Picking a Losing Battle...

Only today's hothouse Democrats would think it a good thing to put the country through this, and ask them to pay for it after the months-long Mueller investigation was a bust, when anybody who can count to 67 understands they are fighting a losing battle in the Senate, hoping to remove President Trump from office.

We get it. You don't like him, and won't accept him as our president. That's been... kinda clear in the coverage, and the lack of unity behind his leadership in the past 3 years.

But the path to an honest victory? Up your game, figure out what the citizens of this country really want (hint? It ain't free daycare for the wealthy's offspring, paid for by further taxing workers), and work -- in Congress -- to pass compromise legislation that actually meets the country's needs by addressing important issues (emphasis without italicizing on the adjective.)

For example, take wage disparity. Overall, wage growth is not really rising, not for hourly employees nor for those salaried, other than the typical increases that come with promotions, career growth and maturity. Even today in times of high unemployment, there hasn't been the leverage to pay salaried workers more, even while there has been a push at the bottom for minimum wages, legislative paid time off to ensure sick workers aren't coming in or bringing their children to daycare lest they lose dollars.

Q: How does the promise more and more government benefit programs address this issue? Instead of advocating for more take-home pay at the end of the week -- where workers would be left with more CHOICE in how to invest their earnings (ie/ paid daycare, alternative educational options, a greater investment in family and self via direct-time contributions with elders, spouses, teens, and children too) -- we want the government to distribute the goodies?

That was kind of the fatal flaw to Obamacare, in the end. It took CHOICE away from workers and families. The immediate payoff was that "children" under 26 years could stay on a family plan, but then... the "kids" aged out, and realized what they had been mandated into. Corrective legislation quickly solved that -- the mandate that younger healthier bodies work to pay for the choices of their often wealthier, unhealthier elders.

"Free" daycare might seem a plus if numbers-wise, a worker would benefit today. But instead of more dollars in the pockets freeing a person up to invest in their child as they choose, they will be stuck paying for the daycare industry. That's essentially what happened to CHOICE in the healthcare reform: people got less, and the related industries made out well.

In America, FREEDOM and CHOICE have always been our mantra, our country's selling point. With those two, you are able to essentially Choose-Your-Own-Life-Adventure, by purchasing the things that matter you as an individual, often operating within a family structure. If your mother-in-law provides care, you don't get locked into the government centers that set the daycare hours, and ask you to accommodate their schedules. If you choose to have a parent stay at home for personalized child instruction, perhaps because the child is at a point in their life where they need that one-on-one and the stability of coming home directly after school say, you can invest your dollars in that.

Daycare can be very helpful, there is no denying that. Quality help can be a blessing to some, please don't misread me. But with the dollars in the pocket, that choice would still be available to those who invest resources there now. But so would the extra dollars drive alternative investments, in ways that might benefit others in a slowly disconnecting society. In short, the jury is still out if we were healthier as a while in inter-generational societies where there was more mingling of young people and their elders, particularly within the family structure. Institutionalizing everyone out of sight does not seem to be preparing our young people in advanced Western society -- all of our young people -- for what comes after the schooling and direct care ends, and their independent life awaits. And God only knows the damage, and anyone who can read the news, that can be done by those who "slip between the cracks" and make bad decisions mixing their anger with their access to weaponry and fairly untested medicinal fixes.

Picking a losing battle will only give Congress less to accomplish in Washington. The "crisis" of the day is never resolved, in favor of entertaining spectacles and grandstanding showmanship.

Myself, I do not think that is what the country really wants or needs. Let us vote with our dollars, and not be lobbied into paying for products and services that in the end may be our societal undoing.