Too late. Free market capitalism was murdered decades ago. What the US has now is Corporatism (aka fascism). Big Money stacks the political deck to their own advantage so that the natural laws of free market capitalism don't work.
I'm certainly no Republican, nor a Democrat for that matter.
But concerning who's "pulling America down", that's been a bi-partisan effort all along.
The real fallacy is to imagine that politicians of either party are actually trying to make things better.
In truth they are looting the economy, stealing the wealth of the nation for their own benefit. And big costly projects such as wars, Obama-care, bailouts, stimulus, etc. are just the means toward that end.
Wealth disappears from the middle class and trickles up to the rich industrialists who make the weapons, or the fat cat bankers and politicians who run the boondoggle programs.
Perhaps, but the rules of engagement have been changing, as well as the training that officers receive. In the past lethal force was a last resort. Nowadays it's not. The standard now is, if you think there might be a danger, shoot to kill.
And even though there are strict procedures, police are seldom ever held accountable for killings even when they violate the procedures. The only exceptions are when there is too much public outrage.
It also includes corruption and theft by the government.
I think that in the term "balancing the budget" the US is uses the verb "balance" in it's French sense. To "balance" something means to "throw it away".
The government funded 10 dollar tomato. condensed from an article by Frank S. Rosenbloom, M.D.
How could we end up with a $10 tomato?
The price of tomatoes, and other commodities are kept fairly low by open free-market competition.
However, there is one way that we could see a $10 tomato...if we get government involved in the food industry.
First, the government could start a food insurance system to help retired people afford groceries. This system would also be utilized by wealthy retired people, even by those who owned grocery stores and tomato farms. It could also be used by persons who were disabled; and a similar but separate system could be initiated for people who fall below a certain income level. Each system would require a nationwide army of government bureaucrats to administer all the paperwork.
The government would have lists to detail which groceries were applicable and which were not. Perhaps there would be only one type of tomato offered to individuals on the Government grocery plan.
Of course, we have to get much more complicated than this. Let's continue by prohibiting retired people from purchasing food outside this system. Then, we charge them a monthly premium for the privilege of using the authorized stores.
Meanwhile the rest of us, not eligible for the system would pay a federal grocery tax, the government telling us that we are paying for our future grocery rights when we retire. The groceries we will use in the future are not even seeds yet, but we've heard this before.
Complex paperwork would be required to enroll in this system and even more would be needed any time someone went shopping, including detailed pre-authorization before placing any groceries into the cart. Several additional store employees would be needed just to handle the red tape.
Retired or poor shoppers would not pay for their tomatoes at the time of purchase. The store would instead have to bill a government agency, "Foodicare", for the products that the shopper "purchased". In many instances a month or two later the store would receive a statement, called an "explanation of grocery benefits" which would explain why the tomatoes in question did not fit the requirements for government-subsidized tomatoes and payment would be denied. Of course, the customer has already eaten the tomatoes and the store would be left holding the bag. Soon all the stores would have to write off substantial losses.
To offset such losses, stores would buy private insurance to ensure payment of tomatoes, thus giving incentive for the stores to raise tomato prices. The government would be all for this, as it would not only hide the problems regarding the tomato system, but it would also ensure that other people who previously actually paid for their tomatoes would be primed and ready for government sponsored tomatoes once they hit the age of 65.
That, my friends is how you would see a $10 tomato.
But, even the Obama administration has not been so stupid as to become involved in the grocery business -- yet.
Don't know who you're addressing, but I'll respond.
It doesn't matter what you call it. There's nothing affordable about it.
The US is many many trillions of dollars in debt, not just the official 14 trillion of foreign debt already due. The greatest debt is to US citizens for retirement and other entitlements that will be coming due more and more in the near future.
And the US is not in any way gaining on the debt. It's still running a deficit budget. That's the problem. Obama is spending more than any president ever before him.
As for Obama-care, it is ridiculous to imagine that the government is somehow going to finance anything. It can't. It's broke, and in debt.
All of the money will come from taxpayers, and with high unemployment and record numbers living on unemployment or welfare, there are relatively few taxpayers.
To build his healthcare package Obama slashed Medicare and Medicade, ( programs that worked). Meanwhile he's raising taxes on everybody who works and forcing all employees to buy into his scam at great cost. And what's more he's delaying the start of any benefits for a couple of years. People are paying into the system but can't get any benefits from it. Meanwhile he's massively inflating the currency so that with each passing day the money is worth less.
It's as though he has forced the entire nation to lend him money for a couple of years, and when the time comes for him to start repaying the money it will be worth a lot less. The difference in value having been transferred to the government as they spent all the new un-backed dollars they are printing up by the trillions. Not to mention that all the costs of the massive inefficient and corrupt bureaucracy will be taken out of the healthcare kitty as well.
At best insurance is a sort of Ponzi scheme. Government run insurance is more like a mafia protection racket. And Obama-care is downright Stalinesque mass robbery and genocide.
We are going to see people starving in the US, and being denied the bare essentials of survival, let alone quality health care. Despite all his posturing, in the end Obama and his supporters will get the blame for all the misery they cause. Like with Stalin.
The reason marijuana is illegal is not due to concern for public health. It's due to the profitability of having a monopoly on the trafficking of a popular but prohibited substance.
The CIA imports Cocaine. The Mafia imports Heroin. The Border Patrol imports Marijuana. The motorcycle gangs manufacture Speed.
All law enforcement agencies have individuals who are (unofficially) on the take.
It's all about making a lot of tax-free money. Nothing else even enters into the equation.
The cheapest healthcare plan is no healthcare plan at all. Let people pay their own health costs. They know they will get no help so they save money for a rainy day. When they have to pay they pay only the cost of the actual medical care they get.
When there is private health insurance the cost of healthcare is a lot more expensive. The cost includes not only the actual medical care but also the insurance company with all its well paid executives and staff, its buildings, cars, parties, etc etc, and of course all the shareholders who do nothing at all as far as healthcare or even administration of claims, but who get hefty dividends and bonuses.
All of the money still comes from the poor policy holder, but he has to pay a lot more, whether he gets sick or not.
The worst case scenario is when the government sets up a monopoly and takes over the insurance business. Not only is the government twice as wasteful and corrupt as private enterprise, it is also immune from prosecution when it cheats people. You can't fight City Hall and you sure can't fight the federal government either. They tell you what they are willing to give you and there is nothing in the world you can do about it.
Anybody who thinks Obama-care is going to provide health care is an idiot. It's a parasite system that will tax people more than they've ever been taxed. And it will certainly provide a lot less real care and will cost people a lot more money.
If you're driving through the city With your baby by your side on your way to do some errands or just going for a ride and you're suddenly confronted by a band of plainclothes men pointing pistols and machine guns at you and your next of kin There's no call to get excited There's no reason for alarm They're just friendly secret service They don't mean you any harm Just relax and cut the engine smile, but keep your hands in view lest your movement be mistaken and they open fire on you
Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told Fox News that investigators believed Carey suffered "serious" mental issues and that President Obama was trying to communicate with her through radio waves.
Valarie Carey questioned the characterizations of her sister's deteriorating mental health and said Miriam Carey "did not believe the president or any government official was going to do her harm.".... a TV cameraman showed police pointing firearms at her car before she rammed a Secret Service vehicle and continued driving.
What in the world does the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee or the unnamed "investigators" know about this dead woman's mental state? Would they know more than her sister whom she had just seen?
This is typical of the way patsies are demonized, accused of insanity or terrorist connections, etc. Works especially well if the subject has been killed because they aren't around to contradict the claims or prove themselves to be normal and sane.
What if the cops were simply told the car was a terror suspect, they drew their guns on her and, fearing for her life and the life of her daughter, she then tried frantically to get away?
The debt crisis didn't begin in 2010 or 2008, it began back in the 1960s when the fed first started printing up un-backed federal reserve notes to finance the Vietnam war. Then Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard in 1968 and since then it's been total insanity. Even as a preteen I knew it was insane to run a deficit budget amassing more and more debt every year.
Now about last May when the debt ceiling was breached, We didn't "put in a little more to avoid running out of funds..." The US is broke and trillions of dollars in debt. It has nothing to "put in". The correct term is "borrowed". We sold more treasury notes to foreign nations. Money that will have to be paid back to those nations with interest. And all we are really able to pay is the interest payments. Forget the actual debt. That's hopeless. The default that we are facing now is that we can't even pay the interest. And if we default on the interest there will be no more credit coming in at all. They'll print more and more paper money and the dollar will crash to the point that other countries won't even take it at any price. Then it won't be a case of shutting down memorials in Washington, it will be shutting down the entire US economy. Absolute chaos.
This is no recent crisis. Nor is there any hope of a "recovery" for a long long time.
The US standard of living will have to fall down to the level of China and India before US industry can even begin to compete.
The danged quote function messed up again. My post above should have appeared like this.
bungallow55:Last evening watching Nightly News, I saw this report; a congress-man (R) was picking-up on this female park ranger in DC. This congress-man said to her; " you should be ashamed", she replied, " no sir, I'm not ashamed". This Republican said in public that he is in favor of the shutdown. But there he was, playing dirty politics for national TV, and putting the blame on the park ranger.
What a hipocrite!
I don't care for politicians of either party. But to be fair in this instance we don't know what the conversation was about prior to the start of the video. We have only the commentators interpretation and if there is any group more skilled at spinning lies than politicians it is the corporate news media.
The issue at hand is certainly not Congress not wanting to pass a budget. Nor did Congress "vote" to close down the government. It's the administration that has overspent the budget. Congress is simply refusing to allow the administration to ignore its legal and moral responsibility to limit spending.
Personally I applaud those members of Congress who are trying to stop the insane spending. I don't think they'll have much success but at least they are trying.
It's not closing down the memorials in Washington that's going to save any money. But closing down 5 or 6 hundred military bases and cancelling the production of new nukes and missiles and drones would make a big difference.
I don't care for politicians of either party. But to be fair in this instance we don't know what the conversation was about prior to the start of the video. We have only the commentators interpretation and if there is any group more skilled at spinning lies than politicians it is the corporate news media.
The issue at hand is certainly not Congress not wanting to pass a budget. Nor did Congress "vote" to close down the government. It's the administration that has overspent the budget. Congress is simply refusing to allow the administration to ignore its legal and moral responsibility to limit spending.
Personally I applaud those members of Congress who are trying to stop the insane spending. I don't think they'll have much success but at least they are trying.
It's not closing down the memorials in Washington that's going to save any money. But closing down 5 or 6 hundred military bases and cancelling the production of new nukes and missiles and drones would make a big difference.
It had to happen sooner or later. There's never been a debt that was greater. The deficit bubble is bursting now. They cannot avoid it, no way, no how. They must either slash spending across the board, And cut down the budget to what they can afford. Or else print more dollars but knowing full well that the currency's value will fall down the well. Whichever they do, the result is the same. It's the end of the US hegemony game.
My guess is that they'll just quietly stop buying treasury bonds without any sort of announcement or fanfare. The dollar will start to crash immediately and the US will come begging. After that China will be writing all US policy.
RayfromUSA Forum Posts (6,611)
RE: Which is superior?
Too late. Free market capitalism was murdered decades ago. What the US has now is Corporatism (aka fascism). Big Money stacks the political deck to their own advantage so that the natural laws of free market capitalism don't work.