America the Broke
If you’re one of the lucky ones in these economically depressed times, you have a job that comes with a steady paycheck. (Nine percent of Americans or more have not been so lucky for twenty straight months.)
But even for the fortunate gainfully employed among us, the economic situation is more dire than many are remotely aware.
Take your yearly pay. Subtract your local, state, and federal tax burdens. Then deduct the amount you are paying to service your personal debt, including mortgages, credit cards, business or student loans, etc.
For a lot of Americans, after such a cruel calculus, their yearly income looks a lot smaller — perhaps barely adequate — even if one is pulling down a nominally “good” salary.
But the situation is even more alarming still: for the first time, our national debt has surpassed $14 trillion — a dubious and shameful record.
Even more astonishing, the past two presidents, one from each major political party, are responsible for half of that monstrous sum. As an Associated Press story noted,
about half of today’s national debt was run up in the past six years. It soared from $7.6 trillion in January 2005 as President George W. Bush began his second term to $10.6 trillion the day President Obama was inaugurated and to $14.02 trillion now.
In this era of hyper-partisanship, it is comforting to know that there is one thing both parties have agreed upon — spending the nation into insolvency.
It is clear that $14 trillion is an amount so astronomical as to be literally incomprehensible — beyond the ken of our formidable, if recently evolved, homo sapiens mind.
Unfortunately, that does not stop us from racking up such sums. Doubtless, the two phenomena are somehow related.
So deduct another $45,300 from your salary. That is what the national debt amounts to for every man, woman, and child in America. For a family of four with two small children and both parents working, that’s an additional $181,200 in family debt.
Actually, some of us will not have oursleves to blame.
Those of us who have advocated for Fiscal Responsibility, and actually looked for candidates that will be fiscally responsible (not those who can win but will spend like drunken sailors) and advocated and voted for such.
Some of us acted responsibly in voting, and recognized the lies that were told us by both parties. We stayed home in 2006 to try to get the attention of either party (one in particular) regarding the issue.
Unfortunatly the MainStream Media has always been louder than we are. Hence in 1995 the National Endowment for the Arts was Too Important to cut from the budget because it was just a miniscule program that did so much good, and we, who were arguing for fiscal restraint, were MEAN Spirited anyway for wanting to do away with the NEA.
I refuse to accept blame for that to which I’ve been opposed since 1980!
I’m with jd on this. I’ve been complaining of Congressional spending for at least as long. I refuse to accept responsibility for Congressional abuse of tax dollars. I do blame ALL of Congress… ALL Congressmen/women for the loss of thousands of investment dollars.
>>I refuse to accept blame for that to which I’ve been opposed since 1980!
Fallacy of Division. What’s true of the whole isn’t necessarily true of each part. Saying that “we” as a society have nobody else to blame doesn’t logically imply that each individual member is personally responsible. In the same way, saying that a watch tells time doesn’t mean that a mainspring tells time, a band tells time, a crystal tells time, et cetera. What’s true of the whole isn’t necessarily true of each part.
We may not be to blame individually, especially those of us who voted for allegedly ‘responsible’ candidates. But one thing’s for sure – we’re all going to be affected by the consequences one way or the other. Some of us though, have been watching those clouds gathering on the horizon for some time now. And we have prepared as best we can for the coming storm.
jd, you malign drunken sailors, as they are spending their own money.
And imagine the scores of congressmen and women who have enriched themselves by brokering in this debt are taken care of for the rest of their lives while we’ll continue toiling away to pay it down.
What a coincidence. Just a week ago, a business partner of mine was talking to a top-level administrator at the NEA. He said their budget had never gone down and would never go down. Must be nice.
I am looking forward to America’s Day of Reckoning arriving — the sooner the better. Ted Kennedy destroyed America with his Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965…
America is destined to breakup along ethnic, cultural and political lines. The demographic trends show that America won’t be around in another 30-40 years (at least not within the same borders). The Reconquista of the Southwest is already complete. We have lost California, New Mexico, Texas and Arizona… Next up on La Raza’s list are, Nevada, Colorado and Utah… Neither party is willing talk about illegal immigration and our insane suicidal immigration policy… so it is inevitable.
The Republicans are about to become a permanent minority, as will Americans of European ancestry. America will soon be just another Third World Banana Republic…
Your country is desolate; your cities are burned with fire; as for your land — strangers consume its [yield] in your presence; it is desolate as if overturned by foreigners.-ISAIAH 1:7
pooh
Just because YOU don’t believe it, doesn’t mean it’s not so. Get your head out of the sand and take a good long look around you.
I enjoy you pointing out that government has run up a debt of $41,K for every American. It seems too obvious to most of us that if they’d just given that money to each of us the economy would be much better off. My mortgage would be paid and the banks would be happy about their loans. The money going to service my mortgage might then go to buy a new American car (NOT Government Motors) but we’ll never know. Instead, they chose to spend it with their elite friends and I have less. Thanks.
There is much wisdom in this remark.
Like all other money channeled by federal edict the $41K would be much harder to direct to the waiting pockets of political friends, brothers -in-law and elected representatives’ operators than by normal top-down flow for short term first-in-line collection Visible bottom-up distribution went out with the CCC of earlier depression history since it went directly into the money starved economy. Entitlements now serve that purpose without any involved physical labor, just votes.
Each level of recipients eliminated from the process allows more to be spread among those in upper level money management positions. The money chain like the food chain also has sharks and fat cats at it’s top levels with international bankers being of great white caliber protected by an ocean of regulators.
Openly professional economic parasites feed on all others in the chain and enjoy mutually beneficial legislated protection enacted by those at the top. Federal Reserve fiat money only serves to camouflage the fraud while seemingly patronizing the few working pillars of economics that remain uninformed in the anesthesia of dope, booze and point spread at a level just above poverty.
This is just another canard to keep you dumb and pacified. Since EVERY American does not pay tax, ask yourself, What is the amount of debt of the TAXPAYERS? It is HUGE! Stop letting yourself fall for the average debt of every American argument. It is nonsense.
What can’t last, won’t last.
Not sure what the point of this article is? I think everyone with a pulse is aware of the problems and this piece seems to make no new information available. If you were prepared to predict what the “reckoning” will be specifically then there would be some meat to chew on. Its all a bit woo-woo!
Agree. There was not much (if any) insight in this article.
Seriously? I think that a huge percentage of our population (corresponding approximately to the 49% who don’t pay income taxes) has absolutely no clue.
“The recent unrest in Greece, France, Britain, and elsewhere adumbrate our future rather nicely.”
I wish people would not use Greece as an example, they haven’t had a stable country since the Spartans kicked Persian butt.
When the SHTF in American, it will not ‘adumbrate’ Greece, UK, France, Spain, Italy or any other nation’s current or near future.
It will be swift, and it will be terrible, and Americans will have the leaders and those who for years aided and abetted them to blame and targeted.
I agree it will be terrible. But I disagree that our “leaders” are to blame. We are to blame, because we elected them, or we did not fight hard enough to prevent them from being elected. We are citizens, not subjects. We will not get ourselves out of this mess by blaming anybody other than ourselves. When we put the blame on someone else, we then think that we don’t have to solve the problem. When we put the blame upon ourselves, we then realize that we have to solve the problem ourselves. When enough of the productive members or our society come to that realization, we may have a chance at saving what’s left of our country.
“I agree it will be terrible. But I disagree that our “leaders” are to blame. We are to blame, because we elected them, or we did not fight hard enough to prevent them from being elected. ”
Most Americans don’t even vote because you have only two options provided for US; an assh0le and an Assh0le. How am I responsible for that? There are bigger power in play here. The leaders and those aiding and abetting them are responsible. They’ve the power, I do not at the present.
“We are citizens, not subjects. ”
I’m not sure about that either.
“When enough of the productive members or our society come to that realization, we may have a chance at saving what’s left of our country.”
It’s the productive members of our nation who have allowed this crap to happen. The only way out of this mess is extremely unpleasant to even consider, and that does not involve the productive members of our society. It does, however, include our leaders and those who aided and abetted them. I sure hope my wife and I are dust prior to that.
I suspect that the reckoning’s coming due sooner than anyone expects. One of the lessons of history is that events can and will take on a life of their own, once they’re set in motion. We’re at the point now where it can be any little thing.
Tim,
Your words betray a fundamental component of the problem we have today. You see only two choices. The members of the two major parties know that’s all you see. So there’s no point in them being much different. It is in their interest to collude.
There are other choices. If you say (as I so often hear) there’s no point in voting for them since they won’t win, then you are a major part of the problem. You choose to vote on the basis of someone winning – not on the platform. You vote for the lesser evil, you say? Then you are voting still for evil – and you get what you request.
Vote for a third party. At least then your protest vote is visible (sitting on your hands is not so visible). Also, if the margin of difference between the two majors is small enough, you get to wag the dog (see how gun proponents and hard core environmentalists lost Gore the presidential election).
How can you blame yourself if you voted for Bush? Was the Democrat promising to spend less? Who knew big bucks Bush would bust the bank with an unnecessary drug entitlement for seniors? The vast majority of the money spent through that entitlement pays for the drugs of people who are affluent. How dumb can you get?
Sam, it’s a drop in the bucket when compared to the entire entitlement package. Yes, it has impact, but it is a small part of the whole. We have been suckered into believing that one or two things are responsible for the problems the country faces when, in truth, our entire system needs a major overhaul, starting with the Tax Code and going on from there.
However, since the power to tax and, more importantly, the power to NOT tax, is the source of the power wielded by the Govt elite, I don’t look for that to happen . They will let the country go down the tubes so long as they can preserve THEIR power.
“The government’s debt is our debt, and when our creditors at last demand their due, that heretofore unseen $45,300 per person in debt will suddenly surge to the surface and sweep all before it in a terrible deluge.”
I’m inclined to believe this statement, but could you spell out the likely mechanisms? Tax increases? Confiscation of property? Elimination of benefits and services? What are the most plausible ways to take $45,300 from each of us?
Inflation.
Ah! The invisible tax!
Anyone who holds federal debt securities — and that’s quite a few more people than are aware of it — is under the crosshairs of the inflation cannon. Anyone whose income is in some way controlled by federal action — Social Security recipients, federal workers, federal retirees, current contractors to Washington — is equally vulnerable. The rest of America will suffer to the extent that it saves in dollar-denominated form, whether that be stocks, mutual funds, or a common savings account.
Buy gold and silver while you can.
Francis,
It is amazing how so often I find otherwise smart people are unable to fathom that the fiat $ can be diluted by printing. Further, same do not understand why a difficult-to-produce commodity (such as gold) cannot be so easily diluted through increased supply.
I suspect being born into a paper world and having no knowledge or history of storing wealth in tangible asset is perhaps a cause of this myopia.
It is sometimes quite depressing.
Dare we take a guess as to who is responsible for this debacle? Liberals and their socialist/marxist command and control your brother beliefs are what is responsible. Where do they work? Usually they work in government, in teaching k-16, in law, university think tanks, not for profits, and any other business trying to regulate and strangle the rest of us. Where is our salvation? It is in that Free Market system that the libs dispise of course. Our free market economy is what has made the USA the envy of the world–not our great pompouse bs government. So we need a massive dose of deregulation and a wave of entrepreneurs who can create jobs. I might add not of the Silicon Vally ilk since these dimwits are walking around with wind mills on their pointed heads.
The next thing we need is a massive dose of tea party activism to bring ous back to the core values of America. Oh yeah that group of dreary white guys who founded teh constitution. Take back our ecnomomy from the leftists and our government from the statists and I have hope for this great country. But we are one election away from losing it all. Now that Obama is becoming Joe Capitalist (marxist in chief only in disguise), you know he wants to win another term and then sock it us in a four year assault on all fronts on our economy and on our values.
I kid you not we are in the fight of our lives!! Anyone awake yet?
And this is just the Federal debt. Many states, like California, Illinois, and New York, will go broke long before the Federal Government does. The Federal Government can print its own money (whatever that is worth these days), but the states can’t. There seems to be some discussions now on how to allow the states to go bankrupt. California will be there very, very, soon, certainly sometime this year. Watch if the Federal Reserve steps in and starts bailing out the states. If that DOES happen, not only will Federalism be dead, but it will also cause massive inflation as well. And we will have nobody to blame but ourselves, and all of the politicians who allowed their state governments to promise a lot of union pensions they kenw they could not afford. Just like the UAW and their horrific pensions and pay scales that drove GM out of business and had to be bailed out by the Feds. Don’t be surprised if some of the states end up like GM and end up having to take their orders from Washington, just like GM did and still does.
Somehow we have to send the message to the federal government that we will not take on California’s, illinois’, etc’s debt on top of everything else. If they try to bail out the states that hit the wall I be on the first train to DC to join in the marches against it…. I hope others are thinking the same here. Either the States should be allowed to go bust (in which case they can rip up the cushy union pension contracts that are a huge chunk of the problem) OR the governors should cite their fiscal situation to accomplish the same thing. If you think $45K per person is bad, how about $60K or $90K……. I am really looking forward to Paul Ryan’s rebuttal of President Obama’s State of the Union tomorrow night…..
Agreed Libertyship,
And I’d like to add to your discussion,,,,,
If the Federal government begins to bail out the states with our money, then the states will most likely no longer have any rights i.e. “states rights”, as the Fed’s will most likely stick their noses right in the middle of it all and tell the states more than they do now how to run their state. When there are no more states rights, then all we have is the ruling class from DC and when that happens then the beginning of the end is well nigh.
Then again some states, Texas, Indina, lots of the solid midwest red states may just secede and form a more perfect union of their own and give the rest back to Mexico, Spain and the U.K., heck maybe even throw France a bone.
Anyhow let’s hope that the Fed’s keep their noses out of it. Albeit I’m not much of a believer in hope these days.
Thank you.
States Rights? That is a notion so yesterday! Seriously – the Federal Government has continuously trampled on States Rights for over 200 years and has gotten us to this point. An edict from Obama stops all oil drilling in and around a target state and who does anything about it? Reminds me of the wild elephant that was tied up – first with a strong chain – then with just a strong rope – and gradually got so used to the idea that he could not break free that he was restrained by a small rope that he could easily break – but was cow-towed by the simple idea that any attempts to break free would be futile.
Our states have rolled over in the face of 200+ years of assault by the Federal Government and now there is no such thing as “States Rights” as it was meant to be. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights if anything were supposed to be a restraining order on the powers of the Fed. We no longer have a constitutional government – and more and more it is becoming a dictatorship for whomever is POTUS. Electing Obama has shown the fallacy of the idea of States Rights more than any other president in modern times. Every time he steps on the toes of States Rights the owner of the toes steps back instead of stepping forward to claim their rightful place.
Someone needs to step on Obama’s toes…
I think you need to step a little higher, like right below the jaw. The laws of this country need to be strictly enforced to te maximum. When they are not, we get crooks in influential positions of power, enter Dodd, Frank, Raines, etc. I bet if we strung up a few of these rat basta*ds things would change quickly. And NO ONE in a political position gets any lucrative benefits just because they inhabit that position. Bring back chain gangs and rid the taxpayer of outrageous bills for menial maintenance. Prison should be for punishment, not to educate inmates on how to be more efficient, slicker criminals.
My moniker is an indicator of my views on crime and punishment. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
And in other news. Film at eleven.
I often marvel at the disconect between the reality described by Mr. Patterson, and those who deny the coming reckoning like our President and many of his friends in Congress, repubs and dems alike. The irresponsibility is breathtaking and entirely predictable. Keynes has created a mindset of spend thriftness that is unsustainable and creates a deniability with an attractive patina to the wonks who tell us all is well.
I understand the theory that GDP should create a revenue base large enough to finance deficit and debt. However, when the revenue can not possibly sustain the promises made by our masters, that is when you realize how intellectually bankrupt people like Paul Krugman actually are.
What is amazing is that the media either can’t do the math, doesn’t understand the math, or is excited by the math in a Cloward Piven sort of way.
The founders would be ashamed of what we have become. We are losing our virtue as a people. I wish it was not true.
Doesn’t Zambia print $1 trillion notes? Is this our future?
that’s Zimbabwe
James,
You mean Zimbabwe – and their last bills/notes printed (before dropping their currency) were demoninated at $100 TRILLION. I have one on display – just as a little reminder. It cost me $US2.50.
I find too that in others seeing the real thing, the possibility of it happening at home is made a little more tangible (in depressingly few folk, sadly).
Which is why the debt ceiling should not be raised, and the budget slashed.
Your last sentence is, however, disingenuous. I am not going to pay off my mortgage in one year. I don’t have a problem with borrowing for capital improvements which are amortized over their useful life – like a car payment.
“I don’t have a problem with borrowing for capital improvements which are amortized over their useful life – like a car payment.”
You should.
There is a direct causal relationship between America coming to regard debt as acceptable, rather than SHAMEFUL, and our current fiscal problems.
If you need a car to get to work but are too principled to borrow the the money for it, do you recommend going on unemployment instead? I fail to understand. Maybe you lived under a bridge until you saved the money to buy a house.
I’ve paid my own way since I was 18, which was a very long time ago, but what would I know?
Apparently, you only know what you have personally experienced, which is never very much at all for any of us, and certainly not enough knowledge on which to base life decisions.
There are centuries of wisdom that say debt is a bad thing.
Money IS debt.
I understand his point. Not all debt is bad. Obviously, you need to know when it’s acceptable to take on and when not, and what the limit should be. Borrowing to buy a house is, in the minds of most people other than millionaires, acceptable debt. So is taking out a reasonable loan for a car if it helps you in your job and secures your reputation as being a reliable employee. Nothing is more annoying to me than to hear about this co-worker or that co-worker having on-going car trouble…we make upper middle-class incomes at my company — buy a friggin’ reliable car and come to work on a regular basis like the rest of us! The other Mark is simply saying to use debt wisely — and in some cases (like these uncertain economic times), not at all!
You postulate as an absolute that all debt is bad. I disagree. It is merely a financial tool. Wield it wisely, it can help you improve your life.
I don’t pretend to be a financial advisor, although I do have a degree in Business. What worked for me might not work for you. I’m going to reiterate my initial observation. It doesn’t make sense to weigh all debt against current income.
Even the Republican pols repeat the constant lie that “we’re passing this debt on to our children and grandchildren who will have to pay”, and “the future will judge us poorly”, etc. etc. — Lying weasels!
BS! It is WE, who will pay NOW. Putting it off to some vague future lets the sheeple ignore the threat. What ever you have in the bank today will go up in a puff of smoke as early as tomorrow. NOT generations from now.
We are already paying. As the Fed/Treasury print money, the value of whatever $$ we may have shrinks. This is part of the reason that the price of assets such as oil and gold are “going up”–the value of each $$ we own is shrinking so it takes more of them to buy the same gallon of gas. Same thing about to explode with rising food prices. So far the food cos have taken it on the chin with smaller margins, but soon they will pass the cost of rising food prices on to you know who. Interesting that food and oil prices are not included in measures of inflation. Hmmm, why do you suppose that is?
SB and Pelaut,
Unfortunately, I think you are both largely correct. Inflation is going to kick from a trot to a full gallop the way the Fed is printing now and has printed in the past. Quantitative easing, or devaluation, as I like to call it is going to come back and bite the middle class in America, but good.
I used to think that people who wanted to end the Federal Reserve’s power were crazy wingnuts. I have come around on that concept quite a bit. The Fed is in the process, along with the rest of the federal government, of bankrupting us all and turning our saving into dust. If you acted responsibally, you get screwed by the feds, either through default or inflation.
The states need to be able to nullify federal mandate and federal law where it is harmful to that states citizens.
I see no indication that FED will keep interests low when inflation goes above 3%. And the bottom is about to out of commercial Real Estate. This translates to deflation and bank insolvency. Which again translates to recession, higher unemployment and lower tax revenues.
So in two years time the federal government has only one choice: Bankruptcy or 40% budget cut.
The unparalleled spending has ignited the backlash. Anyone who is clear thinking can see the writing on the wall. All of this spending is unsustainable. But, politicans love it because they can appear altrustic giving people “things”. But we all know the value of things bestowed, instead of earning them. They are not appreciated, but demanded or “entitled”. Just where in the constitution do you find an entitlement to someone else’s income. Would you knock on the neighbor’s door and demand they pay your rent or food bill. Of course not, but it has been made perfectly acceptable to use the force of law to do this for you.
You can look to Europe to see what happens when the money runs out. Then the violence starts. You think it can’t happen here? Listen carefully to the Liberal talkers. You can hear the hints of violence, although they vigorously deny it.
One trillion dollars. How to imagine the unimaginable? A dollar bill measures 6.125″ long by .005″ thick. One trillion dollars laid end to end at Earth’s equator would encircle the globe 3,688 times forming a stack over 19″ high. As you drive coast to coast across the U.S., imagine that stack as the lane line. At the end of your journey you would have passed less than 1/4 trillion dollar bills.
M3III, what a powerful visual. It really drives home the enormity of the problem we’re confronting.
We should banish the word ‘trillion’ and in place of it make people write in out in full numeric longhand, with commas, decimal point, and cents included.
If my math is right, a trillion dollars in $1 bills laid end to end reaches almost exactly from the earth to the sun. How far is that? Light can circle the earth 10 times every second but it takes over 8 minutes to get from the earth to the sun.
Continuing on with the total national debt laid end to end would take you well past Saturn. To put the distance to Saturn into perspective: if you were to walk there from Earth at an average pace, it would take you over 30,000 Earth years to do so. If you could drive there at 200 miles an hour, it would take 457 years. A jet going 600 miles an hour would need 152 years to reach Saturn. A 17,500 mile-per-hour rocket takes five full Earth years to make it there. So go ahead, just follow those pictures of George Washington.
The sooner we face the music the better.
True, this is old news, long predicted, but it is here _now_;
It does not hurt to remind people who have been busy living
their lives that those lives are about to get more expensive.
One of the good things that will occur is the death through
discreditation of both political parties; Neither D nor R
will be able to get elected dogcatcher, and the replacements
will have to have Tea Party approval, or people will not
vote for them.
One of the bad things is that ‘You get the kind of Law you pay for’
will be the basis of government; ‘Citizen’ will be replaced by
‘Taxpayer’ as the requirement for representation.
Time heals all debts. UK just finished paying off their Lend Lease Debts from WWII in 2006. Since the payments were stretch out for 70 years, inflation ate away all the pain of paying back the debts. Imagine if UK had to pay those debts back in gold?
What if we could go to the bank and get a 100 year mortgage? The fact is that because governments pay back the loans in fiat currency over many many years, the sting of cost is greatly lessened.
This will eventually happen to US debt.
There are many things the people can do for themselves like insist the government stop it’s stupid prohibition of growing industrial hemp in the U.S. Since it has raised the mandate for ethanol from 10% to 15% and an acre of hemp can produce 4 times the ethanol as an acre of corn it only makes good sense to free the power of hemp. Hemp can create many thousands of jobs in all sorts of industries, construction, food, clothing, energy, paper products. Just get the government out of the way and the citizens along with the market place will reverse this situation created in a big part by government itself.
Explain to me under the Constitution how this subject is the federal governments business in the first place? If the feds got out of the business of subsidy, restriction of drilling, etc we would have no energy problem in this country, it is an artificially created phenomenon. We have 120 billion barrels of known reserves in the form of liquid petroleum off our coasts and the largest shale oil reserves on the planet. Americans should be able to use their own energy to fuel cars and industry,it’s that simple folks. It benefits us in all ways.
We now have more government than we can afford. Even the numbers that the CBO produces are as reliable as the politicians that can alter them. How much is actually owed and to whom at what rate of interest?
It is owed to the people who own the Fed. This country was sold out by the Democrats back in the early 20th century when they abrogated their Constitutional duty to control the money supply.
Do a little reading on the origins of fractional reserve banking and specifically Mayer Amschel Rothschild. “Give me control of a nations money supply, and I care not who makes the laws.” Then read about Jefferson and his distaste for European bankers. Read about what fomented the War of 1812 and how the Hero of New Orleans is the ONLY President to have ever paid off the national debt. Read about how ‘greenbacks’ came to be and why. Why is it that some Presidential assassinations are curiously linked to money policy?
And if you want to refute my theory do it with more than a wave of your hand and nothing to back up your rebuttal.
The first thing that needs to happen is people need to get over the “I want mine” syndrome. The budget needs to be cut and cut big. There can no longer be sacred cows. Entire agencies need to go bye bye along with the tax system we now employ.
Numbers like this are always misleading, and hide the real costs to the productive class. While the number $45k is scary, let’s be honest with ourselves. Much like the federal tax burden is today, almost half do not pay income taxes (and in fact get ‘refunds’, or checks in the mail).
So… for my family of 4, I’m figuring we owe $90k apiece for a grand total of $360k. Throw in the fact of compounding (let alone additional spending) before they actually decide to do something, I’m thinking the total will be more like $450-500k. Hardly seems possible to pay off when you think about it that way.
Exactly! The working slobs and the savers among us will each have to pay our own share; plus we will have to give $45K to each of the American Idol fans on the public dole and their kids so they can pay THEIR shares. Then they can lie back, turn on their high-definition TVs to As The World Turns, slurp beer and chew on twinkies, and let the cycle start all over again. Life’s just wunnerful.
“about half of today’s national debt was run up in the past six years. It soared from $7.6 trillion in January 2005 as President George W. Bush began his second term to $10.6 trillion the day President Obama was inaugurated and to $14.02 trillion now”
CORRECTION: The Democrat-controlled House and Senate, aided with RINOs and in total control from 2006 until 2011, are primarily responsible for the astronomical spending. It is factually wrong to ignore that Congress – and the House specifically – really sets the spending priorities. For comparison, we saw the reverse after 1994, when the Republicans took control of the House. Clinton benefitted, while Bush and Obama shall be cursed for a long time to come because they didn’t see fit to curtail the excesses of Congress.
Thank you
The betrayal of Americans goes very deep.
Tax $$ Fund SHARIA in U.S.
WAR ON TERROR
WorldNetDaily Exclusive
Judge OKs ‘flag of Islam on American soil’
Decision approves government funding for Shariah indoctrination
January 19, 2011
By Bob Unruh
WorldNetDaily
Attorneys for a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War say they have filed a petition to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after a federal district judge ruled it is OK for the U.S. government to fund commercial enterprises that promote the indoctrination of Islamic law, or Shariah, in the United States.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=25300
Huge street demonstrations must be held all over America protesting the funding of sharia with our taxes. And at the same demonstrations, protesting the Muslim terrorist victory mosque at sacred Ground Zero.
Millions fought and died so that we could live in freedom. We must not lose our freedom now!
See also:
Governor Christie’s Dirty Islamist Ties
By Daniel Greenfield
http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2011/01/governor-christies-dirty-islamist-ties.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FromNyToIsraelSultanRevealsTheStoriesBehindTheNews+(from+NY+to+Israel+Sultan+Reveals+The+Stories+Behind+the+News)&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and the Imam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUYIHRRaPmA&feature=player_embedded
SCARY……
Is this REALLY our AMERICA??????
Know the TRUTH about the Government Health Care Bill H.R.3200 – Key Points
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcBaSP31Be8
The highly destructive Cap and Trade. An inferior health care plan that no one wants and CANNOT afford to pay. The threat to jail and/or fine those who don’t purchase the government enforced plan.
Massive spending as if there is no tomorrow. Fighting wars we have no money for. Massive borrowing. The Massive giving away of Billions of dollars every year to other countries, including the oil-wealthy Middle East, Hamas-controlled Gaza and the Palestinian Authority organization who fill their war chests, build mansions and laugh all the way to the bank with free infidel money. Whilst in America, homeless shelters are filled to capacity; tent cities have sprung up all over the U.S. filled with desperate, jobless, homeless, NEGLECTED Americans.
Massive debt. The massive printing of paper money. There is no question that the total DESTRUCTION of America’s economy is planned. The results will be horrifying. In the once wealthy and great nation of America, millions of Americans will become destitute, hungry and homeless with no money or resources to help them.
Watch it. And weep for our great nation and people:
FALL Of The Republic – The Presidency Of Barack H Obama – The Full Movie HQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8LPNRI_6T8&feature=player_embedded
This is a two party system and both are responsible for thinking they can give out money they do not have to spend. Bill and Newt were the only two leaders that forced a contraction in government bureaucrats from spending that led to prosperity and surpluses. The states and cities run by deficit spenders will bring us down unlike what we see at GM and Chrysler. (Although GM and Chrysler were also brought down by both parties with the hugh Fannie and Freddie collapse.) Could the private talk at the White House be another GM and Chrysler takeover only for all the municipal bonds? Watch the sparks fly when public services unions get 1/3 of the investors money.
I hate to point this out, but the debt has been rising by more or less same rate ever since we left the gold standard in ’72-4. It only appears enormous now because when it doubles every six-to-ten years (as it has my whole lifetime, I’m 35) the starting number to be doubled is so big.
I’m not a gold bug, but a pure fiat currency controlled by politicians and bankers alone is going to flush itself down the toilet, no matter the social mechanism instituted for that control (Emperor Aurelius, the Federal Reserve, Bank of England, whatever).
The dollar has roughly lost half its value per decade, and indebted obligations (public and private) have roughly doubled per decade since 1975. The tremendous increase of the stock market’s value since 1980 isn’t just an amazing run of a bull market, its a sophisticated pricing mechanism constantly re-adjusting valuable things (physical plant and capital etc.) to a depreciating standard of measure.
Like any exponentially growing system, it becomes mega-irrational in the last several generations of the operation. My favorite analogy for current financial history is chain-reaction in atom bomb. Alpha’s always less than 2 in such systems, but more than one. It takes eighty chain-daughter reactions typically from first neutron split to the actual explosion. Interesting to note by integral nature of system first fifty or so generations do little more than make the bomb core warm to the touch. Only one part in one million of the total entropy is released by generation 58, all the big-budget Michael Bay mushroom-cloud stuff happens in the last seven generations or so.
I’d guess current financial predicament would be about generation 71 in the bomb analogy: Its getting warm and we can feel it, now realize what’s going on, but now its too big to stop. Have to let this pig blow up and pick up the pieces more and more is what I’m thinking. Sorry to be such a Debbie Downer but the math is brutal here.
“So deduct another $45,300 from your salary. That is what the national debt amounts to for every man, woman, and child in America.”
One note, subtracting a total debt from your annual salary does not make sense. Maybe amortize it over 30 years at 6% Interest for $3,259.20 per year (Less if our population grows). This is the way we need to think. We need to commit to a plan that WILL eliminate the debt in a set period of time. Otherwise, we’ll just keep throwing up our hands and looking for illogical ways of extending the party.
There is NOT a single adult citizen who can deny their own guilt in participating in the national debt!
From your personal lives and homes, your auto’s, to every service in your municipal communities, to your States, to business and industrials, comes the sources of the national debt…..even a SIGNIFICANT amount of private sector employment. It’s ALL dependent nowadays on government backing and handouts.
So while it feels good to point a finger at somebody else, remember that three fingers are pointing back at yourself.
America has to become weakened for there to be a global government, and a global currency.
The FED, a privately held institution, is the central bank of the world. Our government gave them our money to save other countries. Andrew Jackson warned us about this.
The G-20 meets in March. What will be agreed on outside our Congress?
For a private entity the FED behaves pretty robotically. When inflation is above 3%, they increase interest rates. When inflation is below 3%, they lower it.
I am in total agreement with you on this. World government is the goal. That can only happen in one of two ways. 1. The US takes over the world. 2. The US – and the world’s economy is destroyed. Soros and others like him, and all the useful idiots are pushing hard for #2. Only when the world is in total chaos can a “strong leader” “save us”. We who have read Revelations know how this ends.
Heh. From words of some of the commenters, here, nothing that has ever happened in the world is their fault. They are innocent, I tell you! Innocent…they have never done anything wrong in their lives, ever, ever, ever! The argument of children, protesting their own innocence, while proclaiming the guilt – in no uncertain terms – of everyone around them. (Lefty’s and righty’s both do this.)
Funny thing is, they all keep asking the government to do something, anything, whenever others do not live up to their own needs, desires, wants and expectations. ‘There oughta be a law, I tell you. Everyone should live and think and act and do and say everything and in every way that I do. The government oughta do something about it!!’
Many others keep voting for the same people, or the same kinds of people, over and over and over again, while expecting different results. Gee! I wonder why the government keeps getting bigger and keeps intruding into your personal lives?
Others, still, think the governemnt should stay out of their lives…as long as the government program they like, need, desire and want, remains in place…and then they’ll complan about fewer freedoms and liberties for themselves…and about government debt.
We not only get the government we deserve, we get the government we want.
(Hint: It’s not going to change until you do.)
Warren….EXACTLY!! American’s have surrendered their constitutional rights to the government systematically over many decades and continue to do so more and more with each new generation. Most no longer have a clue how much they are direct and indirect recipients of government handouts.
I read a lot of “we, the American people are responsible” stuff here. But Americans have long been deprived of critical thinking skills ala the useless politicians and the main stream news media. Many, if not most Americans lack the skills to analyze and understand the circumstances that have led the country to where we are. Example: why would anyone vote for Sarah Palin or George W Bush and now for Barak Obama? In 2012 we have an entire new lineup of losers we’ll have to listen to. If you want me to vote, give me candidates!!!
Simply put our politicians and bureaucrats and we ourselves have failed in our fiduciary responsibilities to our nation and our posterity. We have been failing for quite some time. Likely back to the New Deal, certainly back to the Great Society. Almost certainly this failure period is drawing to a close in favor of increasing personal accountability for our selves and our nation. This ending is engendering one helluva hullaballoo from the liberal left. But we can finally “stick a fork in ‘em, they’re done”!
Actually, we do have ourselves to blame — private debt has risen just as fast as government debt. Private debt, from credit card to corporate debt, started taking off in 1982, the same time government debt started rising, and the same time our current account went into ever growing deficit. Since 1982 we’ve been living beyond our means, both as a government, and as a society. Total debt of all sorts is over $60 trillion. So the public is behaving no better than the politicians.
Corporate debt is not the same as private or government debt. If corporations didn’t borrow money, they’d have to issue more shares of stock, diluting their current shareholders’ stakes. Whether they issue stock or bonds, they must still draw on public savings, and every asset they hold is claimed by individuals or their fiduciaries. Most importantly, corporate debt is never used to finance consumption, but rather to finance capital expenditures and hedge risk.
The author and many of the commenters on his column have described and diagnosed the problem. Time to stop blaming each other. The new House is proposing large spending cuts. If you all believe what you say about the debt then support these cuts and pressure you congresspeople to support them. Return spending to 2008 or even 2006 levels. End TARP and all bailouts. End Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. If Obamacare can’t be immediately repealed then defund it until it can be. Stop complaining about decline and get involved. Yes we can.
EJM…while I can appreciate the gist of your suggestions, they are but superficial symptoms of the far more serious underlying cancer. The tinkering with the approximate 40% of government cost (discretionary) which is sustainable versus the 60% of government cost (non discretionary) which is not sustainable….is simply silly. If your life was threatened with cancer would you want your doctor to simply treat your symptoms with morphine…or go after the cancer and kill it?
I am in big trouble my wife and I have 8 children. 10×45300= 453000. OUCH
I have to wonder, how many illegals know their complicity in all this?
Will they too be “lost” when the bell tolls?
The only way through this is sacrifice on all levels. That means phasing out all tax breaks and entitlements for businesses and requiring sacrifice from entitlement recipients, even if just a bit. Some of us have zero ‘skin in the game’ – some individuals earn a lot of income and pay little or no taxes, and some people contribute nothing, decade after decade, entirely dependent upon others.
If you don’t like the two choices you get in the voting booth, then you need to get involved in the primary process of one of the two parties. That’s how so many tea-party Republicans got on the ticket, and got elected last November. That’s the people making themselves heard. We’re not going to turn this country around in a single election; the Constitution was designed to avoid turning us into a “banana republic.” It’s going to take work, money, time and perserverance. But we can do it. We must. We owe it to thousands of men who have given their lives to give us the chance to try. I can’t guarantee you that we will succeed, but I can guarantee you that we will fail if we quit.
Over the past 77 years, counting back from 2010, the Democratic Party has completely controlled Congress often with vast majorities.
Over the past 77 years the Democrats have controlled the House of Representatives for 64 years (83%). All spending bills originate in the House.
Over the past 77 years the Democrats controlled the Senate for over 58 years (75%).
Combined overlap control, the Democrats have completely controlled Congress for 58 of 77 years. That is 75% of the last 77 years.
(Numbers from Wikipedia – control of Congress)
Who exactly is responsible for the current condition of this country and who exactly is responsible for all these massive “to big to solve” entitlement programs?
The answer is the Democrats. The Progressives. The programs that are such a mess today are their programs, spawned during their massive majorities in Congress over the last 77 years and starting with the initiation of the FED.
It is time for the Adults to take the stage. It is time to put the Democrats into time out in order to get this thing called America back on track. It is time for vast Conservative majorities in both the House and the Senate. Veto proof majorities. It is past time. The petulant children with their socialistic, Marxist based, utopian dreams have run amok and made a big mess. They can no longer be enabled. They need to become the minority party for a good 20 year run.
The Democrats always point to Bill Clinton as the good economic President. He left office with a surplus they say. Well, what old Bill Clinton had was a Republican controlled Congress for the last 6 of his 8 years in office.
The longest Republican majority in 77 years in control of Congress and the majorities they held were nothing, compared to what the Democrats have enjoyed. Ever wonder why Clinton had that surplus? It is because more Conservative people, for a change, controlled Congress for a very short period of time.
Thirty-four states already cut higher education aid and twenty-five states already reduced grade school aid. Twenty-Seven states have reduced health care benefits for low-income people. Twenty-six states have hiring freezes. Twenty-two states have lowered employee”s wages. Thirteen states have announced layoffs. Federal aid to the states has already being reduced. The worst is yet to come. 2010 will bring the loss of many jobs in public sector as well as the private sector. Experts say any chance of a turn around will not happen now. The US is broke and has the worst debt in the world.
The bankruptcies should happen in 2010 and many of the other problems have already begun. In 2010, 37 Governors face re-election and 46 states will chose their legislatures. The reality is to keep the states spending budgets up; taxes will have to be increased. When you have a lot of people out of work and a lot of failed businesses this means big tax hikes and raising taxes for those able to survive in a down economy is just going to make it harder for them to make it in the long run. Of course out of work people are short term oriented and can care less about down the road.
Things look like the politicians are going to try and run with upside down budgets but they will run out of money and then have to make some hard choices when they are up against the wall. In a state with high unemployment, who is going to vote for a politician who says we need to pull our belts in and run with a balanced budget and a sound economic policy and this will mean spending cuts and job cuts. Now the politician who says well we need to make jobs, extend unemployment benefits, send the kids to school and college, keep the medical aid coming, and keep the spending up is going to get elected. Then when the spenders get elected what are they going to do?
A study, conducted by the Pew Center on the States, found that California, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin are among the most bankrupt states in the country. The only ones not run top-to-bottom by Democrats were Arizona, Florida and Nevada…all of which have huge illegal immigration problems.
Economic Black Hole: Reasons Why The U.S. Economy Is Dying And Is Simply Not Going To Recover
Even though the U.S. financial system nearly experienced a total meltdown in late 2008, the truth is that most Americans simply have no idea what is happening to the U.S. economy. Most people seem to think that the nasty little recession that we have just been through is almost over and that we will be experiencing another time of economic growth and prosperity very shortly. But this time around that is not the case. The reality is that we are being sucked into an economic black hole from which the U.S. economy will never fully recover.
The problem is debt. Collectively, the U.S. government, the state governments, corporate America and American consumers have accumulated the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world. Our massive debt binge has financed our tremendous growth and prosperity over the last couple of decades, but now the day of reckoning is within sight. And it is going to be painful.
The following are 20 reasons why the U.S. economy is dying and is simply not going to recover….
#1) Do you remember that massive wave of subprime mortgages that defaulted in 2007 and 2008 and caused the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression? Well, the “second wave” of mortgage defaults in on the way and there is simply no way that we are going to be able to avoid it. A huge mountain of mortgages is going to reset starting in 2010, and once those mortgage payments go up there are once again going to be millons of people who simply cannot pay their mortgages. The chart below reveals just how bad the second wave of adjustable rate mortgages is likely to be over the next several years….
#2) The Federal Housing Administration has announced plans to increase the amount of up-front cash paid by new borrowers and to require higher down payments from those with the poorest credit. The Federal Housing Administration currently backs about 30 percent of all new home loans and about 20 percent of all new home refinancing loans. Tighter standards are going to mean that less people will qualify for loans. Less qualifiers means that there will be less buyers for homes. Less buyers means that home prices are going to drop even more.
#3) It is getting really hard to find a job in the United States. A total of 6,130,000 U.S. workers had been unemployed for 27 weeks or more in December 2009. That was the most ever since the U.S. government started keeping track of this statistic in 1948. In fact, it is more than double the 2,612,000 U.S. workers who were unemployed for a similar length of time in December 2008. The reality is that once Americans lose their jobs they are increasingly finding it difficult to find new ones.
#4) In 2009, there were also 929,000 “discouraged” workers who are not counted as part of the labor force because they have “given up” looking for work. That is the most since the U.S. government first started keeping track of discouraged workers in 1949. Many Americans have simply given up and are now chronically unemployed.
#5) Some areas of the U.S. are already virtually in a state of depression. The mayor of Detroit estimates that the real unemployment rate in his city is now somewhere around 50 percent.
#6) For decades, our leaders in Washington pushed us towards ”a global economy” and told us it would be so good for us. But there is a flip side. Now workers in the U.S. must compete with workers all over the world, and our greedy corporations are free to pursue the cheapest labor available anywhere on the globe. Millions of jobs have already been shipped out of the United States, and Princeton University economist Alan S. Blinder
estimates that 22% to 29% of all current U.S. jobs will be offshorable within two decades. The days when blue collar workers could live the American Dream are gone and they are not going to come back.
#7) During the 2001 recession, the U.S. economy lost 2% of its jobs and it took four years to get them back. This time around the U.S. economy has lost more than 5% of its jobs and there is no sign that the bleeding of jobs is going to stop any time soon.
#8) All of this unemployment is putting severe stress on state unemployment funds. At this point, 25 state unemployment insurance funds have gone broke and the Department of Labor estimates that 15 more state unemployment funds will likely go broke within two years and will need massive loans from the federal government just to keep going.
#9) 37 million Americans now receive food stamps, and the program is expanding at a pace of about 20,000 people a day. The United States of America is very quickly becoming a socialist welfare state.
#10) The number of Americans who are going broke is staggering. 1.41 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009 – a 32 percent increase over 2008.
#11) For decades, the fact that the U.S. dollar was the reserve currency of the world gave the U.S. financial system an unusual degree of stability. But all of that is changing. Foreign countries are increasingly turning away from the dollar to other currencies. For example, Russia’s central bank announced on Wednesday that it had started buying Canadian dollars in a bid to diversify its foreign exchange reserves.
#12) The recent economic downturn has left some localities totally bankrupt. For instance, Jefferson County, Alabama is on the brink of what would be the largest government bankruptcy in the history of the United States - surpassing the 1994 filing by Southern California’s Orange County.
#13) The U.S. is facing a pension crisis of unprecedented magnitude. Virtually all pension funds in the United States, both private and public, are massively underfunded. With millions of Baby Boomers getting ready to retire, there is simply no way on earth that all of these obligations can be met. Robert Novy-Marx of the University of Chicago and Joshua D. Rauh of Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management recently calculated the collective unfunded pension liability for all 50 U.S. states for Forbes magazine. So what was the total? 3.2 trillion dollars.
#14) Social Security and Medicare expenses are wildly out of control. Once again, with millions of Baby Boomers now at retirement age there is simply going to be no way to pay all of these retirees what they are owed.
#15) So will the U.S. government come to the rescue? The U.S. has allowed the total federal debt to balloon by 50% since 2006 to $12.3 trillion. The chart below is a bit outdated, but it does show the reckless expansion of U.S. government debt over the past several decades. To get an idea of where we are now, just add at least 3 trillion dollars on to the top of the chart….
#16) So has the U.S. government learned anything from these mistakes? No. In fact, Senate Democrats on Wednesday proposed allowing the federal government to borrow an additional $2 trillion to pay its bills, a record increase that would allow the U.S. national debt to reach approximately $14.3 trillion.
#17) It is going to become even harder for the U.S. government to pay the bills now that tax receipts are falling through the floor. U.S. corporate income tax receipts were down 55% in the year that ended on September 30th, 2009.
#18) So where will the U.S. government get the money? From the Federal Reserve of course. The Federal Reserve bought approximately 80 percent of all U.S. Treasury securities issued in 2009. In other words, the U.S. government is now being financed by a massive Ponzi scheme.
#19) The reckless expansion of the money supply by the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve is going to end up destroying the U.S. dollar and the value of the remaining collective net worth of all Americans. The more dollars there are, the less each individual dollar is worth. In essence, inflation is like a hidden tax on each dollar that you own. When they flood the economy with money, the value of the money you have in your bank accounts goes down. What do you think this is going to do to the value of the U.S. dollar?….
#20) The following is a narrative taken from a 2008 Sunday morning televised “Meet The Press’. The author (Dale Lindsborg) is employed by none other than the very liberal Washington Post!!
From Sunday’s 07 Sept. 2008 11:48:04 EST, Televised “Meet the Press” THE THEN Senator Obama was asked about his stance on the American Flag.
General Bill Ginn’ USAF (ret.) asked Obama to explain WHY he doesn’t follow protocol when the National Anthem is played. The General stated to Obama that according to the United States Code, Title 36, Chapter 10, Sec. 171…During rendition of the national anthem, when the flag is displayed, all present (except those in uniform) are expected to stand at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart. Or, at the very least, “Stand and Face It”.
‘Senator’ Obama replied: “As I’ve said about the flag pin, I don’t want to be perceived as taking sides”. “There are a lot of people in the world to whom the American flag is a symbol of oppression..” “The anthem itself conveys a war-like message. You know, the bombs bursting in air and all that sort of thing.”
“Well, the “second wave” of mortgage defaults in on the way and there is simply no way that we are going to be able to avoid it.”
We are not going to. But it would be very easy to avoid. Remember the problem is not cash flow with lenders. The problem is short term liquidity. So the solution is pretty simple and straight forward. A one time 50% tax deduction/credit on one year of interest paid. Combined with equally sized one time extra tax on interests earned. Problem solved.
But it’s not gonna happen.
The never ending yacking about sub prime loans is clouding the picture. The FED manipulation of the interest rates from 2003-2005 did not just hurt sub primes loan takers. It hurt everybody.
The American people scared by the massive corrupt spending of Obama and the Democrats has reacted by putting those who want to cut spending and get the debt under control in charge of the House. A message has been sent. However, Obama and the Democrats in the Senate seem totally intent on continuing their massive spending and debt spree regardless of the consequences, or maybe they think they can take advantage of the consequences? Now instead of calling their corrupt spending and debt stimulous they will call it investment as they work to protect and expand their extreme left wing agenda. I hope this article is far to pessimistic, but elections have consequences and giving power to an inexperienced, incompetent, left wing ideologue is likely to have very serious consquences!
And if you add in anticipated future payments to all of us soon to retire working Americans in the form of S.S., Medicare, Medicaid, we now have a number of not “just” $14 trillion, but well over $100 trillion. And much of this debt held by foreign governments who may or may not be our friends.
I certainly don’t see any problems coming our way…
Aren’t you conveniently omitting mention that the US Treasury and Eureopean Central Bank are lending money at efectively zero interest to the private banks so that they can lend this same money to our and European governments at between 4% and 8%. Isn’t this what is largely fuelling the ‘national’ and state debts, and leading to austerity measures?
I wonder if people are truly prepared for the awfulness that real austerity would bring. The federal government currently funds over 40% of its expenditures through debt issuance. Here’s what we would have to look forward to if we actually brought government spending in line with tax revenue:
1. The severe cutback or elimination of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Means-testing of those programs, resulting in a lot of pissed-off people who will see the thousands of dollars forcibly taken from them to fund these Ponzi schemes turned into a welfare program for old folks, that they don’t have access to.
2. The end of nearly all overseas military operations. Hundreds of thousands of pissed-off soldiers out of work. The instability of leaving Europe and the Middle East defenseless and subject to domination by Russia and China.
3. The collapse and liquidation of the so-called “Too Big To Fail” banks. While many of us drool at the prospect of criminal bankers out of work, it would result in the loss of savings for millions and the effective collapse of nearly every pension fund in existence, leaving millions of seniors absolutely destitute. The FDIC won’t save you due to the sheer volume of claims.
4. Massive deflation. Great for a country that saves its money, not so great for the United States of Debt and the consumer society we’ve morphed into. Hope you can continue those McMansion payments when property taxes skyrocket and tax rates approach 75%.
5. Hundreds of thousands of marginally-skilled government workers unemployed. This sounds great on paper, the reality is that its still a lot of new people out of work in an economy that is already near 20% real unemployment (not the fudged BLS numbers fed to us).
6. State financing collapse. Unpaid cops + unpaid firefighters + thousands of angry people out of work and out of unemployment benefits = uncontrolled civil unrest, rioting, and destruction. I’d stay the hell away from any major city.
Hopefully this gives you an idea of the mess we currently find ourselves in, and why there is little to no chance that our politicians even begin to understand the problems, much less how to unwind ourselves out of it without causing incredible economic pain and hardship.
If that’s the price for freedom, I’ll pay it.
1. Embrace Chilean style reform. SS / Medicare fixed incrementally in 20 yrs.
2. Europe can fund their own defense for once. Keep strike-force ready for operations required to defend our interests. Military spending cuts have to come too.
3. Stock holders and bond holders take the long-overdue haircut. Depositors unscathed. Regional banks fight over bank assets. Perp walk the banksters who aided and abetted the house ponzi scheme.
4. 18 months of deflation as bad credit shat out finally. Ah, sweet relief.
5. Unavoidable. An economy in which the malinvestments are flushed out will begin organically growing again. Unemployment begins to abate w/in 2 yrs.
6. Easy. ALL public unions decertified. All pension obligations up for “recalculation.” Now, get back in line and reapply based on ability and experience.
To reverse and fix all the issues you address, is NOT so complex and devastating as you portray! A constitutional amendment of the commerce clause and a three decade transition to privatization of social programs would NOT be all that painful. Given the very original premise of the existing social entitlements, means testing should and would be appropriate…. even during the transition. There remains NO strategic NATO deployment advantage in Europe beyond one location with two reinforced ground regiments, two naval installations including one battle group and one sub group and two combat air groups…..and letting Europe again be self sufficient for their security. All the other issues are likewise, manageable during such transition, in returning to the States their constitutional granted authorities.
@T.T. I don’t doubt those ideas may work. But look at our current crop in Washington. Do any apart from the Pauls or a few select others even understand how we got here, much less how to unwind ourselves out of it? The most politically expedient way out is to print, print, print…then loot before it all collapses. I don’t put it past the criminals in Washington to do exactly that.
@donttreadonme: for #3, you’re absolutely right, that should happen. Market forces are practically crying out for a nice, cleansing round of deflation (and as someone who actually saves some of his money and wants to buy my own property someday, disastrous deflation in real estate prices would be just dandy!), but the Federal Reserve has decided to fight deflation tooth and nail, and pursue inflation in a futile attempt to keep the consumer society going.
However, with that bad debt shat out of the system, as you say, comes with it the obliteration of most public pension funds in this country. Who do you think the depositors and the bondholders are? They’re retired teachers, firemen, policemen, auto workers, people who actually lived during the time where private companies offered a pension (laughable now, isn’t it? I’ve never expected my employer to provide for my retirement, and I never will).
We’re talking thousands to millions of seniors, who, while they had it good on their secure (and sometimes grandiose) government salaries and gold-plated benefits, are now broke, elderly, and sporting costly health problems. It’s easy to say “tough shit, deal with it” now, the reality is that it’s going to be extremely unpleasant for everyone. And considering the omnipotent moral busybodies that occupy the Capitol, we’ll be the ones forced to bail out the old farts when they can no longer afford to pay for their basic needs and Medicare is utterly bankrupt.
Ah, that locust plague we affectionately call the “baby boomers” – squander your inheritance; pillage the treasury; and now enslave your children and grandchildren; but you did crank out some cool music…
fyi: the locust plague are the sad characters that kept the ship going for we all these years. We objected strenously to the Great Society (remember if JFK were president that wouldn’t have happened). Ted and LBJ put that monstrousity together. Now that the baby boomers are ready to retire cause that can’t work anymore we find out that the US CONGRESS and several US PRESIDENTS have squandered all the money we were counting on. Now we have to worry about our grandchidren. Our children were put through college with after tax money. After tax, after FICA, after Medicare contribution, etc. Working 40-50 per week, paying mortgages, getting children thru college does not leave much time to keep up with politicians. Vacations were for catching up on yard work, spring cleaning, or other responsibilities.
I had three little mouths to feed when the Jimmy Carter economy was foisted upon us. This is going to be so much worse it makes me ill.
MarkD wrote:
You postulate as an absolute that all debt is bad. I disagree. It is merely a financial tool. Wield it wisely, it can help you improve your life. </i.
That is precisely the modern mantra, as taught in all of our institutions of indoctrination, uh, I mean, higher learning.
It's wrong.
It’s even worse than $45,000 for every man, woman and child. We know 1/2 of people pay no taxes. That, obviously leaves only 50% to pay. However, 1/2 of the 50% work for governemnt at some level. Since all gov’t revenue comes from private sector taxes, only 1/4 are left to pay EVERYTHING. so, if you work for a private company, you owe $180,000.
So… what kickstarts the crash? No one has ever said that.
When does the debt get called in? When do we have to pay it back?
Seems like we should have crashed when it was $1 trillion…
Maybe since it’s the liberals who advocate and support this type of spending level, when the crash comes, then only registered Democrats should be held financially responsible and the additional tax withholding required to pay back the debt be placed entirely on their shoulders – not on the shoulders of those who as individual, did not vote for nor support such unnecessary spending.