WASHINGTON, DC (Herald de Paris) - One Trillion dollars. Four Trillion dollars. When will it end? The answer is never - it will never end. Not this way. Why? The answer is so simple that nobody has bothered to notice, let alone to point it out: Because thus far, all this talk of reviving the economy, propping up banks, unlocking lending so that commerce can start rolling again is steeped in the singular notion of putting the economy back the way it was, and making the same mistakes all over again.
For all the talk of US government bailouts, the 1300 page economic stimulus bills that are so heavily laiden with pork that the actual bailout portion is but a small percentage of the document, and getting America working again, has there been any mention of repealing the ridiculous, congressional mandates that require lending institutions to knowingly make bad loans? As I recall, that's how we got in this mess in the first place.
Sure, the federal government is on the hook to solve all this, because the federal government put in place the inane legislation that caused it. But can't we go about righting a wrong by ensuring that it does not happen again? Where is the CHANGE, Mr. Obama? What happened to, "No more pork barrel spending,"- Senator McCain?
The truth is, there is no change. If you were to read every exhaustive page of the bailout and stimulus documents floating around the federal city, this morning, it would be so very clear that there is no change: the basic goal is to start the same pyramid scheme economy back up again. Same as it ever was.
This is progress?
Until congress gets it through their skulls that home ownership and entrepreneurship are not inalienable rights of mankind, nothing will change. Nothing. Sure, perhaps if that ever were to happen the US economy might be smaller, but isn't a smaller, healthier economy preferable to a larger, volitale one? It is if you are an American taxpayer. It apparently is not, if you are one of the "magic 1000"- who live and work inside the Capital Beltway. You know who I am talking about.
We teach our children to only spend what we have, to live within our means, and to save before making an informed investment, and yet, we set up the world's largest economy to do the exact opposite. Then, when the economy reaches its pyramidal apex and stops, we scramble to put all the pieces back where they were before, so we can make the same mistakes all over again. Just brilliant.
And while we are on the subject of the insane misconceptions of the "magic 1000"-, does the Obama White House truly expect 4 million out-of-work white collar Americans to shrug their shoulders, roll up their sleeves, and go to work as part of some 21st century WPA road crew? Are they serious? The day I see Nancy Pelosi in a hard hat, on the side of the road as part of some crew sent to scrape and re-paint the underside of a highway bridge is the day I sign up. Not before.
Where is the accountability for the hundreds of millions of dollars sucked out of the US economy by corporate executives with exorbitant bonuses? Why can't anyone magically find the $49 Billion that Bernie Madoff misplaced?
Still, not all the blame needs rest on the shoulders of the "magic 1000"- for it is the American people who not only elected these Einsteins, but worse keep re-electing them. Blame the great American capitalists who bend over backwards to earn a six or seven figure bonus at the end of each year on the financial risks taken by every citizen. Of course, each of the last 40 years, the federal government has creatively come up with more and more ways to "dumb-down"- the populus, for it was always easier to lower the bar to achieving aptitude, instead of doing the hard work to actually make people smarter. The hippies were too intelligent, you see, and the "magic 1000"- never wanted to have to supress that sort of intellectual uprising, again. In this way, the US government has become exactly what it fought for its independence from, a totalitarian regime.
Be that a it may, if the "magic 1000"- really wanted to enact change they would repeal the legislation that requires lending institutions to make bad loans, replace it with limits on corporate bonuses, and instead put all those profits earned on the shoulders of every taxpaying citizen back into education, feeding the hungry, and improving the aforementioned infrastructure.
THAT would be true change, not this.
