From where does the money come?

As most of you know, it's election season here in the States and money is flowing like crazy into candidates' coffers.  One question that struck me is from where does this money come.  Does it come from individuals?  If so, a lot of people are out of work yet they can scrape together money to donate?  Maybe it comes from businesses.  If so, why don't they use that money to create some new jobs?  You figure that every $1M could pay for 20 decent paying jobs.  It may not sound like much, but every little bit helps.

What annoys me is there is no shortage of anything yet the economy sucks.  Maybe I don't know enough about economics, but it's obvious trickle-down does not work.  Rich people tend to stay rich by holding on to their money so giving them more isn't going to help.  If you want to stimulate the economy, you need to give more money to dumbasses like me.  We'll go out and buy iPads and big screen TVs.

I'm actually pretty worried about the future of this country because we seem to have lost our way.  We used to buckle down and tackle big public works projects, but now you have the governor of NJ pussying out and killing the tunnel project.  It would've created a lot of jobs, eased congestion and allowed more people to commute into NYC from NJ which could encourage more people to live in NJ which would increase tax revenue which...you get the point.  Are we really the same country that fought on two fronts during WWII?  We seem to be spending more time and effort improving Afghanistan and Iraq than Detroit.  Let's take care of our own before trying to solve the world's problems.  And for fuck's sake, let's stop supporting Israel.  I don't care if they balance out the Middle East; their settlements are illegal at best.  What kind of moral high ground are we taking?  Let's use however much money in aid we give Israel to create some jobs here.  The government can build some solar plants or maybe invest in battery research.  It doesn't matter.  I don't want another cent going to militaristic knuckleheads.  We don't owe them anything and the money can be better spent here.

All this partisanship is killing me as well.  The president should be trying to bridge the parties rather than going out of his way to antagonize the Republicans.  Sure, most of them are corrupt idiots, but you could say the same about the Democrats.  You have two sides of the same shitty coin.  You get people completely out of touch with reality.  Are people in Delaware really going to elect someone who had to go out of her way to say she's not a witch?  Are people in Nevada going to elect someone who thinks Sharia law will rule in Flint, MI? Crikey.  What kind of idiots do they think we are?  Who the hell believes this shit?  The Democrats aren't much better and seem hellbent on giving handouts to lazy folk.  I'm all for giving people a helping hand, but help them get back on their feet, don't just help them loll around.

Let's get some more political parties so we can better represent people.  I'd like to see a couple of centrist parties, a strong environmental party, whatever.  Rational debate is good for this country, but what we have now is two idiots jawing at each other.  You've got Republicans using "stimulus" as a dirty word when it seems like TARP will do no worse than break even and may even make money.  If enough of us buy shitty GM cars, it'll definitely make money.  You've got Democrats passing a half-assed healthcare bill when we need insurance company overhaul.

The good news is some American know-how with hard rock drilling helped free the trapped Chilean miners.  That story just goes to show what can happen when people pull together for the greater good.  I'm convinced we could have a great healthcare system, great education while minimizing our impact on the environment if we tried.  It seems we've turned into lazy fuckers more interested in the Jersey Shore than actually making a difference.  We throw up our hands and lament it's too expensive to do good work.  Bullshit.  It just takes some sacrifice and some long-term strategy.

The government could put a shitload of people to work fixing roads and updating our ancient energy infrastructure.  We waste a ton of electricity due to our antiquated power grid and most roads are 90% potholes despite the ubiquitous construction.  Maybe they should try actually building quality multi-layered roads like the Germans instead of just slapping down another layer of asphalt.  Why do we no longer build for the future?  Don't buy a recently built house because it was probably slapped together in a short time and will not likely survive another decade.

Heh.  I think I've used up a fair share of cliches, but I worry that Americans are no longer motivated to do right.  We've become content and complacent so I'm hoping this latest recession will spur people to reevaluate their priorities.  The housing bubble was fueled by speculators who thought they could get rich simply by buying a house and letting it appreciate.  Since when did get-rich-quick schemes ever work?  You had to know there would come a point when everything would implode.  Crazy.  Are we destined to fade into obscurity?  Are we going to become China's bitch?  If we don't wake up, I think we will and sooner than we think.  China already owns a big portion of our debt and is making noises in Southeast Asian.

My company has a fab in Germany so perhaps I should request a transfer for a year or so to take a break from the shittiness here.