We ‘The Merican Pepple’ are lemmings. The government (power brokers) know this quite well and we prove it to them often to solidify their belief. We continue to allow ourselves to be used and our representatives are self serving. We know this and yet we debate the nuances of political parties and allow ourselves to be divided while all parties give us the royal schlong.
Wrong, grasshopper. Ponder this proposition. The American people do not debate the nuances of political parties. They debate whether or not Marie Osmond should have been voted off Dancing with the Has-beens/Wannabes/Ain't-never-gonna-bes. And, should Britney lose custody of her children or not.
The politicians and business powers that be are not totally to blame. They have given us exactly what we want. Cheap gas. Cheap cars (a Ford Focus in Australia costs the equivalent of about $35-40,000). Cheap clothing. Cheap appliances. Cheap computers. Cheap homes (In Belgium, the average worker would NEVER be able to afford the 3-bedroom, 2-bath home in the suburbs).
Result: It has been necessary to export (notice how that word keeps coming up) the means of production of those items (and the related jobs) wherever possible to keep the costs low.
We now have nothing to export. Because we are no longer a manufacturing nation, there are no national sources of income for the government other than taxes. And, because we have demanded low taxes (to starve that bloated, overgrown government that we all love to hate) the government must borrow money from other countries that are making money with the manufacturing (and the jobs) we used to have. Now, before you say the government doesn't have to and shouldn't borrow from other countries...
Well, how do you expect them to
1. pay for our defense (which we expect)?
2. underwrite our cheap home loans (which we demand)?
3. police our neighborhoods (a natural, of course)?
4. put out our house fires (I'll sue if you don't!)?
5. teach our children (well, we don't actually expect anyone to be paid to do that. They should do it because of love of the job)?
6. pay for the war in the Middle East ( well, surely you aren't thinking of raising my taxes to bring democracy to the Iraqis, are you?)?
7. provide disaster relief for the people of California during the fires? (Maybe some of you rock-ribbed Republicans should tell those white, upper-middle-class, Republicans in Southern California that they should not expect any help because they built their multi-million dollar homes in
known wildfire areas. You know, the way you all said to the poor black people of New Orleans that they don't deserve any help because they
chose to live below sea level in a city that has flooded many times in 350 years. And the way you said that not a penny of tax money should be spent to rebuild New Orleans because it will just flood again with the next hurricane.)
Result: The dollar with no tangible Gross Domestic Product to speak of and a mountain of debts which we have no way to repay other than by printing more dollars continues to fall in value.
Another result: By running our government the way we run our household budgets (charge it and then pay just the minimum amount due and when the credit card maxes out, go get another credit card), we have mortgaged the futures of our children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren.
Are any of you aware that not a penny of the expense for Iraq War has ever been included in any of the deficit budgets produced by Congress and the Bush Administration? The war has been financed with "continuing resolutions." When you look at any government report that states the size of the national debt, remember that is PLUS the billions of dollars spent on Iraq.
