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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
-- what the economy is for. Maximizing production-consumption may be the holy grail for the ruling class, but it doesn't have much to do with needs and desires of the rest of the people.
Good article, good editorial picks. Interesting dichotomy of positions on the vital issue of survival.
I remember my first sociology course. We were taught the the purpose-reason-GOAL of a society is to provide for the continuing safety and survival of the society-clan-tribe-nation--that is its members, their food, shelter, and birth to death rituals.
Some call that socialism and communism--the roots of which mean society and community, communication, and other idealistic, non practical forgotten concepts.
Oh, and to depend on "government" within the current concept of power--he who owns the capital gets to choose the ruler-- is a caution.
The only problem is that Uncle Sam's checkbook is paid for by all the hard work of all of us poor souls you guys so obviously hate. Uncle Sam doesn't have any money and the checking account is overdrawn. Obviously, somebody needs a refresher on basic economics: people have to work to earn the money to pay for the stuff to buy things. If you buy more stuff than you can afford you eventually go bankrupt or have to give the stuff back, or you have to start cutting back on your spending -- buy cheaper things, buy less things, etc. Ordinary people do this all the time and soon Uncle Sam will have to do it, too. And people who have been conditioned to depend on Uncle Sam will have to learn to start taking care of themselves rather than on the government because the government doesn't have unlimited resources. You noted that people were out of work. Question: How does an increasing unemployed citizenry provide a financial base for the government to provide programs and services? Where does the money come from?
O.K.,I'll play devils advocate and tell my repersentive and senator in washington to go ahead and strike every American a check for your $1333.00 to get America jump started. If you REALLY want to get America going do this... seeing that Washington is about to get into the automobile business lets do something REALLY CRAZY!!! First give the big 3 their bailout with a few conditions. My estimations say the average new car or truck cost about $22,000.00 give or take a thousand or two. Our congress and senate must require the big 3 to go along with a this idea. The government would issue a $5000.00 dollar rebate check to any American who buys an AMERICAN MADE BIG 3 PRODUCT. The BIG 3 would match that $5000.00 amount with a rebate of their own. Now the cost of that average just droped to $12,000.00!!! Then tell the financial people we just bailed out to the tune of 75 billion dollars to belly up to the bar and issue credit for these car loans!!! First of all the bloated lots full of cars and trucks not selling would soon empty out. Then the BIG 3 would have to bring back laid off employees to build more cars and trucks. Not the same old tired stuff Detroit has pushed off on us for years, but new cars and trucks with NEW TECHNOLOGY to promote hybrids and electric cars and trucks! Ecology friendly cars and trucks that will make forgein autos a thing of the past, and make us the USA the leader that they must follow to survive. And to make this work we must start to bring our jobs back to America and lets put the Japs, Koreans, Chinese, and India on the unemployment line!!! You greedy businesses MUST do your part by coming home to America with the jobs you took to there foriegners to save a buck outta GREED. And the workers and unions MUST AGREE to a REASONALBE WAGE, not robbery when it comes to wages and benifits! THIS IS NOT AN OPTION. The survival of America depends on it. Otherwise we'll start to become a third world country with more slums, starvation, and welfare than the poorest Mexican slums. Think about it, cause time is running out.
"They believe having gold is the same as having your own personal currency. When people lose faith in public money, they are not going to swap into personal money. Although the barter system was viable in the last Depression, the ruination of public money is only beginning to take hold of the public mind. The solution is not personal money. Repeat, only creating a sound public money, backed by gold, will repair the damage.
-- aveutter"
But our reserves are backed by nearly eighty percent (80%)in gold, so why should we worry?
Americans have been spending like warp speed for so long and haven't stopped yet to figure out they don't need have the crap they buy.
For over 20 years the joke's been on us. Keep those cheap foreign made pieces of junk flowing so we don't notice that our earnings have not been increasing. Hey, when you can buy cheap stuff at the Dollar Store you don't need a raise, do you?
There is no way out of this without serious crashing on mulitple levels. It's not in Americans' best interest to keep purchasing like there's no tomorrow. And there's been little incentive to save money - no, I don't mean with coupons. I mean putting it away and not using it to buy things with.
I don't know the exact facts but I would guess that 80% of all Americans are one paycheck away from disaster.
Unique in the multiverses is that American society is the only one that derives its sense of security from shopping. From a philosophical stand point this is extremely shallow. Depending on external phenomena for security is a can't win solution because; it requires that the society be forged into a society of NARCISSISTIC-CONSUMERIST-GLUTTON and because it is built on credit, the money changers which history has nothing kind to say about. In fact history warns about the corruption the money changers creates.It doesn't take genius to realize that the USA which manufactures paper by and for the money changers as its primary economic policy is not enduring, successful strategy and doomed to fail in the long run. Security is achieved by internal processes not external phenomena.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
