Well worth a read!

Taken from a discussion of "Will the government have to absolve everyone's debts?"

He really sums up what's going on with the USA -- and not just in the economy!


In my own personal case, my debts amount to about 2% of my net worth, so I do not posit this hypothesis in hopes of a personal debt absolution. In fact, I would be one of those who would benefit least. On a purely emotional level, yes, I am also inclined to say, "Let the debt speculators go to hell." But I have learned in my older age to subsume my emotional fever to rational objectives.

So, yes, debt amnesty would be unfair to those who acted responsibly and avoided debts.....but guess what, the pyramid of debt is systemic, insofar as the largest debtor of all happens to be the USA itself, and that means that those "debt-free" Americans who hold mostly US dollars are, ipso facto, indebted to a variety of CREDITOR nations, and that effectively means ALL Americans are in debt...the US dollar itself is technically bankrupt, it is no more than a DEBT instrument backed by the increasingly questionable "good faith" of the US government, so just because you have a current personal net worth indicating zero-debts (on a micro level), the sad reality is that on an international macro level, you are badly in debt, and owe monies to Arab oil states, China, etc. To put it in a nutshell, if you are an American holding mostly US dollar instruments, you are by any international standard, highly in debt and effectively bankrupt. If you wish to call the debt of your highly speculative, high debt American "brothers and sisters," well, guess what, there are internationals who wish to call your US dollar debt too.

So those who imagine that their "no-debt" status in terms of their USA micro-affairs will save them as the society's economy (and the entire world economy) implodes, well, they are dreaming.

The analogy I have drawn is that the no-debt types are the ones who have obtained the nicest deck chairs on the upper levels of the USA Titanic. At the moment, they suffer the least, and they are in a position to acquire distress sales from the high debt types. But in a society that is overwhelmed by a pyramid of debt, the implosion will ultimately take EVERYBODY down.

We no longer live in a society of polite civilized beings. It is a society of self-entitlement, one in which most generations have never made any notable lifestyle sacrifice for the common good. That means in an environment of true economic hardship, those without will take up arms against those who have. Unlike their grand-parents during the Great Depression, they will not stand politely in soup lines waiting their turn to be fed. They will take what they need from those they believe have "ripped them off" and they will take it whenever they feel they must.

Economic historical determinism will be validated again as certain minorities face persecution for the economic woes of the many.

You see, America is not merely undergoing an economic implosion....it is undergoing FOUR types of simultaneous implosions, all of which are acting in synergy upon each other. You cannot truly solve one form of implosion without simultaneously resolving the others, as follows:

1. Economic Implosion -- we can all see that one clearly, so no need for further explication.

2. Cultural Implosion -- since allowing the USA advertisers to seize full control of USA culture, this has resulted in lowest common denominator entertainment aimed toward selling product as a primary goal. For example, look at the music world and consider the predominance of rap-hiphop music, whose chief feature is the promotion of bling-bling ( buy five houses, buy five cars, buy cartier, buy gucci, buy mink bedspreads, chase high consumption trophy women, buy, buy, buy, buy!!!!). The net result: the advertisers could care less if lyrics are literate, they could care less if the music transcends the juvenile, the only thing that matters is the selling of products to the greatest number of people, and that means lowering the standards of music to reach the sub-literate fellow on the street. This diminution of cultural standards can be extrapolated to ALL entertainment industries, including film, sports, video-games, theater, etc.

3. Environmental Implosion -- by allowing a corrupted free market to erect one monopoly after another, one cartel after another, one oligopoly after another, the net result is that the externalities created by commerce in the area of environmental pollution can no longer be "judged" by the market. The monopolies, oligopolies, cartels, etc. simply have too much market power and they use their enormous political clout to preclude rational decisions being made in the area of environmental protection. Under Keynesian economics, environmental pollution is considered a COST of doing business, and when that cost becomes too high, the normal free market would require a corporation reduce that cost. Unfortunately, this rarely happens anymore, since monopolies, oligopolies, cartels, and corrupted politicos regularly use their muscle to allow inadequate products to continue to hold dominion in the marketplace. For example, it is far past time to replace the gas-guzzling, high pollution automobile, but it is difficult to do so when faced with the opposition of oligopolies in the area of OIL, OPEC, AUTOS, AUTO PARTS, etc. The electric car was viable years ago, but faced strong opposition from the oil industry, the oil-producing creditor nations, the auto industry, the auto parts industry, etc. These corrupted elites colluded to kill the electric car, instead foisting a far inferior hybrid gasoline automotive concept as an alternative solution.

4. Infrastructural Implosion -- once again, via free market distortions created by financial elites, the infrastructure of the nation is falling apart. When I speak of deteriorating infrastructure, I am speaking of roads, bridges, sewage treatment, water pumping facilities, waste storage facilities, oil refineries, hydro-electric facilities, fire-stations, burn wards, nursing schools, high schools, police equipment, soldier barracks, etc., etc. Again, the nation's infrastructure constitutes an externality within the context of free commerce. As per Keynesian economics, in theory, as the infrastructure deteriorates, that represents a cost of doing business, and a truly free market would begin to address those costs as they mount. Yet, once again, monopolies, oligopolies, cartels, and corrupted politicos preclude the market from doing what it would normally do. No better example than the massive infrastructural deterioration suffered during the Clinton presidency. During the rigging of the tech bubble by corrupted financial/political elites, under the direction of Goldman Sachs proxy, Robert Rubin, for almost FIVE years, the nation's capital was directed towards the creation of every conceivable dot.com, most of which created ZERO true wealth, even as the nation's infrastructure could not obtain any notable capital investment. Why? Because at that time, it made far more sense to invest monies in the.Globe.com, CMGI, Priceline, etc, yielding 300%-500% returns, versus key infrastructure projects that yielded an average 3%-5% returns. Once again, the abrogation of free market dynamics resulted in gross mal-appropriation of capital -- and today we see the net result.

Until these four synergistic societal implosions are terminated, then we are witness to the final phase in the decline of the USA empire. Although it may seem far too late to halt the chronic deterioration, I believe that anything is possible, it starts with YOU, and requires a "one brick at a time" approach. It is far past time to raise your voice and insist that changes be made.

For example, in the area of music addressed previously, you should turn your back on consumerist music featuring vacuous cheesecake artists and embrace protest artists who are trying to raise societal awareness. Let the record companies know that if they wish to purvey the same mindless consumerist rot, you are NOT buying any longer.

Or for example, in the area of environment, you should make it clear that you only wish to purchase environment-friendly products. Let corporations who make products that undermine the environment know that you will not purchase them, write letters to their CEO's, speak up at shareholder meetings, and protest vigorously. With respect to gold mining, you should let CEO's know in categorical terms that you are NOT supportive of cyanide leaching, and would prefer they utilize other methods, whenever possible, or you will invest in other more environmentally-friendly gold mines instead.

Or for example, in the area of infrastructure, you should make it clear that you want corporations to pay their proper taxes for purposes of maintaining infrastructure, rather than utilizing various offshore tax havens to avoid doing so. You must insist on RADICAL tax reform as pertains to offshore tax havens for the corporate elites, whereby they constantly avoid taxes required to sustain the nation's fast deteriorating infrastructure. Again, these corporate monopolies and cartels use their clout with corrupted politicos to enable this MASSIVE tax avoidance, such that in many cases middle income families pay far more tax (in percentage terms) than various USA based multinationals, utilizing their offshore tax havens in the Netherand Antilles, Cayman Islands, etc. Until the offshore tax haven is terminated entirely, then there is very little hope for infrastructural improvements in the nation.

Things can be turned around but, in order to do so, it requires a much higher consciousness on the part of the public. Be a part of the solution, not the problem.