In the long view: Prop 8

"Marriage" has two distinct connotations. On NPR, I participated in a call-in on the passage of Prop Eight in California. I said the 'government' is the place to change the word, to describe the secular domestic contract. The panelist said, "Not in my lifetime." I almost asked her if she has health problems. It'll take quite a while, but she should still be around.

It's inevitable that marriage become a type of legal domestic partnership under federal law. It will start in taxes, as other types of domestic partnerships require restructuring for fairness. Right now, a family with a kid who goes home with the kids makes taxes a problem. Two people working can provide better for four kids than two each, with shared home and expenses. More tax revision ahead. Health care reform will hit this one. And daycare payment problems and... Contractual cross-obligation for the care of children would help greatly in cases where one person in a shared home's primary job is taking care of the kids. We'll see a lot more of this as the economy slumps.

Where is it going? Where does your computer go when you hit the reset button? We're headed for deflation and depression. No, it won't be as bad as The Great Depression. They may even stick with calling it a' recession.' We've got both that experience and modern communications to reduce the human suffering. Wall Street has the experience of a crash after overextending credit. You can't tell me those pros didn't know it was coming, because I did and I just took basic economics.

Yep, government jobs to build America. It's going to cost our future labor to build something that will pay for that labor. Now, the problem becomes, who can loan us money? Uh, oh, we already owe just about everybody and they're not in any better shape. I have visions of how this could be done , of course, but those are books and it'll be interesting to see the reality compromises. I do think a US Bond, or some other America-investment, is going to be part of the work-now-get-more-later plan.