I have posted something like this once befor. This is an updated picture of what our national debt an our unfunded liabilities look like.

We voted and it got worse. We voted for somebody else and it got worse. We voted again and again and again and it got worse. Maybe its time to warm up some tar and get some feathers together and do something useful.

*not_secure_link*www.wtfnoway.com/

 

The question is, when did this become the ONLY issue in Washington? Why is nobody concerned with high unemployment, with housing foreclosures, with regulation of the financial markets, with overcoming the financial meltdown that occurred in 2007-08? Four years ago, all people seemed to want to talk about was the so-called War on Terror?

One side changed the subject...the other side followed obediently. Why to we allow others to frame the debate for us?

 

Washington is only capable of dealing with one issue at a time. It must become a crisis before it can rise to the top of the list of issues that should be considered. They know that this is the best way to get the press that each politician craves.

 

US National Debt Graph

Is this picture good enough for you?

*not_secure_link*zfacts.com/p/318.html

The Republicans caused this problem with their tax cuts for the rich, tax cuts that did not stimulate the economy. Now they are using a crises of their making in order to defund popular domestic spending programs they have never liked, but which have broad popular support.

 

The question is, why is this a question to you?

The debt is the only issue because someone has dug their heels in on expanding it. Why the are doing so is less important than the fact that they are, this is a pivotal decision point for our future economic health.

With very little risk of contradiction, I would bet that IF the debt ceiling had been raised without a whimper, we would be looking at the next request for an increase, very, very soon.

 

Perhaps. But the problem is that the single-minded pursuit this particular policy objective is in conflict with others...like solving the unemployment problem. The debt is a long term problem...one that should not be addressed at the expense of short-term necessities.

 

I agree, but there reaches a point where playing lip service no longer gets anything done about the problem. And for the last 60 years the debt has done nothing but grow, it now growing to unpresidended size and at a alarming rate.

Agreeing on whether debt is a serious issue or not, people are beginning to see that it is no trifling matter. The level of seriousness has risen in this last go around.

Politics aside, we need to deal with it, sooner or later, there is nothing less progressive than procrastination.

 

At this point, the accumulated compounding interest on the existing debt in it's self is crippling. It's been suggested by financial experts that the economic crisis of the United States along with the Eu crisis will ultimately have the potential of causing a world wide financial collapse unequaled in world history if the U.S. default takes place. The impacts of that scenario on us poor commoners would be unfathomable.

 

The short term problems of unemployment and housing foreclosures has largely been precipitated by the debt crisis. By devaluing the dollars that we have in our wallets and by taking huge chuncks of liqiudity off the table for businesses and individuals to compete for our debt has made simple survival impossible. In addition to that the exportation of living wage jobs to foreign countries has taken a huge bite out of the people in the working class who once strived for middle class staus. Now they just strive for enough to pay the rent.

And now we go back to my favorite topic...the minimum wage. In 1938 congress passed the federal minimum wage act in an effort to prevent businesses fro exploiting people desperately in need of jobs at the end of the great depression. It was not uncommon nfor entire families including the childen to work 60+ hours a week just to survive. Congress calculated that the minimum "reasonable live wage" for one person was 25 cents per hour based on a 40 hour work week, witch was included in the labor laws regarding things like child labor etc. That was enough fo one person to keep a roof over his head, clothes on his back, food on the table and still have just enough left over to pay for baisc expenses like doctor visits or utilities. Adjusted for cost of living and inflation, the current federal minimum wage should be between $14.70 and $19.20 per hour depending on the source, with most experts putting it aroun $17.50 or so and hour.

Since all wages are calculated on the minimum wage, things break dow like this...

Unskilled labor gates paid minimum wage until they work thier way up to semi skilled labor which gate about minimum wage plus 50%. Semi skilled labor works its way to skilled labor and about double the minimumm wage on up to about four time the minimum wage depending on the skill sets required and the region you work in.

Simply put, a person currently working in a skilled position should start at around $30-$35 per hour. As it is, we look at the want adds and people consider a job starting at $15 and hour to be a "good job" when economicly speaking its not even minimum wage. And we wonder why so many people are living paycheck to paycheck and having trouble paying thier bills or living under crushing debt.

The federal debt and the exportation of living wage jobs have helped us to create the economy that we live in today where jobs are hard to get and bills are hard to pay. Many economists are telling us that the new normal is going to be high unemployment and fewer and fewer home owners as well as a contracting lifestyle and longer waits to retirement. According to one expert that I listened to on NPR the kids graduating highschool today who enter the working class will NEVER retire. They will never be able to afford to and many of the people who enter the workforce to become middle class wont be able to retire untill well into thier seventies or potentialy into thier eighties.

We owe it all to the increased federal debt and the devaluation of the dollar along with the corperations shipping jobs out of the country in favor of inflated short term profits. Dont forget that health care and education are also being gutted thanks to the ever weakening state of the economy...the whole thing is tied together in one big fucked up bundle of shit.

 

And yet the rich keep getting richer.
*not_secure_link*investorvillage.com/smbd.asp?mb=971&mn=389436&pt=msg&mid=10153698

I keep wondering when or if there will be a political backlash against this. Right now the country seems to be moving to the right. White blue collar workers, making less in terms of constant dollars than their parents, direct their hostility against right wing hate targets.

 

If you have no money, every other issue is completely irrelevant. you can't afford to do jack squat about any of them.

 

The reason we have no money is because of cuts in the top tax rate. When the top tax rate in the United States fluctuated between 91 percent to 70 percent the national debt in the United States was paid down, even during the wars in Korea and Vietnam.

 

Liberals always blaming taxes.

We have no money because we spend it on stupid bullshit, have no jobs or industry, and generate no revenue.

Until we have new leadership, we will continue to dig this hole.

 

From Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush there have always been more jobs generated per year under Democratic presidents than Republican presidents.
*not_secure_link*blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/01/09/bush-on-jobs-the-worst-track-record-on-record/

Why do you think Republican policies will start generating jobs and industry?

 

Facts are facts, who did what when is in the history books. The blame game serves no useful purpose at this point.

It's a mess we all are responsible for. Whether you voted or not, whether your dem, rep, lib or not really sure.

The average American has been content to just follow along with what ever BS the Government has been shoveling. We collectively have fallen for every bait and switch con Uncle Sugar has thrown at us since before WWII!

Now as they say it's all over, but for the crying!

 

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welcome to real face of capitalism

 

The primary reason things seem to be moving to the right is that liberals are viewed as being weak, limp wristed and ineffective while conservatives believe in God, guns and guts which are seen by the weak minded as being the cure to everything. If you cant think your way out of it, shoot it.

Frankly I find the display of abject ignorance to be ammusing at a certain level. The conservatives have convinced the under educated that by allowing corperate greed to run rampant that someday they might get thier chance to feed at the trough of the wealthy. While in the same motion they have managed to cut so many rungs off of the economic ladder that only a handful of people will ever rise above the slime to become wealthy. The rest will continue to channel thier anger into foolish nonsense that only serves to elevate the wealthy to the status of ruling elite while the conservative masses continue to struggle but will continue to eroniously believe that somehow the liberals caused it all.

On the flip side, liberals have this sort of Walt Disney inspired stupidity that compells them to think that because thier favorite politician believes in equal rights for gays and free choice for women over thier bodies then by default they must be pure at heart and truly concerned with the well being of thier constituants. The sad fact is that liberal politicians are owned and opperated by the same wealthy corperate conglomerates that own the conservatives, they are just better at hiding thier greed and dishonesty. At least the conservatives are in your face about it.

The sad fact is simply this....We voted. It got worse. We voted for somebody else. It got worse. We got angry and voted the bastards out. It got worse. We got angry again and voted more of the bastards out. It got worse. We voted and voted and voted and it got worse and worse and worse. We voted in 2008 and it got worse. We will vote again in 2012 and it will get worse. We vote and vote and vote and it gets worse. A few billion in debt. A few billion more in debt. A hundred billion in debt. And then a few hundred billion in debt. Then it was a trillion in debt. Not long after it was three trillion in debt. now its fifteen trillion in debt and thats expected to grow to over twenty two trillion in debt. And we keep voting and voting and voting and it gets worse.

There is a simple solution. Quit fucking voting you morons. Get a fucking clue. Voting hasnt accomplished one damned thing. If you want to make a diference, buy a pitchfork and start making torches. It will be when the streets run ankle deep with the blood of the patriots and the tyrants that things will start to get better. But until then...

In 1980 the debt was $907 billion. In 1990 it was $3.233 trillion, more than trippled in just ten years. In 2000 it had climbed to $5.674 Trillion. As of the end of G.W. Bush's presidency the national debt had climbed to $9.645 trillion and was projected even befor Barak Obama took office to reach at least $13 trillion. We were voting the whole time too. Just for fun, the national debt in 1955 was a meer $274 billion. Congress spends more than that on grants today.

 

Tim, you know I love you and want to have your baby, but do you really think employers, many of whom are sitting on the sideline with mountains of cash reserves and record profits, are not hiring because they're worried about the federal debt and the devaluation of the dollar?

 

Awww, thats sweet and I think our babies would look awesom! But can we get a dog first?

The large Wall Street employers are in fact siting on huge reserves of cash and have converted alot of it into invetsments that are designed to protect them from serious harm. And they have realized huge profits in the process. Most of it by selling short.

80% of the nations work force however are employed by small businesses or are self employed. Most work for companies of less than 100 employees. The small mom and pop businesses are the true backbone of our nations economy and they are very worried. Worried that the small business loans they depend on are threatened. The revenue stream that is created from a healthy workforce has been dwindling away in the high unemployment environment. The cost of doing business like insurance and state taxes have been skyrocketing placing even more pressure on them as local, county and state governments struggle for cash.

In addition to that there are a fair number of small businesses that depend on larger businesses for the work that they do. Small component suppliers with a dozen or so employees depend on large companies like Boing or Ford to spend money on building products that then sell to the nice folks with jobs who buy them. The large companys are well positioned to handle the strain but mom and pop live way to close to the bone to be able to handle much more. Then there are the various other businesses like espresson stands and resturaunts and hobby stores that depend on the employees of both the large and the small businesses to spend money in order to survive.

The company I work for depends on a healthy tax revenue stream to support the services we provide. Sorta the same thing but with a diferent source and we have been getting hosed for the last couple years.

In short, the big companies are siting on the sidelines because yes....they are nervous. And by staying liquid they insure thier continued survival and also free up huge sums of cash to play with in the mean time thus generating considerable profits in the short term. They are just waiting for everything to settle down so they can start putting that liquid cash back to work. If they do it too soon they might take a loss if things get worse. If they wait, they protect what they have and then get to make more. But if there is a major default in our economy they may not be able to put thier money back into play. The "investing" game that they are playing now is only a short term answer. Sooner or later that opportunity will start to dry up too. Thats where congress comes in. If they cant get thier shit together we are screwed.

And lets not forget the filthy rich folks who have been converting cash assets into gold since G.W. Bush took office. Warren Buffet has converted nearly half of his personal holdings. Bill gates likewise has converted about half of his personal assets into gold. They have been hedging for a decade and have seen this crisis coming for a long time. Are they scared? No...but they are well positioned for the dollar to simply disapear and still be the wealthiest men in the country.