Richard Eber, California Political News and Views
Richard Eber, Exclusive to the California Political News and Views
When the words “Big Deal” are mentioned, we go back to the days of the TV game show presided over by Monty Hall. Towards the end of the program one of the contestants on Let’s make a Deal had the opportunity to win the mega prize that often involved a car, cruise, home furnishings, and/or household appliances.
It was not that simple. In trying to win the high dollar items, sometimes poor choices were made that turned dreams into a sack of potatoes or a feather collection. Taking into account what Cheech and Chong referred to as “Door Number 3”; there were no sure deals in Monty Hall’s world.
In politics today, a similar situation exists where good and evil are associated with the adjective “Big”, Progressives use the term to rip apart conservatives by demonizing the word behind big. Of course, when the terminology “big Government” is mentioned, they hide behind the shield of “size does not matter to mask their socialistic vision to prospective followers.
At the same time they express hatred of:
Big Pharma– A conspiracy of drug companies and those who make medical devices who try to market whatever they sell to the public to be as expensive as possible. Even worse Big Pharma wants to charge poor people the same absorbedent prices to increase their profits
Big Oil- A similar operational structure as the medical companies that places profit over the public good. They recklessly explore for more product looking at destruction of the environment to be acceptable collateral damage. These guys are thugs with no social conscience.
Big Banks- Their sole mission is to rip off the federal government at every opportunity. Wall Street is not to be trusted. This institution which is the foundation of our capitalistic society must not only be highly regulated but must also lend funds to entities so as to increase diversity. This diversity can never get to be to “big” because anything it creates has to be good.
Big Tech– The jury is still out on the companies spawned by the Silicon Valley. Social media is of major concern because it has become the most influential vehicle to control public opinion. Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Apple, Microsoft need to be regulated to make sure they help promote the progressive agenda. Net neutrality is an important tool of government to keep Big Tech in line. If this goes too far Lois Lerner will be considered a light weight in harassing the opposition.
There are other Big Business entities that take the negative tag including Big Agriculture (corporate farms) and of course the Big Box Giant Wal-Mart who is under fire from Socialist Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders for exploiting workers. Despite keeping costs of consumer products down for lower income families and having raised minimum wages to higher levels than Sanders home state of Vermont, Wall-Mart is always going to be the villain.
Ironically, Wal-Mart offers promotions, benefits, and pay that is higher than most of its competitors. However, symbolism trumps reality for Progressives who believe this store will always be hanging out on the dark side with Mr. Burns from The Simpson’s.
To Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Kamala Harris, corporations are greedy and profit oriented. They only care about their share holders. They think such businesses must be held accountable and in most cases broken up.
In a similar vein we must not forget the notorious “The Big Gulp” soft drink at 7-11 which offers consumers a heavy dose of a sugar infused concoction for about a buck. Progressive politicians such as New York Mayor’s Michael Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio want to tax or even ban selling this American favorite. They are concerned Big Gulp’s contributes to increasing obesity, heart trouble, and diabetes.
One of the central selling points of Single Payer Health insurance is that in order to keep costs down, it is the government’s responsibility to insist a healthy lifestyle is followed. We can look forward to more management of people’s life from Washington D.C. and Sacramento as they continue to make more decisions affecting people’s lives
Ironically Cuban cigars, which were once banned for political purposes, may find themselves on “Do not fly list” once again in the Nanny State of tomorrow.
So we have so called trust busting Progressive Democratic Presidential candidates assailing almost everything with the “big” label attached to it. Of course there are exceptions such as “Big Government” which is the foundation of Democratic Socialist society they hope to create. That can never be too large.
Having even more impact in California is the production of new housing. Progressive “Big Government” has been chiefly responsible for this shortage with cumbersome environmental impact reports, expensive permits, taxes, zoning regulations and limiting where construction can take place. Now they want to cut down on the morass they creating and build high density apartments near public transportation.
By using taxes and bond money in these Project Development Areas (PDA), they can insist on union labor and enable only large real estate companies with enough capital to be at the helm. Thus we now have big government and their co-dependent crony capitalist buddies working together, with the public holding the bag.
As in most projects government overseas, virtually nothing will be affordable unless a freebee is involved.
In the minds of Progressives, government should be controlling energy (oil and utilities) medicine thru one payer Medicare for all, educational curriculum, banking, and housing. All of this is to be paid by reducing the military, tax the wealthy, while increasing their oversight of the private sector.
No consideration other than blaming Republicans is ever given to the economic ramifications of such policies. While what these leftists propose might look good on paper, wasn’t such a system tried in the old Soviet Union and Cuba? The results speak for themselves.
This is why conservatives are so upset with Democrats for advocating more government involvement in our lives. Republicans say “less is more” with government programs but there does not seem to be any evidence that this is currently the case from Washington D.C. to Sacramento. Such a sad state of affairs might explain why there is such a higher percentage of Declines to State voters today.
Or as a former mentor of mine once quipped, “when the Republicans are in power they steal most of the money; when the Democrats are in power they steal it all.” In the 2020 Presidential election, it will be up to the major parties to explain what their conflicting views of how large government should be and what is to be regulated.
And yes, don’t ever allow anyone to tell you “size doesn’t matter” It is still a big deal and will likely determine who is to occupy the White House in 2020. Too bad Monty Hall is no longer around inviting us to “Come on down.”
Richard Eber studied journalism at the University of Oregon. He writes about politics, culture, education restaurants, and was former city and sports editor of UCSB Daily. Richard is president of Amerasa Rapid Transit, a specialized freight forwarder.
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