I grew up poor, had no connections and went to Wharton undergrad. Paid my own way through. It is not just a school for elites, just easier to get in for them 
Plenty of smart, progressive folks also went to Wharton.
4 Likes
And your degree is worth exactly as much as his is, or his father’s.
I’d be really fucking angry about that in your place.
7 Likes
None of those dumb fucks remember the great job done by that equally brilliant biznessman, shrub, jr.
5 Likes
Well sure… and of course depending on when you went to Wharton, it was less likely to leave you in triple digit debt, too. It was far cheaper for baby boomers to finance their own education without coming out deeply in debt, even to a private school like Wharton.
Either way, that doesn’t mean that a school like Wharton isn’t part of the system of reproducing the elite class. The existence of non-elite folks going to elite schools doesn’t make that any less true, I’d argue.
7 Likes
3 Likes
I don’t see them accomplishing anything.
You dont see them forcing racist and misogynist legislation through state government? The never-ending barking about stolen elections? MTG and Trumps other attack dogs getting positions of power in national government? Additionally the enormous fundraising power his brand brings. Those are real accomplishments
12 Likes
That conservative line of reasoning has always been maddening to me. At least for all of our lifetimes, every single conservative in Canada and the US has claimed that running a country like a business is the way to go. An obsession with balancing the budget is one of those ideas that is quick to state and sounds reasonable at first, but takes a long time to explain why it isn’t. That makes it a mind virus that is very difficult to rid from our society.
That’s before even getting into the whole conversation of why corporate experience has little relevance in governance. In fact being an executive arguably disqualifies you for politics because of how different the jobs really are. People hate “career politicians”, but why? Don’t you want someone qualified to do a hard job? Sigh.
15 Likes
Humbabella here had a reasonably good version: “if you can borrow money with 1% interest, and invest with 5% returns, how much money should you borrow?” The answer is of course as much as you can. And sure enough, businesses actually don’t mind running deficits for exactly that reason.
In truth, conservative governments don’t actually mind running deficits either. It’s just a thing they bring up when the money might actually go to help people.
16 Likes
Never mind Republican presidents are notorious for fiscal irresponsibility that blows up the budget, despite claiming to be deficit hawks. When Clinton left office there was a surplus budget. Bush the Lesser blew that up with his phony wars and the Republican-led deregulation that lead to the financial collapse of 2008.
Trump for all his claims of being such a great deal maker seemed to accomplish very little other than blowing up existing treaties and negotiating worse ones. Our stupid trade war with China has only strengthened their economy. The so-called Abraham accords accompanied essentially nothing more than canonizing what was already happening in the region. Almost as if republicans are just bad at governing.
12 Likes
True! From their twisted perspective, they are…
And they will believe that until there are consequences for the ring leaders, like Trump, MTG, etc.
What’s worse is when they compare it to a household budget! Like… NO!
10 Likes
As someone who has some decades of experience in business, it’s maddening. Cost-cutting is not a viable business strategy. You cannot cut yourself into growth. The only way to grow is to increase revenue. In government, that means taxes. And what do these brilliant businessmen do right away when they start running government? They cut taxes. So they aren’t running government like a business, they are ruining government for business.
If someone was running government like a business, they would increase revenue (taxes) and look to expand their customer base (residents) by making the business (country) as attractive as possible. Things like a strong economy, free healthcare, free college, public safety, easy retirement, a beautiful and healthy environment - these would all be “products” to attract and retain customers (tax-paying residents and businesses).
Conservatives do exactly the opposite of what good business people would do if they were in charge of government.
16 Likes
Taking this pretense at face value, it also makes me wonder just how many companies they’ve actually worked for.
7 Likes
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
