I posted this slightly edited comment (which I never do — post, that is) to last night’s Bill Maher show:
Tomi Lahren was way out of her league. But I hope Bill gives her another chance. Because the very definition of liberalism, as Gore Vidal wrote, is the discussion of all ideas.
I’m learning that most Trump people aren’t near as bad as I thought. The ones I’ve talked to didn’t like candidate Trump. But they voted for him because he was pro-life, promised to lower taxes, and create jobs. Immigration is a big issue for them. But the #1 bigly issue for them was a profound dislike for HRC. I didn’t like HRC either. My vote for her was a vote against Trump.
No one I talked to realized Bannon. When I point out what Bannon stands for they’re like, “Well that’s not good”.
Hardly anyone I talk to realizes that the computer microchip, not Mexicans, is the reason for job loss. They don’t understand what cheap and free has cost our society. They kinda get that everything made in China isn’t good for us. But then they whip out their iPhone and order from Amazon.com.
Trump is doing Americans a big disservice by going around saying, “I’m gonna bring manufacturing back”. Because people equate that to jobs. He may be able to convince a few companies to open a manufacturing facility here. But the building will be filled with robots, not workers. A big building, with a tiny parking lot.
Robots and artificial intelligence will continue to wipe out more jobs and Trump needs to tell people. The #1 employment group is drivers – truck drivers, delivery drivers, cab drivers, Uber drivers, etc. What’s going to happen to those jobs when driverless cars, trucks and drones make their way into our lives in the next 5 years? More jobs lost. Not just driver jobs, hotel jobs. Because if someone can program their car to drive from Denver to Houston then go to sleep, why do they need a hotel room? They don’t.
Robots will replace fast food and restaurant workers. Orders for a Big Mac and fries will be filled by robots. When we go to restaurants servers won’t take our order — we’ll use a touch screen to order. The food will be delivered by robots. More jobs lost. Room service will be delivered by robots. Hotel rooms will be cleaned by robots. Hotel check-in will be automated. More jobs lost. Millions of jobs, lost.
No one is talking about this.
Instead, what Trump’s pitch should be is education. His message should be, “The bad news is the jobs aren’t coming back. Maybe even worse news is that technology is moving so fast even we can’t keep up with it. What we know for sure is that robots and artificial intelligence are going to continue to wipe out more jobs.
“Now the good news. We know what the problem is and we feel your pain. We’ve got some ideas, but it’s going to take time. It took us years to get here, there is no simple solution”.
So in other words, be honest with people. But he’s not doing that. Neither would have Clinton, had she won.
One idea I have is centered around food. Make money available to build green houses. Make money available to build clean soil. Make money available to get people healthier, which would lower health care costs. For example:
Let’s say the government gave me some money to start a health care consulting business. They gave me a year to start producing results. So I would get paid based on my clients blood pressure and body weight relative to height. The lower my clients blood pressure and the more their weight was in line with their height, the more I got paid. Bonus, if I got them off of most or all of their medications.
Our country is way overweight. Not by a little, by a lot. It’s costing us a lot of money. I’m not suggesting we force people to do anything or make any new laws. I’m talking about market based ideas, what Republicans are supposed to stand for (remember them?).
If more people eat food grown locally, they’ll be healthier. And that creates jobs. Jobs that can’t be automated or done with artificial intelligence. If more people have lower blood pressure, lose weight, get off their meds, then health care costs go down.
I see a bigly opportunity to make our country healthy again. Only problem is, Trump is obese. And he eats at McDonalds. Jeezus.
Another idea is alternative energy. Alternative energy would be bigger than the Internet age if Trump would let it. It might happen anyway, because it’s hard to keep entrepreneurs down. All this talk coming from Trump and his cronies about coal and what not is stupid and insulting. It’s like they want to bring back the horse and buggy era.
Trump got people to vote for him because of a shiny button message — “I’ll bring back jobs”. It’s bunk. Then, he doubled down in his inauguration speech — “Hire American, buy American”. More bunk. Are you willing to pay a lot more for your tech to have it made here? No. Are you willing to stop buying from Amazon? No. Neither am I, neither are most. I read comments on Breitbart.com, praising Trump and his “plan” to bring back jobs. This whole, nationalism message. Meanwhile, they’re typing on devices made in Taiwan.
But even if you were willing to pay a lot more for your stuff, would it make a difference? No. Because even if the companies didn’t use robots, the jobs inside of those plants will only pay a little above minimum wage. So it’s not like anyone is going to get phat from these new jobs here.
Trump’s pitch is empty and hollow. How he could win my vote is if he’d start telling people the truth. Then, bring in creative minds to work on the problem. Instead, he’s lined his cabinet with billionaires, most of whom were born into their wealth. That, pisses me off.
The explanation for President Trump can be easily found in Thomas Frank’s book, Listen Liberal: Or Whatever Happened To The Party Of The People? Here’s the link:
http://listenliberal.com/
As long as we don’t get wiped out and our freedoms don’t take too much of a hit, I think Trump will be good for us. I traveled to Grant Park to see history in 2008 when Obama got elected. I got my t-shirt, checked the box next to: racism is over. Then I went back to my life of consumption and liberal ignorance. Now, we’re seeing that there’s a lot of people who’re displaced. Had HRC won, we’d have just kept on with the Democrats technocratic policies. Now, people are being reminded that our democracy isn’t inevitable. We’re reminded of neighbors who’re aren’t doing so well. We see we need to get involved, to stand for what we believe in.
I don’t agree with Trump, I think his words are hollow. Bannon is dangerous. His cabinet appointees have no connection to what’s ailing our country. I don’t even believe Trump wanted to be President. I’m inclined to believe Howard Stern, that Trump didn’t do this to win — but to get a raise from NBC.
http://money.cnn.com/2017/02/02/media/kfile-stern-on-trump/index.html
But here we are. Things have to get worse before they get better.
The right has legitimate concerns that should be paid attention to. For example I agree with what Sam Harris writes about, here:
https://www.samharris.org/
There’s a few extreme Islamists. But there’s a few hundred thousand Muslims, who sympathize with Sharia law. There’s no way, this liberal is going to let Sharia law happen ’round here.
But there’s also plenty of Muslim’s such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali who’re for the reform movement:
http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/02/01/ayaan-hirsi-ali-slams-womens-march-organizer-linda-sarsour-sharia-law
As Sam Harris said in last night’s show, the wrong approach is to shut down our borders and to build walls. Because all that bigger walls will accomplish is to create demand for taller ladders. Instead we need to engage people like Ayaan, roll up our sleeves and start talking.
My hope is that people get out of their bubble. And, that a few sane Republicans show up. If not, it could get fugly.
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