Thursday, March 28, 2024
Miles from the Mainstream
D. R. ZUKERMAN, proprietor

Personal Observations

AUGUST 4, 2008 --

This writer offers visitors a view of the lower half of the economic ladder -- from his own experience, not from second-hand sources or government statistics.  I don't think Ms. Huffington, for example, can say that concerning her site.  

It would be slightly comforting to know that my circumstances do not result from personal failing but from a decision -- up above -- that I should relate from personal experience financial failure and difficulty in finding work so as to provide  others a fuller view of America than is presented in the media.

Yes, this causes some anxiety but I can point out that my anxiety doesn't cause the stock market to drop 200 points!

Had it not been for a dear friend and a helpful cousin, this writer might have been in the street, today, instead of the apartment that he must sell if he is not to end up in the street.

I put these remarks down, here, as further indication how people in other countries can see how some of ther rest of us are faring in the land of liberty but which presently is held in a strangle-hold by predatory free enterprise.  

Following up a point in the last LPR, it could well be that our leaders are unaware of the impact of predatory free enterprise because they have insulated themselves against it.

In Federalist 57, Madison pointed out that congressman "can make no law which will not have its full operations on themselves and their friends, as well as on the great mass of the society."  It is this standard, Madison added, that binds people and rulers.  

The bonds, I fear, have unraveled, as the "rulers" have protected themselves from the economic forces that assault "the great mass of the society."  

Madison went on to advise our leaders to stay close to the people, warning that otherwise tyranny is inevitable.

Evidence that our leaders are distant from us is indicated by the fact  that they seem unaware there seem to be economic forces at war with  the American people, forces seeking the "ambitious sacrifice of the many to the aggrandizement of the few." (Quoting from Federalist 57.)  

There was a report last week in July that only now were Senators McCain and Obama paying attention to economic matters in their race for the presidency.  This writer would very much like to rejoin the work force.  To be unemployed is to feel excluded from the employment club.

I should also thank Mayor Rudy Giuliani for helping me get into the economic trenches when he arranged for property tax claims to end effectively my family's real estate business.

And I thank Congressman Anthony Weiner for writing an improper -- indeed unconstitutional -- letter to influence the bankruptcy judge on the property tax problem invented by City Hall -- the tax problem disappeared when ownership of the property (three apartment buildings in Queens) was transferred.   

Mr. Weiner is said to be running for mayor of New York  City.

The improper letter suggests he would feel no more required to follow the rules than did Mr. Giuliani as mayor.   I would note that the media never reported  Mr. Giuliani's manipulation of property taxes to force the sale of these buildings; never mentioned Mr. Weiner's improper letter (co-signed on his official stationery by two state legislators) to the judge.

Lonely Pamphleteer Review does reach people around the world, and even if attention is not paid in the US to issues reported in these postings, there is some comfort in believing that LPR provides people in other lands a fuller view of America than is presented in the media   So again, LPR thanks the people of China -- and Sweden, France, Canada, Germany, Australia, Japan, Mexico -- people on every continent for visiting.