What we need is first off to not even make this stimulus package. I mean our national debt will be over 60 trillion dollars for those who do not understand this that means that it would take YOU spending 1,000,000 dollar PER DAY it would take you 160,000 YEARS not days to meet our national debt!!!! I mean come on you don't get out of debt by spending more! Just give it time trust me your taxes will increase and inflation will take place! I'm 18 and to be honest i don't wont to pay outstanding taxes for the rest of my life! I work aready and taxes kill me! Try earning mininum wage and not haveing that much time because your always at the school. It suck's big time. Then my future kids and there kids will be paying for this. I'm HIGHLY against this Bailout! We needed to jus let it ride so to say because as my economics teacher says decomercy will always correct its self.
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First of all, democracy is a political system, not an economic one (actually, we're a Republic, not a democracy, according to our Founding Fathers). America supposedly is a capitalist country, in the economic sense; unfortunately, the recent actions of our government show a gross distortion of pure capitalism.
ReplyDeleteIn a way you're right; a pure capitalist system always corrects itself. The huge banking corporations that went under, i.e. AIG, Lehmann Brothers,J.P Morgan, should not have been "bailed out"; they should have been allowed to fail. Then smaller institutions who extend credit to real capital formation (businesses who produce goods & services)would rise in status and establish themselves in their proper place, and re-instate the Glass-Stiegal Act, which prevents huge invest banking conglomerates, i.e. prevents standard banks from merging with investment banks. In real capitalism, when businesses fail, they fail, & for a reason; others who do the job better take their place.
Sadly, we do not possess a true capitalist system; this is mostly due to the fact that the US government is a corporation itself; bought, sold, and controlled by all sorts of interests: from the banking industry, the pharmaceutical companies, big oil; the list goes on. Almost all of out "elected representatives"-except for a few exceptions, like Ron Paul, Dennis Kusinich & Bernie Sanders-accept large amounts of money from PAC's, who represent these interests. Now, they can't leave these huge financial buddies out in the cold, can they?
**Although it's interesting to note that the very 1st stimulus legislation was passed BY FORCE; a day or 2 after its passage, a few outraged senators reported to the press that Nancy Pelosi had placed Congress under martial law to force passage of the stimulus package. In addition, several senators of both parties, stated that the Bush administration had threatened national martial law due to civil unrest from total economic collapse **
Of course, this was not reported widely in the mainstream media: please remember almost all media in this country is controlled by a few large corporations, who effectively censor what is reported. These same corporations-Hearst, for example, who now owns most of the nation's newspapers-are also bedfellows of the American government. There is a tacit agreement-which equals a Constitutional breach-that facts or events that show our government in a bad light are simply not reported, or relegated to the back page.
In addition, the mainstream media accepts the statistics the government puts out as gospel truth: i.e., the level of inflation. Inflation is already rampant-just go to the grocery store; 4 bags of groceries routinely add up to over $100. Use Webster Tarpley's-an author and political analyst-marker: a gallon of milk, an American staple. How much has the price of a gallon of milk gone up in the last 6 months? the last year?
Admittedly, inflation has gone down since the increase of "strength" of the dollar, which itself won't last long, as it is the direct result of China's interference in the world stock exchange (it makes America's debt to them worth more) + the fact that most foreign countries, in their financial straits,still cling desperately to the misconception that the US is still the financial giant of the world, and therefore salvation will always be through the dollar.
This despite the Federal Reserve (although not Constitutionally allowed to do so-in fact, the Fed is a PRIVATE institution with no oversight from the government) is printing money 24/7, to increase the amount of "money" in economic circulation. Of course, this is totally illogical, since the more paper currency there is, the less it's worth. Watch, we'll soon be like the Wehrmacht Republic pre-WWII; you'll have to take a wheelbarrow full of bills to the market to buy a loaf of bread. Or like Zambia, which started printing billion dollar bills, their inflation is so out of control.
Back to what got us in this situation in the 1st place-the derivatives crash, which stemmed from excessive leverage. Ask your economics professor for details. If you think our national debt is bad-and it is -consider the amount of derivative issuance: 1.4 quadrillion dollars. Write that figure out, with all its zeros, it'll take a while to figure out. A quadrillion is a million trillion, a trillion is a million billion, a billion is a million million. Actually, derivatives weren't a scam-they are perfectly legal. They just weren't "regulated enough", according to the SEC.
This is the same SEC who allowed Bernard Madoff-don't you just love that his name describes his actions perfectly-to lose over $50 billion of investors' money, despite repeated warnings from legitimate, disinterested parties.
You're right, you and every other taxpayer will be paying for our government's immorality & greed for generations. Social Security, for the retired & disabled, is totally depleted. as you know, with interest, the debt cannot be paid off; every time a dollar is created to 'Pay off' the debt, you're creating more debt. And although 98% of Americans polled stated they're against the bailouts, they'll continue.
Conclusions to be drawn from this; 1. Our government is totally corrupt, and we no longer have a true capitalist system 2. Don't trust anything the corporate media says, it's almost all propaganda 3. Our government is turning fascist, by definition-fascism is the blending of the economic and political systems, in which the corporations take over the government, & corporate gains are privatized and the losses are socialized (a twist of the Fascism of the '20's) 4. We are totally fucked, in every sense of the word.
PS I'd love to know how your economic prof. responds to this comment. The deindustrialization of the US started in the '70's, and in economic theory wealth is created only by the means of production. But we have become the biggest debtor nation, in that we produce less & less, and consume more and more . We're in debt because we no longer produce good & services that the rest of the world wants, but instead borrow to consume other countries' goods, services & savings (with interest, of course). Our whole economy is a fragile bubble; 75% of our economy is consumption = debt.
OF course our government tries to hide this, by treating consumption as an asset, not a liability. Ask your professor to screen the movie "Money as Debt" in class (you can get it off YouTube).
PPS Ask you economics prof. if he subscribes to the Keynesian School or the Austrian School of Economics.