October 15, 2008 06:03 PM UTC

Ralph Nader on Wall Street bailout & more troops in Afghanistan.

• 1 Comments
• by: Canines

I think Ralph Nader’s independent candidacy is a joke. But I think he presented some interesting ideas on the NewsHour last night. In this diary, I’ll paraphrase what he said.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/vo…

Basically, Nader says that Wall Street and speculators ought to pay for their own bailout. We shouldn’t put the bailout on the American taxpayers. Nader suggests a tax on “security-derivative transactions”: FDR taxed them and the civil war was financed that way. If you buy something at a store, you pay a sales tax; but if you buy a billion dollars worth of Exxon derivatives, you don’t. Put that money into public works. Repair America, provide jobs.

Where’s the justice, asked Nader? Fat cat bosses on Wall Streets jump ship into a “golden lifeboat” and then their companies demand that Socialism in Washington bail out Corporate Capitalism. Nader said, “The only place left for capitalism in this country is small business, because they’re free to go bankrupt–they don’t get bailed out.”

The two major candidates are always talking about the middle class, but mentioning the hundred million poor is a no-no. Meanwhile, more of the middle class are becoming poor.

Nader added that additional soldiers on the Afghanistan-Pakistan, as suggested by both Obama and McCain, are only going to destabilize Pakistan. The US should connect with tribal leaders in Afghanistan who will act as a buffer against chaos. Nobody conquers Afghanistan: the British didn’t, the Russians didn’t, we won’t.

Additionally, it will be a “scar on the conscience” of both Obama and McCain if more troops in Afghanistan lead to the destabilization of Pakistan and a “massive quagmire” that will make Iraq look like small potatoes.

http://www.votenader.org/