Tuesday, July 19, 2011

More Political Crap...

   If the economy were bustling we wouldn't be having the National Debt Discussion.  We have an official unemployment rate of close to 10% and an unofficial one of closer to 20%.  Many people have jobs beneath their skill levels, working for less than they are used to.
   It would be easy to turn this post into a comedy and put the entire blame for our National Debt upon these people.  The unemployed are not paying taxes and that is the problem!
   It is all a vicious circle.  The farther down one is, the more beaten and desperate, the less you have to spend.  American business is being hurt because they do not have enough customers.
   We can not turn back the clock and return to five cent coffees and 10 cent telephone booths.  We have never really been in this position before, not this bad, not this long.  Congress seems to have its own agenda and has no sight, no feel of consequence, no real understanding of economics or how money works.
   Sometimes I wish they were made up of more average people, more similar to the Americans they are supposed to represent.  When they made a law it would also apply to them.  For instance, if 40% of Americans have good health insurance, well then, 40% of our congressmen could have good health insurance.  As they discovered a method of increasing this percentage maybe to include all Citizens, then they too could have what we have.  How about unemployment between sessions of Congress?  Not working?  don't get paid!  That is what we do.  I think a gymnasium in a workplace, like our Congress has, is an excellent idea... if every workplace had one!
   They have lost total touch with Reality and don't know the price of a loaf of bread!  They don't represent me.  They have absolutely no clue about Economics.  You do not improve a situation by making less money available and that is all there is to that!
   "Hell-o! is anyone there?"  Is anyone discussing the option of generating more money?  Making something more efficient?  Maybe keeping more of our money here at home, not sent overseas and not stock piled into off shore bank accounts?  Somehow spread out a little more equitably so it could be spent?
Every time money changes hands it is taxed.  Every time it is stock piled it remains stagnant, safe, secure, off
shore and not taxed.  When it is invested in China we build up their economy.
   It sounds so altruistic to cut back.  In the laws of economics it is absolutely the wrong thing to do.  It is really simple:  more begets more and less begets less.  Our situation can get much worse.
   The idea of borrowing and putting a debt on our children, and now grandchildren is of course repugnant.
Sometimes borrowing can be profitable.  Businesses do it all the time.  We do it for major purchases, for a house or car and in our country for medical requirements.  There is always a risk.  That gets put into the equation.  It is all mathematics.  Some things we borrow for generate wealth and other things go down the drain.
   "Hell-o! is anybody there?"  I want some answers.  Our little skirmish in Lybia caused France to run out of ammunition after three days!  I wonder what their military budget is?  I know what ours is.  We have the largest in the world, more than all other countries combined!  Okay, I am not here saying this is good or bad.  I am just wondering what we are getting for our money?  Is it creating more jobs, more wealth? or is this money down the drain?  Money that might be better spent here, or money that shouldn't be borrowed in the first place?
   I don't know.  The older I get the less I know.  I know I am being lied to by both political parties.  I know they are playing with me.  They are both appealing to my emotions and neither think I am capable of making a decision based on the facts, just the pure science of economics and a sense of fair play.
   What I do think is that Congress should be a part time job, half a year at most.  The other half they should get a real job.  An "average job" for an average wage.  They should work hard and live off their wages.  Just like we do.

5 comments:

Rama Ananth said...

Yes Jerry the situation seems to be the same everywhere, politicians are all good for nothing, they have no idea how people live, and there no difference between the various parties representing various so called ideologies. They are all the same, they forget the promises made, they forget the reason for which they came into power, they turn into the same people they said they hated, and leave helpless people like us to go through the vicious cycle endlessly.
The highest offices are all occupied by the corrupt of the highest level.

Jerry Carlin said...

Thanks, Rama, for the disappointing news that it is the same everywhere!
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely!

T. said...

I couldn't agree with you more. It's all so frustrating and so against the original plan of this country that they all swore to uphold. The only thing I would add is the politicians shouldn't be able to give themselves the raises they do for not doing their job. It should be up to vote. Perhaps then they would pay more attention to what the people they represent want.

Dan Kent said...

"I don't know. The older I get the less I know. I know I am being lied to by both political parties. I know they are playing with me. They are both appealing to my emotions and neither think I am capable of making a decision based on the facts, just the pure science of economics and a sense of fair play."

Hear hear!!

Timaree said...

To be fair, the congress people are supposed to go home on their breaks and work in their offices their listening to and helping their constituents. It's amazing that the people have to get on TV to be heard by them!

What do we do when we need more money? We cut back on food buying more with coupons, less nice stuff and so on. When we can't cut back, we borrow some on our credit cards and we look for the second job or some other way to bring the dollars up. It takes a combination of things for sure even for us at times but the difference is, we DO it! We don't get to whine about who's in charge or whatever. The bank will come and take away our house or car so we just get down to brass tacks and find a way to make things work. Since the debt ceiling has been raised over and over, I think they could do it again. I think we need to stop spending on wars and the military (at least it's now included in the budget deficit unlike when Bush was just carrying it on the side so we know where we stand). Let the world take more care of itself. We give so much to Saudi Arabia and hey folks, that's where the bombers of 9/11 came from isn't it? Let them start policing Libya, Egypt, Bahrain and the rest of the middle east. We broke Russia by getting them to spend so much on fighting in Afghanistan and now we are breaking our own selves doing the same fight! Hello? I better stop now, I could get myself into trouble here.