Lou, go back to in this thread or any other of these political-economic threads and see who it is that calls out the other first. Or maybe who calls out the other "most" of the time. I see you including me in your anti-socialist treatise and I respond. If I generically refer to Limbonian sophistry and you answer it defensively, I can't do anything about that.
And, I still find your comment of taking you wrong when you say you aren't against collective bargaining, then launch into the same old -same old mantra of free association and such (all the party line of union buster rhetoric) and then say I'm being harsh in calling out disengenuousness, is not credible in my book. I remember you and another fellow at the Longshadow outting who is a dyed in the wool unionbuster just going hard and fast at the merits of such work.
Something I don't think we preceive the same at all is you say "everyone in this country who works hard can succeed. One doesn't have to be very smart or have degrees from $40,000/year colleges and universities either. And with as many MBA programs available today, yeah, most any one can get one of those too." And me, I don't think that is quite so true as the years go by, the ecomomy separates out more have and have-nots. You believe 'everyone', I think 'everyfew'.
You are a fiercely proud man, Lou. I respect your fierce hard work and your 'lard can on the back porch refrig' origins. Yet, you are a singularly risen up person, that did so in a better economic time, and I just bet there was some government help along the way, somehow. I remember putting myself through the UW on my own when a bartending job could actually pay my tuition and living costs. Today, that same cost would be in excess of 20K a year and not many P.T. bartenders are making that. And, with a buck and a half, and a B.A. degree you can still buy a loaf of bread!
The world and economic repression of underclass has gotten way more intense since your salad days, Lou. Less job opportunities in the big picture, with some opportunity for the hard worker, but not like it was, IMHO. But, you revel in that hard scrabble virtue as available to all, and I really don't think you see it from a current modern perspective of diminished opportunities, IMHO.
I like that you argue vociferously Lou. You are good at it. Way better than I. Way better writer than I. But, neither of us has the truth and the light. We need to argue. And, we need smarter people than I, to educate people like me, and they need to have more plausible credibility. I see that in a Steve Lapper sort of presentation over yours- not personal against you, just more convincing and credible and meaningful to less than fully educated guys like me who are looking for ideas, not regurgitation of how we got here. I can get that watching c-pac conventions.