of Ithaca. My first worthy bumper-sticker sighting where I had my cell phone handy!
My biggest pet peeve are people who think voluntary actions are involuntary (& vice versa).
For example:
This doofus probably thinks that labor in the Third World is involuntary and that people in impoverished countries have the option to say, work a cushy job making artisan purses with colorful beads if only sweatshops weren’t an option. This is, of course, a developed world projection:
Contrary to what you have heard, sweatshops in third-world countries are a good deal for the people who work in them. Why? Because work, other than slave labor, is an exchange. A worker chooses a particular job because she thinks herself better off in that job than at her next-best alternative. Most of us would regard a low-paying job in Nicaragua or Honduras as a lousy job. But we’re not being asked to take those jobs. Those jobs are the best options those workers have, or else they would quit and work elsewhere. You don’t make someone better off by taking away the best of a bunch of bad choices.
But this particular car got better.
“Another man against violence against women”; “Danger: Educated Worker”; “Get Corporations off Welfare” (drat, I agree with that one); “Green Party”; “End American Fascism”…
Oh Ithaca, this was a treat.
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Comments
Heck, I agree with most of them, barring the ‘fair trade not free trade’ one. The cluelessness comes where the owner of the vehicle thinks that they’re either relevant or nonobvious. ‘Get corporations off welfare’, good idea; ‘End American Fascism’, well, if some ever showed up I’d certainly be in favor of ending it; ‘Another man against violence against women’, well, yeah, who who isn’t absolute scum isn’t?; ‘Danger: Educated Worker’, well, if the education you’re talking about leads to, well, you, then sure it’s a danger.
Interesting how a bumpersticker can mean completely different things depending on the belief system of the person reading it. To me, the ‘Fair Trade not Free Trade’ means our government should be doing more to protect the intellectual property of US companies. Many foreign governments turn a blind eye to companies that rip-off US patents and copyrights, produce cheap knock-offs and often export them (sometimes back to the US). To a Union Thug however, this bumper sticker means that US government should not sign free trade agreements at all, or at least unless there is significant pressure to force the other country to unionize its workers. What they are concerned with is the low labor costs overseas competing against the enormously bloated labor costs in unionized US companies. This was one of the sticking points that resulted in Obama refusing to send 3 free trade agreements, previously negotiated by Bush, to Congress (the other being TAA’s, which are essentially payoffs to unions by the federal government to keep them happy whenever a free-trade agreement is signed).
Fascism is Corporatism, as Mussolini understood well. What we call ‘Crony Capitalism’ is what Mussolini would call Corporatism. So, yes, Fascism is alive and well in America. If you substituted Peron/Franco/Hitler/Mussolini’s domestic policy agenda for that of the Democratic Party in the US, you would really have to be close attention to notice any difference. They’ve even adopted the anti-semitism.
This being a lefties’ car though, I doubt that’s what he was thinking of with this bumper sticker. To a Leftie, ‘fascist’ means something like ‘police state’ or merely vague resentment at authority in general. This always strikes me as odd because, to a Leftie, the solution to EVERY problem involves more government. If you are opposed to an all-powerful state, why are you always advocating for the state to have more power?
Any time you hear a leftie talk about civil liberties, make a point of reminding them that every increase in government power is a reduction in our civil liberties. Tell them that if they really cared about civil liberties they’d vote for candidates that promised to reduce the size and scope of government power. Then, shut up and watch them splutter incoherently.
The “Danger: Educated Worker” sticker should read:
“Danger: Indoctrinated Worker”
As for Fascism in America, we see it every day with the modern “welfare” state, from Social Security to Medicare to Medicaid by taking money from working individuals and then making the choices as to what goods and services individuals who “qualify” for benefits from the programs funded by said services can purchase.
As for the Leftie’s solution being more government power: Modern Liberals have abandoned classical liberal philosophy. They are more appropriately called “Statists.” And, as Aarradin said, explain it to them that they’re not a Liberal, they’re a Statist, and if they WERE a liberal they would be for LESS government and they will splutter incoherently for a while until they say something like “well, we need more regulation until we fix the problems, and then we can get rid of the regulation.”
Then challenge them to come up with ONE, just ONE, instance where that has EVER occurred. They won’t be able to do it.
How dangerous is this “educated worker” driving a jalopy that can’t find a car wash? Nit picky, eh?
I’d heard fair trade meant penalizing countries like China for currency manipulation, intellectual property theft, inferior quality control (lead paint on toys, moldy drywall), pollution … with cheap labor also being unfair, but unfair to US. Trump calls his plan for a tariff on China “fair trade”.
But I guess the left has co-opted the term, and wants people to only buy “fair trade coffee”, for example. Farmers would like “tariff FREE trade” with Colombia for our benefit, and conservatives want to strengthen their fight against Venezuela’s “narco terrorists”. So it seems Obama holds up the deal for years, since he loves Chavez and supports union power.
Overall, it seems most of the rhetoric on “fair trade” is about other countries not cheating on their deals … fairness to US. But then unions have their own agenda, and Obama will stand with the unions, regardless of his “verbage”.
http://www.issues2000.org/2012/Barack_Obama_Free_Trade.htm
You can always tell a leftist’s car. They have the largest number of the most arrogant bumper stickers of anyone on the road…
…with the possible exception of Ron Paul supporters.