Reply #18: It's the Ronald Reagan perch

[jmowreader]

Imagine this country being an aquarium.

In an aquarium, unless you're one of those maniacs who keeps huge piscivores like oscars, piranhas or channel catfish, there are three levels of fish--top-swimmers, midwater-swimmers and bottom-feeders. The top-swimmers tend to grab anything floating on the surface, so if you don't want the midwater-swimmers and bottom-feeders to starve you must use sinking foods.

In the case of the economy, the food is money and the only way it sinks is if the top-swimmers--the Lee Scotts and Bob Nardellis of this world--throw it down.

Bush, and most Republicans, look at this aquarium from the top. They see the top-swimmers up there grabbing all the money they can and growing fat off it. Democrats look at the aquarium from the side...where they notice that the only things doing well in the tank are the top swimmers (the CEO class) and some of the midwater people (middle management) who can swim up to the surface and grab a little for themselves--through playing the stock market, knowing how to play the horses, or whatever. The bottom-feeders--the workers? They're like plecostomus catfish, which are very hard to see emaciation in because the armor plates keep you from seeing the sunken bellies. The workers are leveraged to the max on credit cards, interest-only mortgages, 84-month car loans and the like. They're spending like mad, but it's not their money. And when the bills come due...watch out.