[nfb-talk] blind and wanting to improve things, not get labeled

[T. Joseph Carter]

Notably, most of the fraud that people blame on the "money crowd" 
that caused the financial debacle was the result of about three large 
firms, who were basically paying the government to not do proper 
oversight, combined with the government's own socialized mortgage 
industry which was operating ridiculously.

Capitalism didn't fail, government and private corruption failed.

A bunch of blind people debating it on a mailing list aren't going to 
suddenly find the magic pill to fix that problem, because none 
exists.  We do have several recessions and a couple of depressions to 
look at for what did and didn't work, but even those things that did 
work are not a magic pill.  There are still bad times to suffer 
through.  The remedies that work just make the bad times go away 
faster.

I think we're nearing the end of the useful debate on the topic of 
liberal vs. conservative vs. party affiliation on this list.  It's 
clear to me that Ryan's list has merit because there are more people 
in line with it than its target audience probably thought.  I think 
that says what need be said on the matter.

Joseph

On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 07:29:24PM -0500, David Andrews wrote:
>Yes, the government wastes some money, but so does private industry, 
>small business, and everybody else.  No process is perfect, there 
>will be some waste, fraud, and everything else in any process.  Look 
>at the financial debacle we are just coming out of.  I don't think 
>government is any better, or worse at running things as anybody else.  
>The money crowd wants to be left alone, until they mess up 
>terminally, then they want the government to step in, no strings 
>attached.
>
>Dave
>
>At 01:25 PM 4/21/2010, you wrote:
>>Hello-
>>I'm just going to put my two cents in here. I think that when the
>>government does stuff, it ends up swallowing up a lot of money that is
>>wasted. I have spent several months applying for jobs in the federal
>>government and it has been a bit of a comic sketch. At the same time,
>>we have people in our society for whom we need to care, and the fact
>>is that any point in time, most people end up in that position.
>>Ideally, we would privately take care of this on our own- people
>>within a community would rise up and put together their own education
>>system for their kids and for all of them, we would help people out
>>with food when they needed it, doctors and therapists would take on a
>>few patients and clients pro bono at any one time. But until people
>>choose to do that over buying that brand new car instead of continuing
>>to drive it even though it is no longer the latest and greatest, we
>>need to have the government programs on which to fall back. That
>>doesn't even address the fact that certain communities have a deficit
>>of such resources.
>>
>>At my own church, I am in charge of organizing local community service
>>activities. We have a solid core of people who give generously of
>>their time and energy and money, but there are others who are very
>>much occupied by the things in their own lives and they just don't
>>really contribute to anything. Fortunately, most will give to others
>>in some form, but there are a lot of causes and people out there to
>>give to. I am personally in my mid 20's and my peers are a notoriously
>>self-centered population. I know some people who meet that discription
>>and others who do not. Honestly, I don't know what you would need to
>>do in order to try and meet the needs of others. However, as a person
>>with my masters in counseling and with a lot of personal experience
>>working with people who are needy in both an emotional and physical
>>sense, itt is absolutely not as easy as giving them money for food
>>each month. Talk to me one on one if you want to know what it looks
>>like to try and quote unquote "help" someone with schizofrenia or a
>>personality disorder.
>>
>>In addition, I am currently taking a class on universal media design
>>at the local state university. The principles of the class have to do
>>with  making media and web sites accessible to everyone, whether they
>>are using an old computer on a dial up connection, using a smart
>>phone, the latest and greatest computer with whatever internet
>>browser, they are hard of hearing,  or a use a screen reader. Despite
>>its principles though, I have had to do a lot of self advocacy. They
>>have us learning about java script from on-line clips that do not
>>provide enough information for me to keep track of what is happening
>>in the visual part of the training. Someone asked me to give feedback
>>on the web site for the business association of downtown Denver in
>>preparation for the AHEAD conference here this summer. It is all in
>>flash, and I was unable to get any content off of it. The business
>>association doesn't feel particularly obliged to change their web site
>>at all, even if it also means that people out for the night cannot
>>pull up their site on a smart phone. The conservative principle is
>>that economic forces will convince them to change it, but they aare
>>not yet terribly interested. Along the same lines, the web sites at CU
>>are often times poorly designed to the extent of decreasing
>>accessibility, but as a whole group of sites are looking at being
>>redesigned in the next couple of years, the man in charge of it
>>doesn't know the first thing about concepts such as the W3 standards.
>>I met with him and showed him a bit about what makes his current site
>>that he manages difficult to navigate with a screen reader. Maybe he
>>will be motivated to learn more, butthus far people outside of
>>disability services at the university have been pretty apathetic with
>>regards to making accessibility improvements to sites. All of this is
>>just to say that I don't tend to find that the best ideas win out; too
>>many people are caught up in the concept of how things have always
>>been done and "it works for me, so it's fine."
>>
>>With all of this having been said, I vote we stick with putting
>>concepts out there without needing to label them as being part of one
>>group or another. I am all for innovation, change, and progress. No
>>political group gets to lay claim to those words and my use of them
>>does not put me in any one group.
>>
>>Amelia
>>
>>--
>>Amelia Dickerson
>
>
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