Posted on 06/26/2012 3:56:44 AM PDT by Kaslin
America is on track to go bankrupt. Just like Greece. The signs are all around us. We've lost our AAA credit rating. Trillion dollar deficits are the new normal. The Fed is buying 61% of our own debt. Barack Obama's 10 year budget will leave Americans with “more debt than has been accumulated by all previous Presidents in American history combined.” Nobody on the Left or Right seems to believe we'll ever pay off all of the money we owe. Life as we know it is very close to ending and yet Americans seem to be infected with a tragic stoicism. Like turkeys being led to the slaughter, most Americans seem content to put their necks down on the butcher's block and wait for the ax to fall. There are reasons for this puzzling inactivity in the face of an avertable catastrophe.
1) They're being misled by people with bad motives: What do you think would happen to Paul Krugman if he were to tell everyone that he is still a liberal, but the Tea Party and Paul Ryan are right about the deficit and Barack Obama and the Democratic Party are wrong? His column at the New York Times would be gone within six months. Do you think Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid would continue leading their caucuses after 2012 if they insist on serious deficit reduction? Not a chance. What about a Democrat running in a liberal district who talks like Jim DeMint on deficits in a primary up against another Democrat who wants more spending? Who do you think would win? The big spender, right? Unfortunately, there are a lot of people in this country whose personal welfare depends on encouraging as much government spending as possible and even if the country goes bust in the process, they're hoping to have enough money in the bank to be able to move somewhere else by then anyway.
2) They think it's far off in the future: Most people think bankruptcy is a problem we'll be leaving to our kids after most of the people reading this column are dead and gone. That's not so at all. If you were a betting man, 5-15 years would be the likely timeframe on a default with it practically guaranteed to happen within 25 years without major changes -- although that may be far too optimistic. America is already stretched to the breaking point and who knows what sort of unexpected event could push us over the edge in the next few years? Maybe the crack-up of the EU, a European bank collapse, an organized effort to keep other nations from buying our debt, another, even more devastating 9/11 style attack, a dramatic surge in oil prices caused by an Israeli/Iranian war, etc., etc. Just as the mortgage crisis caught us flat footed and caused much more damage than we expected, a new crisis that occurs while America's economy is still puttering along as it has been during the Obama years could lead to a much deeper economic spiral than we anticipate.
3) Crisis fatigue is rampant: This is the most important election ever! Tune in at 6:00 P.M. to find out which ordinary product you use will kill you! George Bush is Hitler! Republicans want you to die! Racism today is as bad as the sixties! If you oppose gay marriage, you want to drag homosexuals to death behind your truck! If you disagree with Obama, you're a racist! Your freedom is at stake! Global warming is going to kill us all! Modern Americans are deluged with phony crises and ginned-up outrages all day long. That's why it's not a surprise when a real crisis as serious as anything we've ever faced in our nation's history comes along, many people have trouble distinguishing it from the fake dangers they hear about on a daily basis.
4) It's too confusing to comprehend: Most Americans don't even remotely understand the scope of the problem. They think we can raise taxes on the rich, cut a few bucks off foreign aid, and everything will take care of itself. When you start talking about unfunded liabilities, GDP, and trillions in debt to people who don't know much about economics and don't follow politics very closely -- which probably describes more than half of the American electorate -- you might as well be explaining the ins-and-outs of heart surgery. In other words, they may get it in the most general sense, but they don't really understand it, and they probably aren't going to opt for it unless they become convinced they're going to die otherwise.
5) It's painful to stop and easy to continue: It doesn't matter how reasonable the spending reductions you're suggesting are, if you want to cut ANYTHING in D.C., it will set off squawks of protest from the vultures who are having meat snatched out of their greedy mouths. However, if you really want to make people angry, start hacking money out of the three biggest expenditures in the budget: defense spending, Social Security, and Medicare/Medicaid/CHIP. We MIGHT be able to get by without cutting defense significantly since it's a relatively stable expenditure, but unless significant changes are made to both Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid/CHIP, both of which are rapidly increasing in cost, this country is going bankrupt. That's reality. Of course, it's also reality that making changes to both of those programs is unpopular, easy to demagogue, and scares most politicians more than a special prosecutor talking to their favorite hooker.
6) We still seem to be a rich country: America is a like a guy who lives in a five million dollar mansion with a dozen servants, drives a Ferrari, and hands out hundred dollar tips to waitresses and bellhops. The only problem is the mansion and the Ferrari aren't paid for, he's borrowing the money for the servants and the tips, and he has no hope of ever paying off the debt he's accruing while he lives a lifestyle he can't afford. Superficially, he looks to be very rich, but when the bill comes due, life is going to change for him in a hurry.
America is that guy and the bill is going to come due.
7) They don't see how it will affect them: Most Americans don't have the slightest clue how a default would change their lives for the worse. They don't understand that it would lead to another Depression, their life savings could become worthless almost overnight, their taxes would skyrocket, their standard of living would drastically decrease, Medicare and Social Security checks could stop, and we could have widespread disorder. In Greece, some government workers haven't been paid in months, government road projects are being abandoned, healthy businesses can't get credit, and medicine is in short supply. Unless something changes, Americans won't have to imagine what that will be like because we'll be living it soon enough.
Forces of evil are.
"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." - Ephesians 6:12
Have you considered that maintaining a military presence all over the world might be a significant reason why you are going broke?
> 4) It’s too confusing to comprehend:
Perhaps if the Tea Party stopped saying that we are $15 Trillion dollars in debt and started saying that our Government has spent $65,000 for each and every man, woman, and child in the US, it might mean something. Then ask, how each man, woman, and child intends to pay that back when the bill comes due. Trillion is too large for most people to understand.
I heard what sounded like a voice from among the four living creatures,
saying, "A quart of wheat for a day's pay or three quarts of barley for a day's pay.
But do not damage the olive oil and the wine."
Revelation 6:6
Correct. It has always been so. There are times when it is more evident.
The US government defaulted 3 times in the 20th century by abandoning “promises”.
The next default would likely be trying to inflate our way out of debt.
* 1934, the government banned ownership of gold and eliminated the right to exchange gold certificates for gold coins. It then immediately revalued gold from $20.67 per troy ounce to $35, thus devaluing the dollar holdings of all Americans by 40 percent.
* 1934 to 1968, the federal government continued to issue and redeem silver certificates, notes that circulated as legal tender that could be redeemed for silver coins or silver bars. In 1968, Congress unilaterally reneged on this obligation.
* 1934 to 1971, foreign governments were permitted by the U.S. government to exchange their dollars for gold through the gold window. In 1971, President Richard Nixon severed this final link between the dollar and gold by closing the gold window, thus in effect defaulting once again on a debt obligation of the U.S. government.
It’s easy to blame Pelosi and Reed and Krugman because they are very guilty. The Republicans haven’t done much better true, but because of reason 5) in the original article, not reason 1). There’s a world of difference between not doing something because its to your personal advantage and to hell with everyone else, and on the other hand not doing something because its not possible politically to do.
Good post.
Defense is one of the few things the Federal government does that are legitimate functions of government.
Why should we cut a legitimate function to preserve illegitimate functions?
We could actually cut the military if we were energy-independent, but not before that.
Right now I am about 20 years from retirement. With about 10 more years of work I will have enough savings to pay for a very modest retirement along with paying back my share of the debt ($65k). I could do that without taking Social Security (I’m hoping for an opt-out option). Medicare is another story however, there’s no way I could afford health care when get old mainly due to it being ratcheted up by government mandates, predatory lawyers, and the doctors guild.
I have told people before that our environmentalist wackos create a national security threat when they take our natural energy resources off of the table. Keeping our oil imports flowing accounts for a chunk of our military expenditures.
If you think man is any different you weren't watching the videos of the dependent class of New Orleans as Hurricane Katrina hit and in the aftermath, and you haven't watched the “How Obama Got Elected” video.
The lazy are positioning themselves and their progeny to be a permanent underclass, begging for scraps from a powerful government.
The answer is that the vast majority of US citizens are either on the dole, or they are idiots.
The only cure for the average person who is aware, is to get out of debt, secure your investments, buy gold and silver, and come up with a plan to make it through the mess.
It’s coming. And it’s coming sooner than most realize.
Yesterday I pointed out that most voters seem to think they are electing a Santa Claus instead of a POTUS.
Think about how both parties handle this issue.
Republicans claim that they will never let our taxes go up, and they want them lower.
Democrats claim that they will never allow entitlement cuts(In fact they still say that those entitlements are fully self funded, a huge lie no one ever challenges), and we need even more federal spending . Yes, both are lying. But both are saying that the deficit will never hurt us as long as neither side gets full control.
Liberals on MSNBC as with Krugman are claiming that these deficit levels are not a problem and should go higher.
When GWB was POTUS Republicans defended rapidly growing deficits as necessary, and they will again if Romney is POTUS
We create our own currency so the term bankruptcy is not appropriate either. The USA will never declare bankruptcy. No one knows exactly when these deficits will directly hurt us because the world deflation is keeping us from seeing seriously obvious inflation.
You sound like Nero.
And the USSR had troops all over the place too...how did hat work out for them?
And the Syrian war is coming to a theater near you soon.
The next President will be our Gorbachev.
Seemed to me to describe a situation where oil and wine were so precious that none dare be wasted (do not hurt them). As the raw resources from which they were made — olives and grapes — could be used to help alleviate famine. But not dogmatic about it.
At this point, the only choice is to let it burn. The unmistakable, unconcealable pain is the only thing that will make the American people stop their bread-and-circuses march to an ever more socialist state.
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