People are beginning to ask a lot of questions which is really, really good. Few of us expected to hear erudite AND serious considerations of 'capitalism,' vs. 'socialism,' and all the flavors in between, on PrimeTime News.
Some of us, in confusion, has been tossed back to the beginning of the beginning: Where does all this money come from?
It seems: We print it.
We print it. We sell it in big buck amounts (Treasury Bills) to foreign countries and the SuperRich. They buy it because we promise to give them more (cash with interest).
We give the rest of it to the Federal Reserve System, described as a "a quasi-public banking system" (a banking system that is a government entity with private components).
'Quasi-public,' appears to be at the root of some of these problems, since the biggest home mortgage providers, called Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were also 'quasi-public.'
I now feel queasy when considering the implications and consequences -- the horrific consequences we see before us -- of 'quasi-public.' institutions.
But, cutting to the chase: It seems the government can print all the money it wants; and it prints all the money it wants for Wall Street and for War
Yet there never seem to be enough money for schools and health care, or for the massive endeavor of making ourselves energy independent, esp. with the new, clean and alternative energies that we will need for the future.
Strange, isn't it?
In the last two weeks and with this now bailout for $700-Billion (or more) we could fight the Iraq War for ten more years. Considering how the military spends money and how millions and millions get stolen behind the scenes of war, then enough money for ten more years of destroying and occupying Iraq is a lot of money indeed.
We also spend more on prisons than we do for schools.
Strange, isn't it?
"Why Pay Now -- When You Can Pay Later?"
Even better, at least for the two monsters involved in causing our nation future debt for decades, neither the people behind the War started with lies, nor the corrupt Wall Street scams built on lies, they don't have to pay back anything at all. Nothing, not a dime.
It's incredible.
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Scylla and Charybdis are not names you think of everyday. They were two monsters Ulysses had been warned about before setting off on his famous voyages of Greek Mythology.
The news this past week also was dominated by two monsters: War and Wall Street , both now big failures, expensive failures, and they have done far more damage than the previously mentioned monsters of ancient lore.
We've been damaged for $700-Billion this week. There was about $500-Billion doled out in Wall Street Socialism in the previous two weeks before this. We've been damaged big time.
When most people die, you get the impression that they would like to be remembered in a good way.
But some people die and all they leave behind is the bills. Or sorrow.
I can't help but think we have 'broken all the fine china,' this time and all that we will leave behind for future generations in this country is shards of broken plates and cups and a memory about which future generations will have to shake their heads.
I don't think we'll be able to pick up all the pieces this time. I don't think we can glue it all back together, looking good as new.
The least we could do, though, if seriously try to figure out what went wrong. What went wrong that a government could mislead a nation into war we now all know was based on provable lies and probably deliberate fabrications.
What went wrong that Wall Street can make and walk away with all the profits and the average person picks up all the debts?
It clearly isn't good.
It's so deeply bad, in fact, that it even goes beyond the ability of pointing a finger at one person -- even Bush or Cheney -- and trying to put all the blame on them.
It's a structural problem. It's a problem in our system of government, how it let's people do these things and we can't stop them.
It's a problem with our 'winner-take-all,' two-party system.
It's a problem of no accountability by anyone for any of these things.
It's a problem of printing all the money we want for War and Wall Street and printing nothing for jobs or education, health care or opportunity for the average person.
False wars. Greedy and corrupt Wall Street. Prisons. It's not much of a legacy to leave behind. Not much to be remembered for.
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