"Eating the seed corn"

[mrreowwr_kittty]

Best analogy of RW economic policies ever, uttered by former Congressman Sam Coppersmith of Arizona, as he moderated an Obama platform, which included Gov. Janet Napolitano and the state Dem party chair Don Bivens.

Seed corn refers to the supply of quality seeds that is reserved for planting future crops. Sam used the phrase as a way to describe how economic conservatives are incapable of thinking long term.

Ignoring pollution, damage to the environment, and depletion of precious natural resources - Eating the seed corn

Allowing infrastructure to rot - Eating the seed corn

Refusing to invest in education and health care - Eating the seed corn

Prioritizing tax cuts now over ensuring future obligations are covered - Eating the seed corn

Making quarterly profits of corporations more important than the viability of the community - Eating the seed corn

Feel free to add your own examples. We are eating the seed corn.

[Muttocracy]

1. loss of natural and agricultural biodiversity - eating the seed corn

[BlooInBloo]

2. Everything bad: eating the seed corn....

Hint: for a phrase to catch on, don't make people sick of it by promiscuously using it for everything.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

5. It doesn't fit "everything bad" so your caveat doesn't apply

It doesn't apply to natural disasters, for example. It's an analogy that specifically fits policies that place short term gratification (for a select group) over the long term good of the community. It's about this mindset that says "Fiddle dee dee. Tomorrow is another day. Let's sqaunder everything we have now and let Gawd (or the Free Market) take care of the future." Perhaps you'd prefer "Milton Friedman-ism"? Whatever. It's the same shit.

[jwirr]

3. Outsourcing American jobs - eating the seed corn.

[MarjorieG]

4. I've always used that term for short-term thinking Dems...

Circular firing squads, not building long term infrastructure, not building leaning, big tent Dems. How we eat our own during the primaries, pout, yell, want everything in our image or walk away. Same ol', same ol'.

The change is what excites me so much about this year.

Really an old newsroom bite.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

6. It's new to me, in a political sense, though.

When I worked in financial services, the phrase was used to describe what you put into your retirement nest egg. The idea was to make sure that you considered the vagaries of risk to your investments, and more importantly, that you regarded your retirement accounts as something you reserved for the future and protected.

[izquierdista]

7. Not eating

Eating is for poor people. Republicans turn it into ethanol for their Hummers.

[immoderate]

8. It's "killing the golden goose..."

Open it up and get all the golden eggs now. Except they're not there, and the goose is dead.

--IMM

[Grinchie]

9. Genetically Modified Food - Poisoning the seed corn and those who eat it.

[Duppers]

10. Not funding long-term research.

nt