Our nation is fast heading down the road to hell. Or so it may seem. I agree that much is wrong. Okay. Almost everything seems to be going wrong, but I believe that we can change the direction of our nation. It will be a long battle and a brutal fight, but we must decide whether we want it to include civic action or actual bloodshed. Because, folks, we are in trouble.
1. We are in trouble economically. Brilliant observation, I know. But why are we in trouble? The pundits want to make it seem complicated, but really it's not. There are only a handful of reasons that could be remedied in a hurry.
A. Our trouble started with the divestment of the dollar from a gold standard. Anytime a nation removes from its currency the backing of a tangible asset, it sets itself up for collapse. If a dollar is only backed by the "full faith and credit of the United States", what happens when nobody has any faith in us anymore, and we've blown all of our credit? Right now, the value of the dollar is imaginary. It's an alchemy of smoke and mirrors that tries to create something out of nothing. Most folks money is imaginary. They buy and sell on credit, their money is accessed electronically, and they get paid in printed magic paper. How much is a dollar really worth? The paper and ink and high-tech anti-forgery designs do not impart any real value. If the feds wanted to, they could simply make more. So how is it worth anything? Fact is, it's not. The value of the dollar should not be susceptible to the fluctuation of foreign markets or our own national debt ratios. But it is. We've staked our entire economy on a bunch of hoodoo voodoo, and should some nut job or conglomeration of rogue nations (like George Soros killing the British Pound) decide to tank our economy, they could. Simple solution: restore the dollar to a tangible asset. Get rid of the funny money, and go back to precious metal coins: gold, silver, nickel and copper. (Did you know that older dimes, nickels and pennies are worth significantly more than their face value due to their various metal contents?!)
B. Our economy is on the brink of collapse because we have ignored the simplest of ancient advice- neither a borrower nor a lender be. If you can't afford something, don't buy it. If I don't have $1,500 cash, I'm not buying a big LCD HD TV. Plain and simple. I had a car loan once upon a time. Then I had a kid in the hospital and sales commissions were in a slump. I'd missed a few payments so the bank called to tell me that even though I owed less than $1,000 and had paid in over $5,000, they were going to come and repossess my car. I bit the bullet, made some arrangements and came up with the money, but that will never happen again. If I don't have the cash, I don't buy the item. I now own two vehicles. Paid off the baggage, and paid cash for the next one. I'm putting away a truck payment right now, so I can buy my next truck with cash in a few months.
Credit exists for one reason- to enrich financial corporations at your expense. Having a $5,000 limit on your card is not the same as having $5,000 cash. Maybe you should just stave off the spending for a year, live a bit more frugally, and put $5,000 in savings. Now you have the cash for real, but no interest. Too easy. But we all want something for nothing, and we want it right now. We've become a nation of spoiled brats. Did we think the bubble would really last forever? Wake up!
The Declaration of Independence lauds "the pursuit of happiness", but there's no consitutional right to a quarter-million dollar home, big-screen TV and two late model cars. Creditors have preyed on our greed, and now the whole economy is in the flusher. If you lend to someone who can't repay, you're going to lose money. And when the markets are built on your guarantee of those debts being paid, but the payments don't post, guess what? Economic meltdown.
Here's a perfect example of what has caused the mess. Based on industry standard "budget" calculators, I can afford the payment on about a $150,000 house. But every "mortgage" calculator I've looked at says I should qualify for a loan of about $250,000. *dur* How can I "qualify" for a loan payment I can't afford? Maybe I should swallow my pride, live in a rental that's kind of crappy for a few years, and put the money I save toward buying a house. It may take a while to get there, but when I do buy a house, it will be mine, not the bank's. Honestly, I'd rather have a trailer on an acre that's mine, than a half-million dollar McMansion owed by the yahoos driving our economy into the ground.
I'm gonna make a deal with my kids. When they graduate from highschool, instead of going of to some bacchanal educational fraud of a college, they can live in my house, rent free and go get a job. They agree to put all of their money in savings for four years- that means no new computers, cars or designer shoes. At the end of four years, they have a work ethic, a resume and the maturity to make the most of their education. More importantly, they'll have the money to buy a modest home. Now they have real estate and equity. No debt. No house payment. If they want to go to college, now they have a place to live away from the debauched mobs. When they do get their degree, they'll also be more employable because of their prior work history.
The really frightening thing going on right now is this bail-out. First of all, what ever happened to personal responsibility? If GM can't handle it's own money, why do we think it should get a few billion of the taxpayers'? If the banks bet their futures on unqualified borrowers, why should they get to gamble with the fruits of my labor? The worst part, is that now the Federal Reserve is buying up serious stakes in most of our financial institutions and mortgages. I don't care who you are, it's never a good thing for the government to have a majority stake in our money and homes. Listen! The government is trying to hold the title to your car and the mortgage on your house!!! We never should have let the bail-out happen in the first place. But guess what, when we continue to cast our votes for big-business stooges in tailored suits, these things are going to happen.
3 part solution for our economic crisis:
1. Re-vest the dollar with material assets. This will protect the value and give us a shield against inflation and foreign undercutting.
2. Put severe restrictions on the credit industry. The Bible and the Koran both prohibited lending with interest. There should be an outright ban on lending to high-risk borrowers, and interest rates must be capped. It's unbelievable that a "normal" mortgage requires the homebuyer to pay for their house twice over the course of a thirty-year term.
3. We need a public trial, complete with collar stocks and rotten fruit to expose and humiliate those who have abused the public trust. A full-scale revolution of the populace to bring these hucksters to justice may be the only way to put an end to their scams. The voters need to refuse to vote down party lines. Your party's endorsement means nothing other than that someone's making money at your expense. Think about it- when was the last time someone with your income level was on the ballot? Where do you think their money came from? I'm a die-hard militant capitalist, not a proponent of theft by usury and grift. The aristocracy is getting out of control on both sides of the aisle. Drive the bums out, I say! Vote now, or revolt later.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment