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And, yes, I DO take it personally: Who would be on a deficit commission if we lived in a real democracy...?
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Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Who would be on a deficit commission if we lived in a real democracy...?

we can only dream...
Here is the real deficit commission that you would expect to see if we were a democracy instead of a plutocracy: It would have 100 members:

# 98 of the 100 members would make less than $250,000 a year.
# 50 of the members would come from households in which the total income of all wage-earners is less than $50,221.
# 17% of the commission members would be un- or underemployed, and would be wondering why they are on a deficit commission instead of a jobs commission.
# 19 people on the commission would receive some form of Social Security benefits, 12 of those as retirees. And on this deficit commission they get to talk when the ones making over $250K propose cutting Social Security.
# 43 of the commission members would have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement. 27 of those less than $1,000.
# The commission would include the right proportion of factory and construction workers, and people who work in a kitchen, and waiting tables, and teaching, and nursing, and installing tires, and all the other things that people do except, apparently, those on DC elite commissions. (People who do manual labor get an extra vote each on what the retirement age should be.)
# Include people who are on active duty in the military – the people who said they don’t need that expensive plane, but couldn’t get body armor.
# 60 members would not have college degrees.
# 13 members would be receiving food stamps.

simply because such stuff is my life's work, i have to smack myself on the forehead when i think about organizing the work of a 100-member commission but i do like the idea of a truly representative commission trying to address ANY national issues of significance...

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