These past few days have given me clarity. I believe I have pinpointed the problems--and how we can fix--our failing system. It isn't a mystery, though many would like to make it one to keep you ignorant. Let me ask you a few questions that have been on everyone's mind since September 2008: Why did the banks do so many risky things? Why did they lend to high-risk people? Why didn't they see the impossible high numbers as a warning sign of an imminent crash? Bankers, no matter how much they feign, aren't stupid. They did know it would all come crashing down. They did know it was a bubble waiting to burst. And they also knew once the market crashed, the Fed would bail them out; and not only that, they would make a ton of money in the process (specifically Goldman Sachs). It should have been obvious from the very beginning.
No matter what anyone tells you, the government and Fed were the cause of the bubble. Ron Paul writes, "The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, as well as the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974, contributed in large measure to the excesses in the subprime market by forcing lending agencies to specifically make loans they otherwise would have avoided" (End the Fed 135). The government, by promoting loans to first-time home owners, was creating a very dangerous situation. Whenever a government enters a market, it distorts it, creating a bubble that will eventually burst. In my Microeconomics class last semester, I learned there is always a dead-weight loss associated with such actions, but they are usually justified for altruistic reasons. We get a nice feeling in the pit of our stomach when we hear about home-ownership. However, there are always ulterior motives. The subsidized farm industry, for instance, is deeply influenced by lobbyists; government almost always supports the supply side, merely by the financial power these men and women yield. Anyway, when the Fed lowered interest rates to 1% after September 11, they pumped this bubble up even further. Prices rose drastically because of the easy credit. When the Fed raised interest rates back up, the bubble burst, and prices fell. These are market forces, and it is silly for the government to try and raise them again. Yet they still try. By doing this they are digging us into a deeper hole, and they must surely know this. No one is so stupid to believe that spending trillions and inflating the currency is actually helping; no, quite the contrary, it's doing the same thing that got us into the mess to begin with, except on steroids.
We should all be asking ourselves: what are the government's motives? Why are they expanding their power so drastically? Why are they spying on us at a level before never seen? Why are they in Afghanistan--a war we will never know if we have won or not? Why are they training boy scouts to take on veterans and confiscate guns? Why is the government spending like there is no tomorrow? My only conclusion is power. They want us to feel dependent on them. They want us to know we need them. I mentioned in my first post that greed was the second worst of man's sin. The first, quite clearly, is pride. Our problems do not stem primarily from greed, they grow out from the dangerous notion from politicians, the banking elite, and CEO's, that they are gods. In the tradition, it is told that Satan's sin is pride. He refused to bow before God's new creation, man. He was cast from heaven and has been patrolling earth ever since. No wonder it is rumored many of these people worship Lucifer. They believe they are lords and ladies over a misguided populace that can't look after themselves. That we are mere sheep and they are our shepherds (to extremely warp what Jesus told Peter). I have explored in blogs past that this is a natural growth out of Utilitarian form of thinking. Man's nature is to dominate others, and we usually justify this by humanitarian means. There is a saying that goes, "No dictator in history felt he was doing evil". Look at who rule over us today. They are afflicted with the same mentality that Hitler, Stalin, and Mao possessed. That to accomplish the greater good, some might have to suffer. This more than just irritates me, it is extremely dangerous. They depend on us to be very short-sighted, while they look at the long-run.
They must be quite aware this system of debt enslavement and ignorance cannot last forever. Eventually Americans will realize they, their children, and their children's children, have been put in debts from which they can never escape. "By 2019, annual interest payments on the national debt will balloon to a projected $806 billion" (Beck's Common Sense 25). Before I justify myself reading from the corporate shill that is Beck, imagine the percentage of your income that will feed into this. America's GDP this year was only $14.2 trillion (2009) as the total debt approached $100 trillion (including things like Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare). Where will this money come from? (I cannot deny Beck is a entertaining performer, however, he is also clearly bought out by corporate interests. Take my reading his book as an experiment. He had much to say about faulty government, but not much else about the "great" corporations. Beware of Beck, he is one of the one's with ulterior motives.) My point is, we are on the verge of a chasm, and instead of slowing down, we are putting on the accelerator (with government's full knowledge). It is my opinion that the corporatocracy foresees a time in the near future where martial law will have to be enforced. Bush, being as unpopular as he was, could push through extremely dangerous bills with no consequence. Obama now has full use of these government expansion laws. He, under H.R. 5122 [109th], could declare it when he sees fit. It could also be easily justified as the only way to solve a crisis. As Bush said, "I had to destroy the free market in order to save it", so could Obama say, "I had to destroy freedom in order to save it". Using Utilitarians beliefs, this is fine, because it is for the good of all. But from human nature, we can see that any form of martial law will be exploited to its full extent--all in the name of power and pride. The ones in power will use the system to gain even more power. This is the opposite of what for America stands, but the ones pulling the strings want this. Their ultimate goal is not more money, but more power.
How can we stop this before it is too late? Clearly we have to reduce the strength of the power holders without abolishing capitalism. Capitalism is the only system that is sustainable and good. It guarantees man's freedom, his liberty, his property, his right to seek happiness without an interfering state. This is my personal goal, to return America to its roots, and to do this I have listed through 6 steps (admittedly there is a lot entailed in each one):
step 1: You must find a prophet; someone to awaken you from your dream. This is the most crucial step, and often the hardest to do. A prophet will make you have a revelation. You will see the world as it is for the first time, and it may shock you. However, if you are reading this you are well on your way.
step 2: Start choosing with your wallet. Do not spend beyond your means. Buy hard assets that won't devalue over time--such as gold and land. Pull your money out of banks that are part of the corporatocracy system, and put it in local banks. Spend on local products and organic food, stuff that isn't produced by the corrupt system. Do anything to undermine the corporate shakers, government bureaucrats, and big bankers.
step 3: Support politicians who are not owned by corporate interests and bankers. Men and women with real character who actually stand for something more than power and profits. Support any party besides the Republicans and Democrats who have both proven themselves big spenders and pushers for larger government. These are not partisan issues, these are issues that could make or break our country.
step 4: End the Central banking system. The Fed and international central banks have proven they are the catalyst for this corporate/government monster we have created. By stopping the Fed, we could put an end to ballooning deficits, mindless wars, and useless spending projects that are only done to please constituents. Men and women in government may actually start developing character and standing for something. Easy credit warps men's minds. It allows for huge spending that just doesn't make sense. Imagine if the Iraq war was actually being fought with "real" money, not inflated currency. We would feel the effects right away. It wouldn't be so distant and unreal. We could put an end to war once and for all. (No war has been fought without inflation.)
step 5: Return our currency to a gold standard. Money would actually be worth something, and people would spend it as such. Banks would think twice before they started giving out loans to high risk people. We wouldn't have the easy credit and money that supports the corrupt government and corporations lording themselves over us.
step 6: Put term limits on House Members and Senators. Make gerrymandering illegal. Make a tax-code that cannot be easily manipulated by the people in power--a flat rate like 20%. Make accepting money from corporations a lot harder. Improve transparency. Make last-minute additions to bills and pork spending illegal. Pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan immediately. Make it not only separation of church and state, but also separation of the private sector and the public. Perhaps most importantly, make our representatives accountable not only to us, but to the Constitution. The federal government should have no power that the Constitution doesn't state. The federal government's only role should be making sure that "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" are guaranteed. Scale back everything that isn't necessary to those three things. It is more crucial now that ever.
We are the ones with real power. The government may be strong, but we are many. It is our right to make our government accountable to us, not vice-versa. We must stand against all forms of tyranny. We must restore our Constitutional Republic before it it too late.
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