brother, can you spare a dime

Once I built a railroad, I made it run, made it race against time.

Once I built a railroad; now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime?

Once I built a tower, up to the sun, brick, and rivet, and lime; Once I built a tower now its done, brother can you spare a dime?"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime," lyrics by Yip Harburg, music by Jay Gorney (1931)

The new super PAC backing Rick Perry has drawn up plans to spend $55 million as part of an ambitious campaign strategy aimed at blowing away the Texas governor's rivals in early primary states and securing him the Republican nomination by next spring, according to internal committee documents obtained by NBC News (nbc news)

American businesses earned profits at an annual rate of $1.659 trillion in the third quarter according to a Commerce Department report released Tuesday. That is the highest figure recorded since the government began keeping track over 60 years ago, at least in nominal or non-inflation-adjusted terms.(nytimes)

The billionaire Koch brothers can count dozens of corporate executives and philanthropists among their million-dollar donor club, according to a new report that revealed the big givers. (politico)

President Barack Obama collected $86 million combined for his re-election campaign and the Democratic party during the past three months, giving him a large fundraising advantage over the Republican field seeking to challenge him in 2012. (huffington post)

We're in the money, we're in the money;

We've got a lot of what it takes to get along!

We're in the money, that sky is sunny,

Old Man Depression you are through, you done us wrong.

We never see a headline about breadlines today.

And when we see the landlord we can look that guy right in the eye

We're in the money, come on, my honey, Lets lend it, spend it, send it rolling along!

"We're in the Money," lyrics by Al Dubin, music by Harry Warren (1933)

We hear about the insecurity of businesses to hire new workers based on the ineptitude of a government unable to stabilize the near future let alone imagine a 5, 6 or 10 year plan. We hear about money being tight, based on fears that the markets are in flux because government has no solid foundation regarding economic plans or schemes. We hear about the markets erratic and irrational due to false predictions, unforeseen foibles, and inattentive government actions. We hear how tough the times are yet look at all the money being bandied about to buy and sell the laws and law makers of this great nation of ours. We hear how the middle class must tighten their belts, the elderly prioritize health care, food, rent, how the disabled must learn to walk on their own two feet, yet millions and millions of dollars are available to purchase favors from politicians. We hear how austerity is the answer to a middle class scripted as greedy and gluttonous by the same people who spend millions and millions of dollars to cash in on their bribes and buyouts of elected officials.

People are queer, they're always crowing, scrambling and rushing about;

Why don't they stop someday, address themselves this way?

Why are we here? Where are we going? It's time that we found out.

We're not here to stay; we're on a short holiday.

Life is just a bowl of cherries.

Don't take it serious; it's too mysterious.

You work, you save, you worry so, But you can't take your dough when you go, go, go!

"Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries," lyrics by Lew Brown, music by Ray Henderson (1931)

Minimum wage is a sign of socialism. Unemployment insurance makes a man or for that matter a woman weak. Unions had their place in the sun but now it is time for that sun to set. Workers can’t live off the land when they retire, even if they had cultivated that land all the years they worked. Poverty is self induced. Health care is not in the Constitution. Corporations are people.

Pick an American human condition and then find a reason why helping, assisting, providing for that American human condition is wrong and way too expensive. Choose an American human condition and then find why it is a fallacy that hunger, health, homestead are machinations of a marauding mind. List an American human condition and then find out why those who require the same content of living as the wealthy are considered needy, nuisances, nobodies. Ask for equality for all Americans and be told we can’t afford it right now.

Once in khaki suits, gee we looked swell,

Full of that Yankee Doodly Dum,

Half a million boots went slogging through Hell,

And I was the kid with the drum!

Say, don't you remember, they called me Al; it was Al all the time. Say don't you remember I'm your pal.

"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime," lyrics by Yip Harburg, music by Jay Gorney (1931)

I imagine just from reading the headlines regarding politics that there are a whole lot of dimes that could be spared. It seems though that there are a lot less people who own those dimes who believe that we all deserve any or some of those coins. In a nation as great as ours it seems a shame we have the financial wherewithal to build mountains but choose to design trenches and roadblocks dividing we from they, us from them. It is a shame we must once again plead leaving all pride behind and ask, “buddy can you spare a dime”, please?