Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Enough of the Bailout Baloney

How about some Trickle up Economics?

Forget the bailout. Forget this tired old discredited idea from the people who had their hand up the hand puppet/actor who was the president that brought us the last banking (savings and loan) crisis.

Forget about giving away free money to the rich who don't know how to run anything, let alone a businesses. Who's the fool who came up with this idea that a government of middle aged, middle class college educated Americans can't run a country but a bunch of post adolescent rich boys who can't put on their sox without a butler can?

Trickle down economics doesn't work. We've seen that from the first day of the reign of the napping president and the divinating first lady.

Trickle up economics DOES work. We saw that through the 30s, the 40s, the 50s, and the 60s. Put the American worker to work and let him and his family be well off. THAT'S THE WAY TO MAKE AMERICA RICH.

How can any person advocate the invigoration of this country's economy when they speak of cutbacks. The way to prosperity is through growth and expansion, not cutbacks. People who talk of cutbacks have a fundamental lack of understanding about the US Economy: They don't understand the Cash to Cash cycle.

The Cash to Cash Cycle is this: Cash buys inventory (or services, or labor). Inventory becomes sales. Sales bring in more cash. Saving money, whether it is squirreled away in someone's price inflated house or corporate stocks and bonds in someone's safe deposit box does no one any good. Prosperity comes from people earning money at their job and spending it at their neighbor's job.

The reason we're in the mortgage crisis now is because the only way the inflating price in someone's house does anyone any good is if they keep refinancing and spending the cash. And we can see where that's gotten us. It's driven us to ruin because that's the wrong source of cash!

The reason we're in the banking crisis now is because constantly churning, buying and selling the same tired old non productive or delinquent negotiable paper back and forth is a bad source of cash.

The best source of cash is production of useful, durable assets by well paid, well cared for, motivated, industrious workers. That is what the American Economy ran on in the lion's share of the last century and that is what we've shipped overseas to other nations. We've handed our prosperity over to them on the false promise of a sleepy head, actor president's handlers.

And what makes my ideology any better than anyone else's? Because I espouse no ideology. I only advocate a government of the people, by the people and for the people. I trust the American People to govern themselves. A pox on those continually screaming for smaller government because Business Can Do It All. Where has Business brought us now. Business is just another part of our society. Business is not to be worshiped. Business needs to be checked and balanced just like any other part of society. Bring back the OSHA and the banking regulators that the Sleepy Headed Actor President took an axe to.

I worship one God. I don't worship government or business. When I speak of workers, I mean the person doing the job, man or woman. When I speak of household I don't care what form it takes as long as it is prosperous, stable and well provided for. It takes intelligent, educated, thoughtful people working together charitably toward a common goal.

$700Billion of free money to a dozen already rich bankers will do no one any good. $700 billion of new roads and bridges and public infrastructure will benefit 10s of millions of people. Why have we been believing those fools who have been telling us all those years the the American Government must be a pay as you go, balanced budget entity just like the American Family? There hasn't been a prosperous family in the history of the world that has lived pay as you go. Every family or organization in the world since the beginning of time has used credit. And rightly so if they're using the credit wisely to buy capital items like a house, car, refrigerator, washer/dryer, which they pay off well before the usefulness of the capital item has run out.

The real foolishness is financing war on credit. The real foolishness is financing the creation and immediate destruction of weapons of war which will not be paid for for many years to come. The real foolishness is turning young, healthy, productive Americans into broken, battle scared paraplegics and then trying to cheat them out of proper health care because that care has to be financed.

Why can we spend $1.5 Trillion on a totally unjustified war, but we can't spend the $100 Billion which would totally rejuvenate health care, welfare, social security and infrastructure.

There is nothing wrong about expanding the Federal Debt to pay for productive research and capital improvement, even if that research sounds funny to you. Researching cow farts and a lot of other projects may sound like a waste of money, but I'd rather trust an America run by the American Congress than an America run by Multinational businessmen.

The Wall Street Boys are blind fools hoarding their money. They can't see that it is exactly this hoarding where the rich get rich that is impoverishing us all, rich and poor alike. The Wall Street Boys are blind fools who hated Roosevelt for the New Deal even though the New Deal benefited the entire nation, rich and poor alike. The New Deal, the Great Society, the War on Poverty and all the other public works projects were the well spring of the river of wealth that poured through this country for most of the last century. But the Wall Street Boys think that if everyone is rich, no one is rich. These fools can only perceive wealth by contrasting it against extreme poverty and misery. They dance and rejoice at burning buildings and plane crashes.

The total amount of welfare given to the citizens of this country since the 1940s to today isn't a drop in the bucket compared to the first savings and loan crisis. Or the second banking crisis. Or the third financial crisis which is sure to come if we keep trying to feed the sacred hog. But Wall Streets is grieved by every dime it can't keep for itself.

It is not cutbacks which create wealth. Getting rid of Earmarks will not generate wealth. Government waste is not the problem. My God, there is always waste and inefficiency in every organization and endeavor. The only reason Government looks bad is because no one ever looks to see how much business wastes. But now that we begin to hear how drug companies profit by sending out of date drugs and medical supplies as relief supplies to areas of disaster and war refugee camps we begin to understand how business hides its waste by cheating the government and poisoning the unfortunate. We are now seeing in China what business will do when it is completely unregulated. It will kill our pets with contaminated pet food and it will kill their own infants with contaminated formula. All the cutbacks, eliminated Earmarks and efficiencies together DO NOT EVEN EQUAL A ROUNDING ERROR IN THE FEDERAL BUDGET!

What this country needs is work. Steady, efficient, productive work, not on phony make work projects, but on real necessities. Are these hard to find? Do we not all agree that we need to repair most of the roads, bridges, sewers, water and utility systems in this country? Do we not agree that we need more schools, recreational centers and land improvements? Do we not all agree that we need more public hospitals which were a public asset until the health care industry paid off public guardians to take the public hospitals private? Could we not rebuild the housing stock of this country if housing were not priced as a luxury item and manipulated as a magical financial instrument?

Privatization of our society was to have been the salvation of America. And what has privatization done for us? Nothing. Instead of huge savings it has produced huge artificial profits for those in control of the projects. And what has it produced for the beneficiaries of the formerly public institutions? Privatization has produced hardship, deprivation, cruelty and poor service, while the hapless public guardians justify themselves by quibbling over whether there has been a .5% or a 1% savings from privatization.

The only reason for privatization was the greed of those who saw a little going to many. These greedy wanted to take that little from many and hoard it as a windfall for the few and to hell with the people.

What this country needs is to bring back Unions. Yes, Unions. During the 40s through the 70s the unparalleled prosperity of this country was paralleled by the unparalleled success of unions.

It was the sleepy headed sock puppet president who presided over the demise of unions.

When unions first came about, they were very reasonable and concerned with the worker. The only reasons that unions got off the track and unreasonable in some ways is because of the greed of management. Running a company is work. Negotiating with a Union is work. It will interfere with your golf game and management didn't like that. Management saw the aggregate of the pittance increase that the unions won for their workers and was envious of that aggregate. Rather than sharpening their negotiating skills to keep the union demands reasonable, management decided to squash the unions so they could reinstate the management golf outing. Management lobbyists bought anti union legislation, management hired union busting law firms and management, rather than cooperating and making the grievance system work, they delayed and thwarted until the unions became bitter and couldn't negotiate reasonably with an unreasonable management.

If you think that unions were bad for this country, you've been listening to those who controlled the sleepy headed sock puppet president. Try reading a book by one of the labor/management professors at the University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana. You don't have to believe them. Just read the other side of the story and make up your own mind.

It's time to forget all the religious smoke screens and all the character red herrings and elect a man based on who's interests he represents. The only real question that needs to be answered about a presidential candidate is, "Will he represent 10% of the people or will he honestly represent 100% of the American people."

If the religious right could worship and adore a president who's life was run by his wife's astrologers, then religion means little in politics.

If those who espouse the worship of good character can swallow the current president who utterly lacks personality as well as intelligence as well as any character at all, then character means little in politics.

What has meaning in politics is, "Is this guy trying to improve the quality of life for ALL the people of this country, or is he just trying to get into my pocket?"

$700 Billion will do far more for this country and even the world if it is injected into the American economy by creating jobs than $7 Trillion would if injected into the banking system.

And what will happen to Wall Street while the jobs are being created? What will happen is the same thing that would happen if Congress did absolutely nothing: Those who merit credit will get it. Those who do not merit credit will not get it. It is as simple as that.

TV news has been screaming collapse. The talking heads cry that we will all suffer if there is no bailout. That's more of the same baloney. The only concrete thing that has happened is that the Libor Interbank Rate has increased dramatically. What this means in our financial system is that anyone who needs credit can get it just as easily today as they could yesterday. They just have to pay more. We will all have to pay more for credit. Paying more isn't desirable but what is less desirable....MUCH less desirable would be to go through with the $700 Billion Bailout and artificially reduce the true cost of credit. Reducing the true cost of credit would just allow more of those who are already drunk on credit, to become drunker still. Artificially lowering the cost of credit would just move the calamity another year into the future where it would cost $800 Billion and could be blamed on the Democrats if they are then in power. Think about that one! - © 2008 The Chewed End All rights reserved.

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Seamus O'Bròg is an artist and freelance writer who tries to turn life's irritations into life's lessons.

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