Bankruptcy is like beginning a whole new game of Monopoly but with slightly different rules. The I-O-U's get thrown out and the "Get out of Jail Free" cards are dispersed with a great hope that the game can begin anew! Individual people do this all of the time. It was our solution to over crowded jails due to debtor's prisons. It has been the answer to overwhelming medical expenses and other unforeseen events and just careless spending above our means. Now it is the wave of the future for entire cities! Stockton, San Bernadina and a third city in California have recently filed for bankruptcy and there have been other cities in the United States doing the same. California itself, the entire State could be headed that way!
Why are they doing this? and what does it mean?
Simply, there is not enough money on the board. Money needs to circulate for the system to work. As you "Pass GO" you collect and land on certain properties, you pay. If you can't pay, they cannot collect and the game is over. The money is still there. The fat cats have it or the bankers have it but it is not being circulated. You bought Park Place for every single piece of value you could scrounge only to discover it was not worth so much! So you begin to skip some payments. Then the banks don't get it, the grocery stores don't get it, the worker at McDonald's doesn't even get it and soon the game is over.
What makes the situation a little worse is past games. In past games the winners were awarded with a kind of annuity, a lifetime income for a game well played. Not everyone got this, just the winners, but they did pretty well, receiving lifetime payments as much as their yearly salaries while they worked and lifetime health insurance for a game well played! This debt to past players (the winners only!) amounts to Trillions of dollars and with no money circulating on the board, it is difficult to come up with.
This means that school teachers, city and government workers, policemen and firemen and others thinking they had won the system and could live out their retirement years with a good pension and benefits have all of a sudden found themselves with nothing! Bankruptcy. No more checks. This initially solves the problem for the City, the debt has been wiped clean but it has taken even MORE money OFF THE TABLE! This is how Greece is attempting to play this game and it has not worked well for them. California cities and others are following failed states in a feeble attempt to play this game.
There is another solution but it would require all of the players to agree and to put forth the best interests of the Nation as a whole and not individual players. We could create more jobs!!! The world is in such a dismal economic turmoil that people, corporations and countries will loan us money at NO INTEREST!!!!
because America is still the safest place to bank. Now would be a perfect time to rebuild our infrastructure, our waterways and highways, our bridges and airwaves, our transportation and airports. We used to devote 7% of our GPD towards this rebuilding and now it is less than 2%. More jobs is more money in circulation, more for everyone.
If we do not do this now maybe we should be thinking of a different game to play? Maybe "Prison Dodge Ball"?
Why are they doing this? and what does it mean?
Simply, there is not enough money on the board. Money needs to circulate for the system to work. As you "Pass GO" you collect and land on certain properties, you pay. If you can't pay, they cannot collect and the game is over. The money is still there. The fat cats have it or the bankers have it but it is not being circulated. You bought Park Place for every single piece of value you could scrounge only to discover it was not worth so much! So you begin to skip some payments. Then the banks don't get it, the grocery stores don't get it, the worker at McDonald's doesn't even get it and soon the game is over.
What makes the situation a little worse is past games. In past games the winners were awarded with a kind of annuity, a lifetime income for a game well played. Not everyone got this, just the winners, but they did pretty well, receiving lifetime payments as much as their yearly salaries while they worked and lifetime health insurance for a game well played! This debt to past players (the winners only!) amounts to Trillions of dollars and with no money circulating on the board, it is difficult to come up with.
This means that school teachers, city and government workers, policemen and firemen and others thinking they had won the system and could live out their retirement years with a good pension and benefits have all of a sudden found themselves with nothing! Bankruptcy. No more checks. This initially solves the problem for the City, the debt has been wiped clean but it has taken even MORE money OFF THE TABLE! This is how Greece is attempting to play this game and it has not worked well for them. California cities and others are following failed states in a feeble attempt to play this game.
There is another solution but it would require all of the players to agree and to put forth the best interests of the Nation as a whole and not individual players. We could create more jobs!!! The world is in such a dismal economic turmoil that people, corporations and countries will loan us money at NO INTEREST!!!!
because America is still the safest place to bank. Now would be a perfect time to rebuild our infrastructure, our waterways and highways, our bridges and airwaves, our transportation and airports. We used to devote 7% of our GPD towards this rebuilding and now it is less than 2%. More jobs is more money in circulation, more for everyone.
If we do not do this now maybe we should be thinking of a different game to play? Maybe "Prison Dodge Ball"?
4 comments:
I agree with some of your points, Jerry. That said, it is hard for individuals to see past their own difficulties in just living life. Nose to the grindstone constantly and nothing to show for it, lucky to have hand-me-down furniture and a roof over the head. Food becomes a luxury rather than necessity. Been on that side of things and when you are there it is really difficult to put the self aside to concentrate on the good of the country as a whole.
Hah! Bitter much, CrimsonLeaves?
Don't be so hard on yourself, Sherry, you have been into the thick of the very bottom and survived to tell about it. That is a strong person, indeed!
You AGREE with some of my points?
Sherry, maybe you didn't sleep well last night? I am not used to that! Nothing is "fixed in stone", these are all just talking points. If we don't talk out way out then we will have to fight our way out and I am too old and tired for that.
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