There is an 800 pound gorilla in our economic room and everyone acts like he doesn't exist. Everyone is worried about a recession, but that is just a bump in the road compared to the real problem with our economy. There is a much worse problem in our near future. Bush’s "shop till you drop" policy and the republicans lackadaisical attitude about borrowing money from our grandkids and foreign countries has exacerbated a problem that has been festering since the 1950's. Our country is now in grave peril. Plainly stated: we as a nation, are going bankrupt. We are spiraling downward to become a 3rd world country within the next 40 years and our politicians are to scared to talk about it.
We have been borrowing the money to pay for essential services and to prop up our economy for some time and we must find a leader strong enough to address the issue head on. We currently are borrowing $1.93 billion per day. That's $704 Billion a year. Even if you subtract out the $120+ Billion a year for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we are borrowing approx. Almost 3/4 Trillion dollars a year to just to prop up our economy. The result of which will be an unfunded bill to the tax payer of between $46-$57 TRILLION by 2040-2050. The borrow-o-meter is spinning like a top and there is no end in sight.
The amount being borrowed is increasing daily. In 2007 the public debt was 36.8 percent of GDP. The total debt is currently 66.5% of GNP. If the borrowing stopped tomorrow, it would have immediate and catastrophic effects on our nation, but if it continues as it is, it will mean the end of our country as we know it.
To compound this, the dollar is in the toilet and there is no reason to expect it to regain ground any time soon against foreign currencies.
The dollar has been sliding for the past six years because conditions have reversed. The U.S. economy went into recession in 2001, and the recovery was initially weak. Today, economic growth is stronger in Europe, Asia and many parts of the developing world. And the dollar is under downward pressure from the United States' burdensome current account deficit -- the broadest measure of the trade gap and the result of borrowing billions of dollars worth of foreign money each day to finance spending and investment
These trends show no sign of reversing soon, but the sharp turnaround in one decade underscores the volatility of currency markets..
So our dollar is worth less and we are borrowing money like there is no tommorow, but yet our government has promised to give Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benifits to the approx 77 Million baby boomers who will retire in the next 20-30 years. The problem is that we have “0” dollars in the bank to pay for it. Currently we are running a surplus in the Social Security system, with more money coming in than going out. The money in this account is being used to pay for current recipients and the excess is immediately being borrowed by the government for use in the general fund to prop up current levels of spending (military, education...etc.). The IOUs for the money borrowed are worthless because there are no assets to back them up. By 2014, there will be no excess for the government to borrow. After that date, money will have to be borrowed from the general fund (education, military...etc.) into which the excess is being put now, to pay pensioners. As the number of retirees increase through 2040, the amount of money taken from the general fund will increase, decreasing the amount of money available for everything else.
We are currently borrowing billions of dollars a day just to prop up our current economy, and have no idea where the money to pay for these future obligations will come from.
In the United States, we have made promises to senior citizens that far exceed what we can pay for at current tax rates.
It is estimated that unless drastic measures are not taken almost immediately to reduce government spending and borrowing; and if we don’t start having a positive revenue flow soon, that by 2040, the interest on our national debt will equal the total amount of income the government receives in taxes. This means there will be no money for a military, no money for education, and no money for social programs, and no money for anything else other than to pay the interest on our national debt. Something has to be done now, and it has to be drastic.
Everyone should be required to watch this video by the former Controller General of the United States. He recently stepped down as head of the General Accountability Office to take up this issue full time. While in his former job, it was his mission is to help improve the performance and assure the accountability of the federal government for the benefit of the American people. He brings a perspective that is neither from the Democratic nor republican point of view. Since he was not an elected offical and his term ran for 15 years, he was in a unique position to "tell it like it is" without worrying about political consequences. He has been on a mission in the past few years, with both liberal and conservative economists at his side, to carry this dire message directly to the American people, because he knows that politicians, regardless of party, are too scared too.
Even if we continue to borrow money from foreign investors, how long is it going to be before no one's going to want to loan us money anymore? It is illogical to assume that we can continue to borrow money forever, and our economy will never grow enough to pay off this massive debt as some have suggested.
From the GAO website and the "US Financial Condition and Fiscal Future Briefing"
•Faster Economic Growth Can Help, but It Cannot Solve the Problem
•Closing the current long-term fiscal gap based on reasonable assumptions would require real average annual economic growth in the double-digit range every year for the next 75 years
•During the 1990s, the economy grew at an average 3.2 percent per year
•As a result, we cannot simply grow our way out of this problem. Tough choices will be required.
Therefore growing our way out of this mess is not an option. Besides tariffs on imports and taxes on the American People, there are only three ways to get the money required to pay off this massive debt.
(1) Borrow more money.
(2) Print more money.
(3) Sell or lease national assets
All are losing propositions for the American people. Because of our weak dollar, foreign investors are already buying up pieces of our infrastructure and other national assets at alarming rates just so that we, as a nation, can maintain the life style that we have become accustomed too. We have become little more than a flea market for foreign investors who use our own money to buy our infastructure and then charge us to use them.
Sooner or later, SOMEONE is going to have to tell the American people just how bad our economy actually is, how bad the consequences of our current lack of fiscal responsibility will make it, and what must be done to fix it, if it can be fixed. Every day it is ignored, billions of dollars more are borrowed that will have to be repaid by our children and grand children. Decimating their futures before they even have a chance to live them.
This is one of the most difficult issues that will have to be faced by the next 5 or more presidents, whoever they may be. This is not really a Democratic or republican issue, it is national survival issue. It's just ashamed that politicians have let it get this far out of control simply to curry votes because they did not have the guts to say what needs to be said to the American people.
This CAN has been kicked down the road by each generation of politicians for the next generation to solve. The road is finally coming to an end and there are no future politicians to pass this problem too. Baby boomers start retiring next year and their numbers will increase each year until 2040. The money to pay for their benifits will run out in 2014, after that, as the number or retirees increase, our government will have to raise taxes on the decreasing number of workers in the work force, borrow more money from foreign countries, and decrease the benifits to the retirees. There are no other choices. Every day we wait to make the tough decisions necessary to minimize this problem, the problem gets worse. Time has run out. IT MUST BE SOLVED NOW.
Each candidate in this year's election should be required to lay out exactly, point by point, how any new promises they make will be funded without increasing this debt, and what they intend to do to make sure this debt will be paid off and not be passed on to our children. In other words, any promises made by candidates during this and future elections should be projected out until the baby boomer's need for all 3 of these massive, government funded, programs end (about 2050). So that the American people can see upfront what negative impact their promises will have on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid through that period.
The problem is so enormous that it will require both parties to face tough undesirable realities. Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will ALL have to be cut and taxes will have to be raised drastically. This goes against everything both parties stand for. That's why neither side mentions it and all candidates avoid the consequences when making promises to get elected. If this problem goes unsolved, it will mean that those who pay taxes will have the heaviest tax burden this country has ever seen and those that receive benifits will not get anywhere close to the care they need.
We, as Democrats, should make this the most urgent issue of our time. We constantly, and rightly so, complain that republicans care about their own prospects and to hell with the future of everyone else. But as Democrats, won't we be doing basically the same thing if we fight for short term Democratic gains but ignore the effect those gains will have on the future of the generations that follow?
There is not a candidate out there who is willing to be completely honest with the American people about this problem, because he/she would never get elected to anything. The American people do not like the bearer of bad news and they will "kill the messenger because of the message", but the truth has to be told to the American people, loudly and clearly, whether they want to hear it or not. Once they understand the enormity of this problem they will demand that our politicians find a solution. It can not be ignored any longer. This is not just about fixing an economic problem, it is about the survival of our nation..
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Economic Meltdown...Do you give a DAMN !
David Walker is not a politician. He was hired by Bill Clinton to head the GAO. His official title was: Comptroller General of the United States and head of the GAO. He was the nation's chief accountant. He was not an elected official and was hired for 15 years regardless of which president or political party was in office, which means he was in office during both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
Walker has been preaching of impending fiscal doom for some time now. It is his premise that there is not enough money to pay future retirees their full Social Security and Medicare benefits and unless something is done immediately, our country may not survive.
Walker felt so deeply about this subject that he quit his job in march 2008 to join the "Peterson Foundation" where he now spends all his time traveling the country warning Americans of the impending fiscal melt down of our economy. On his staff are Republican, Democratic, and Independent economists. His message is about as non-partisan as it can get.
I trust his judgment because David Walker has no political agenda. He has nothing to gain by lying to the American public. He is not running for an office and according to him, doesn't intend to. He claims to be an Independent and as such, says what needs to be said and doesn't care if it offends either party.
Of all the experts I have seen in high government positions, I believe that Walker is one of the few people who is not limited by the party to which he belongs. He cares more about the problem, and its solution, than any elected official can. The solutions he proposes go against the core beliefs of both political party bases.
Yes...I am proud to be a Democrat, but I am not a follower and will go against the party line, if need be, when I believe the party is wrong on any issue. On this issue, I do believe that the Democratic party is to damn stubborn to see that they can not solve this problem alone and, as revolting as it may be, they need the Republican party.
Look at it this way...For 50 years both Republicans and Democrats have squandered excess SS money that should have been invested for retirees future, but instead they had to borrow this money to fulfill election promises, not giving a damn about what that meant to future generations.
GAO on Social Security:
There is No Trust Fund, Only IOU's
Here's another way to think about the problem. Social Security is a commitment by the government to make payments to people in the future. The Trust Fund exists, supposedly, to secure that commitment by setting money aside today — so that in the future, the money doesn't have to come from taxes, borrowing, or spending cuts. Fine — in principle. But when that money is invested in Treasury bonds, those bonds themselves will have to redeemed in the future, and the money to do that will have to come from taxes, borrowing, or spending cuts.
And guess where that money is coming from. Instead of investing our money into things that can be immediately converted back into cash when needed, they left us IOUs and promises that it would be paid back. Well guess what...payment is coming due and there is no cash, just IOUs. Seniors can not eat IOUs. IOUs can not provide medical care. The actual money to redeem these IOUs will have to come from somewhere, and guess where that is: higher taxes AND reduced benefits.
The last line above shows exactly where the problem is. I can not see a Democratic platform demanding "reduced benefits" or a Republican platform demanding "higher taxes". Unfortunately, the solution to this problem will require both. That is why politicians on both sides of the aisle refuse to take this issue head on. Politicians know that their party alone can not solve this problem and that the ultimate solution will require them to embrace ideas from the other party. Therefore they ignore it and the problem continues to grow and be passed along to the next generation.
Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees
Status of the Social Security and Medicare Programs
A SUMMARY OF THE 2008 ANNUAL REPORTS
General
The financial condition of the Social Security and Medicare programs remains problematic. Projected long run program costs are not sustainable under current financing arrangements. Social Security's current annual surpluses of tax income over expenditures will begin to decline in 2011 and then turn into rapidly growing deficits as the baby boom generation retires. Medicare's financial status is even worse.
Medicare
The Medicare Report shows that the program could be brought into actuarial balance over the next 75 years by an immediate 122 percent increase in the payroll tax (from 2.9 percent to 6.44 percent), or an immediate 51 percent reduction in program outlays or some combination of the two. As with Social Security, adjustments of greater magnitude would be necessary if changes are delayed or phased in gradually. Larger changes would also be required to make the program solvent on a sustainable basis beyond the 75-year horizon.
Social Security
Social Security could be brought into actuarial balance over the next 75 years in various ways, including an immediate increase of 14 percent in payroll tax revenues (from 12.4 percent to 14.1 percent) or an immediate reduction in benefits of 12 percent or some combination of the two. Ensuring that the system is solvent on a sustainable basis beyond the next 75 years would require larger changes,
Conclusion The financial difficulties facing Social Security and Medicare pose enormous challenges. The sooner these challenges are addressed, the more varied and less disruptive their solutions can be. We urge the public to engage in informed discussion and policymakers to think creatively about the changing needs and preferences of working and retired Americans. A national conversation and timely political action are essential to ensure that Social Security and Medicare continue to play a critical role in the lives of all Americans.
There are no future generations to pass this problem on too. We must begin to solve this problem now or our entire economy will collapse within the next 30-40 years. Politicians have kicked this economic can down the road for 50 years leaving it to someone else to solve. Well, the road has run out and there is no where else to kick this can to. Barack must start the process and make the hard choices that will eventually save America.
GAO on
The Nation’s Long-Term Fiscal Outlook
April 2007 Update
Federal Fiscal Policy Remains Unsustainable
At some point, action will be taken to change the Nation’s fiscal course. The longer action to deal with the Nation’s long-term fiscal outlook is delayed, the greater the risk that the eventual changes will be disruptive and destabilizing. Acting sooner rather than later will give us more time to phase in gradual changes, while providing more time for those likely to be most affected to make compensatory changes.
This gap is too large for us to grow our way out of the problem. It would require decades of double-digit real economic growth, but the U.S. has not had a single year of double-digit real economic growth since World War II. To be sure, additional economic growth would certainly help the Nation’s financial condition and our ability to address our fiscal gap, but it will not eliminate the need for action.
Hell...I'm 60, why should I give a damn about a problem that probably won't affect me or my chances of getting benefits? The odds are I'll be dead in 30 years. The answer to that is obvious. Every time I look at my children, and especially at my grandchildren, I wonder what their futures will be like? Will they even have a future? Will they have the opportunities that I've had or will they live in a third world country where the majority of the population lives in poverty. Where pain and suffering are the norm? I see this as a possibility, unless things change. To me, these questions are bigger than both the Democratic and Republican parties and their one-upmanship partisan politics.
So what do we do ?? Increase taxes through the roof? Cut the military back to nothing ?? Cut the benefits of ALL social programs even more?? Increase spending from the general fund even more ?? Borrow even more money from China and other countries ?? The answer to most of these questions is probably..YES !!! BUT there is not a politician in this country, with hopes of being elected to public office, with the guts to tell us this.
Neither party alone has been able to fix this problem because of partisan politics and have more or less ignored it, because their party can not provide a total solution. Therefore, IMHO, logic suggests, that alone, they never will. This problem was caused by both political parties. For either party to blame the other is a stupid waste of time and accomplishes nothing. It will require elected officials on both sides of the aisle to hold their collective noses, work together, and make hard decisions that no one likes, but are necessary. The longer they wait, the less likely it is that this problem will ever be solved and the more likely it is that our nation may not survive.
==============
As always, Here is a link to my main diary on the subject
Walker has been preaching of impending fiscal doom for some time now. It is his premise that there is not enough money to pay future retirees their full Social Security and Medicare benefits and unless something is done immediately, our country may not survive.
Walker felt so deeply about this subject that he quit his job in march 2008 to join the "Peterson Foundation" where he now spends all his time traveling the country warning Americans of the impending fiscal melt down of our economy. On his staff are Republican, Democratic, and Independent economists. His message is about as non-partisan as it can get.
I trust his judgment because David Walker has no political agenda. He has nothing to gain by lying to the American public. He is not running for an office and according to him, doesn't intend to. He claims to be an Independent and as such, says what needs to be said and doesn't care if it offends either party.
Of all the experts I have seen in high government positions, I believe that Walker is one of the few people who is not limited by the party to which he belongs. He cares more about the problem, and its solution, than any elected official can. The solutions he proposes go against the core beliefs of both political party bases.
Yes...I am proud to be a Democrat, but I am not a follower and will go against the party line, if need be, when I believe the party is wrong on any issue. On this issue, I do believe that the Democratic party is to damn stubborn to see that they can not solve this problem alone and, as revolting as it may be, they need the Republican party.
Look at it this way...For 50 years both Republicans and Democrats have squandered excess SS money that should have been invested for retirees future, but instead they had to borrow this money to fulfill election promises, not giving a damn about what that meant to future generations.
GAO on Social Security:
There is No Trust Fund, Only IOU's
Here's another way to think about the problem. Social Security is a commitment by the government to make payments to people in the future. The Trust Fund exists, supposedly, to secure that commitment by setting money aside today — so that in the future, the money doesn't have to come from taxes, borrowing, or spending cuts. Fine — in principle. But when that money is invested in Treasury bonds, those bonds themselves will have to redeemed in the future, and the money to do that will have to come from taxes, borrowing, or spending cuts.
And guess where that money is coming from. Instead of investing our money into things that can be immediately converted back into cash when needed, they left us IOUs and promises that it would be paid back. Well guess what...payment is coming due and there is no cash, just IOUs. Seniors can not eat IOUs. IOUs can not provide medical care. The actual money to redeem these IOUs will have to come from somewhere, and guess where that is: higher taxes AND reduced benefits.
The last line above shows exactly where the problem is. I can not see a Democratic platform demanding "reduced benefits" or a Republican platform demanding "higher taxes". Unfortunately, the solution to this problem will require both. That is why politicians on both sides of the aisle refuse to take this issue head on. Politicians know that their party alone can not solve this problem and that the ultimate solution will require them to embrace ideas from the other party. Therefore they ignore it and the problem continues to grow and be passed along to the next generation.
Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees
Status of the Social Security and Medicare Programs
A SUMMARY OF THE 2008 ANNUAL REPORTS
General
The financial condition of the Social Security and Medicare programs remains problematic. Projected long run program costs are not sustainable under current financing arrangements. Social Security's current annual surpluses of tax income over expenditures will begin to decline in 2011 and then turn into rapidly growing deficits as the baby boom generation retires. Medicare's financial status is even worse.
Medicare
The Medicare Report shows that the program could be brought into actuarial balance over the next 75 years by an immediate 122 percent increase in the payroll tax (from 2.9 percent to 6.44 percent), or an immediate 51 percent reduction in program outlays or some combination of the two. As with Social Security, adjustments of greater magnitude would be necessary if changes are delayed or phased in gradually. Larger changes would also be required to make the program solvent on a sustainable basis beyond the 75-year horizon.
Social Security
Social Security could be brought into actuarial balance over the next 75 years in various ways, including an immediate increase of 14 percent in payroll tax revenues (from 12.4 percent to 14.1 percent) or an immediate reduction in benefits of 12 percent or some combination of the two. Ensuring that the system is solvent on a sustainable basis beyond the next 75 years would require larger changes,
Conclusion The financial difficulties facing Social Security and Medicare pose enormous challenges. The sooner these challenges are addressed, the more varied and less disruptive their solutions can be. We urge the public to engage in informed discussion and policymakers to think creatively about the changing needs and preferences of working and retired Americans. A national conversation and timely political action are essential to ensure that Social Security and Medicare continue to play a critical role in the lives of all Americans.
There are no future generations to pass this problem on too. We must begin to solve this problem now or our entire economy will collapse within the next 30-40 years. Politicians have kicked this economic can down the road for 50 years leaving it to someone else to solve. Well, the road has run out and there is no where else to kick this can to. Barack must start the process and make the hard choices that will eventually save America.
GAO on
The Nation’s Long-Term Fiscal Outlook
April 2007 Update
Federal Fiscal Policy Remains Unsustainable
At some point, action will be taken to change the Nation’s fiscal course. The longer action to deal with the Nation’s long-term fiscal outlook is delayed, the greater the risk that the eventual changes will be disruptive and destabilizing. Acting sooner rather than later will give us more time to phase in gradual changes, while providing more time for those likely to be most affected to make compensatory changes.
This gap is too large for us to grow our way out of the problem. It would require decades of double-digit real economic growth, but the U.S. has not had a single year of double-digit real economic growth since World War II. To be sure, additional economic growth would certainly help the Nation’s financial condition and our ability to address our fiscal gap, but it will not eliminate the need for action.
Hell...I'm 60, why should I give a damn about a problem that probably won't affect me or my chances of getting benefits? The odds are I'll be dead in 30 years. The answer to that is obvious. Every time I look at my children, and especially at my grandchildren, I wonder what their futures will be like? Will they even have a future? Will they have the opportunities that I've had or will they live in a third world country where the majority of the population lives in poverty. Where pain and suffering are the norm? I see this as a possibility, unless things change. To me, these questions are bigger than both the Democratic and Republican parties and their one-upmanship partisan politics.
So what do we do ?? Increase taxes through the roof? Cut the military back to nothing ?? Cut the benefits of ALL social programs even more?? Increase spending from the general fund even more ?? Borrow even more money from China and other countries ?? The answer to most of these questions is probably..YES !!! BUT there is not a politician in this country, with hopes of being elected to public office, with the guts to tell us this.
Neither party alone has been able to fix this problem because of partisan politics and have more or less ignored it, because their party can not provide a total solution. Therefore, IMHO, logic suggests, that alone, they never will. This problem was caused by both political parties. For either party to blame the other is a stupid waste of time and accomplishes nothing. It will require elected officials on both sides of the aisle to hold their collective noses, work together, and make hard decisions that no one likes, but are necessary. The longer they wait, the less likely it is that this problem will ever be solved and the more likely it is that our nation may not survive.
==============
As always, Here is a link to my main diary on the subject
Monday, September 8, 2008
One Nation. Under Stress. In Debt.
I am one of a growing number of people who believe our nation is headed toward the most serious economic problem we have ever faced as a nation. A problem that if unaddressed, will make the "Great Depression" look mild in comparison. We still have a chance, although slim, to fix it before our nation comes crumbling down around us, BUT it will take immediate action by our next president and Congress AND the support of the American people.
We as Democrats, must make this the most important issue of our times. We care about America and its people, but unless we show our support for the tough decisions that must be made, we will be dooming our children and grand children to a unimaginable future.
I have posted many diaries on the work of David Walker and the problems facing our economy. Here are a few:
Economic Abyss, Economic Meltdown, Social Security and Medicare Crisis, The Selling of America, But they are just diaries
David Walker's organization is gathering steam in a move to bring this issue to the forefront of American consciousness and force politicians on both sides of the aisle to address it.
I received the following email this morning from the David Walker. It was also sent to thousands or millions of others, so I don't feel to special.
If you feel there is no problem, then ignore this diary. If you feel, as I do, that this problem exists and that ignoring it will not make it go away, then please follow the links in Walkers email below, READ AND SIGN HIS PETITION, and let's help him start the process. Nothing short of the future of our nation is at stake.
We as Democrats, must make this the most important issue of our times. We care about America and its people, but unless we show our support for the tough decisions that must be made, we will be dooming our children and grand children to a unimaginable future.
I have posted many diaries on the work of David Walker and the problems facing our economy. Here are a few:
Economic Abyss, Economic Meltdown, Social Security and Medicare Crisis, The Selling of America, But they are just diaries
David Walker's organization is gathering steam in a move to bring this issue to the forefront of American consciousness and force politicians on both sides of the aisle to address it.
I received the following email this morning from the David Walker. It was also sent to thousands or millions of others, so I don't feel to special.
If you feel there is no problem, then ignore this diary. If you feel, as I do, that this problem exists and that ignoring it will not make it go away, then please follow the links in Walkers email below, READ AND SIGN HIS PETITION, and let's help him start the process. Nothing short of the future of our nation is at stake.
Dear Friend,
Can "we the people" really save our economy? Can we really force our government to face the inconvenient truth of the $53 trillion hole we're in? That's the sum of all the US government's current financial obligations including unfunded promises for Social Security and Medicare - a $455,000 bill for every household in this country.
The answer is "YES" - there IS something each of us can do. Click here to add your signature to a letter we're publishing in the New York Times (more on the letter below).
This new movement for fiscal responsibility is just a few weeks old. And yet, thanks to folks like you, we've already made significant strides:
Over 100,000 of you have already signed on to help us fight for fiscal responsibility in Washington and at home
Our effort already has been covered extensively by the media, ranging from the New York Times, ABC News and CNN to literally thousands of blog mentions (source: Technorati)
"I.O.U.S.A.," our feature documentary about the impending fiscal crisis, has made an incredible splash. Not only did the film get three and a half stars from Roger Ebert, and rave reviews from the New York Times and other critics, but it set an opening-day record for a documentary, thanks to a bonus post-screening town hall, and is about to break into the ranks of the top 100 highest-grossing documentaries of all time (source: BoxOffice Mojo).
That's right - a documentary about fiscal responsibility is about the break into the top 100! And the film is still in theaters in selected cities; Check here for the listings.
We've taken the first step together, and we've begun to build the movement that cynics claimed was impossible. We're sounding the alarm and America is waking up. Now, it's time to take it to the next level. Here's how you can help:
This Sunday, we'll be publishing a letter across two full pages in the New York Times calling upon the presidential nominees to move beyond the "denial" stage, recognize that America has a $53 trillion problem, and start taking steps to solve it. This letter will be signed by a bipartisan group of some of the country's most prominent leaders in finance and fiscal policy-making, and by representatives of young people's organizations around the country. You can add YOUR name by visiting www.PGPF.org today. Please help us make this letter one our next President can't ignore.
Are you on Facebook? If so, please visit the Peter G. Peterson Foundation and I.O.U.S.A. pages and become a fan today.
And finally, spread the word! Forward this e-mail to your 10,000 closest friends.
We've started a movement for fiscal responsibility - a movement few thought possible. And with your help, we will wake up America and set the nation on a course toward a more secure future and a brighter tomorrow.
All the best,
Dave Walker
President and CEO,
Peter G. Peterson Foundation
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Iraq Insurgents
Over 90% of the insurgents in Iraq are Iraqis. These are people who may, or may not, have liked Americans before the Iraq war, but would not have gone out of their way to become international Jihadists. But now, they hate Americans so much that they are willing to die to kill our young soldiers. Why ?
Over 90% of the insurgents in Iraq are Iraqis. These are people who may, or may not, have liked Americans before the Iraq war, but would not have gone out of their way to become international Jihadists. But now, they hate Americans so much that they are willing to die to kill our young soldiers. Why ?
For me, the answer is fairly obvious. Our leaders have decided to fight this unconventional war on terror by conventional means. For almost every bomb we drop to kill a bad guy, we kill innocent people who just happened to be near. Our collateral damage are the fathers, mothers, bothers, sisters or relatives of someone who loved them very much. We will never win the hearts and minds of people whose loved one's body parts are spread over the place where their home used to be. These are the majority of the insurgents we now face in Iraq.
If you dropped a bomb on my home and killed my family, guess what? I would want you dead. I would be willing to do anything, including sacrifice myself, to accomplish that. Isn’t this what we are seeing with so many of our enemies now?
We will never win the war on terrorism if we continue to make enemies with every bomb we drop.
After 9/11 there were no Republicans or Democrats, just pissed off Americans. We pulled together to fight a common enemy, because it was our country that was attacked and our citizens that were wrongfully killed. Almost every country in the world stood behind our right for retribution against those who attacked us.
I watched coverage of the Lebanese /Israeli war and in interview after interview with Lebanese citizens I heard the same angry sentiment, “we are ALL Hezbollah now". Israel has just made an entire group of new enemies and Hezbollah is stronger than they ever were. The Hezbollah they killed will be replaced 10 fold.
Yes, there are genuine bad guys who simply hate us for who we are, our beliefs, our way of life, and are willing to die to replace our belief system with theirs. These are the terrorists. We need to find and kill every one of them, but when the majority of those killed are innocents, we are only making our enemies stronger. There has to be a better way to fight the war on terror, because if we continue along the path we are on now, we can never win.
Over 90% of the insurgents in Iraq are Iraqis. These are people who may, or may not, have liked Americans before the Iraq war, but would not have gone out of their way to become international Jihadists. But now, they hate Americans so much that they are willing to die to kill our young soldiers. Why ?
For me, the answer is fairly obvious. Our leaders have decided to fight this unconventional war on terror by conventional means. For almost every bomb we drop to kill a bad guy, we kill innocent people who just happened to be near. Our collateral damage are the fathers, mothers, bothers, sisters or relatives of someone who loved them very much. We will never win the hearts and minds of people whose loved one's body parts are spread over the place where their home used to be. These are the majority of the insurgents we now face in Iraq.
If you dropped a bomb on my home and killed my family, guess what? I would want you dead. I would be willing to do anything, including sacrifice myself, to accomplish that. Isn’t this what we are seeing with so many of our enemies now?
We will never win the war on terrorism if we continue to make enemies with every bomb we drop.
After 9/11 there were no Republicans or Democrats, just pissed off Americans. We pulled together to fight a common enemy, because it was our country that was attacked and our citizens that were wrongfully killed. Almost every country in the world stood behind our right for retribution against those who attacked us.
I watched coverage of the Lebanese /Israeli war and in interview after interview with Lebanese citizens I heard the same angry sentiment, “we are ALL Hezbollah now". Israel has just made an entire group of new enemies and Hezbollah is stronger than they ever were. The Hezbollah they killed will be replaced 10 fold.
Yes, there are genuine bad guys who simply hate us for who we are, our beliefs, our way of life, and are willing to die to replace our belief system with theirs. These are the terrorists. We need to find and kill every one of them, but when the majority of those killed are innocents, we are only making our enemies stronger. There has to be a better way to fight the war on terror, because if we continue along the path we are on now, we can never win.
Illegal Immigration
The following is a letter I wrote to the TIMES awhile back. Parts are old and irrelevant and other parts current and very relevant. I am including it here just to keep track of it. Comment if you like, but I am putting it here more for myself than anyone else.
President Bush, Senator Kennedy and all those who so adamantly support the so call "Immigration Bill" only talk about the needs of the 12 to 20 million illegal aliens in this country. They forget to mention all the good things this bill is going to do for the American people....Because there ARE NO benefits for us. Our government doesn't seem to care about the burden this bill will place on the hard working American Middle Class.
This bill ignores Americans citizens, legal immigrants, and those who have stood in line for so long to become Americans citizens. The supporters do not mention that this bill will mean lower wages for those hard working, poor, Americans who have to survive on minimum wages now AND the increases in the cost of heath care, education, social security, and the welfare programs we Americans now have to pay for. The retirement benefits alone are estimated to cost $2.5 trillion.
The illegal Alien issue transcends party lines and is not a Right Issue, Left issue, or a "how to do it best" political issue. It deals with fundamental changes to the very fabric of our society, which most Americans feel will be forever detrimental to our country. LEGAL Immigration provides a pool of new blood. The assimilation of a MEASURED NUMBER of immigrants is good and has helped to revitalize our society time and time again, but the SATURATION of our country by any one foreign ethnic group has the potential of creating two distinct and separate cultures in America, turning our melting pot into a boiling pot.
I am truly sorry for poor Mexicans who have to leave their home just to survive. The Mexican government is screwed up and corrupt, but that is not our fault. Why should "I", or any other American, have to pay for it. Our government constantly panders to Mexico's bad behavior and refuses to make them responsible for their own people, while our government makes it OUR responsibility. THAT AIN'T RIGHT !
I’m tired of having to pay for everyone else's problems. We have so many things here at home we could use the money for. Congress is squandering our hard earned tax dollars on pet projects such as the "bridge to nowhere" and all the other pork barrel projects that they can add to legislation in midnight sessions, when no one is looking.
We have a $9 TRILLION debt and it continues to rise daily. We can not afford Congress's lavish spending anymore. Our country is on the way to bankruptcy and most people don't even know it. Congress continues to borrow and spend on a "national credit card" that they seem to think will never have to be repaid. Communist China and other Asian countries own us and OUR Congress doesn't seem to care. Who the hell do these guys work for? I feel as if we are being raped by our own government.
The American public has become complacent because preceding administrations were at least competent enough to not put the well being of our nation at risk. Most Americans go about their daily lives unaware of the jeopardy our country is in. This administration and the preceding Congress changed that. I just hope its not to late for Congress and the NEXT president to actually do something decent for OUR country and OUR people.
There are many reasons the President and Congress have such low approval ratings, but The primary reason is that Americans are tired of them caring more about everyone else than they do about us. We are just a cash cow for their pet projects. They continue to put their own well being and prospects for reelection ahead of our nations interest.
Bush and Congress are hopelessly out of touch with the American people and continue to screw us time and time again for the sake of corporate earnings, lobbyist favors, or to grease there own pockets, and reelection funds.
The only time our President or legislators pay any lip service whatsoever to OUR needs is when it's time to get reelected, but the only thing they EVER really give us is more debt and unfulfilled promises.
President Bush, Senator Kennedy and all those who so adamantly support the so call "Immigration Bill" only talk about the needs of the 12 to 20 million illegal aliens in this country. They forget to mention all the good things this bill is going to do for the American people....Because there ARE NO benefits for us. Our government doesn't seem to care about the burden this bill will place on the hard working American Middle Class.
This bill ignores Americans citizens, legal immigrants, and those who have stood in line for so long to become Americans citizens. The supporters do not mention that this bill will mean lower wages for those hard working, poor, Americans who have to survive on minimum wages now AND the increases in the cost of heath care, education, social security, and the welfare programs we Americans now have to pay for. The retirement benefits alone are estimated to cost $2.5 trillion.
The illegal Alien issue transcends party lines and is not a Right Issue, Left issue, or a "how to do it best" political issue. It deals with fundamental changes to the very fabric of our society, which most Americans feel will be forever detrimental to our country. LEGAL Immigration provides a pool of new blood. The assimilation of a MEASURED NUMBER of immigrants is good and has helped to revitalize our society time and time again, but the SATURATION of our country by any one foreign ethnic group has the potential of creating two distinct and separate cultures in America, turning our melting pot into a boiling pot.
I am truly sorry for poor Mexicans who have to leave their home just to survive. The Mexican government is screwed up and corrupt, but that is not our fault. Why should "I", or any other American, have to pay for it. Our government constantly panders to Mexico's bad behavior and refuses to make them responsible for their own people, while our government makes it OUR responsibility. THAT AIN'T RIGHT !
I’m tired of having to pay for everyone else's problems. We have so many things here at home we could use the money for. Congress is squandering our hard earned tax dollars on pet projects such as the "bridge to nowhere" and all the other pork barrel projects that they can add to legislation in midnight sessions, when no one is looking.
We have a $9 TRILLION debt and it continues to rise daily. We can not afford Congress's lavish spending anymore. Our country is on the way to bankruptcy and most people don't even know it. Congress continues to borrow and spend on a "national credit card" that they seem to think will never have to be repaid. Communist China and other Asian countries own us and OUR Congress doesn't seem to care. Who the hell do these guys work for? I feel as if we are being raped by our own government.
The American public has become complacent because preceding administrations were at least competent enough to not put the well being of our nation at risk. Most Americans go about their daily lives unaware of the jeopardy our country is in. This administration and the preceding Congress changed that. I just hope its not to late for Congress and the NEXT president to actually do something decent for OUR country and OUR people.
There are many reasons the President and Congress have such low approval ratings, but The primary reason is that Americans are tired of them caring more about everyone else than they do about us. We are just a cash cow for their pet projects. They continue to put their own well being and prospects for reelection ahead of our nations interest.
Bush and Congress are hopelessly out of touch with the American people and continue to screw us time and time again for the sake of corporate earnings, lobbyist favors, or to grease there own pockets, and reelection funds.
The only time our President or legislators pay any lip service whatsoever to OUR needs is when it's time to get reelected, but the only thing they EVER really give us is more debt and unfulfilled promises.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Tax and Spend Democrats
Republicans have successfully equated “Tax and Spend” and the “Democratic Party” for as long as I can remember. They have been extremely successful in throwing out this phrase to scare tax payers into believing that Democrats want to take their hard earned money and squander it on things that the Republicans feel are unnecessary. Every time a Republican is running for office, or just talking about Democrats in general, the term is used as an insult, without a rebuttal from Democrats.
I don’t understand why Democrats haven’t embraced this term and used it to their own advantage. “Tax and Spend” actually equates to “fiscal responsibility”. It has nothing to do with over taxing citizens or wasteful spending. It simply means that we should pay for what we spend rather than borrowing the money from our children and grand children.
Republicans would have us believe that money grows on trees; that we don’t have to worry about where the money is coming from; that our government can spend and spend without the American people having to pay a dime; that we can go to war with two countries simultaneously and not have to worry about who is paying for it.
During the past 8 years the Republican Party has borrowed money that we, as a nation, just don't have. If the public had been made at least partly responsible, through increased taxes, for the debt we are incurring because of 2 wars, I doubt we'd be in this mess today. President Bush's cavalier "shop-till-you-drop" and "forget about the costs of these wars" attitude has done incredible harm to this country. Instead of making a point of telling the American people where the money they are spending is coming from, the Republican Party has just borrowed it, not worrying about when it would have to be paid back.
Well its time to stop their fiscal irresponsibility and lying to the American people. They want the American people to think that we “Democrats” are the bad guys just because we want fiscal responsibility. It is time the American people know that we “Democrats” want to bring our fiscal house in order by stopping the Republican Party from spending money we don’t have.
We have now borrowed over $9.6 TRILLION and that figure is rapidly increasing by over $690+ BILLION a year. Every single American man, woman, and child in this country now owes over $31,000 each. Instead of telling the American people, “we just can’t afford it” or saying, “we’ll have to increase taxes to get it”, they have simply not bothered Americans with the details and charged it on our national credit card.
The money they are borrowing is coming from our excess Social Security payments each year and foreign countries. The Social Security Trust Fund actually has “$0” in it. It is not a Trust Fund at all, but a collection of government IOUs that will eventually have to be paid back by increased taxes and/or reduced spending. Not only that, but we have been borrowing money from China and other foreign Countries. We now owe over $2.5 TRILLION to them and that number is rapidly increasing.
I do agree that in national emergencies it is necessary to borrow money to cover short term debt that might overwhelm our economy, but Republicans are borrowing money just to keep our current economy, as lousy as it is, afloat. Our borrowing goes way beyond the money needed to pay for two wars. Of the over $690+ BILLION being borrowed each year, only about $120+ BILLION of that is being used to pay for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The rest is being used to pay interest on this debt and every day bills. We are living far beyond our means and this is being sustained only by borrowing money.
This is truely "taxation without representation". Most Americans have no idea that our government (under the Republicans) are mortgaging their future and the future of their children without asking them whether they want to pay for it or not, and that they are responisble for this debt. Just because it is a future debt, doesn't mean it's not taxation. Sooner or later Americans will have to pay this money back through taxes.
We should be proud of the term “Tax and Spend Democrat”. It stands for taking responsibility for what we as a nation spend, for putting our fiscal house in order, and stopping the Republicans from trading our children’s future for immediate political gains.
IT'S OUR FUTURE, and we “Tax and Spend Democrats” should take it back from those “Borrow and Spend Republicans”, because regardless of what Republicans want the American people to believe, there is no such thing as "something for nothing".
==============
Quote:
"The budget should be balanced; the treasury should be refilled; public debt should be reduced; and the arrogance of public officials should be controlled." Cicero. 106-43 B.C.
I don’t understand why Democrats haven’t embraced this term and used it to their own advantage. “Tax and Spend” actually equates to “fiscal responsibility”. It has nothing to do with over taxing citizens or wasteful spending. It simply means that we should pay for what we spend rather than borrowing the money from our children and grand children.
Republicans would have us believe that money grows on trees; that we don’t have to worry about where the money is coming from; that our government can spend and spend without the American people having to pay a dime; that we can go to war with two countries simultaneously and not have to worry about who is paying for it.
During the past 8 years the Republican Party has borrowed money that we, as a nation, just don't have. If the public had been made at least partly responsible, through increased taxes, for the debt we are incurring because of 2 wars, I doubt we'd be in this mess today. President Bush's cavalier "shop-till-you-drop" and "forget about the costs of these wars" attitude has done incredible harm to this country. Instead of making a point of telling the American people where the money they are spending is coming from, the Republican Party has just borrowed it, not worrying about when it would have to be paid back.
Well its time to stop their fiscal irresponsibility and lying to the American people. They want the American people to think that we “Democrats” are the bad guys just because we want fiscal responsibility. It is time the American people know that we “Democrats” want to bring our fiscal house in order by stopping the Republican Party from spending money we don’t have.
We have now borrowed over $9.6 TRILLION and that figure is rapidly increasing by over $690+ BILLION a year. Every single American man, woman, and child in this country now owes over $31,000 each. Instead of telling the American people, “we just can’t afford it” or saying, “we’ll have to increase taxes to get it”, they have simply not bothered Americans with the details and charged it on our national credit card.
The money they are borrowing is coming from our excess Social Security payments each year and foreign countries. The Social Security Trust Fund actually has “$0” in it. It is not a Trust Fund at all, but a collection of government IOUs that will eventually have to be paid back by increased taxes and/or reduced spending. Not only that, but we have been borrowing money from China and other foreign Countries. We now owe over $2.5 TRILLION to them and that number is rapidly increasing.
I do agree that in national emergencies it is necessary to borrow money to cover short term debt that might overwhelm our economy, but Republicans are borrowing money just to keep our current economy, as lousy as it is, afloat. Our borrowing goes way beyond the money needed to pay for two wars. Of the over $690+ BILLION being borrowed each year, only about $120+ BILLION of that is being used to pay for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The rest is being used to pay interest on this debt and every day bills. We are living far beyond our means and this is being sustained only by borrowing money.
This is truely "taxation without representation". Most Americans have no idea that our government (under the Republicans) are mortgaging their future and the future of their children without asking them whether they want to pay for it or not, and that they are responisble for this debt. Just because it is a future debt, doesn't mean it's not taxation. Sooner or later Americans will have to pay this money back through taxes.
We should be proud of the term “Tax and Spend Democrat”. It stands for taking responsibility for what we as a nation spend, for putting our fiscal house in order, and stopping the Republicans from trading our children’s future for immediate political gains.
IT'S OUR FUTURE, and we “Tax and Spend Democrats” should take it back from those “Borrow and Spend Republicans”, because regardless of what Republicans want the American people to believe, there is no such thing as "something for nothing".
==============
Quote:
"The budget should be balanced; the treasury should be refilled; public debt should be reduced; and the arrogance of public officials should be controlled." Cicero. 106-43 B.C.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
God's Religion
"Do not blame God for man's mistakes". These simple words add up to one of the most profound statements I've ever read. It was scrawled on a bathroom wall of the university I attended. For some reason this statement has stayed in that back my mind for many years. Gradually, over time, it has led me to ask questions and I have spent years attempting to find the answers. What ARE man's mistakes that we blame God for? You can decide for yourself and follow your own path to see what it means to you, but it has lead me to seek answers about my religious beliefs. I have come to the conclusion that organized religion may very well be the biggest mistake that God is being blamed for. I will present arguments in an attempt to show you why I feel this way.
God did not create even one of the many religions we have, men did. Each founder of a particular religion looked within themselves and saw God, and interpreted what they saw as a revelation of how to live and worship him. They were then able to convince others into believing that THEY alone had God's undivided attention and that everyone should believe as they do; BUT just because someone says, "God told me how to worship him", doesn't make it so. It doesn't make these so-called prophets right, or divinely inspired, it just makes them great salesmen. Each religion has had a great salesman.
God may be the biggest jokester of all time. He has allowed man to create a multitude of ways to worship him. He has allowed us to form and then change religions as we see fit, never interfering with what or how it was being taught. Most religions claim to be inspired by the same God. Most religions say, "my religion is the only TRUE religion" and the more fanatical religions say, "God will punish you if you don't believe in what I believe in". I do not see how anyone who knows there is a God could truly believe that he would damn the majority of the population of this world to purgatory automatically. Therefore, it is impossible for me to believe that there is only one true religion. If so, then most of us are going straight to Hell.
It is my opinion that Our God is tolerant of all religions. He doesn't care that humans have devised so many ways to worship him. He is tolerant of our foolishness and the disparate ways we've created to worship him. We are human after all and as most religions agree upon, flawed. What he does care about are those things that unite all religions. It is sad that we don't put more emphasis on these things and not the differences.
Most people desperately want to believe in something, even if that something is to believe in nothing. As a species we constantly try to find something, anything that will explain human existence, why we are here, and our place in it; but it must be tangible for us to accept it. We are social beings and must be able to see it, touch it, and be a part of it in order to believe in it. Organized religion fills that need. Just believing in, and talking to, God does not. It's lonely when it’s just you and God. He doesn't say a lot and requires you to do all the talking. He exists only as a metaphysical being. God requires absolute belief in him without ever giving you a chance to scientifically prove or disprove his existence. That's hard to sustain for any one person without the support and fellowship of others who have basically the same beliefs. Thus we organize ourselves into religions.
The majority of people never actually chose their own religion. It was chosen for them by the simple act of being born. I have no doubt that if I was born in a Israel I would probably be Jewish, OR If I was born in Utah I would probably be a Mormon, OR If I was born in the Middle East I would probably be a Muslim. For the majority of us, religion is not a choice, it is a birthright. I apologize to that small percentage of you who have actively chosen your religion because it fits your beliefs. You've obviously searched until you found a religion that, as closely as possible, fits your spiritual needs. That works for me too, but unfortunately, we are in the minority.
Please don't get the wrong idea. I respect all non-fanatical religions and those people who believe in them. I truly believe that all religions have something worthwhile to teach, but each of us ultimately decides what we will believe in and what we will not. It doesn't matter what religion you are a part of, I guarantee that there are certain tenants of your religion that you disagree with. That's because YOUR beliefs are subjective and are actually only between you and God, and no one else. The religion you are a part of simply fore fills MOST of your spiritual needs, but not all. It is just comforting being in an organized religion where we know that everyone who honestly adheres to most of our religion's beliefs will be blessed and allowed into heaven. In the end though, you will answer to God, not your religion, for your beliefs.
I have been to services in many places of worship. In each, I try to come away with the same thing: some new thought or idea that will make me understand God better and be a better person toward others. I understand that I do not have all the answers and never will, but I also understand that neither does anyone else. And while I may disagree with various religions on a number of points they adamantly believe in, they may have an answer to just one of the questions that I have been searching for, or either raise a question that I have never thought of . That makes every religion relevant. But regardless of what is said, it is ME who internalizes what is being taught during a sermon. I will subjectively believe what is taught and add that knowledge to MY belief system, use it to reinforce beliefs that I already have, or I will reject it. Even if you are the member of a single religion, you do the same thing I do. My religion is between me and God and concerns no one else. The answers I find are only relevant to me and help me along the path to a better understanding of God.
To limit oneself to a set of answers that a single religion can offer is to limit the available answers. The answers to all our questions are out there. They will be found by fitting the pieces of the puzzle together. No one religion has all the answers and as long as we refuse to look for answers anywhere except in our own religion we will never find them.
I personally believe that religion has nothing to do with books, or prophets, or religious leaders, or houses of worship. It's just between me and God. In the end, I will answer to him, not because of which church I went to, but because of the type of person I was during my life and how I treated others while I was here. It is what resides within me and makes me who I am that will determine whether God will look at me favorably or not. It is the search for answers to the moral questions I have, and how I use the answers that I add to MY belief system that is important. I refuse to limit myself to the answers that only one religion can supply. I am the owner of my own beliefs and God will be the judge of whether I am right or wrong, as he will with us all.
Organized religions do not unite us, they divide us. They segregate one group from another. You can argue the truthfulness of your religion all you want to, but you'll only alienate others who honestly believe in the truthfulness of theirs. Organized religions, regardless of their good intentions, have caused hate, mistrust and in extreme cases death and destruction. "Believe in what I believe in, because if you don't God will not love you and you will go straight to Hell". Think about it, God can not want that. That can not be God's plan for us to worship him. No one religion or person has ever had an absolute control over right and wrong or absolute knowledge of the REAL truth.
In most Blogs and articles on religion, many people will argue religious points of view by quoting scripture from their own religion as absolute proof of a point or will quote history as defined by their particular religious texts. These arguments are meaningless to those of other religions and will never settle an issue or unite anyone. The only true religion will resonate as truth to everyone. It will be one that's inclusive to all.
The good news is that there is a religion that we are all already apart of. We just don't accept it and use it as a tool to unite us spiritually. It doesn’t have a name. It shouldn’t. To give it a name would just throw it into the pot with all the others. If it was ever formalized and put into that pot, I wouldn't join it. It is personal and concerns no one else but you and God. It is a religion of actions and not just words. It demands no place of worship, religious texts, or men who claim to know more about it than you do. It is within you. You know more about it than anyone else ever could. You and you alone are responsible for finding the answers to the questions you have about it. The answers you do find may be relevant to you and no one else.
If we pray to God, we don’t pray for Baptist things, or Jewish things, or Muslin things, or Catholic things. We ALL pray to our God for the exact same things regardless of our organized religious differences. We pray for God to protect our families, our friends, our neighbors, our country, peace on earth, an end to the pain and suffering of others, for food to feed the starving, that God may grant us peace within ourselves, and to give us an understanding of exactly what kind of person he wants us to be. Among many others, these are the important things and the things we have in common that should unite us. These things can not be made into an organized religion but, none-the-less, unite us. It is OUR conversations with God that unite us ALL. Even though it is a personal conversation between each of us and God, it is the same conversation. We leave religion behind when we pray to God.
Each of us has within ourselves the ultimate religion, and it is the same. It should unite us, but doesn’t because we’d rather give it a name, write books about it, build places to go to worship it, and create deities of those men who say they know more about it than we do. How can anyone say that the very things that keep us apart will ever unite us. Organized religion does just that and always will. The goal of a true religion should be to work toward peace within ourselves and harmony with others. It should consist of the things that bind us all together, not tear us apart. Only when we recognize this, will there ever be a true religion.
There is only one God. He is called by many names and worshiped in many ways by different religions, BUT he will judge each of us using the exact same criteria. Until everyone recognizes that each of us contains the true religion within ourselves, because it unites us all as one with God, we will never have peace within ourselves or with each other. These are the things that God will ultimately judge us by. So worship as you heart tells you to and search for the answers you need to satisfy the questions you have, but please "Do not blame God for man's mistakes".
God did not create even one of the many religions we have, men did. Each founder of a particular religion looked within themselves and saw God, and interpreted what they saw as a revelation of how to live and worship him. They were then able to convince others into believing that THEY alone had God's undivided attention and that everyone should believe as they do; BUT just because someone says, "God told me how to worship him", doesn't make it so. It doesn't make these so-called prophets right, or divinely inspired, it just makes them great salesmen. Each religion has had a great salesman.
God may be the biggest jokester of all time. He has allowed man to create a multitude of ways to worship him. He has allowed us to form and then change religions as we see fit, never interfering with what or how it was being taught. Most religions claim to be inspired by the same God. Most religions say, "my religion is the only TRUE religion" and the more fanatical religions say, "God will punish you if you don't believe in what I believe in". I do not see how anyone who knows there is a God could truly believe that he would damn the majority of the population of this world to purgatory automatically. Therefore, it is impossible for me to believe that there is only one true religion. If so, then most of us are going straight to Hell.
It is my opinion that Our God is tolerant of all religions. He doesn't care that humans have devised so many ways to worship him. He is tolerant of our foolishness and the disparate ways we've created to worship him. We are human after all and as most religions agree upon, flawed. What he does care about are those things that unite all religions. It is sad that we don't put more emphasis on these things and not the differences.
Most people desperately want to believe in something, even if that something is to believe in nothing. As a species we constantly try to find something, anything that will explain human existence, why we are here, and our place in it; but it must be tangible for us to accept it. We are social beings and must be able to see it, touch it, and be a part of it in order to believe in it. Organized religion fills that need. Just believing in, and talking to, God does not. It's lonely when it’s just you and God. He doesn't say a lot and requires you to do all the talking. He exists only as a metaphysical being. God requires absolute belief in him without ever giving you a chance to scientifically prove or disprove his existence. That's hard to sustain for any one person without the support and fellowship of others who have basically the same beliefs. Thus we organize ourselves into religions.
The majority of people never actually chose their own religion. It was chosen for them by the simple act of being born. I have no doubt that if I was born in a Israel I would probably be Jewish, OR If I was born in Utah I would probably be a Mormon, OR If I was born in the Middle East I would probably be a Muslim. For the majority of us, religion is not a choice, it is a birthright. I apologize to that small percentage of you who have actively chosen your religion because it fits your beliefs. You've obviously searched until you found a religion that, as closely as possible, fits your spiritual needs. That works for me too, but unfortunately, we are in the minority.
Please don't get the wrong idea. I respect all non-fanatical religions and those people who believe in them. I truly believe that all religions have something worthwhile to teach, but each of us ultimately decides what we will believe in and what we will not. It doesn't matter what religion you are a part of, I guarantee that there are certain tenants of your religion that you disagree with. That's because YOUR beliefs are subjective and are actually only between you and God, and no one else. The religion you are a part of simply fore fills MOST of your spiritual needs, but not all. It is just comforting being in an organized religion where we know that everyone who honestly adheres to most of our religion's beliefs will be blessed and allowed into heaven. In the end though, you will answer to God, not your religion, for your beliefs.
I have been to services in many places of worship. In each, I try to come away with the same thing: some new thought or idea that will make me understand God better and be a better person toward others. I understand that I do not have all the answers and never will, but I also understand that neither does anyone else. And while I may disagree with various religions on a number of points they adamantly believe in, they may have an answer to just one of the questions that I have been searching for, or either raise a question that I have never thought of . That makes every religion relevant. But regardless of what is said, it is ME who internalizes what is being taught during a sermon. I will subjectively believe what is taught and add that knowledge to MY belief system, use it to reinforce beliefs that I already have, or I will reject it. Even if you are the member of a single religion, you do the same thing I do. My religion is between me and God and concerns no one else. The answers I find are only relevant to me and help me along the path to a better understanding of God.
To limit oneself to a set of answers that a single religion can offer is to limit the available answers. The answers to all our questions are out there. They will be found by fitting the pieces of the puzzle together. No one religion has all the answers and as long as we refuse to look for answers anywhere except in our own religion we will never find them.
I personally believe that religion has nothing to do with books, or prophets, or religious leaders, or houses of worship. It's just between me and God. In the end, I will answer to him, not because of which church I went to, but because of the type of person I was during my life and how I treated others while I was here. It is what resides within me and makes me who I am that will determine whether God will look at me favorably or not. It is the search for answers to the moral questions I have, and how I use the answers that I add to MY belief system that is important. I refuse to limit myself to the answers that only one religion can supply. I am the owner of my own beliefs and God will be the judge of whether I am right or wrong, as he will with us all.
Organized religions do not unite us, they divide us. They segregate one group from another. You can argue the truthfulness of your religion all you want to, but you'll only alienate others who honestly believe in the truthfulness of theirs. Organized religions, regardless of their good intentions, have caused hate, mistrust and in extreme cases death and destruction. "Believe in what I believe in, because if you don't God will not love you and you will go straight to Hell". Think about it, God can not want that. That can not be God's plan for us to worship him. No one religion or person has ever had an absolute control over right and wrong or absolute knowledge of the REAL truth.
In most Blogs and articles on religion, many people will argue religious points of view by quoting scripture from their own religion as absolute proof of a point or will quote history as defined by their particular religious texts. These arguments are meaningless to those of other religions and will never settle an issue or unite anyone. The only true religion will resonate as truth to everyone. It will be one that's inclusive to all.
The good news is that there is a religion that we are all already apart of. We just don't accept it and use it as a tool to unite us spiritually. It doesn’t have a name. It shouldn’t. To give it a name would just throw it into the pot with all the others. If it was ever formalized and put into that pot, I wouldn't join it. It is personal and concerns no one else but you and God. It is a religion of actions and not just words. It demands no place of worship, religious texts, or men who claim to know more about it than you do. It is within you. You know more about it than anyone else ever could. You and you alone are responsible for finding the answers to the questions you have about it. The answers you do find may be relevant to you and no one else.
If we pray to God, we don’t pray for Baptist things, or Jewish things, or Muslin things, or Catholic things. We ALL pray to our God for the exact same things regardless of our organized religious differences. We pray for God to protect our families, our friends, our neighbors, our country, peace on earth, an end to the pain and suffering of others, for food to feed the starving, that God may grant us peace within ourselves, and to give us an understanding of exactly what kind of person he wants us to be. Among many others, these are the important things and the things we have in common that should unite us. These things can not be made into an organized religion but, none-the-less, unite us. It is OUR conversations with God that unite us ALL. Even though it is a personal conversation between each of us and God, it is the same conversation. We leave religion behind when we pray to God.
Each of us has within ourselves the ultimate religion, and it is the same. It should unite us, but doesn’t because we’d rather give it a name, write books about it, build places to go to worship it, and create deities of those men who say they know more about it than we do. How can anyone say that the very things that keep us apart will ever unite us. Organized religion does just that and always will. The goal of a true religion should be to work toward peace within ourselves and harmony with others. It should consist of the things that bind us all together, not tear us apart. Only when we recognize this, will there ever be a true religion.
There is only one God. He is called by many names and worshiped in many ways by different religions, BUT he will judge each of us using the exact same criteria. Until everyone recognizes that each of us contains the true religion within ourselves, because it unites us all as one with God, we will never have peace within ourselves or with each other. These are the things that God will ultimately judge us by. So worship as you heart tells you to and search for the answers you need to satisfy the questions you have, but please "Do not blame God for man's mistakes".
Venting on "Dubya"
Believe it or not, Bill Kristol and others have stated that George Bush's tenure in office will be seen as a success by Historians. I adamantly disagree, as I am sure most of you on this site do.
This is the second printing of an open letter to Mr. Bush explaining just a few of the reasons why I feel as stongly as I do. Feel free to add addtional reasons why this man is, and has been, a total screw up.
Economy:
The great economy that you say exists, is an illusion. You have used our national "credit card" to run up a $9 Trillion foreign debt. Anyone can make the economy look good when you are charging what you spend. We haven’t paid for this economy, we’ve charged it. China, and other countries are paying for our economy. Currently, every man, woman, and child in this country owes approximately $30,000. This great economy you talk about will be paid for by our children and grand children, because the debt WILL eventually come due. We are borrowing approximately $35 Billion a month to prop up this great economy. If the econcomy was as good as you say, we would be paying down this $9 trillion debt instead of adding billions to it each month. We can not produce our way out of this debt.
By a "good economy", do you mean for corporations or the American people? Yes, corporate profits have increased steadily since 2001, but unfortunately that’s because of the "Credit card" bubble we live in. The poor are getting poorer, the number of people in the middle class is shrinking, and the wages of those in the middle class is stagnate or losing ground. Corporations are going abroad and taking more and more jobs with them, and we are importing more and more cheap, foreign labor to work in the jobs they leave behind.
Yes...the stock market IS rising, corporations ARE making more profits than ever, and the rich ARE getting richer, but unfortunately the majority of people in this country; the people on whose backs this country was built, are losing ground at an ever increasing rate.
What a wonderful economy.
War in Iraq:
Oh where, oh where is Osama ? Whether we agree with the war or not, you have to agree that the primary terrorist organization that caused all this mess is still at large and getting stronger again. Instead of finding and killing this mad man and eliminating his organization, like we should have, you shifted those assets to Iraq to fight a war that no one in the region thought was necessary.
Forget WMDs and all the other bogus reasons given for invading Iraq, I have always been against the war for one simple reason: our allies in the region, who helped us during Gulf War 1, and had more to fear and lose from Saddam Hussein than we did, didn’t believe that he was an "imminent" threat and wouldn’t help us. These are people who hated Saddam Hussein, and still wouldn’t help us. Turkey even turned down $5 Billion in aid when we asked to stage troops out of their country. Saudi was no where to be found. Only a few minor and major nations in the world offered to help (and that for gain or out of loyalty), most saw from their own intellegence sources that he was not an "immediate" threat and refused to help us.
If your reason for being in Iraq is to help poor Iraqis (as you NOW say), why haven’t we sent troops to Darfur, or any other country where an insane leader is abusing and commiting atrocities against his own people. They are not hard to find. Only you know why we are in Iraq, but one thing is for sure: It is NOT the right reason. The American people now know it, even if you still think you can get away with lying to us.
Homeland Insecurity:
Al-qaeda is on the rise and will strike this country again, because our Homeland Security is a joke because you took your eyes off the ball. You have hired incompetent cronies to fill key positions at the detriment of everyone in our country. In the past 6 years you have squandered our national resources and the lives of thousands of Americans. Instead of spending the Billions of dollars necessary to secure our borders, ports, airlines, and cities, and to hunt down and kill those who actually attacked us on 9/11, you have wasted them on a venture in Iraq, for reasons only you know.
Our Homeland security keeps talking about the terror plots they have foiled since 9/11, but forget to mention that a devastating attack on our country, that could kill millions of citizens, is as close as 1 illegal alien away.
500,000 illegal aliens cross our borders successfully each year. We don't know who they are. We don't know where they are. Any one of which could be a terriorist with a nuke, destined for the closest major city. His stay in the United States could be as little as 1 hour.
Millions of citizens dead before our "homeland insecurity" even knew he was here. You claim to be keeping us safe by fighting a war half way around the world, but refuse to make "closing our borders" a national EMERGENCY. WHY ?
Of the hunderds of thousands of cargo containers that come through our ports, 1% are actually checked for explosives, dirty bombs, or anything else. How many nukes could be cargo on the remaining 99%. They would be shipped unchecked to cities throughout our country and exploded within 2 days of arrival, without "homeland insecurity" having a clue they are even here. WHY ?
Has the war in Iraq made you feel safer? Not me !
Winner ??
You will go down in history as the most incompetent president our nation has ever had. The number of screw ups you have accomplished in 7 years in the name of corporate greed is staggering and has never been equaled by another president. From bad trade agreements at the detrement of American workers to lack of help for those who still suffer as a result of Katrina, you have gotten it wrong at every turn.
Unfortunately, your mistakes have, and will, cost more lives. I just hope there is a country left, when you finally leave office.
This is the second printing of an open letter to Mr. Bush explaining just a few of the reasons why I feel as stongly as I do. Feel free to add addtional reasons why this man is, and has been, a total screw up.
Economy:
The great economy that you say exists, is an illusion. You have used our national "credit card" to run up a $9 Trillion foreign debt. Anyone can make the economy look good when you are charging what you spend. We haven’t paid for this economy, we’ve charged it. China, and other countries are paying for our economy. Currently, every man, woman, and child in this country owes approximately $30,000. This great economy you talk about will be paid for by our children and grand children, because the debt WILL eventually come due. We are borrowing approximately $35 Billion a month to prop up this great economy. If the econcomy was as good as you say, we would be paying down this $9 trillion debt instead of adding billions to it each month. We can not produce our way out of this debt.
By a "good economy", do you mean for corporations or the American people? Yes, corporate profits have increased steadily since 2001, but unfortunately that’s because of the "Credit card" bubble we live in. The poor are getting poorer, the number of people in the middle class is shrinking, and the wages of those in the middle class is stagnate or losing ground. Corporations are going abroad and taking more and more jobs with them, and we are importing more and more cheap, foreign labor to work in the jobs they leave behind.
Yes...the stock market IS rising, corporations ARE making more profits than ever, and the rich ARE getting richer, but unfortunately the majority of people in this country; the people on whose backs this country was built, are losing ground at an ever increasing rate.
What a wonderful economy.
War in Iraq:
Oh where, oh where is Osama ? Whether we agree with the war or not, you have to agree that the primary terrorist organization that caused all this mess is still at large and getting stronger again. Instead of finding and killing this mad man and eliminating his organization, like we should have, you shifted those assets to Iraq to fight a war that no one in the region thought was necessary.
Forget WMDs and all the other bogus reasons given for invading Iraq, I have always been against the war for one simple reason: our allies in the region, who helped us during Gulf War 1, and had more to fear and lose from Saddam Hussein than we did, didn’t believe that he was an "imminent" threat and wouldn’t help us. These are people who hated Saddam Hussein, and still wouldn’t help us. Turkey even turned down $5 Billion in aid when we asked to stage troops out of their country. Saudi was no where to be found. Only a few minor and major nations in the world offered to help (and that for gain or out of loyalty), most saw from their own intellegence sources that he was not an "immediate" threat and refused to help us.
If your reason for being in Iraq is to help poor Iraqis (as you NOW say), why haven’t we sent troops to Darfur, or any other country where an insane leader is abusing and commiting atrocities against his own people. They are not hard to find. Only you know why we are in Iraq, but one thing is for sure: It is NOT the right reason. The American people now know it, even if you still think you can get away with lying to us.
Homeland Insecurity:
Al-qaeda is on the rise and will strike this country again, because our Homeland Security is a joke because you took your eyes off the ball. You have hired incompetent cronies to fill key positions at the detriment of everyone in our country. In the past 6 years you have squandered our national resources and the lives of thousands of Americans. Instead of spending the Billions of dollars necessary to secure our borders, ports, airlines, and cities, and to hunt down and kill those who actually attacked us on 9/11, you have wasted them on a venture in Iraq, for reasons only you know.
Our Homeland security keeps talking about the terror plots they have foiled since 9/11, but forget to mention that a devastating attack on our country, that could kill millions of citizens, is as close as 1 illegal alien away.
500,000 illegal aliens cross our borders successfully each year. We don't know who they are. We don't know where they are. Any one of which could be a terriorist with a nuke, destined for the closest major city. His stay in the United States could be as little as 1 hour.
Millions of citizens dead before our "homeland insecurity" even knew he was here. You claim to be keeping us safe by fighting a war half way around the world, but refuse to make "closing our borders" a national EMERGENCY. WHY ?
Of the hunderds of thousands of cargo containers that come through our ports, 1% are actually checked for explosives, dirty bombs, or anything else. How many nukes could be cargo on the remaining 99%. They would be shipped unchecked to cities throughout our country and exploded within 2 days of arrival, without "homeland insecurity" having a clue they are even here. WHY ?
Has the war in Iraq made you feel safer? Not me !
Winner ??
You will go down in history as the most incompetent president our nation has ever had. The number of screw ups you have accomplished in 7 years in the name of corporate greed is staggering and has never been equaled by another president. From bad trade agreements at the detrement of American workers to lack of help for those who still suffer as a result of Katrina, you have gotten it wrong at every turn.
Unfortunately, your mistakes have, and will, cost more lives. I just hope there is a country left, when you finally leave office.
Honest Politicians ?
Today, that is an oxymoron. We all know that, even politicians who mean well, sometimes make promises they can't keep. It is a sad fact of life that, to get elected, they make promises that they just can't deliver on once elected, but we, as Americans expect them to make promises. Bigger, better, or more. We expect our politicians to make our lives better than it was the last election cycle (this time, that won't be hard). But have they been misleading us just to get elected? Whose fault is it that they are forced to make promises that in reality we know can't be fore filled? Why can't politicians just be honest with us?
The following is a fictitious news conference held with both a Democratic and Republican candidate present. Although unreal, it has more honesty in it than I've heard from any candidate so far.
========================
Q: Mr. Republican candidate you have been promising to continue the Bush tax cuts and even expand them to help our economy. How are we going to pay for that?
A: Well, I've thought about it and come to the conclusion that it is actually impossible to do that. As a matter of fact, we are going to have to immediately implement a large tax increase on the wealthiest individuals and largest corporations, and a phased tax increase on rest of the American people.
Q: Why?
A: We, as a nation, are going bankrupt and are spending Billions more each month than we receive in taxes. We just can't afford it now.
========================
Q: Mr. Democratic candidate, you have been promising universal health care for everyone in this country, how are we going to pay for that?
A: Well, while that has been, and will always be, our goal I've thought about it and come to the conclusion that at this time it is impossible to do that. As a matter of fact, we are going to have to begin a phased reduction in the current Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benifits to our seniors.
Q: Why?
A: We, as a nation, have made promises to our seniors that we just don't have the money to pay for. We just can't afford it now.
========================
Can anyone ever imagine a news conference where the above questions and responses took place? NO...well me neither, but as far from the truth as it may sound, that is actually a news conference that our current candidates should be having.
To understand why follow this link
The following is a fictitious news conference held with both a Democratic and Republican candidate present. Although unreal, it has more honesty in it than I've heard from any candidate so far.
========================
Q: Mr. Republican candidate you have been promising to continue the Bush tax cuts and even expand them to help our economy. How are we going to pay for that?
A: Well, I've thought about it and come to the conclusion that it is actually impossible to do that. As a matter of fact, we are going to have to immediately implement a large tax increase on the wealthiest individuals and largest corporations, and a phased tax increase on rest of the American people.
Q: Why?
A: We, as a nation, are going bankrupt and are spending Billions more each month than we receive in taxes. We just can't afford it now.
========================
Q: Mr. Democratic candidate, you have been promising universal health care for everyone in this country, how are we going to pay for that?
A: Well, while that has been, and will always be, our goal I've thought about it and come to the conclusion that at this time it is impossible to do that. As a matter of fact, we are going to have to begin a phased reduction in the current Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benifits to our seniors.
Q: Why?
A: We, as a nation, have made promises to our seniors that we just don't have the money to pay for. We just can't afford it now.
========================
Can anyone ever imagine a news conference where the above questions and responses took place? NO...well me neither, but as far from the truth as it may sound, that is actually a news conference that our current candidates should be having.
To understand why follow this link
Corporate Greed
We are in a unique period in our history. Forces are at work to destroy America and our way of life. Below are two examples from my own life that illustrate this fact:
Story One:
In 1994 I worked for GE as Senior software developer. This was before outsourcing jobs became a national subject. GE started using the H1B's available to import programmers from India who worked for TATA. We were told that GE was going to open an office in India and we should help these people learn the business. Since outsourcing wasn't even in our vocabulary, we didn't feel threatened.
So for 2+ years they cycled through our offices, staying from 3-6 months before going home. We had to take cultural acclamation classes to understand their culture. We taught them the business and even complained to management because we found that their salaries were so far below the minimum salary for the technical jobs they were doing.
This went on for 2+ years before the pink slips began. A few here, a few there. At first no one connected these firings to our friends from India and GE’s new office. Eventually, wholesale firings began and it became clear what was happening. I was fired in 1998. No reason given (no union). Just terminated. The office has now closed and over 100 programmers and support staff were fired.
Story Two:
I now work for a (unnamed) company that makes clothes. When I started in 1999 we had manufacturing plants throughout the South East. On a plant tour, of a manufacturing facility 1/2 hour down the road from our headquarters, I commented to our host that this was a beautiful plant and workers seemed happy and productive. He immediately laughed and said "how productive they are is irrelevant because within a year this plant will be closed". When I asked why, he told me that they could get the same clothes made in China, lose 15% on the boat trip during transit, and our company would still make more money on the product than from this plant.
Needless to say, by 2004 ALL of our American manufacturing plants were closed. New plants were built in Mexico to replace them. Other parts of the manufacturing process were moved to places like Malaysia, Indonesia, and China. Eventually even the Mexican plants were closed because they were to expensive to run. All our goods are now manufactured in Asia.
Conclusion:
I am not telling these stories to provoke sympathy. The point is that corporations are moving more and more plants and jobs offshore. They are crying about the lack of IT and skilled workers of all types and want even more HIB visas. Manufacturing jobs are becoming more scarce by the day. Contrary to corporate propaganda, there are plenty of skilled and unskilled workers in America to fill hi-tech jobs, and the ever decreasing number of manufacturing jobs, that are still available. It's just that corporations are not willing to pay American salaries and benifits to get a job done when they can use illegal or foreign labor to do the job for subsistence wages, with no benefits. That's capitalism at its finest.
Most people are under the misconception that a Corporation's business is to make consumer products or provide services. THAT AIN'T TRUE! A corporation's main business is to make money...PERIOD! Their products or services are simply tools to that end. What they are willing to do to make money is only bounded by what they can get away with legally and illegally. Morals and patriotism are not requirements to make money. Employees are expendable tools to be used and discarded, as required. Corporations do not care about the American people or sustaining our way of life.
The American public is still the largest corporate consumer in the world, but as our wages drop and foreign countries take more and more of our jobs, we will become less relevant to their bottom line each year.
Slowly, but surely, our standard of living is dropping. We are slowly spiraling downward to a 3rd world status and could arrive there sometime this century. An old adage goes, "if you want to cook a frog, don't toss him into a pot of boiling water, he'll jump out, BUT if you put him in a pot of cold water and turn the heat up slowly, he'll boil to death before he realizes he's even being cooked". That's us...little frogs, ever so gently getting the heat turned up from all directions by corporations and their paid lobbyist (our legislators) in Washington. Most people, who do not pay attention to politics (the majority of this country), go about their daily lives seeing bad things happening to OTHER people. They think: "not me, never me". They are complacent because the heat is being turned up so slowly that it doesn't hurt yet. By the time the pain becomes unbearable and they realize what is happening, it will be to late.
Corporations care about one thing... PROFIT! They will be patriotic and wave the red, white, and blue only as long as there is a dollar to be made. They will move an entire corporation overseas if they can make two dollars instead of one. Pure Greed. Throwing thousands of people out of work because each middle class American costs a few dollars more and decreases their bottom line. They don't seem to realize (or care) that they are cutting off the hand that feeds them, by firing workers whose middle class salaries allow them to buy their products. They will do anything for more and more profits.
The American people need to wake up soon and join the fight against corporate greed and to preserve our way of life. We're all in this together people. We either help each other get the message out, OR THEY WIN, and just like the little frog...we're all cooked.
Story One:
In 1994 I worked for GE as Senior software developer. This was before outsourcing jobs became a national subject. GE started using the H1B's available to import programmers from India who worked for TATA. We were told that GE was going to open an office in India and we should help these people learn the business. Since outsourcing wasn't even in our vocabulary, we didn't feel threatened.
So for 2+ years they cycled through our offices, staying from 3-6 months before going home. We had to take cultural acclamation classes to understand their culture. We taught them the business and even complained to management because we found that their salaries were so far below the minimum salary for the technical jobs they were doing.
This went on for 2+ years before the pink slips began. A few here, a few there. At first no one connected these firings to our friends from India and GE’s new office. Eventually, wholesale firings began and it became clear what was happening. I was fired in 1998. No reason given (no union). Just terminated. The office has now closed and over 100 programmers and support staff were fired.
Story Two:
I now work for a (unnamed) company that makes clothes. When I started in 1999 we had manufacturing plants throughout the South East. On a plant tour, of a manufacturing facility 1/2 hour down the road from our headquarters, I commented to our host that this was a beautiful plant and workers seemed happy and productive. He immediately laughed and said "how productive they are is irrelevant because within a year this plant will be closed". When I asked why, he told me that they could get the same clothes made in China, lose 15% on the boat trip during transit, and our company would still make more money on the product than from this plant.
Needless to say, by 2004 ALL of our American manufacturing plants were closed. New plants were built in Mexico to replace them. Other parts of the manufacturing process were moved to places like Malaysia, Indonesia, and China. Eventually even the Mexican plants were closed because they were to expensive to run. All our goods are now manufactured in Asia.
Conclusion:
I am not telling these stories to provoke sympathy. The point is that corporations are moving more and more plants and jobs offshore. They are crying about the lack of IT and skilled workers of all types and want even more HIB visas. Manufacturing jobs are becoming more scarce by the day. Contrary to corporate propaganda, there are plenty of skilled and unskilled workers in America to fill hi-tech jobs, and the ever decreasing number of manufacturing jobs, that are still available. It's just that corporations are not willing to pay American salaries and benifits to get a job done when they can use illegal or foreign labor to do the job for subsistence wages, with no benefits. That's capitalism at its finest.
Most people are under the misconception that a Corporation's business is to make consumer products or provide services. THAT AIN'T TRUE! A corporation's main business is to make money...PERIOD! Their products or services are simply tools to that end. What they are willing to do to make money is only bounded by what they can get away with legally and illegally. Morals and patriotism are not requirements to make money. Employees are expendable tools to be used and discarded, as required. Corporations do not care about the American people or sustaining our way of life.
The American public is still the largest corporate consumer in the world, but as our wages drop and foreign countries take more and more of our jobs, we will become less relevant to their bottom line each year.
Slowly, but surely, our standard of living is dropping. We are slowly spiraling downward to a 3rd world status and could arrive there sometime this century. An old adage goes, "if you want to cook a frog, don't toss him into a pot of boiling water, he'll jump out, BUT if you put him in a pot of cold water and turn the heat up slowly, he'll boil to death before he realizes he's even being cooked". That's us...little frogs, ever so gently getting the heat turned up from all directions by corporations and their paid lobbyist (our legislators) in Washington. Most people, who do not pay attention to politics (the majority of this country), go about their daily lives seeing bad things happening to OTHER people. They think: "not me, never me". They are complacent because the heat is being turned up so slowly that it doesn't hurt yet. By the time the pain becomes unbearable and they realize what is happening, it will be to late.
Corporations care about one thing... PROFIT! They will be patriotic and wave the red, white, and blue only as long as there is a dollar to be made. They will move an entire corporation overseas if they can make two dollars instead of one. Pure Greed. Throwing thousands of people out of work because each middle class American costs a few dollars more and decreases their bottom line. They don't seem to realize (or care) that they are cutting off the hand that feeds them, by firing workers whose middle class salaries allow them to buy their products. They will do anything for more and more profits.
The American people need to wake up soon and join the fight against corporate greed and to preserve our way of life. We're all in this together people. We either help each other get the message out, OR THEY WIN, and just like the little frog...we're all cooked.
Selling America
America is being sold piece by piece. Much of our Federal and State infrastructure is now owned by foreign governments and multi-national corporations so that they can turn around and make a profit off of Americans using them. America has become little more than a flea market for the rest of the world, who are awash with American dollars because of the "unregulated" free-trade policies of the Republican party.
Below the fold is an Article written by Thom Hartmann in 2006. I was going to write a diary myself on this subject, but found this article that says it better than I ever could. I have included it in it's entirety. I take no credit for anything Mr. Hartmann wrote, but I DO completely agree with this well written article and his sentiments.
Here is the original article
Published on Monday, February 27, 2006 by CommonDreams.org
When Americans No Longer Own America
by Thom Hartmann
The Dubai Ports World deal is waking Americans up to a painful reality: So-called "conservatives" and "flat world" globalists have bankrupted our nation for their own bag of silver, and in the process are selling off America.
Through a combination of the "Fast Track" authority pushed for by Reagan and GHW Bush, sweetheart trade deals involving "most favored nation status" for dictatorships like China, and Clinton pushing us into NAFTA and the WTO (via GATT), we've abandoned the principles of tariff-based trade that built American industry and kept us strong for over 200 years.
The old concept was that if there was a dollar's worth of labor in a pair of shoes made in the USA, and somebody wanted to import shoes from China where there may only be ten cents worth of labor in those shoes, we'd level the playing field for labor by putting a 90-cent import tariff on each pair of shoes. Companies could choose to make their products here or overseas, but the ultimate cost of labor would be the same.
Then came the flat-worlders, led by misguided true believers and promoted by multinational corporations. Do away with those tariffs, they said, because they "restrain trade." Let everything in, and tax nothing. The result has been an explosion of cheap goods coming into our nation, and the loss of millions of good manufacturing jobs and thousands of manufacturing companies. Entire industry sectors have been wiped out.
These policies have kneecapped the American middle class. Our nation's largest employer has gone from being the unionized General Motors to the poverty-wages Wal-Mart. Americans have gone from having a net savings rate around 10 percent in the 1970s to a minus .5 percent in 2005 - meaning that they're going into debt or selling off their assets just to maintain their lifestyle.
At the same time, federal policy has been to do the same thing at a national level. Because our so-called "free trade" policies have left us with an over $700 billion annual trade deficit, other countries are sitting on huge piles of the dollars we gave them to buy their stuff (via Wal-Mart and other "low cost" retailers). But we no longer manufacture anything they want to buy with those dollars.
So instead of buying our manufactured goods, they are doing what we used to do with Third World nations - they are buying us, the USA, chunk by chunk. In particular, they want to buy things in America that will continue to produce profits, and then to take those profits overseas where they're invested to make other nations strong. The "things" they're buying are, by and large, corporations, utilities, and natural resources.
Back in the pre-Reagan days, American companies made profits that were distributed among Americans. They used their profits to build more factories, or diversify into other businesses. The profits stayed in America.
Today, foreigners awash with our consumer dollars are on a two-decades-long buying spree. The UK's BP bought Amoco for $48 billion - now Amoco's profits go to England. Deutsche Telekom bought VoiceStream Wireless, so their profits go to Germany, which is where most of the profits from Random House, Allied Signal, Chrysler, Doubleday, Cyprus Amax's US Coal Mining Operations, GTE/Sylvania, and Westinghouse's Power Generation profits go as well. Ralston Purina's profits go to Switzerland, along with Gerber's; TransAmerica's profits go to The Netherlands, while John Hancock Insurance's profits go to Canada. Even American Bankers Insurance Group is owned now by Fortis AG in Belgium.
Foreign companies are buying up our water systems, our power generating systems, our mines, and our few remaining factories. All because "flat world" so-called "free trade" policies have turned us from a nation of wealthy producers into a nation of indebted consumers, leaving the world awash in dollars that are most easily used to buy off big chunks of America. As http://www.economyincrisis.org/ notes, US Government statistics indicate the following percentages of foreign ownership of American industry:
• Sound recording industries - 97%
• Commodity contracts dealing and brokerage - 79%
• Motion picture and sound recording industries - 75%
• Metal ore mining - 65%
• Motion picture and video industries - 64%
• Wineries and distilleries - 64%
• Database, directory, and other publishers - 63%
• Book publishers - 63%
• Cement, concrete, lime, and gypsum product - 62%
• Engine, turbine and power transmission equipment - 57%
• Rubber product - 53%
• Nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing - 53%
• Plastics and rubber products manufacturing - 52%
• Plastics product - 51%
• Other insurance related activities - 51%
• Boiler, tank, and shipping container - 50%
• Glass and glass product - 48%
• Coal mining - 48%
• Sugar and confectionery product - 48%
• Nonmetallic mineral mining and quarrying - 47%
• Advertising and related services - 41%
• Pharmaceutical and medicine - 40%
• Clay, refractory, and other nonmetallic mineral products - 40%
• Securities brokerage - 38%
• Other general purpose machinery - 37%
• Audio and video equipment mfg and reproducing magnetic and optical media - 36%
• Support activities for mining - 36%
• Soap, cleaning compound, and toilet preparation - 32%
• Chemical manufacturing - 30%
• Industrial machinery - 30%
• Securities, commodity contracts, and other financial investments and related activities - 30%
• Other food - 29%
• Motor vehicles and parts - 29%
• Machinery manufacturing - 28%
• Other electrical equipment and component - 28%
• Securities and commodity exchanges and other financial investment activities - 27%
• Architectural, engineering, and related services - 26%
• Credit card issuing and other consumer credit - 26%
• Petroleum refineries (including integrated) - 25%
• Navigational, measuring, electromedical, and control instruments - 25%
• Petroleum and coal products manufacturing - 25%
• Transportation equipment manufacturing - 25%
• Commercial and service industry machinery - 25%
• Basic chemical - 24%
• Investment banking and securities dealing - 24%
• Semiconductor and other electronic component - 23%
• Paint, coating, and adhesive - 22%
• Printing and related support activities - 21%
• Chemical product and preparation - 20%
• Iron, steel mills, and steel products - 20%
• Agriculture, construction, and mining machinery - 20%
• Publishing industries - 20%
• Medical equipment and supplies - 20%
Thus it shouldn't surprise us that the cons have sold off our ports as well, and will defend it to the bitter end. They truly believe that a "New World Order" with multinational corporations in charge instead of sovereign governments will be the answer to the problem of world instability. And therefore they must do away with quaint things like unions, a healthy middle class, and, ultimately, democracy.
The "security" implications of turning our ports over to the UAE are just the latest nail in what the cons hope will be the coffin of American democracy and the American middle class. Today's conservatives believe in rule by inherited wealth and an internationalist corporate elite, and things like a politically aroused citizenry and a healthy democracy are pesky distractions.
Everything today is driven by profits for multinationals, supported by the lawmaking power of the WTO. Thus, parts for our missiles are now made in China, a country that last year threatened us with nuclear weapons. Our oil comes from a country that birthed a Wahabist movement that ultimately led to 14 Saudi citizens flying jetliners into the World Trade buildings and the Pentagon. Germans now own the Chrysler auto assembly lines that turned out tanks to use against Germany in WWII. And the price of labor in America is being held down by over ten million illegal workers, a situation that was impossible twenty-five years ago when unions were the first bulwark against dilution of the American labor force.
When Thomas Jefferson wrote of King George III in the Declaration of Independence, "He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitutions and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation..." he just as easily could have been writing of the World Trade Organization, which now has the legal authority to force the United States to overturn laws passed at both local, state, and federal levels with dictates devised by tribunals made up of representatives of multinational corporations. If Dubai loses in the American Congress, their next stop will almost certainly be the WTO.
As Simon Romero and Heather Timmons noted in New York Times on 24 February 2006, "the international shipping business has evolved in recent years to include many more containers with consumer goods, in addition to old-fashioned bulk commodities, and that has helped lift profit margins to 30 percent, from the single digits. These smartly managed foreign operators now manage about 80 percent of port terminals in the United States."
And those 30 percent profits from American port operations now going to Great Britain will probably soon go to the United Arab Emirates, a nation with tight interconnections to both the Bush administration and the Bush family.
Ultimately, it's not about security -- it's about money. In the multinational corporatocracy's "flat world," money trumps the national good, community concerns, labor interests, and the environment. NAFTA, CAFTA, and WTO tribunals can - and regularly do - strike down local and national laws. Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man" are replaced by Antonin Scalia's "Rights of Corporate Persons."
Profits even trump the desire for good enough port security to avoid disasters that may lead to war. After all, as Judith Miller wrote in The New York Times on January 30, 1991, quoting a local in Saudi Arabia: "War is good for business."
============================
Thom Hartmann is a Project Censored Award-winning best-selling author of over a dozen books and the host of a nationally syndicated noon-3pm ET daily progressive talk show syndicated by Air America Radio. www.thomhartmann.com His most recent books are "What Would Jefferson Do?" and Ultimate Sacrifice.
America is being sold piece by piece because we don't have the money to support our lifestyle. There is not nearly enough tax revenue coming in to pay for the things we need. The FDA has been cut so much that it can't stop poisonous food, toys, and other products from coming into our country. Homeland security is a joke because there isn't nearly enough money to properly fund its mission. The FED has allowed the dollar and financial institutions to collapse because they didn't want to spend the money needed to regulate their activity. Our infrastructure is crumbling all around us because states just don't have the money to repair it. This goes on and on, agency after agency, cutbacks so that Americans are left to the whims of corporate crooks and multi-national corporations.
Bush has decided that corporations will police themselves and "do the right thing". Free Trade is free for everyone except the American people. Hard working Americans are paying for it daily. No matter how hard we work we will never be able to compete with cheap foreign labor. It has been shown time and time again that corporations care about only one thing: profit. So what if American's homes are taken, American kids go hungry or, as in the case of Iraq, die in the process. There was a buck to be made.
We have been programmed to spend in excess of what we earn. On a national scale, that amounts to deficit spending. IT CAN NOT CONTINUE. The national debt limit has just been raised to over $10 TRILLION. We've borrowed all the excess SS revenue for over 50 years just to prop up our economy. Since Bush came to office, we have escalated the amount we are also borrowing from foreign countries, both friend and foe alike. If we continue to borrow, the dollar will continue to drop. Sooner or later, those we are borrowing money from will have no choice but to say, NO MORE.
This increase brings the debt ceiling to $10.6 trillion, and that is equivalent to about 75% of America's gross domestic product. This will probably devalue the dollar as America becomes a more risky place for investment
The sad part is, WE CAN NOT STOP BORROWING. If we stopped tomorrow, the economy would collapse. It is just a matter of time anyway. Our government is trying to shore up an economic house of cards. Unfortunately it is built upon a pit of quick sand. Therefore regardless of what they do to help the current economy, it will continue to get worse unless drastic action is taken. It may be too late already.
In 2014 the excess SS funds go away and the system will be at parity. After that date the money needed to pay retiree benefits will have to come from an already under funded general fund. That will mean even less funds for education, military, social programs, infrastructure, government agencies and all other things our government spends money on.
Just like a cough may be a symptom of a cold, selling off our infrastructure is just a symptom of this much larger economic problem.
============================
I will include a link to a diary I wrote along similar lines on Corporate Greed and as usual a link to my diary on our economic future
Below the fold is an Article written by Thom Hartmann in 2006. I was going to write a diary myself on this subject, but found this article that says it better than I ever could. I have included it in it's entirety. I take no credit for anything Mr. Hartmann wrote, but I DO completely agree with this well written article and his sentiments.
Here is the original article
Published on Monday, February 27, 2006 by CommonDreams.org
When Americans No Longer Own America
by Thom Hartmann
The Dubai Ports World deal is waking Americans up to a painful reality: So-called "conservatives" and "flat world" globalists have bankrupted our nation for their own bag of silver, and in the process are selling off America.
Through a combination of the "Fast Track" authority pushed for by Reagan and GHW Bush, sweetheart trade deals involving "most favored nation status" for dictatorships like China, and Clinton pushing us into NAFTA and the WTO (via GATT), we've abandoned the principles of tariff-based trade that built American industry and kept us strong for over 200 years.
The old concept was that if there was a dollar's worth of labor in a pair of shoes made in the USA, and somebody wanted to import shoes from China where there may only be ten cents worth of labor in those shoes, we'd level the playing field for labor by putting a 90-cent import tariff on each pair of shoes. Companies could choose to make their products here or overseas, but the ultimate cost of labor would be the same.
Then came the flat-worlders, led by misguided true believers and promoted by multinational corporations. Do away with those tariffs, they said, because they "restrain trade." Let everything in, and tax nothing. The result has been an explosion of cheap goods coming into our nation, and the loss of millions of good manufacturing jobs and thousands of manufacturing companies. Entire industry sectors have been wiped out.
These policies have kneecapped the American middle class. Our nation's largest employer has gone from being the unionized General Motors to the poverty-wages Wal-Mart. Americans have gone from having a net savings rate around 10 percent in the 1970s to a minus .5 percent in 2005 - meaning that they're going into debt or selling off their assets just to maintain their lifestyle.
At the same time, federal policy has been to do the same thing at a national level. Because our so-called "free trade" policies have left us with an over $700 billion annual trade deficit, other countries are sitting on huge piles of the dollars we gave them to buy their stuff (via Wal-Mart and other "low cost" retailers). But we no longer manufacture anything they want to buy with those dollars.
So instead of buying our manufactured goods, they are doing what we used to do with Third World nations - they are buying us, the USA, chunk by chunk. In particular, they want to buy things in America that will continue to produce profits, and then to take those profits overseas where they're invested to make other nations strong. The "things" they're buying are, by and large, corporations, utilities, and natural resources.
Back in the pre-Reagan days, American companies made profits that were distributed among Americans. They used their profits to build more factories, or diversify into other businesses. The profits stayed in America.
Today, foreigners awash with our consumer dollars are on a two-decades-long buying spree. The UK's BP bought Amoco for $48 billion - now Amoco's profits go to England. Deutsche Telekom bought VoiceStream Wireless, so their profits go to Germany, which is where most of the profits from Random House, Allied Signal, Chrysler, Doubleday, Cyprus Amax's US Coal Mining Operations, GTE/Sylvania, and Westinghouse's Power Generation profits go as well. Ralston Purina's profits go to Switzerland, along with Gerber's; TransAmerica's profits go to The Netherlands, while John Hancock Insurance's profits go to Canada. Even American Bankers Insurance Group is owned now by Fortis AG in Belgium.
Foreign companies are buying up our water systems, our power generating systems, our mines, and our few remaining factories. All because "flat world" so-called "free trade" policies have turned us from a nation of wealthy producers into a nation of indebted consumers, leaving the world awash in dollars that are most easily used to buy off big chunks of America. As http://www.economyincrisis.org/ notes, US Government statistics indicate the following percentages of foreign ownership of American industry:
• Sound recording industries - 97%
• Commodity contracts dealing and brokerage - 79%
• Motion picture and sound recording industries - 75%
• Metal ore mining - 65%
• Motion picture and video industries - 64%
• Wineries and distilleries - 64%
• Database, directory, and other publishers - 63%
• Book publishers - 63%
• Cement, concrete, lime, and gypsum product - 62%
• Engine, turbine and power transmission equipment - 57%
• Rubber product - 53%
• Nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing - 53%
• Plastics and rubber products manufacturing - 52%
• Plastics product - 51%
• Other insurance related activities - 51%
• Boiler, tank, and shipping container - 50%
• Glass and glass product - 48%
• Coal mining - 48%
• Sugar and confectionery product - 48%
• Nonmetallic mineral mining and quarrying - 47%
• Advertising and related services - 41%
• Pharmaceutical and medicine - 40%
• Clay, refractory, and other nonmetallic mineral products - 40%
• Securities brokerage - 38%
• Other general purpose machinery - 37%
• Audio and video equipment mfg and reproducing magnetic and optical media - 36%
• Support activities for mining - 36%
• Soap, cleaning compound, and toilet preparation - 32%
• Chemical manufacturing - 30%
• Industrial machinery - 30%
• Securities, commodity contracts, and other financial investments and related activities - 30%
• Other food - 29%
• Motor vehicles and parts - 29%
• Machinery manufacturing - 28%
• Other electrical equipment and component - 28%
• Securities and commodity exchanges and other financial investment activities - 27%
• Architectural, engineering, and related services - 26%
• Credit card issuing and other consumer credit - 26%
• Petroleum refineries (including integrated) - 25%
• Navigational, measuring, electromedical, and control instruments - 25%
• Petroleum and coal products manufacturing - 25%
• Transportation equipment manufacturing - 25%
• Commercial and service industry machinery - 25%
• Basic chemical - 24%
• Investment banking and securities dealing - 24%
• Semiconductor and other electronic component - 23%
• Paint, coating, and adhesive - 22%
• Printing and related support activities - 21%
• Chemical product and preparation - 20%
• Iron, steel mills, and steel products - 20%
• Agriculture, construction, and mining machinery - 20%
• Publishing industries - 20%
• Medical equipment and supplies - 20%
Thus it shouldn't surprise us that the cons have sold off our ports as well, and will defend it to the bitter end. They truly believe that a "New World Order" with multinational corporations in charge instead of sovereign governments will be the answer to the problem of world instability. And therefore they must do away with quaint things like unions, a healthy middle class, and, ultimately, democracy.
The "security" implications of turning our ports over to the UAE are just the latest nail in what the cons hope will be the coffin of American democracy and the American middle class. Today's conservatives believe in rule by inherited wealth and an internationalist corporate elite, and things like a politically aroused citizenry and a healthy democracy are pesky distractions.
Everything today is driven by profits for multinationals, supported by the lawmaking power of the WTO. Thus, parts for our missiles are now made in China, a country that last year threatened us with nuclear weapons. Our oil comes from a country that birthed a Wahabist movement that ultimately led to 14 Saudi citizens flying jetliners into the World Trade buildings and the Pentagon. Germans now own the Chrysler auto assembly lines that turned out tanks to use against Germany in WWII. And the price of labor in America is being held down by over ten million illegal workers, a situation that was impossible twenty-five years ago when unions were the first bulwark against dilution of the American labor force.
When Thomas Jefferson wrote of King George III in the Declaration of Independence, "He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitutions and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation..." he just as easily could have been writing of the World Trade Organization, which now has the legal authority to force the United States to overturn laws passed at both local, state, and federal levels with dictates devised by tribunals made up of representatives of multinational corporations. If Dubai loses in the American Congress, their next stop will almost certainly be the WTO.
As Simon Romero and Heather Timmons noted in New York Times on 24 February 2006, "the international shipping business has evolved in recent years to include many more containers with consumer goods, in addition to old-fashioned bulk commodities, and that has helped lift profit margins to 30 percent, from the single digits. These smartly managed foreign operators now manage about 80 percent of port terminals in the United States."
And those 30 percent profits from American port operations now going to Great Britain will probably soon go to the United Arab Emirates, a nation with tight interconnections to both the Bush administration and the Bush family.
Ultimately, it's not about security -- it's about money. In the multinational corporatocracy's "flat world," money trumps the national good, community concerns, labor interests, and the environment. NAFTA, CAFTA, and WTO tribunals can - and regularly do - strike down local and national laws. Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man" are replaced by Antonin Scalia's "Rights of Corporate Persons."
Profits even trump the desire for good enough port security to avoid disasters that may lead to war. After all, as Judith Miller wrote in The New York Times on January 30, 1991, quoting a local in Saudi Arabia: "War is good for business."
============================
Thom Hartmann is a Project Censored Award-winning best-selling author of over a dozen books and the host of a nationally syndicated noon-3pm ET daily progressive talk show syndicated by Air America Radio. www.thomhartmann.com His most recent books are "What Would Jefferson Do?" and Ultimate Sacrifice.
America is being sold piece by piece because we don't have the money to support our lifestyle. There is not nearly enough tax revenue coming in to pay for the things we need. The FDA has been cut so much that it can't stop poisonous food, toys, and other products from coming into our country. Homeland security is a joke because there isn't nearly enough money to properly fund its mission. The FED has allowed the dollar and financial institutions to collapse because they didn't want to spend the money needed to regulate their activity. Our infrastructure is crumbling all around us because states just don't have the money to repair it. This goes on and on, agency after agency, cutbacks so that Americans are left to the whims of corporate crooks and multi-national corporations.
Bush has decided that corporations will police themselves and "do the right thing". Free Trade is free for everyone except the American people. Hard working Americans are paying for it daily. No matter how hard we work we will never be able to compete with cheap foreign labor. It has been shown time and time again that corporations care about only one thing: profit. So what if American's homes are taken, American kids go hungry or, as in the case of Iraq, die in the process. There was a buck to be made.
We have been programmed to spend in excess of what we earn. On a national scale, that amounts to deficit spending. IT CAN NOT CONTINUE. The national debt limit has just been raised to over $10 TRILLION. We've borrowed all the excess SS revenue for over 50 years just to prop up our economy. Since Bush came to office, we have escalated the amount we are also borrowing from foreign countries, both friend and foe alike. If we continue to borrow, the dollar will continue to drop. Sooner or later, those we are borrowing money from will have no choice but to say, NO MORE.
This increase brings the debt ceiling to $10.6 trillion, and that is equivalent to about 75% of America's gross domestic product. This will probably devalue the dollar as America becomes a more risky place for investment
The sad part is, WE CAN NOT STOP BORROWING. If we stopped tomorrow, the economy would collapse. It is just a matter of time anyway. Our government is trying to shore up an economic house of cards. Unfortunately it is built upon a pit of quick sand. Therefore regardless of what they do to help the current economy, it will continue to get worse unless drastic action is taken. It may be too late already.
In 2014 the excess SS funds go away and the system will be at parity. After that date the money needed to pay retiree benefits will have to come from an already under funded general fund. That will mean even less funds for education, military, social programs, infrastructure, government agencies and all other things our government spends money on.
Just like a cough may be a symptom of a cold, selling off our infrastructure is just a symptom of this much larger economic problem.
============================
I will include a link to a diary I wrote along similar lines on Corporate Greed and as usual a link to my diary on our economic future
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