United States Savings Bonds

I remember buying them in grade school as a youngster, twenty-five cents a week I think I spent.  If I remember right $18 would buy you a twenty-five dollar Bonds, worth that much if you kept them long enough.  I lost all of mine over the years, maybe a hundred bucks worth.
   Savings Bonds of course are our National Debt, that is how we get the money.  62% we owe to ourselves and the rest to foreigners, mostly China.  Bonds are a hot commodity, easy to sell.  We are still a good investment.
   It was 1958, Sputnik just went up and our Freeway Systems were being built all across the United States, the old Route 66 was being abandoned.  We were a growing, busy, industriaalized nation.  Lots was happening everywhere.  The government needed money for all of this, the roads, outer space exploration, the Korean War, fighting the commies and building industry.  They sold bonds to school children to pay for it all.
   National Debt is not a crime.  What makes it bad is when it is used to pay electric bills and day to day expenses.  Like living off a credit card this is not sustainable.  The money owed should be divided into two separate catagories.  Money betting on an optimistic future is a good investment.  Money spent on education, roads, freeways, bridges, all of our infrastructure, clean air to breath and water to drink is betting that times will improve, is offering our children a positive future.  This money spent also provides jobs and immediate results.  A sight to the future needs to be bet on and paid for.  I would buy Bonds for this.
   Most Recessions have lasted less than two years, some much shorter and are considered "market adjustments".  This one is in to its fifth year and has seen over 15,000,000 Americans without work and 25 million without health insurance.  More homes have been lost than during the Great Depression.  All of this means that the government isn't collecting taxes.
   Businesses hire when there is a demand.  It is as simple as that.  And so very complicated to fix it.  More than anything we need to know that there will be a tomorrow and it will have the potential of being better and brighter, something worth working for.
   Austerity measures have not worked in other countries.  They are bleak, depressing, desparate measures that offer soup kitchens and despair for their citizens.  When every day is a little worse it is difficult to find ambition and strength and all of this create a downward spiral just making the situation worse.  We do need inspiration, we need that "hope" we were promised that never came to be.
   In the meantime Christmas Season will be here soon and you can think about what you will give as presents.  No bobbles and cheap tinny crap from Walmart, please, nothing imported please.

Piece of the Pie

It is interesting, watching the "Occupy Wall Street" Protesters.  They are growing in numbers and are all over the world.  It is a protest without leadership and I am not really sure what they are after.  Some are being arrested and I wonder why the bother?  It has to be expensive to arrest someone, the court costs, attorneys,
more police taken away from real crime, jail guards, feeding them, the whole of it.  And then it becomes an issue, doesn't it?  In Syria they shoot them, a bullet from a sniper a half mile away!  Extremes.
   The One Percent have been identified.  They are the ones who make over $700,000 in one year.  Not bad for a forty hour week if that is how they do it. That works out to be $350 per hour.
   These are not the protests of the '60's, not anti-war protests nor voter registration, equality or fighting racism.  These are not the "flower children" of San Fransisco who were just so fed up they opted to drop out.  The new protesters of today are all wearing imported clothing, all have backpacks made in China, carrying their i-phones and netbooks manufactured overseas.  If you removed these foreign items from them they would all be naked!
   It is pretty funny to me, in a strange sort of way.  It is like they have "seeeen the Promised Land" and want a piece of the pie!  They don't seem to be after Truth or Justice or Environmentalism, nothing altruistic at all.
All over the world they want IN!  More big screen t.v's. please.  Yes, I would like it "Super-Sized"!
   Greece now is going to vote for their austerity measures and this has caused the Stock Market to crash.
No one will vote for less when what we want is MORE!
   Where ever did we get the idea that material possessions will make us happy?  Yes, more please.  I want gravy on everything!
   I want to see Paris Hilton, naked, extolling the virtues of American products!  I once read that if we could go One Week, just a week, and stay away from Walmart, not buy anything imported, then we could create a half a million jobs!  We do not need any laws for this, no police, no crowd control, not even a protest.  Just a new slogan, "Don't Do it".
   Christmas will be here soon and Walmart will be packed from wall to wall.  Don't do it.  This year make cookies, find some American made paints and give your art away, support a local artist and buy their works, buy everyone on your list American made towels.  My challenge to you is on Christmas Day dress your best all in clothing "made in USA"! or your own country for my foreign friends.  Tell your friends!  If we all did that we could create over a million jobs!
   So what makes a cool gift?  Any ideas?

I am HERE too.

Price Wars

I had this dream last night where some hot Hollywood Starlet or it might have even been some young muscled actor was pitching "Made in USA".  Not Michael Jordon Shoes made in Thailand, not something from Martha Stewart made in a slave factory in some far off land, but  Hollywood Actors touting an American Product that we could have been proud of.  Dreams are fantasies, huh?
   Reality is the nightmare, the daylight where we confront ourselves and admit our addiction to cheap bobbles, shiny things and gadgets.  Phychologists don't do individual thearapy anymore the corporations have hired them all to induce us to buy.  Buying stuff is the key to our happiness, the reason for our existence, the sum of our value, where we find our identity.  Thank God for Walmart!
   THE Biggest Single Employer In The World!  You heard that right.  More people work for Walmart than any other corporation!  Maybe (I don't really know) more people work for Walmart than for the Government!  That is a cool thought, but a bit frightening.  I am sure they have spies but I wonder whether they have their own army?  Walmart Airforce?  I know they have shipping lines, maybe their own Navy?
I am sure they help establish National Adgendas, "policy", we will call it.  Always something to create a larger customer base and to control what we value in life.
   They know what we want.  Whatever it is we want it packaged nicely and mainly we want it cheap.
There is a movement afoot to get rid of "Government Regulations", scrap the Environmental Protection Laws,
go back to dumping the crap in the rivers and polluting the air so we can have stuff even cheaper!
Cheap is the answer because it is what we are after.  To heck with the Unions that gave us higher wages and made stuff cost more!  There is even a movement afoot to get rid of the minimum wage, bring factories back to America where we too can work for less and produce more, so we can have it cheaper.
   That is great.  I love a free country and I love cheap stuff.  Walmart is the best.  Their promise this year is not better, not quality, not valuable, certainly not American made.  It is cheaper!  If you can find it anywhere else, sold at any time, even last minute day before Christmas sales, Walmart will give you the difference.
Cash back for cheaper!  Such a deal.  Is life Grand or what?

My American Made Stuff is HERE