Posted on 03/01/2010 6:39:45 AM PST by shortstop
The other week, while you were watching “American Idol,” Greece went bankrupt.
Not all the way, but pretty close.
And people have been rioting in the streets.
See, the government had been financing things for years on end with debt. The government was taxing and spending, of course, but it was also borrowing. A lot. A staggering amount.
So much that the people who do the lending decided they’d had enough. Which left Greece insolvent. Which brought the economy to collapse.
Which created a crisis for the European Union and for its currency, the Euro.
Which made the world jittery.
Which endangered you.
But Germany and France bailed the Greeks out, so now you don’t have to worry anymore.
Except, of course, for the fact that the United States is in the same position. America is only a half a step behind Greece.
Our politicians are as stupid as theirs, our policies are as unsustainable as theirs, our peril is as great as theirs.
The simple fact is that the American economy can collapse at any moment, because of the suffocating load of federal-government debt. That is not a political opinion, it is not a talking point, it is not the ranting of an alarmist. It is a simple economic truth. We are living beyond our means and money does not grow on trees. The simple truths that govern family budgets apply as well to the affairs of nations.America is bankrupt.
And the only thing that keeps our entire economy from disintegrating is the fact that there are still people and nations who will loan us money. But as they increasingly realize that there is no honest way we can pay them back, their willingness to give us their money will evaporate.
And then we will riot in the streets.
Because our money will become valueless, the government trough will be empty, our jobs and savings will be lost, and we will go hungry.
In the end, nobody is too big to fail.
Not even us. Not even the United States.
And the current policies of the United States government, building on some 70 years of fiscal foolishness, destine the nation for failure.
Let me repeat: We are destined for failure.
It is not a question of if, it is a question of when.
Unless a dramatic and painful sea change is made, our financial doom is certain.
Here’s why.
Our annual budget deficit for the foreseeable future is in excess of a trillion dollars. More than a trillion dollars of new borrowing every year.
On top of the other trillions we’ve already borrowed.
That poses two immediate threats.The first is that our creditors will recognize that we are a bad risk – that we are sub prime. That will hurt our credit rating and, consequently, increase the interest we have to pay.
That’s kind of what happened to the Greeks. It would be devastating to us, as the cost of government – already unsustainable – would jump dramatically.
Which would come out of our hide.
The other threat is that the government will try to cheat its way out of debt. It is called monetizing the debt. The government can simply print more money and make its payments that way.
Doing so, however, would cause inflation. That would be good for the government, as it would be paying debt with devalued dollars. It would be terrible for us, because the true value of our paychecks, investments and savings would plummet.It would force an overlay of poverty upon the nation, devaluing not only possessions but dramatically lowering lifestyles.
We would all be poor.
Our economy would not work.
Our prosperity, our security, our freedom and even our existence would be jeopardized.
It’s not a matter of opinion, it’s a matter of natural law. You can’t spend what you don’t have, and if you try, it’ll come back to bite you.
We’re about to get bitten.And neither we nor our politicians have the stomach for the austerity necessary to avert catastrophe.
On the contrary, our dependent class demands more, our politicians want to spend more, our greed lusts for more. Our culture has become drunken on entitlement and government beneficence.
At first, politicians promised beyond their means because they knew they wouldn’t be around to pay the bill and clean up the mess. Now, it seems, they promise beyond our means because the want to hasten and benefit from the ultimate collapse.
And so they promise more benefits and take over more of the economy, further enmeshing the nation’s wealth in their failed and immoral policies.
That will soon end – either by our wiser choices, or by our nation’s economic collapse.
Welfare and entitlement programs must be gutted or scrapped. All citizens must be brought into the shared burden of income taxation. We must return to the understanding that the only American entitlements are those listed in the Bill of Rights. Politicians must stop bringing home the bacon, and realize that they never should have taken it away from there in the first place.
The government must get its hands and its snout out of the economy.
Or it will kill the economy.
Something which, as the Greeks could tell us, is horrifyingly close to happening.
Yes
keep for later
Hoouh.
If it gets that bad we won’t be paying taxes.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
What you said.
“Again—what would he gain from that?”
it’s been well known for a long time that these guys are just out for raw power. Even to the point of reducing the population to a more “manageable” level. Just keep enough slave class around to produce the goodies they need.
“He is an old man who will be dying soon. What is he going to do with all his wealth? Take it with him in his casket!”
When he dies there will just be another to take his place.
I'm gonna die, sitting on the toilet, trying too hard to poo.
A fortune teller told me that.
“you still have to be able to defend your supplies from the mobs. “
if you can inflict enough pain they will move on to other softer targets.
and I will.
Don't blow out your O-Ring!
The united Satates of America has been in bankruptcy since 1933.
I like your optimism but USA Inc. has a fatal structural flaw: too many members of the union voting for the theft of their neighbor's wealth and the destruction of their education and health. What happened to giant General Motors will happen to the whole country. While technically correct that there is still time to avert it like there once was with GM, the political conviction to do it is unprecedented in the history of civilization.
What everyone needs to remember is that Hussein is affirmative-action all the way. My wife is friends with people who went to school with him @ Punahou. Just another above-average IQ dude hanging out, smokin' weed & shooting hoops while getting through HS.
Nothing exceptional; in fact, the path is similar to many professionals/conservatives who eventually get with the program and make a career for themselves. But who gets promoted every step of the way, never for a moment having a set-back or challenge? No one, that's who. Unless you've been selected.
We all know Hussein & the Democrats are clueless about business. They really, really thought they were 'buying' a nice cash-flowing going concern (the USA) in which to erect a few more social programs and call it a day. Too BAD what they really bought was a total dog fixer-upper which had no chance of ever recovering its investment.
And that's where we are today - a bunch of clueless people nominally in charge who really got taken to the cleaners by guys who really know what's going down: Wall St and other financier types (Goldman, Soros, et al). What is happening in Greece is simply a prelude to what is going to show up on our shores in pretty short-order.
To those who weep over the demise of the USA, I say your grief is misplaced. Rather, look forward to the day when USA 2.0 emerges from the rubble, looking very much like its pre-1900 self. The reason is that nature (math) simply doesn't care who you are - we are all subject to resource constraints and the exponential function.
I can deal with that; look forward to it, actually. Its what comes between now and then that worries me. That, and that I will be too old to actively participate when it does happen.
Ha. Yep TV-watching, hypnotized sheeple are a big part of the problem.
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