in hospitals and witnessed horrific injuries or maybe it was from dating a man who came home from a war looking whole but forever maimed. Whatever the reason lurking in my psyche I could not bring myself to initiate a move which, in play, would result in the death of thousands.
I put the dice down and said,
" I hate this".
So I withdrew and she prevailed.
In my family, an absence of the killer instinct is a sign of weakness. There is no question there is a kill or be killed reality  out there. Certainly all the survival of the fittest examples were presented to me when parents tried hard to encourage me to step up my toughness and deal.  Once my Dad, in frustration said, " Fishy, you have got to get a handle on this aspect of life. It is part of life.  You cannot  avoid this responsibility to look a thing in the eye and know it's truth". He had long since given up on the hope of a " killer" instinct ever showing up in my persona but  think he still had hopes of at least a "survival" instinct. 


Today I read an article by a CEO of one of America's largest energy companies. He is asking Americans to  be more informed , to research , understand and endorse the Freedom to Invest Act.  He states there is a log jam of more than one trillion dollars of  American owned company profits they are  eager to invest here at home. That is American companies wanting to invest their profits in America.  They cannot do so because in order to bring the money back to the States they would be heavily taxed by Uncle Sam. Our companies have already paid taxes on these funds in the countries in which the profits were generated.  The USA does have the 2nd highest corporate tax rate in the world. This  serves as a  severe disincentive to US companies who actually want to bring their money home.  It is estimated, had the 2009 Recovery Act adopted this policy, America would have benefited from over $565 billion of repatriated earnings, creating 2.6 million jobs and would have reduced the deficit by an average of $46 billion per year.  I agree there is some gamesmanship to these statements.  If you read history, then you know Congress did do this in 2004 and the results were huge reinvestments, job gains, funds for financing  R&D projects and increased GDP. Not too bad. 
I think Uncle Scrooge would approve.
Uncle Sam does not.
Uncle Scrooge has a money building.
Uncle Sam has a debt building.

Gulp.

Later today, I saw the president of the United States hold a conference to say it's my way or nothing. I have veto power and I will use it. He accuses others of gamesmanship with a sleight of speech beyond measure. It made me sick, to see this man mock the seriousness of our situation which he helped orchestrate. It made me sick to stand there thinking how sad it is our Executive Branch  is not as wise as a cartoon . Sicker still to know for some, it is the game which matters most. To those players, if all I believe and hold dear is to be lost to their game, well they are okay with that.  I felt sad too   hearing the network  Alpha Barbies explain to me
" what this  all means to the American family."
I know what it means.
I know how the game of Risk is played.
I still hate it.









23 comments:

sparringK9 said...

scrooge mcduck. by being named scrooge wasnt the subtext that he was miserly and greedy? i read about him on wikipedia: did you know that:

Scrooge privately admitted to his nephews that he had used an army of "cutthroats" to get the tribe to abandon their lands, in order to establish a rubber plantation?

grrrherhahhaha. I know, thats not the point. Yes, it would be nice to see the $ repatriated to the US but that would be helpful and therefore not likely. Obama has a job to do, and he is doing it very well. i wouldnt be surprised if he got re-elected.

there's this: the life cycle of a democracy

from bondage to spiritual faith
from spiritual faith to great courage
from courage to liberty
from liberty to abundance
from abundance to selfishness
from selfishness to complacency
from complacency to apathy
from apathy to dependency
from dependency back to bondage.
-- Alexander Fraser Tytler (1742-1813)

looks like we are hovering somewhere around the last three stages.

fishy said...

There is a huge collection of stupid policies and practices which are devaluing our lives. All are the results of playing games rather than being responsible citizens or leaders.
I am disgusted.

You had to look up Uncle Scrooge? You must have spent your childhood drawing birds.

On the cycle status, agreed.

Aunty Belle said...

Heh...akshully, I kinda likes Mr. S. McDuck. I thought he wus based on the Carnegie patriarch.

Looky, Fishy, the plain fact is that Obamacare is what is sendin' the debt soarin'--it is in fact a whole new entitlement bigger than social security. If Obamacare were overturned, we'd be back down to "normal" US debt levels.

Psst...lean in real close now, 'cause this heah is not fer the general public to know:

As fer repatriation--huh? Like the K9, it is clear that Obamna wuz hired to do a job an' he is doin' the bankin' cabal's heist jes' perfectly. Folks who think O wuz elected after 2 years of a lackluster senatorial stent is chasin' rainbows.

Want some corroboration?

Heh--notice how French dupe Strauss-Kahn the CHAIRMAN OF THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND wuz set up, had to resign his IMF post an' lo! Over the land what great wonder did we behold??

Why, puddin', ain't it jes' the most unusual coincidence that the NEW IMF chair is a woman known to the media as Christine Lagarde, a former French finance mister...wh, yeah. What ain't reported in the news is that Ms. Lagarde is Rahm Emanuel's puppy-- oh, sure, Emanuel left the WH to take office in Chicago--wait! Ah, yes, Ms. Lagarde be the first woman partner of *Chicago's* largest law firms(one of the top 10 law firms on the planet!)which, jes' happens to be a labor union law firm...Baker & McKenzie. Why, yeeees, now that ya' ask, the very firm that supported Obama, the same firm that serves a our boy Rahm's footstool...an, BTW, Ms. Lagarde herself has been investigated for financial improprieties. Oh, an' Mr. Stauss Kahn? Turns out the Muslim woman who accused him of rape? She lied. He has been set free. He lost his job at IMF to the Obama proxy, but he is free to go back
to France now.

Ain't we havin' fun?

Set up that Risk game, Fishy.

sparringK9 said...

wow aunty. good reporting. yeah, aint that just the weirdest coincidence?

No fishy I remembered McDuck vaguely. We didnt have those great cartoons. we had "scooby do" and "yogi bear" and i remain severely damaged because of it.

Buzz Kill said...

I received these 5 truths in an email the other day that pretty much spell out the why our economy is the way it is:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity, by legislating the wealth out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them; and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work, because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

I'm not sure who came up with these, but I think they are ideas that congress needs to grasp. This whole debt ceiling/budget fiasco that is going on right now will destroy this country (and the market) if both sides don't blink at the same time. It's going to be an infuriating and stomach churning next couple of weeks.

I was never much of a Donald Duck/Scrooge McDuck (how are they related with those last names?) fan. The whole Duck family was early cringe TV for me - unwatchable.

Monopoly, Risk and Stratego were huge games in my childhood. My brothers, friends and I would have marathon games that would last for days (weeks during the summer). One of these games was always set up on a card table in the dining room. Monopoly was/is my favorite.

fishy said...

Aunty,
they is heisting more than money,
they's heisting our nation!!!
I am sputterin mad. Mad enough to know the ones who were the very best at playing Risk and Monopoly, those who have the killer instincts, well they need to step on up.

It was clear, from the very begining, there was a puppeteer behind the Strauss Kahn dance. I am kind of hoping Strauss Kahn is mad enough and powerful enough for some serious payback.

The Risk game was premised on WORLD DOMINATION, damn if this isn't what they are doing. Thing is, they are so confident now, they are getting bolder.

In K9's list, it is time for the apathetic to change pace.


K9,
right as always. A generation of Scoobys is no match for the gamers.

Jenny said...

I couldn't play RISK as a child, they didn't allow valium and that's what I would have needed to play. Monopoly is good for passing rainy summer days and is still my favorite.

As for the Government... I have nothing to add, only reading/absorbing everything that has been said here. I do know I came back from my trip to find a letter from the State letting me know they'll be doing an audit to see if there's any more money they can squeeze from my tired little company. I laughed at the booklet they sent that told me of my rights. Oh really? Can I tell them to get the F out of my bidness? No.I.Can't.

sparringK9 said...

did you catch that quote from lil timmy geithner?

“it’s going to feel very hard, harder than anything they’ve experienced in their lifetime now, for a long time to come.”

Read more: http://moneywatch.bnet.com/economic-news/blog/daily-money/fed-consumer-spending-down-7300-per-person-since-great-recession-began/3140/#ixzz1RulNFjZ4

50 million on food stamps. its the breadlines...only you dont see it. what do you get when a people are dependent on the G for their lives?

compliance.


Boxer...I hate them. of course, they arent going to shake down those billion dolla hedge fund managers. grrrrrrrrrrrr

Anonymous said...

Aunty forgot to mention that IMF is just one of Lagarde's hangouts. She is a Davos/ World Economic Forum member.

Follow the $$$ Fishy. Follow the $$$ is leaving the US on cue.

fishy said...

Buzz,
I think those five came from Newt. I know I have heard him say most of those. Number 5 is real as the number of individuals who do not pay taxes exceeds the number who do. Already past the tipping point without counting the illegals grasp of working the systems. I read recently America now has more Jose Gonzales the John Smiths.

I love Monopoly.
I still hate the board game Risk and I cannot adequately express how I feel about the current game in Washington and the world. I do know I am fed up with the games, lies and deceits.

Boxer,
please consider yourself officially adopted into my sisterhood. Valium! I get that, I could not play that game without feeling horror.

On taxing American businesses. One of the greatest horrors of these economic death games is the reality that more jobs have been lost from small businesses! Small business failures are way up and a factor in lost revenues. Naturally what is happening in response to this travesty is they are raising the taxes on small business so even more will fail!!!! The raises in Unemployment taxes of surviving businesses is closing doors in our state every day.

Sadly, some, like yours, probably could add an employee or two but cannot because of the inherent risks. FishyDesigns now has no employees, just contracted services. It is awful.

If you have been audited more than once in a 5 year period you can call your senator and complain. Sometimes that can help.
Depends on the senator's clout.

K9,
TG is a traitor.
So are most of the others in the O cabal.
Have you seen the newest video on Senator jim DeMint's website? You will like it.

Anon,
Where is the money?
I'd like to find some, all of mine is gone.

moi said...

My favorite cartoon character was Bugs Bunny. He was a Utopian Anarchist :o)

As for the debt crisis, a third grader could go in there with a red pencil and get us out of this mess. But our goobermint doesn't WANT to. We are pawns in a much larger game and that's what the average American boo-hooing over whether or not their going to get their disability check just doesn't understand.

fishy said...

Moi,
EXACTLY! I am fed up with all of us being pawns in the game. I have e-mailed every member of congress to tell them we are not stupid, to quit the gamesmanship, quit playing to the cameras and get the budget under control. The reality is they will never know I sent the message. Or care.

Anonymous said...

It's clear to me that President Obama is sincere about the negotiations and will gladly agree to slashing spending if the Republicans are willing to have some wealthy people pay their "fair-share".

So, the Republicans should meet him half-way and agree to much higher tax rates for:

1) Personal Injury Lawyers.

2) Hollywood "actors".

3) Rappers.

4) Hedge Fund managers specializing in currency manipulation.

5) Labor Union Lawyers.

6) Labor Union Bosses.

7) Everyone on Obama's Economic Policy Board and all of the Executives of the Companies they represent.

moi said...

Bwahahahahaha to Troll. YES!

fishy said...

Moi,
You would love my brother, who grew up to be Buggs.

Troll,
somehow I never thought of you as a follower of fantasy or sci-fi. But as long as we are fantasizing ...

Jenny said...

group hug for Troll!

Sharon Rudd said...

Dearest Fishy, Stuffed Mediterranean Eggplant with Mint and Lemon sounds divine! Hope you'll join in the fun.

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