I received one of those chain emails this morning, which by the way, I can’t stand. There’s enough crap circulating on the Internet, well over 1 billion pieces of spam per day sent around the globe, that it irks me to receive a piece so misguided no matter how well-intentioned.

This one took a shot at the easiest targets in America – politicians. While there is a great deal of anger and frustration in the world right now, it’s still just shooting fish in a barrel. This email took aim and fell so far short of the mark, too.

It purported to put the number 1 billion into perspective . . . a billion seconds ago it was 1959; a billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age; and, here’s the kicker . . . a billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes at the rate our government is spending it.

It went further to bemoan all the different ways politicians find to tax just about everything we do and use and think, quite an impressive list, in fact. Then, at the end, just before asking what the heck happened, it read:

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago . . .
Our nation was the most prosperous in the world.

I daresay the person who wrote this email and began its circulation was not around 100 years ago to enjoy all that “prosperity.” Let’s take a look back, though, and try to put this chain email’s proposition to the test:

100 years ago, we had only 90 million people in the country – - vs. today’s 310M+

We had no automobiles and therefore no national infrastructure to build and maintain yet. Nor was there an infrastructure for potable water, or waste management, and far less waste to manage with only 90 million people.

We had no airports or planes, and thus limited travel. Trains carried supplies east and west, but mostly local regions supported themselves with their own foodstuffs and materials for daily life.

We had only 22 states in the union at that time, too, not 50.

Wealth in the country was controlled by 1% of the population. When those men (Rockefeller, Astor, Morgan, and others) met at their private club on Mount Desert Island, Maine (the building still stands, by the way), decisions affecting the entire country were made over brandy and cigars.

Never mind, though, that things are different or that those days were no better or worse than days are now.

The “arguments” presented by the email originator, and echoed by so many of the angry crowds and the Congressmen and Senators who pander to them, are false and bogus, and they lead only to a populist arousal that offers neither relief nor satisfaction. After all, what government programs are to be cut?

Social security and Medicare take the largest slices out of the federal budget. Eliminate them? Untie the seniors boat at the pier and cast it adrift?

Public education? The heck with the kids, they can learn on their own.

Roads? Bridges? People can ride a bike to work.

Any politician who votes against a government program benefitting the people of his or her district in any way isn’t going to be in office long. Blame politicians? Yeah, sure, but who put them in office in the first place? And who asked for all of the services government provides today?

It’s always nice to have someone to blame for all that is wrong in the world – vote the bums out of office. But the issues are far more complex and far more deserving of reasoned and substantive debate than that.

Cherry picking the targets and vomiting on them is nothing more than silly chest-beating. Don’t like taxes? Okay, fair enough, couldn’t agree more.  What gets cut, though? Give me the alternatives, persuade me on their merits. This is where so many fail.

Today’s Republicans and the Sarah Palin wing of that party have plenty of political stones to throw – - tell you what’s wrong, make you afraid of it, tell you who’s to blame. But, when it comes to alternatives, they’re plum out of substance.

It might win elections for them in 2010, but it serves no one’s best interests. It moves this country no closer to meaningful progress on health care coverage for everyone, on ending wars that can not be won militarily so we can bring our brothers and sisters home, on improving our country’s economy, or any number of other major problems on today’s list.

So, although I did end up reading the entire email, I broke the chain and deleted it. I’m not passing it on.

If you think health care reform is necessary but don’t like the current version of the House bill, present your alternative. If you don’t believe the Federal Reserve’s money policies or the Obama Administration’s stimulus efforts have merit, present your alternatives. If you think the Afghanistan war can be won militarily, tell us how, defend sending more troops, present your alternatives.

Saying no, calling the President a socialist or a Nazi, accusing him of dithering, and decrying death panels that exist only in your imagination, but otherwise offering no substantive alternatives, doesn’t help this country, or its people, or me in any way. So, stop wasting my time, and stop writing those stupid chain emails.

The world needs people who are more serious than you.