Now I am conflicted -

[truedelphi]

About my own thinking...

If you have ever read any thing I have written on how I felt a decent Jobs stim bill should have been written, it would have involved the following:

1) Figuring out how many people are in the USA
2) Taking the money available via a Job stim bill and apportioning an equal amount per capita
3) Distributing that money directly to the states, with the only stipulation being that it first must be used to keep all current jobs and programs afloat
4) Congress signing off on it

Now I keep reading that here in California, because of the tremendously gigantic deficit that this state has been facing, the Governor and others are booting lesser criminals out of our jails. No longer are parole violators for minor offenses (Your roommate has a gun you didn't know about, etc) to be housed in expensive prisons. Ditto for marijuana smokers who got caught. Etc.

This would have never come to pass under ordinary situations. If the economy was functioning properly, then the Prison Guard Union would have forced the Governor's hand on this. (Prison building and prisoner guarding are the two sancrosanct industries in this state.)

So had Geithner stepped to the plate and handed over the twenty billion bucks our Governor asked for as a loan, this wouldn't be happening.

Strange to see how a poor economy may actually truly reform the state of California.

I hope these changes take hold and flourish.

[notesdev]

1. I feel the same

Sucks that the country is bankrupt... doesn't suck to see the police state crumble under its own weight.

[IrateCitizen]

2. Isn't the Chinese character for "crisis" and "opportunity" the same one?

There's a real reason for that, which I think that you've identified. As old ways, ideas and institutions are shown to be questionable or fraudulent, they are pushed aside and room is made for new ideas and ways of doing things. I've even read of hopeful stories in Detroit, such inner-city community organizations taking over responsibility for economic development, allowing the establishment of urban farms and small businesses instead of malls and the other useless shit pushed by the mayor's office. The main reason for it happening there of all places? Because the city has been literally destroyed, a "clean slate" to start from, as it were.

The years ahead are certainly going to be difficult for a number of reasons -- economic contraction, peak oil, climate change, etc. At the same time, however, I can't look at them an not feel some measure of excitement for new possibilities.