Land of The Free or, Paygos; (pay as you go system)
While tats are good for some things most of us have to rely on cash, a scarce commodity these days. Credit is the preferred method and can be summed up thusly; you don’t have cash to buy that really nifty, eye popping, envy inducing, friend impressing, hours of amusement, guaranteed, warranteed, batteries not included, toy, so you use your credit card and pray that you will have a little more of what you don’t have now at some later date , and you are willing to pay up to 24.99999 % of what you don’t have now on top of what you didn’t have then, to get what you really don’t need, if you do the math it’s easy to see why you didn’t have it in the first place!
Let’s make it easy:
The current U.S. population is approximately 303,565,686; the national debt is currently $9,117,003,017,890.70 as of 11/18/2007, 11:55 AM GMT. That makes the individual share at $30,033.05. I should mention at this point that, (sexual proclivities aside), Clinton did leave office with a balanced budget.
The average personal debt of all U.S. oggs and agnes’ is $11,669, not counting mortgages, (which are a wholly different beast), approximately $3,542,307,989,934 total.
The national debt is the debt our elected officials create on our behalf, with or without our knowledge or consent. The personal debt is the debt we create for ourselves, (with or without our knowledge or consent).
Who do we owe all this money to? Well the Industrial/Military, a little here, a little there, a good chunk goes to the Federal Reserve, (by the way The Federal Reserve is neither federal, nor reserved, and a whole other story by itself), a little more here, a little more there, etc…
The govt. gets into debt the same way we do, a little at a time, (except for Duhbya Bush who did it all at once), the big advantage they have over us, is that they can reach down from on “high” and milk the cash cow whenever they need to, (the cash cow, being the oggs and agnes’, for those not paying attention, and sgogs and gnas’e for the dlystecic).
I’m feeling a little nauseated just thinking about it so; any further interest in the national debt can be sated at:
The stock market is the barometer of economic conditions, as it goes, so goes the economy, if it isn’t being fed continuously it crashes, “enter the 401K plans”. Prior to the 401k, and similar plans, corporations were required to supply pension plans to their employees out of corporate profits. With the, (soon to be mandatory), 401’s the corporations get to take a portion of your wages to invest in their operations, and thereby feed the beast of Wall Street. Instead of the now defunct, and secure pension plans we get a plan for retirement based on stock market trends, that may or may not be there at retirement. If too much is removed too soon your retirement vanishes in a puff of angst, if too much is put in, those at the top reap what you sow in higher salaries and stock dividends, and your retirement is likely to vanish in a puff of angst.
Unfortunately the worst side of our nature also appears to be the stronger side and, you can bet your bottom dollar, (actually you did), that those at the top don’t have your interest at heart. They will definitely reap what you’ve sown.
When you have individuals receiving salaries in excess of $1 million a week, something probably went wrong somewhere or, the wrong person was left in charge while we went on vacation.
I believe it was Huey Long who wanted to cap individual and corporate wealth, it was a high enough cap to keep the social and corporate ladders intact for the climbers, but low enough to keep America’s wealth in circulation. In a land of plenty, Huey Long believed that no American should be without an education, a home, an automobile, and a job that paid a decent living wage. (http://www.hueylong.com/). I should point out here that he was assassinated, (surprise, surprise).
This particular trend of capitalism, or the “infinite expansion and profit in a finite system” as I prefer to define it, (let’s stick with capitalism, it’s easier to say), this particular trend of "grabitalism", (oops FS?), is allowing the corporate world to seek production in areas where they can obtain labor at ridiculously low wages to maximize profits. So as a result most of our goods are imported, most of our jobs are outsourced, most of our food, clothing, electronics, services, etc….. are obtained from foreign countries. You call me paranoid, but that doesn’t seem like a good idea no matter how you look at it, (not even squinting and turning you head sideways).
How the money is spent or, not spent, can create periods of inflation, recession, (a politically correct way of saying pre-depression), and of course depression. Inflation is too much money in motion, and creates high prices and eventually increased wages, (money not being what it used to be). Prime example is from the 50s’, inflation drove up wages to catch up with higher cost of living, cost of living soon lagged behind, standard of living rose. Depression is when the fecal matter hits the rotary oscillator, (stand to one side), and all the money gets redistributed so we can fight over it once again. Recession is sort of a controlled depression, unemployment is regulated, wages are kept steady, (low, but steady), and the money is managed so it stays in one place, at the top.
Historically, depressions occur on a regular basis going back to the days of the little ogglets, and occurred throughout history as minor or major rips in the world economic fabric. The primary cause is the majority of wealth held by a minority of people. When 95% of the world’s wealth is in the hands of 5% of the population things start getting a little shaky. The secondary cause is when the 5% start getting a little too tight fisted, forcing the standard of living, (through wages and cost of living), lower and lower. At some point it becomes a surreal game of “The Buck Stops Here” and, the 5% play to see who can accumulate the most. We get to play “Third World Citizen”, a new game brought to you by “THEY”
(More to come, when my prozac kicks in)
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