Is Barack Obama the Robin Hood of our times? Look at this man, stuck in a world of capitalists, but doing his best to get the wealth distributed.
Sustainability is his mantra! Not because he is pitching for clean energy via wind turbines, solar panels only but for also asking the corporate to be more responsible towards the society and environment as well. Making them spend the moolah* they have raked in over the last 100 years!
His speech at the Jt. Session of Congress evoked a flurry of responses in all the news channels and business newspapers. All the capitalists of new
Capitalists fear him and I too am fearful. There is a difference though. I am afraid that the one sensible guy whom we have found after almost a century to champion the cause of common man might be “silenced”! I wish and pray for the well being of Obama and his family.
This article is an unconventional didactic exegesis! So, it’s going to be a long one. And also, let me warn you, if you are not an Obama fan, you might just want to drop off here or dig in and comment your rebuttal!
“The fact is, our economy did not fall into decline overnight. Nor did all of our problems begin when the housing market collapsed or the stock market sank…we import more oil today than ever before…The cost of health care eats up more and more of our savings each year,…And though all of these challenges went unsolved, we still managed to spend more money and pile up more debt... we have lived through an era where too often short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity, where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election.”
How true? Didn’t we all know that Americans lived their life by the day? Is he wrong in coming out in public and admitting it? He just ripped off the band-aid buddy, nothing more!
“A surplus became an excuse to transfer wealth to the wealthy instead of an opportunity to invest in our future… Regulations - were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew they couldn't afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway.”
Have you heard this from any of the banks who lent irresponsibly or the people who took them? No! Instead we were immersed in a usual US media blitz on “Subprime Mortgage crisis” – After all what can we expect from a country that calls its jails as “correction facilities” and killing innocent civilians as “collateral damage”. The common American was all along kept away from harsh realities by flooding him with such jargons which anyway the high school drop out wouldn’t understand. Their life was watched the world over as the biggest “True man show” ever! The Americans also were so gullible and at times I should say were high on grass!
“…they will be held accountable by me and the American people for every dollar they spend… I've appointed a proven and aggressive inspector general to ferret out any and all cases of waste and fraud…” which means nobody and nothing was ever held responsible in US. Some one said, “Nothing is guaranteed in the
Read on, do you now wonder if Robin Hood is back?
“…It's a plan that won't help speculators or that neighbor down the street who bought a house he could never hope to afford, this time, CEOs won't be able to use taxpayer money to pad their paychecks, or buy fancy drapes, or disappear on a private jet. Those days are over…”
“…It is time to put in place tough, new common-sense rules of the road so that our financial market rewards drive and innovation and punishes shortcuts and abuse…”
“…In order to save our children from a future of debt, we will also end the tax breaks for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans…”
And here comes the clincher!
“…I do not accept a future where the jobs and industries of tomorrow take root beyond our borders…”
I say, Robin Hood is Barack!
There are two things which I want to talk about, especially on the clincher. Obama is not against outsourcing. He suggests that any new technology / innovation done BY an American company, needs to happen in the
Secondly, did you know that
OK, incase you are the ‘Joe the plumber’, let me simplify it for you.
- The US Gov told the businesses, “You go out and start off your business in offshore locations, get more revenues and when you bring the money back into US, instead of paying 35% corporate tax, pay me just 5% tax. I will allow you to do this for a long, long time and you bring back wealth into
- These companies utilized the opportunities and ventured out.
- When they realized the potential of countries like
- Double whammy** as they call it in US, Joe!
Now, for Indian “Ramu the IT guy”… I am sure you would have been immersed in the principle that offshore / onsite model, travels, free trade, global market, share market stories by now. Also, am pretty confident that you would have wanted to multiply your money and invested heavily in share markets! Suppose you had the shares of HLL (Hindustan Lever Ltd.,) which is a subsidiary of Unilever (UK). You would be glad that you invested in a multi-national company and since you are receiving dividends you would have become an advocate of free trade. If you carefully examine what the Unilever’s of the world are doing, you will realize that they are swindling money from your country (read
Again, let me simplify it for you. It is day time robbery my friend! When HLL announces dividends, being the largest shareholder, Unilever (UK) gets money. It goes back to
This guy Barack Obama, the
Look at the people whom he got inspiration from. Leonard Abess, a bank president from Miami who reportedly cashed out of his company, took a $60 million bonus, and gave it out to all 399 people who worked for him, plus another 72 who used to work for him, Greensburg, Kansas, a town that was completely destroyed by a tornado and its story of reconstruction, Ty'Sheoma Bethea, the young girl from that school he visited in Dillon, South Carolina who wrote a letter to his administration that she wants her school restored back!
He is trying hard to bring in the “Change” he promised. Unlike our Indian government he is not throwing “spare change” to the common man like farm loan waiver, fuel price cuts, some petty tax cuts, in the garb of stimulus plans. Our CEO’s and financial analysts need to wake up to the fact that he is the President of
I have confidence after listening to his speech that he will bring back the American economy to track! In his own words, in this very same speech says, he will restore faith in G 20 nations regarding American economy, “…for the world depends on us having a strong economy, just as our economy depends on the strength of the world's…”!
Let’s say “We want Change!” – Hail Barack - Robin Hood of our times and the true sustainability champion!
- Ciao
** a twofold blow or setback (en.wiktionary.org/wiki/double_whammy)
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Interesting one. There is a few correction though about how the capitalistic environ works. What you are trying to perceive is to make them slowly dive into and become communist. Perhaps one reason why communism never prevailed in the US as much as elsewhere. It naturally would be interesting if Obama would continue to stand the storm and keeps re-drawing the line between offshoring and outsourcing !
ReplyDeleteHonestly, if you look back at all this, this is just what you can expect from a corporation driven cycle. Quote-unquote - AP is spending 3600 crores just for elections. Now this is the money, the purists say, that would be required to build a six lane road, 1000 KM's in length. Is this wrong? Charlatans? Nah, the birth from the system and the correction will take that much longer (read never). This is exactly what will happen in the US.
The popular one during the food cost issue was the govt scam when food grain crops were replaced by corns (source for ethanol). It made the cries, govt has not altered.
Eventually, mate, public memory is short. We will talk about the great depression and then follow it up with the 2008-09-10 depression(i am sure they will give a name to it!) and move on......So whether i feel it don't matter if robin or spidy is back, what matters is the term !