Corrupt Government
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Title: American Eulogy
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URL Source: http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article25970.html
Published: Jan 31, 2011
Author: James_Quinn
Post Date: 2011-01-31 20:35:46 by Capitalist Eric
Keywords: None
Views: 54792
Comments: 75
The Founding Fathers described the kind of country they were shaping on July 4, 1776 with the most well known sentence in the English language: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. - Declaration of Independence In 1776, America was an idea born of noble intentions. An idea that every citizen had the opportunity to succeed, prosper and achieve based upon their hard work and abilities. The government did not provide advantages or a safety net for its citizens. People were free to succeed or fail based upon their own merits. America had a frontier spirit because it was still a frontier. Individual effort, intellect and willingness to sweat allowed you to move up the socio-economic ladder. The government provided a National Defense, and very little else. In 1794, the country had a population of 4.4 million and a GDP of $310 million. Government spending totaled $7.1 million, or 2.3% of GDP, and was split between Defense and interest on the Revolutionary War debt. Today, Federal Government spending totals $3.7 trillion, or 25% of GDP. James Truslow Adams in his 1931 Epic of America described the America that once existed in reality, but only exists as a phantom today: “The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, also too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.” “The American Dream that has lured tens of millions of all nations to our shores in the past century has not been a dream of material plenty, though that has doubtlessly counted heavily. It has been a dream of being able to grow to fullest development as a man and woman, unhampered by the barriers which had slowly been erected in the older civilizations, unrepressed by social orders which had developed for the benefit of classes rather than for the simple human being of any and every class.” - James Truslow Adams -Epic of America His assessment of the American Dream was made in 1931. He saw signs that the American Dream had begun to die. He was right. The American Dream began to develop a terminal illness in 1913 with the creation of the Federal Reserve and the passage of the 16th Amendment to the Constitution, creating a permanent income tax. Song of the Century Sing us a song of the century At the outset of the last century America was still a vital, free, growing country on the rise. The song of the century began as a joyous ballad and ended as a funeral dirge. The creation of a Central Bank, which could create inflation on demand, and allowing politicians the ability to buy votes through pork spending, paid for with ever increasing taxation, have sucked the life out of the American Dream. According to the Federal Reserve's own website, their mandates were clear. Below are those mandates and an assessment of their success. Conducting the nation's monetary policy by influencing the monetary and credit conditions in the economy in pursuit of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates. Supervising and regulating banking institutions to ensure the safety and soundness of the nation's banking and financial system and to protect the credit rights of consumers. Maintaining the stability of the financial system and containing systemic risk that may arise in financial markets. “On Thursday [the 18th], at about 11 o’clock in the morning, the Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous drawdown of money market accounts in the United States to a tune of $550 billion being drawn out in a matter of an hour or two. The Treasury opened up its window to help. They pumped $105 billion into the system and quickly realized that they could not stem the tide. We were having an electronic run on the banks. They decided to close the operation, close down the money accounts, and announce a guarantee of $250,000 per account so there wouldn’t be further panic and there. And that’s what actually happened. If they had not done that their estimation was that by two o’clock that afternoon, $5.5 trillion would have been drawn out of the money market system of the United States, would have collapsed the entire economy of the United States, and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed. Now we talked at that time about what would have happened if that happened. It would have been the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it.” Providing financial services to depository institutions, the U.S. government, and foreign official institutions, including playing a major role in operating the nation's payments system. To strengthen U.S. standing in the world economy. TUNISIA ALGERIA EGYPT The Federal Reserve has not been alone in killing the American Dream. Politicians since 1913 have done their part in suffocating the dream. The tax code consisted of 400 pages in 1913 and tax rates ranged from 1% to 7%. In less than a century politicians of both parties have carved out 70,000 pages of payoffs, entitlements, and bribes for their contributors and constituents. Tax rates now range from 10% to 35%. Those 70,000 pages of rules, regulations and tax breaks do not benefit the average middle class American. They benefit those who had the money and power to buy off a Congressman. The Federal Reserve and the US Tax Code bastardized the American Dream, created barriers to economic advancement, and supported the accumulation of wealth and power by a select few. The ruling elite have used their power and control over the media to convince the majority of Americans that the American Dream is about accumulating material possessions with debt. The American Dream no longer meant attaining the fullest measure of your capabilities, but living in the biggest McMansion, driving the nicest BMW, watching the biggest TV and wearing the latest fashions, all acquired with debt. America is dying. Mass Hysteria Red alert is the color of panic Hysteria, mass hysteria! Green Day captures the essence of America since the turn of the century. The country has been in the throes of mass hysteria since 9/11. The once independent, self sufficient individualists that populated this country have become dependent, government reliant, quivering shadows of the frontiersmen that created this country. In the name of safety and security, the American people have allowed their government to accumulate complete control over every aspect of our lives. Only a country in the grip of mass hysteria would allow their leaders to run the National Debt from $5.8 trillion to $14.1 trillion in less than 10 years. Only a country in the clutches of mass hysteria could believe they could get rich by trading internet stocks and houses to a greater fool. Only a country seized by mass hysteria would allow its leaders to promote democracy at the point of a cruise missile as we continue to fight $3 trillion wars in the Middle East, while nearly tripling the amount spent on Defense to more than $1 trillion per year. If you had told someone on September 10, 2001 that ten years later America would be running $1.5 trillion annual deficits, fighting two wars of choice in countries that despise our presence, and had not only not addressed the $100 billion of unfunded welfare liabilities but added billions more with Medicare D and Obamacare, they would have thought you were a crazy doomster predicting the end of the world. They would have put you away in a padded cell if you had further predicted that politicians would cut taxes three separate times, that the Wall Street banks that leveraged themselves 40 to 1 and destroyed the financial system were handed $2 trillion of taxpayer funds so they could pay themselves multi-million dollar bonuses, and that the Federal Reserve would triple its balance sheet to $2.45 trillion by running its printing presses at hyper-speed and handing the money to those same Wall Street Mega-Banks. What caused the mass hysteria that has destroyed the soul of America? Was it just the madness of crowds? Or was it something more sinister? True sounds of maniacal laughter Whenever an act doesn't make sense and seems irrational, you need to ask yourself, “who benefits?” Who has benefited from the hysteria? The answer is in plain sight. The moneyed interests benefited. The military industrial complex benefited. The Federal Government bureaucracy benefited. Wall Street bankers benefited. Mega-corporations and their CEOs benefited. The top 1% ruling elite gained more wealth and more power. They created the mass hysteria with the assistance of their corporate owned mainstream media and completed their pillaging of the middle class with the cooperation of regulators, rating agencies and their ultimate weapon, the privately owned Federal Reserve bank, that has enriched its owners while impoverishing those whose only aspiration was to do an honest day’s work, raise their families, and live in relative comfort, safety, and happiness. I Don't Wanna Live In The Modern World I don't wanna live in the modern world! I am a nation without bureaucratic lies I want to take a ride to the great divide The modern world in no way resembles the world James Truslow Adams wrote so passionately about in 1931. Green Day's version of bureaucratic lies, high definition TVs for the poor, contempt for those who use their minds, and a debt flooded system that is falling apart is an accurate assessment of America today. The modern world is ruled by the few with wealth and power, sustained by government. The misinformation and propaganda dished out by the mainstream media creates a smokescreen that obscures who wields the true power in this country. The corporate mainstream media has done such a good job spreading the Big Lie that a vast number of Americans actually admire and worship the ultra-rich. Most Americans still believe the fairy tale of the American Dream, that no matter how humble your beginnings, everyone has a fair chance to become rich in America. The truth is that the wealthy ruling class owns the country. The top 1% control 43% of the financial wealth of the nation. The top 10% control 83% of the financial wealth of the nation. There is a misperception that the ultra-rich earn their wealth. The facts show otherwise. In 2008, only 19% of the income reported by the 13,480 individuals or families making over $10 million came from wages and salaries. Remember the financial crisis of 2008-2009 that wiped out 7 million jobs, cut the value of many homes in half, and required a taxpayer bailout of Wall Street? According to research done by economist Edward Wolff, “there has been an “astounding” 36.1% drop in the wealth (marketable assets) of the median household since the peak of the housing bubble in 2007. By contrast, the wealth of the top 1% of households dropped by far less: just 11.1%. So as of April 2010, it looks like the wealth distribution is even more unequal than it was in 2007.” Source: William Domhoff The bottom 90% own less than 19% of stocks and mutual funds in the country. Reality is that the 10% richest Americans own the country. The top 1% control 50% of the investment assets and only 5% of the total debt in the country. The bottom 90% control 12% of the investment assets and are burdened with 73% of the total debt. You can clearly see that the Wall Street bailout and the current Federal Reserve QE2 plan to boost stock prices have only benefited the top 10% richest Americans. What is good for Wall Street is not good for Main Street. The American middle class has been lured into debt by the purveyors of debt, the ultra-rich elite who control the financial industry. The further into debt the bottom 90% descend, the greater the enrichment of the ruling class. This is why Wall Street shysters, political hacks and the corporate mainstream media have urged Americans to whip out those credit cards and “Save America” by spending money they don't have, again. It is reminiscent of President Bush's heartfelt plea to the American public to defeat terrorism by buying a GM car with 0% down. The propaganda that is constantly pounded into the brains of Americans about “death taxes” and the rich paying more than their fair share of taxes is part of the Big Lie perpetrated by the powerful ruling class. The “huge” issue of estate tax impacts only the few thousand richest Americans. According to a study published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, only 1.6% of Americans receive $100,000 or more in inheritance. Another 1.1% receive $50,000 to $100,000. On the other hand, 91.9% receive nothing (Kotlikoff & Gokhale, 2000). The richest families in the country provide the funding for the mainstream media propaganda needed to eliminate estate taxes. Figure 6: Share of income paid as tax, including local and state tax Source: Citizens for Tax Justice (2010a). The lies about the ultra-rich paying more than their fair share of taxes are refuted in the graph above. The top 1% actually pays a lower percentage of their income than the next 9%. The tax code isn't 70,000 pages for nothing. The ultra-rich have used their wealth to great advantage by having loopholes and tax dodges inserted into the tax code by their bought off congressmen. The average American can't afford high powered tax specialists and lawyers to help them stash their wealth in off-shore tax havens in the Caribbean and Switzerland. The consistent theme in America today is that the middle class gets screwed and the ultra-rich ruling class accumulates more wealth and power. The Death of America “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” - John Adams Two hundred and thirty five years ago, our Founding Fathers declared that we all had the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These rights have been restricted and bastardized over two centuries. Liberties have been severely restricted as your government tracks you through your social security number, is able to monitor your phone and internet communications, and regulates your education, healthcare, business, and a thousand other daily activities. The right to happiness was based upon James Treslow Adams' view that we were free to attain “the fullest stature of which they are innately capable”. The happiness of becoming a success through your individual exertion, intelligence and efforts has been subverted by the happiness of material goods acquired through the use of debt, peddled by the ruling class. The American Dream where every person had the opportunity to live a richer and fuller life began to die in 1913. Every generation born in this country had an excellent chance to live a better life than their parents. Relentless progress was the American way. I have three teenage sons. Based on the actions of this country's ruling oligarchy, I doubt that my sons will live a richer and fuller life than myself. The debts are too extreme, the military overreach too excessive, the looting by the financial class too great, the political corruption too extensive, and the opportunities too few. The dream of a social order where everyone could rise to the highest level of their capabilities regardless of their birth has been systematically squashed. With 66% of households making less than $65,000 and college costs out of reach for 80% of Americans without incurring crushing levels of debt, the chances for most Americans to climb the social ladder through educational advancement are nil. Even if they do graduate from college, the CEOs in corporate America, who “earn” 300 times the average worker, have outsourced their jobs to China and India. The ruling class provides their children with private schooling and necessary preparation to keep their place in the social order. Wealth begets wealth. The elite send their kids to the elite Ivy League schools and use their connections with their fellow ruling elite to get them jobs on Wall Street, the prestigious connected corporations or government jobs in Washington DC. The wealth of the few has erected barriers to advancement of the many. America has progressively become a stratified class oriented society that has begun to spiral downward as the ruling class has gone too far. The revolutions flaring across the globe are occurring because the ruling class went too far and took too much. The ruling class in America should take note. They have shattered the American Dream and the retribution from those who have been swindled will be unexpected and violent.
It sings like American Eulogy
The dawn of my love and conspiracy
Forgotten hope and the class of 13
Tell me a story into that goodnight
Sing us a song for me - American Eulogy - Green Day 
Elevated to the point of static
Beating into the hearts of the fanatics
And the neighborhood's a loaded gun
Idle thought lead to full-throttle screaming
And the welfare is asphyxiating
Mass confusion is all the new age and it's creating a feeding ground for the bottom feeders of hysteria
Mass hysteria!
Mass hysteria!
Mass hysteria! - American Eulogy - Green Day 
And the deaf-mute is misleading the choir
The punch-line is a natural disaster
And it's sung by the unemployed
Fight fire with a riot
The class war is hanging on a wire because the martyr is a compulsive liar
When he said “it's just a bunch of niggers throwing gas into the ....” - American Eulogy - Green Day
I don't wanna live in the modern world!
I don't wanna live in the modern world!
I don't wanna live in the modern world!
Deny the allegation as it's written (***** lies!)
Beyond the “up to date” and the neo-gentrified
The high definition for the low resident
Where the value of your mind is not held in contempt
I can hear the sound of a beating heart
That bleeds beyond a system that's falling apart
With money to burn on a minimum wage
I don't give a shit about the modern age - American Eulogy - Green Day 
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 49.
#1. To: Capitalist Eric (#0)
you mean the rich?
No, what you mean is: why aren't you with your superior motives, why aren't you rich. You're so jealous you're radiating flop sweat.
Here is how you get rich in America - you rape old people of their life savings through manipulated markets:
Jealous little Eurotrash loser.
You just don't want to admit the system you advocate for only made a few people rich and the rest stagnated or became poorer. So you look for excuses to not admit your god is a false god.
You just won't admit its you who thinks you are superior to the rich and should be wealthy instead of them. Did your parents raise you to be such a jealous, covetous loser?
I think you've got it reversed. Your super wealthy masters want it all, they covet what little you have. When the majority of people are loosing ground, it is the system that is at fault, not the people. This was clear to you as you watched Communism fail but now you can't see what is right in front of your face.
But the system is at fault in a very different way than you and Godwin believe. The closest things we have to a free market in America (beyond the illegal drug trade) is probably the computer software and computer services sectors. They are thriving because there are low barriers to entry and few regulations. The furthest thing we have to a free market is financial services, which is heavily regulated and where government has socialized risk for the largest companies like Goldman Sacs, while allowing them to keep whatever profits they earn. It's perverse. The computer software and service sector is constantly changing and refreshing itself with new technologies, new business models, and new companies willing to challenge whoever is on top at any given moment. The result is new and better products and services at cheaper prices. Companies don't get to stay on top very long. Where is the HUGE problem in America today? Financial services. Who is at fault? Government.
Was I assigning blame? I was stating - and it seems you contradict yourself in agreeing with me - that the current economic system in America - whatever the cause - is a failure. It was you jwpegler, who accused me of being "jealous and or hateful" towards the rich because they got theirs in this economy you yourself blames for not being good. How can you justify an economic system where the top 1% saw lopsided economic wealth gains while the bottom 99% saw a reduction in wages and or stagnation? How is that good? How is that defendable? 1% controlling 4/5th (or more) of the nation's wealth is on par with the economic disparity found in the old USSR. How is that defendable? If that is capitalism than it can be said that it is no better than communism in spreading the wealth around. PS: This govt is out to get the rich nonsense. The rich are not in fear of govt. They own it.
You don't make any distinction of how people got the money. That's the problem. In the 1990s, Bill Gates provided products that people wanted to buy. As a result, he became the richest man in the world, but he also gave his employees a piece of the action and Microsoft created 10,000 millionaire employees. So what did the government do? They viciously attacked Gates and Microsoft during the last year of the Clinton administration. This is very different than Lloyd Blankfein at Goldman Sacs who f*cked everything up and then ran to the government to bail his dirty ass out. So, what did the government do? They bailed his dirty ass out and helped Blankfein amass a net worth of almost $450 million. Something is very wrong here. You're not going to find very many here that support the kind crony capitalism that we've seen over the 20 years since Bob Rubin (of Goldman Sacs) became Clinton's Secretary of the Treasury. But we do support real capitalism where people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs can start businesses in their garages, build products and services that people want, WIN against huge established companies like IBM, and make a ton of money if they succeed. We support this because THIS is what moves our economic condition forward. Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Bill Boeing, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and countless others are the people who created our prosperous and relatively leisurely society. We cannot lose this.
Wasn't that because complaints were made by Microsoft's competitors? I know that AOL/Netscape won an antitrust lawsuit against MS.
Wasn't that because complaints were made by Microsoft's competitors? Yes, companies who contributed large amounts of money to Clinton's campaigns, including Google, pressured him to do something. Guess what? There are anti- trust complaints against Google now too. It's the way it works. I know that AOL/Netscape won an antitrust lawsuit against MS. It amounted to nothing -- about $750 million in damages. These types of suits are filed all of the time. Again, it's the way it works. The big point here is that the market works. IBM was on top. They were dislodged by Microsoft. Microsoft was dislodged by Apple and Google. Someone will dislodge Apple and Google too. It's the way it works unless government starts subsidizing their favorites, like Goldman Sacs, which is what we all should be fighting against.
You neglect to base your calculations on the fact that the market can be driven by irrationality. That is why a business that is "too big to fail" is dangerous.
The market is irrational.
I think because of certain American experiences like the Cold War, a segment of the population raised on the fear of the Red Menace has done enormous damage to itself and to our country because they became ideologically driven rather than rationally driven. This was born from 2 bastard ideas that animated people from the 50s on up. 1) since Communism is bad, everything associated with its opposite is thus good. So communism was govt intrusive so that means the best system was to be for limited govt which morphed into hatred of govt which morphed into not wanting any govt even in terms of oversights or doing public works. 2) The second root for this line of right wing thinking has to do with the culture wars/civil rights battles of the period. Since the Federal govt took the lead in desegregation of schools, ending Jim Crow and pushing through reforms people of a provincial origin (to be polite and not call them racist rubes) saw a new reason to hate the power of the govt even when doing good because to them equal rights was not good and in fact evil (by that I mean there were groups who think race mixing was against the Bible). So over time these 2 roots of the modern conservative movement morphed into this ideological way of thinking to the point where you will notice if a even a pop singer says anything that contradicts their ideology they call or a fatwa on them. The proof of this is that when Teddy Roosevelt was doing his progressive reforms, even those who did not agree to them did not call Teddy Commie because there was no Cold War brainwashing back then.
There are no replies to Comment # 49. End Trace Mode for Comment # 49.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestThe ruling class in America should take note. They have shattered the American Dream and the retribution from those who have been swindled will be unexpected and violent.
#2. To: Godwinson (#1)
you mean the rich?
#14. To: Rudgear, jwpegler, Capitalist Eric, lucysmom (#2)
No, what you mean is: why aren't you with your superior motives, why aren't you rich. You're so jealous you're radiating flop sweat.
#15. To: Godwinson (#14)
#16. To: Rudgear (#15)
#19. To: Godwinson (#16)
#20. To: Rudgear (#19)
You just won't admit its you who thinks you are superior to the rich and should be wealthy instead of them. Did your parents raise you to be such a jealous, covetous loser?
#24. To: lucysmom (#20)
(Edited)
it is the system that is at fault, not the people
#26. To: jwpegler, lucysmom (#24)
(Edited)
Who is at fault? Government.
#29. To: Godwinson (#26)
(Edited)
How can you justify an economic system where the top 1%
#35. To: jwpegler (#29)
So what did the government do? They viciously attacked Gates and Microsoft during the last year of the Clinton administration.
#39. To: lucysmom (#35)
(Edited)
#45. To: jwpegler, lucysmom (#39)
The big point here is that the market works. IBM was on top. They were dislodged by Microsoft. Microsoft was dislodged by Apple and Google. Someone will dislodge Apple and Google too.
#47. To: Godwinson (#45)
You neglect to base your calculations on the fact that the market can be driven by irrationality. That is why a business that is "too big to fail" is dangerous.
#49. To: lucysmom, jwpegler (#47)
Replies to Comment # 49.
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