The economic stimulus frackage...

Another week to an end another week has begun. As I sit here devouring what is left of my Mario's Pizza I sit and think about what kind of dinner if any some people are sitting down to. All I keep hearing about are layoffs and closures of businesses all across the country. This economic downfall, the bursting of the housing market bubble . Sadly in my opinion this entire collapse was caused first by the control over our monetary system by the fed then accelerated and exacerbated by government programs. Programs which forced financial institutions to provide loans to those who were in the high risk category. All in the name of helping those less fortunate buy their first house and live "the american dream". The overall impression of what that dream is has been distorted and inflated by the new standard of living of which we have all become accustomed to. Life liberty and the pursuit of happiness used to mean exactly what it states. Of course the description of happiness itself and what people in this country need to be "happy" is pathetic. Slowly but surely this new ideal of need and must have has infected this country, our entire economic structure slowly turned into one of consumption and service instead of production and innovation. This unstoppable consumption fueled by a constant stream of ever expanding credit. As everyone is soon to learn the hard way a society cannot sustain itself by consuming the goods of other nations with credit given by those same nations.

In the end I have no doubt that the Bush administration will be given full blame for this collapse even though it was republicans calling for regulation of Fanny & Freddie long before the housing "Boom" while democrats on the senate finance committee declared there was nothing to worry about. I give no credit to the Bush white house for the last 8 years being somewhat positive. No, for they too enlarged government with new programs and increased spending as has been done for decades by just about every politician seeking to be re-elected.

The truth is that those pork projects and government spending does earn them re-election. So who do we have to blame but ourselves. The majority of society who no longer works to better themselves but work to just "get by" and make it to next week. They work for the next purchase, the next item they "need" in their life. Like a bunch of children waiting till they have enough in their allowance to go to the toy store and buy whatever piece of crap they feel they need to make their life complete. Thus the creation of this consumption based society and a class of voters that will vote not based on the good of the country, not for the values that made this country what it was, but which ever candidate will offer the quick fix that does not exist for the current crisis. All in the quest to hasten their ability to buy a new car, LCD tv, or whatever other item that provides no worth other than the petty short lived satisfaction when it is acquired.

This recession will last for quite some time. History shows that stimulus bills do nothing to combat depressions. Yet here we are again passing another stimulus package with money that not only do we not have, but does not exist! You say it will not be passed? That the republicans will block the bill? Mark my words, it will be passed one way or another. Also this will not be the last stimulus package to be passed. The next will come and it will exceed 1 Trillion dollars. This money does not come out of thin air as most of us are aware, nothing is really free. The treasury is now printing money at an alarming rate. Devaluing our currency without anyone really even realizing it. Every dollar printed is a "tax" on every single person that has a dollar in his or her possession though few if any realize it. As the value of the dollar decreases so does its purchasing power. Example, if the same bread you bought for $0.90 now costs you $1 you've just been taxed %10 percent by the production of money by the treasury for this so called "stimulus" package.

So, what are we to do then? How do we fix this crisis. The only way in my opinion is to take the housing bubble out of the equation since the entire expansion was basically non existent. Inflated prices way above reasonable market values are coming back to where they should be. All of the government income from taxes and fees created by the phantom income as I'm going to now call it must be negated and taken into account in new budgets. The system must be brought back into balance. More borrowing and creation of money out of thin air with stimulus packages will only make things worse as it is what helped get us into this mess. This means cuts, and huge cuts. The money is not there, it does not exist -it technically never did- and therefore like a business downsizing due to lack of orders creating less income the government MUST downsize.

We have two options staring us in the face. Socialism or Capitalism. Capitalism in its pure form without regulation is not the culprit here. A monetary system controlled by the fed combined with government controls is what caused this. Few are aware and with everyone so used to government providing everything I already find myself running into people who tell me they have no problem with Socialism. That in their opinion life would be much easier. Like children wanting the easy way out today's America is a place of "Gimme", "Do I have to", and "I'll do it later" but still expects their allowance at the end of the week. Socialism caters to that exact work ethic and I fear it more than the though of loosing my job from this recession.