Ron Paul Is Still Kicking-- And As Clueless As Ever
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GOP kook, Ron Paul, a Texas congressman, opposes government spending. To Paul government spending is socialism anyway, but he can't seem to get his head around the concept of post-agrarian modern society. When President Obama explained that a stimulus package is a spending package, Paul wasn't getting it. Today he's beating the right-wing war drums against Susan Collins (R-ME), Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) for putting their country first and cooperating with the Democrats in trying to do something to clean up the mess Paul blames on Bush and on "both parties," even though Paul's own voting record shows that he has been complicit in the Bush Regime's catastrophic agenda.
If Paul was on a desert island with 30 other people, he'd be a decent mayor. In fact, in any society where sea shells or gold are the currency of exchange, Paul could be relevant. In a post-agrarian society, Paul is an anachronism, unable to cope with the scope or the pace of change, unable to cope with the role government has to play. Although he chides his overly partisan colleagues in the House Republican caucus for being "born-again budget conservatives," the problems the country faces is far beyond his ability to grasp-- which is why his campaign for the presidency attracted the support of a small handful of malcontent wingnuts and never made any impact on the mainstream. He's right to ask "where were we in the past eight years, when we could have done something? And you see our last eight years that has set this situation up. So we can't blame the Democrats for the conditions we have." But he's got all the wrong answers, the wrong way of looking at it and a basic inability to go beyond throwing rocks at something he's incapable of understanding.Labels: Ron Paul
posted by DownWithTyranny @ 10:00 AM
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Armageddon Thru To You
If you've been wondering why it seems like the world around us is unraveling, it's because the last days as foretold in the bible are now upon us. Just as it was 2000 years ago, many were unable to discern the signs of Jesus Christ's first coming (Mat 16:3), as will many concerning his second coming, which will occur very soon. Yes many have proclaimed a similar sentiment many times in the past, but their errors have no bearing on today other than to lull you into spiritual apathy, and that too was prophesied to occur in the last days.
If you're not a believer in Jesus Christ because you're an atheist, consider that the underlying impetus for your disbelief is most likely borne of pride and here's why:
When we die, if you as an atheist were right, then there is no upside or downside for anyone regarding the afterlife. We will all simply cease to exist
However if we Christians were right about our belief in the afterlife, then we will be given eternal life and you as an atheist will receive eternal damnation
Given the choices, the position held by an atheist is a fools bet any way you look at it because the atheist has everything to lose and nothing to gain. It is tantamount to accepting a “heads I win, tails you lose” coin toss proposition from someone. And that someone by the way is Satan (see Ephesians 6:12).
The only way to explain the attitude held by an atheist is pride, pure and simple. The intellectually dishonest and/or tortured reasoning used by atheists to try and disprove the existence of God is nothing more than attempts to posture themselves as superior (a symptom of pride). And as anyone who has read their bible knows, this is precisely the character flaw that befell Lucifer, God's formerly most high angel. (Isaiah 14:12-15). Is it any wonder then why the bible is so replete with references to pride as the cause of mankind's downfall?
Pride permeates our lives and burdens us in ways that most of us seldom recognize. Ironically, pride is the one thing that can blind someone to things even the unsighted can see. And sadly pride will blind many with an otherwise good heart, to accepting the offer of eternal salvation that Christ bought and paid for with his life.
In any event, if you're an atheist, I wish you only the best for every day of the rest of your life because for you, this life is as close to heaven as you'll ever get, but for believers in Christ, this life is as close to hell as we'll ever get.
If you're not a believer and follower of Jesus Christ because you are of another faith, please take the time to very carefully compare your faith to Christianity and ask yourself, why is the bible the only religious book with both hundreds of proven prophecies already fulfilled as well as those being fulfilled today? No other religion can claim anything remotely close to this fact. Many Christians who are serious students of bible prophecy are already aware of the role and significance of bible prophecy in foretelling end time events. God gave us prophecy as evidence of his divine holiness to know the begining from the end (Isa 46:10). God also believed prophecy to be so important that to those willing to read the most prophetic book in the bible, the Book of Revelation, he promised a special blessing (see Rev 1:3), and this is the only book in the bible that God gives its reader a special blessing for reading. Something to think about.
Don't risk losing Christ's offer of eternal life by not accepting him as your savior and by thinking that the bible is nothing more than a compilation of unrelated and scattered stories about people who lived 2,000 plus years ago. If you take the time to study (not just read) the bible, you will literally be shocked to learn things you would have never imagined would be revealed in it. Did you know that like parables, God also uses particular months and days in the Jewish calendar, Jewish Feasts and customs, solar and lunar phases, celestial alignments, gematria (Hebrew numerology) early bible events and more as patterns and models to foretell future events?
Consider the following interesting facts about the bible that testify to its God-inspired authorship:
Did you know that in Gen 12:2, God said he would bless Israel?. How else can you explain the grossly disproportionate level of success achieved by Jewish people as a tiny minority in the world, especially after all they have gone through? And how can you explain the success achieved by the tiny nation of Israel, surrounded by enemies outnumbering them 100 to 1 and yet still they remain victorious in all their wars?
Did you know that as evidence to indicate that Israel is the epicenter of the world from God's point of view is the fact that languages to the west of Israel are written and read from left to right as if pointing to Israel, and languages from countries to the east of Israel are written and read from right to left, again as though pointing to Israel. Just a coincidence, you say? I think not.
Did you know that the six days of creation and seventh day of rest in Genesis is a model for the six thousand years of this age (ending very soon), that is to be followed by a 1,000 year millennial reign by Christ (see 2 Peter 3:8)? Adam was born sometime prior to 4000 B.C., therefore our 6000 years are almost up.
Did you kow that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is hidden in the meaning of the Hebrew names listed in the genealogy of the book of Genesis (Research it online)? To deny this was God-inspired, one has to instead believe that a group of Jewish rabbis conspired to hide the Christian Gospel right inside a genealogy of their venerated Torah, which is not a very plausible explanation.
Did you know that solar eclipses, which the bible describes as the sun being black as sackcloth, and lunar eclipses, which the bible refers to as blood red moons, have prophetic meaning? Research it online. God showed Adam (and us) his plan for man's redemption through the use of celestial alignments. (research Mazzaroth online)
Did you know that much of the symbolism in the book of revelation refers to planetary alignments that will occur when certain events occur as prophesied? These planetary alignments also explained the birth of Christ, just search out The Bethlehem Star movie on the Internet.
Did you know that the references in Eze 39:4-17 and Rev 19:17-21 in the battle of Gog/Magog and Armageddon respectively, in which birds of prey will eat the flesh of the dead in battle from two enormous wars is based on fact? The largest bird migration in the world consisting of bilions of birds (34 species of raptors and various carrion birds) from several continents converge and fly over Israel every spring and fall. Coincidence? I think not.
Did you know that Hebrew numerology, also known as Gematria, and the numbers with biblical and prophetic significance are hidden in the Star of David? Google the video called "Seal of Jesus Christ"
Did you know that the seven Churches mentioned at the beginning of the Book of Revelation describe the seven stages the Church will go through?
There are literally hundreds of hidden messages in the bible like these that testify to the fact that the bible was God inspired, and statistically speaking, are all exponentially beyond the likelihood of any coincidence. You can find them yourselves if you only take the time to look into it. Remember Proverbs 25:2 "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings".
And finally, if you are Catholic, or one who subscribes to the emergent Church or seeker-friendly Church movement, please compare the doctrine taught, advocated or accepted by your Church, with the actual bible, notwithstanding some new-age version of the bible. And remember that although the bible is often referred to as the living bible, the word "living" was never intended to imply in any way that the bible "evolves" over time to meet, or be consistent with, the standards of man. It's just the opposite.
Well, am I getting through to you? If not, the answer might be explained in the response given by Jesus Christ in his Olivet discourse when he was asked by his disciples why he spoke the way he did (in parables, etc.) in the book of Matthew 13:10-16. What Jesus said could have easily been paraphrased more clearly as "so that the damned won't get it". Why did Christ respond the way he did when asked why he spoke this way? Is there something about pride (the bible says there is) that closes one's heart to seeing or hearing the messages supernaturally hidden in bible parables, models, typologies, and similes, etc.? That should give you something to think about, but don't take too long. Time is now very short.
If it sometimes seems like there are powers at work behind the powers we know, remember what it says in Ephesians 6:12 "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." If you study the bible, it will become clearer.
And by the way, if you are a scoffer, this too was prophesied to occur in the last days. See 2 Peter 3:3.
Thank you and God Bless you!
Armageddon.thru.to.you (at) gmail.com
Pastor Bob, is that you?
The problem with Ron Paul and other libertians of his ilk is that they can never explain who is going to install the traffic signals. And the problem with Christians like "Armageddon Thru To You" is that they cherry pick the Bible for verses that back up their beliefs, all while ignoring the facts and that the authors' vision of occurances was limited by their actual knowledge as to the cause of events. Please remember that the people that wrote the Bible believed the sun revolved around the earth, had no understanding of earthquakes or volcanos, and a solar eclipse sent them running for their lives.
Republicans and their tyrant presidents are the ones who got us into this already financial disaster. What could they possible know about stimulus packages and economics? They are doing what they do best and trying to put fear into the American people when they should be supporting change. Pull your heads out of your *sses Republicans, your trickle down economics do not work!
looks like ignorance prevails to this day. On one hand, Democrates claim that Bush II has destroyed the economic system. On the other Republicans use religion to mentally justify what they think is going on with the economy.
Just the facts! -1- the economy cannot be saved by vague economic stimulus plans and -2- the new President appears to be defending a stimulus plan that he is not so sure of himself. -3- It would save the country a great deal of money if we brought back 80% of our troops home.
I voted for Obama, but this does not mean that I am a stubborn democrat. If the Stimulus has turned out to be a bad idea, then lets accept this and do something different.
KGN
I just wish Congress would talk less and work more, together.
Ron Paul doesn't get it? Heck, half the Republicans don't get it. They get us into this mess, screw up the first huge payouts to the banks without any transparency and now want to drag their feet and prevent anything more from being done. The old normal.. sit around and agrue and do nothing.
I wish I was a Republican so I could change parties!
Armageddon is not full of shit you guys. Yes, while I agree that no one likes a naysayer, you have to admit that the entire world is crumbling around us. Genocide is being committed all over Africa. Our freedoms are being ripped away from us. Poverty, disease, etc is at an all time high, globally, and it is only going to get worse because of this economic DEPRESSION. While our governments rob us of TRILLIONS of dollars to give us temporary peace, they are really screwing us over in the end. Man cannot solve even his own problems, let alone the Worlds'.
To those of you who joke about how the people of the biblical age were mostly geocentric in terms of where we are in the universe; The people who brought us computers said that there would never be such a thing as a PC or that there would be a need for more than a few, WORLDWIDE. They were ignorant, just as we are today. It doesn't mean that The Bible is fundamentally flawed.
If you cannot see that civilization is at an all time low, you are blind. We live in a world where wisdom and knowledge are mocked, life is valueless, sometimes a hindrance, and vanity and pride are admirable traits. My generation literally cares more about what celebrity screwed who rather than things that DIRECTLY impact their own lives. Go into any bar and bring up the subject of reading. seven out of ten young persons are going to proudly declare, "Oh, I don't read....". Since when is that cool? At one point, people were being burned at the stake for reading,(heresy), and now it's a personality flaw?
Hell, I'm not going to indulge you by saying I think the end is nigh, but ask yourself if mankind has ever been in such a figurative pickle.
We haven't.
Even if I didn't know God, I'd sure be looking for him right about now.
Oh, and spare me all the hate replies my friends. I'm not trying to F*ck with you, I'm just throwing my two cents like you are.
You guys are retarded. The Republicans got us into this mess because they acted like DEMOCRATS when it came to fiscal issues. They spent too much money and increased the size of government. They increased regulation and interference with markets. Ron Paul was not complicit in this. He always spoke out against government spending. If massive deficit spending really brought about stimulus, then why isn't the economy booming right now? The stimulus package simply won't work.
"The problem with Ron Paul and other libertians of his ilk is that they can never explain who is going to install the traffic signals."
Actually, traffic signals could be installed by local governments. The federal government is supposed to be limited in size. Thats why we have a Constitution. In fact, all Ron Paul wants to do is uphold the Constitution and not try to stretch it to fit any socialist or fascist agenda.
"Republicans, your trickle down economics do not work!"
Umm, where's your proof? This crisis? If you think so, then you don't really understand the concept of "trickle down economics" or this current crisis. Plus, it's not like free-market-ers want to redistribute wealth from poor to rich. They want everyone to receive their market value, while at the same time having equal opportunity.
P.S. I forgot to say that Ron Paul is the shit, the the nth degree. Those of you blaming republicans; They didn't cause this. Those of you blaming Dems; They didn't cause this. You cannot actually believe that ONE American political party's decisions could possibly cause the meltdown of the World's financial system! Broaden your freakin' minds! How egocentric are you, really?
We got into this mess because as humans, we don't know what the hell is best for anyone.
I hope to Christ that he does intervene because I'm so sick of hearing my fellow man's bullshit reasoning skills. It's the same blame game time and time again, it's more than frustrating, it's redundant!
Peace everyone, I hope we at least get to party one last time together before the shit really does hit the fan!
Ron Paul is a Godless heathenistic DEVIL! Thanks to him we got Obama in power. Let me tell yall somethin, Ron Paul destroyed the Republican party, he is an anti-God phony Republican! Downsizing our military? Turning us into a weak state? Hallelujah, anyone who supports him is a phony!
It's strife like this that will doom America. You sit here, poking fun at Ron Paul and his followers, yet you cant even point to one SPECIFIC voting measure he supported that had direct influence on this failing economy. Armageddon is a troll.
Here are the facts: Bush was Hoover, and Obama will be our FDR. Many think that is a good thing, but FDR did way more harm then good. His government spending made the Great Depression last about 12 years longer than it needed to. So, get ready folks. The worse may be yet to come.
Here come the Paultards, the Paultards, the Paultards.
Someone on PrisonPlanet or Stormfront must have posted this article. lol
Ron Paul is a SON of SATAN! Hallelujah! He has bought this nation a one way ticket to HELL! We need a military and he crippled the Republican party by stealing the votes, had he supported McCain, Obama may have lost! Devils!
You are a complete idiot! The current stimulus package proposed would only make the situation worse be drowning state and local governments with money that they will surely misappropriate (as always) and take money away from the private sector. It is clear that the private sector is responsible for employing most of America and is also better at managing money. More money and more control in the hands of the government will most certainly put this country on a direct course to a socialist "government answers all" state. That's a fact. As it is, it is dangerous that the government already holds control over some of our financial institutions. No government body has ever proven to be efficient in running a business. What the hell makes any of you think that by taking more of our money and throwing it around amongst more government pork spending, will help us out of this mess? We apparently didn't learn a god damn thing from the Great Depression. Here we go again!
"....drowning state and local governments with money that they will surely misappropriate..."
-Since when is retaining firefighters and teachers a "misappropriation" of money.
"It is clear that the private sector is responsible for employing most of America and is also better at managing money."
-See current economy!!!
"We apparently didn't learn a god damn thing from the Great Depression. Here we go again!"
- Sure we did. We discovered that FDRs spending didn't go far enough during the Depression. That was corrected when our Fed. govt. started spending ten times the amount of money on WWII.
I Disagree with the author about Ron Paul, Ron is probably one of the few people who do get it, look where the 1st stimulus bill got us, a giveaway to Wall Street on the backs of the taxpayer, if we have a capitalist market then when a business fails it goes out of business and someone else takes its place. The only place government can help is to get the US out of free trade that has killed the American worker and was a major cause of the recession and that wont cost 900 billion to the taxpayer (maybe the Chinese government).
The Republicans had 8 years to "get it right". Boy did they fail. The majority of the public voted for Obama and he sits in the drivers seat now. So guess what folks, the stimulus package IS coming.And before a Republication jumps up and down about the vote. Remember, four years ago, that's exactly what the Republications said "Live with it". We did, now it's your turn, "Live with it". But no you just can't stand it...lol You are losing money...well you sucked off the backs of the hard working people too long and state for those of us who want to do better, you paint us as "liberals"....what a joke. Because we want the things that you have, but you want us suppressed because you don't want to share......well your childhood deprivations don't count anymore. Get over it!!! Think America and not about your greed!!!
Agreed. I bit vague on the last posters comments but, there is no doubt that the stimulus package has been completely misrepresented by the new administration which I actually voted for. This current stimulus package falls way short of controlling the current status of the economy. Credit markets and falling home prices are still the biggest problems affecting this economy. If they don't fix both of those problems first and foremost, these 800 billion will look like a drop in the bucket after a quarter of all small business in this country have to close their doors for lack of credit to run their business. This will only compound the housing crisis and as a result, bringing on what already seems to be inevitable considering the current talk coming out of Washington. I still haven't seen the so called New and Improved Bipartisan Washington. The Dems are pushing things down the throats of the Reps and the Reps are playing the only card they have to stall. Same old tricks by both sides. We will all loose if they don't rework this stimulus package to something that makes sense quickly. We are running out of time to fix the current situation. I run a profitable small business that employs 50 people. I have great credit and the books to carry it and no bank will give me a line of credit right now. I will be forced to cut my staff significantly and not be able to make much need additions in order to handle all of my new orders. This is going on all over the country! Meanwhile, our guys in Washington want to send money off to build more roads and fund senseless little pet projects that state and local governments won't be able to justify in the end. You cannot simply say that by passing this package you'll create new jobs without the realization that solid long standing companies are closing their doors every day and thus, millions more jobs will be lost. We are all getting screwed right now. Every last one of us! That's what Ron Paul is trying to say. And for the one who responded "look at current economy". The state of our current ecomonomy can be directly attributed to government pushing for more lax lending criteria to help boost first time home buyers who most of which had no business owning a home to begin with. Of course, you can thank the greedy bastards on Wall Street for taking advantage of that. Both are to blame. We aren't talking about Wall Street here. We are talking about hard working small business owners who will be the ones to save us from this hell. Government cannot and will not ever be the answer. I will challange anyone with the proper credentials to show me how they would help.
Same old tricks by both sides??? Well guess what, the last eight years of tricks have not worked and just ran out. Time to give room to fresh air.
If you think Republican's have "seen" the light in the last few weeks, you are sadly mistaken.
And for the record, I'm a registered independent. But you'll more than likely say I lean towards Democrat. Wrong answer SIDNEY, I voted Republican far more than Democratic. But I can gladly say, I didn't vote for GWB!!!
"The state of our current ecomonomy can be directly attributed to government pushing for more lax lending criteria to help boost first time home buyers who most of which had no business owning a home to begin with."
-I agree. However, I you go back and look at most of those bad first time home buyers, most would have never bought a home if the US still had the "The 1935Glass/Steagle Act" (sp?) in place. This Act was slowly dismantled during the Greenspan era (1987) and what was left, was pulled by Phil "A Nation of Whiners" Gramm (1999).
This (deregulation) was Reagan's main plank in what became known as The Reagan Revolution. This is the reason why all the pundits are claiming that the R.R. is dead.
The voters (with help from acorn and dead voters) "elected" a chicago THUG who has "rev" (goddamamerica) Wright as his mentor, Loooeeee (obamassiah) Fckngkhan as his friend, Bill (shoulda bombed more) Ayers-head as his ghost writer, and michelle (kill whitey) osamalama ding dong for a wife. Why is anyone surprised the slimey, kenyen sonofabitch is taking this opportunity to rape the u.s. taxpayers and goddam this nation?
The reason small businesses, car dealers and everyone else can't get access to credit is because the federal govt is sucking up all the available credit for their stimulus packages. There's no "Paradox of Savings" as the Keynesians would have you believe. The reality is that the savings of Americans are being appropriated by the Federal Govt to fund the stimulus plans. Ron Paul has been right about the economy all along. He and the Austrian economists like Rothbard, Ebeling, Reed et al have predicted this collapse for years. How many of you saw the article yesterday that China has liquidated 50% of the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac bonds they purchased over the last few years? The message is clear: The Chinese no longer care to buy our debt. This means Obama's Regime has only two choices: 1). Tax the American people to fund this spending plan or 2). Print lots of fiat dollars.
Either course is a disaster for the economy. Esp. #2 which will lead to double-digit inflation and the erosion of the savings of everyone. BTW, you can read about the Chinese dumping FM/FM by going to www.aier.org and look for Richard Ebeling's lastest piece on who will pay for Obama's spending plans. Finally, on MSNBC two weeks ago, Ron Paul said the best way out of this mess was for the Fed to step back and do nothing. He did admit that we would feel economic pain - that we were due for a correction that would be painful and would lower our standard of living to something like what we had in the 1960's. The MSNBC chatterboxes were aghast - and challenged the congressman on the remedy. His rejoinder was perfect telling them we had two choices: take the pain now and experience 1960's living standards or try and forestall things and end up with 1930's living standards. If I get to vote, I'll take the 1960's, thank you very much.
I'll admit: I don't get it. I do not understand how we will be helped by having a handful of people spending hundreds of trillions of dollars and putting us on the hook for it. Hey, if it works, why not spend a hundred quadrillion gajillion dollars? That would REALLY "boost the economy"! LMFAO.
Also, I think it's funny that some of you blame the republicans for this mess and then automatically assume that Ron Paul is equally to blame because he too is a republican. This guy is completely different from the republicans..he never supported Bush and the republicans in general hate him
Oh no , I voted for Obama, does that mean Im going to hell??!
Whose the kook with the bible babble?
I think the Republicans got us into this mess and they should all go to hell.
Ron Paul may not have the popular answer to the problem since the popular view is to pay rich people to help poor people. We learn it as "Trickle down" economics but the trickle is not enough when we need a waterfall. The problem is any bailout will not work! The peasants are broke and the elite are trying to pay themselves tax revenue from the peasants to help the peasants. The middle class is now extict thanks to greed and mis-aligned values that created the housing bubble. Actually, I guess if you go by McCains definition of middleclass, there are a few millionaires left to represent. So unless we want to officially roll the clock back to re-enter the middle ages, either house prices must fall or payrolls must see an increase to make the peasants whole again. Eliminate taxes in their current form and use a more capatilistic approach like a flat tax(since we can't imagine no taxation) with no deductions. Our Senate and congressional leaders should also be paid the median salary of the community they represent. They have no shortage of money, ask the real estate mogul McCain. Inflation will eventually make the cost of goods re-align with the over inflated cost of housing, pay better be there too or the first wave of forclosures will look like a girl scout cookie sale. When inflation is running wild, where is money safe? Gold or other commodities, Hmmm, maybe Ron Paul isn't so wing nutted after all.
I aint no kook, ya heathen, you Ron Paul supporters have bought this nation a one way ticket to HELL!
When will Americans ever 'get' it?!?!?!!!!! You elect mostly lawyers and you get a deeply litigious society, and not much more. That's what you've asked for! That's what you got. If you had wanted the economic situation to be improved, why you would have elected economists. Is that not true? But you didn't...so learn to live with your decision and deal with it.
Okay folks, I am so sick of this, and honestly this is a pretty easy thing to grasp. Please quit pointing the fingers at the other guys and listen up.
We have a financial meltdown currently underway. The number of jobs that have been lost and are projected to be lost based on the latest economic information puts one out of five Americans out of work. We are headed toward 20% unemployment, and if you haven't felt it yet, you will soon enough.
What the President is trying to do is a three pronged attack on resolving this issue. The first wave were the bank bailouts meant to solidify the banking industry and despite some gross mismanagement and greed this has worked. Banks are still failing, but the numbers are far more manageable at the moment.
The second prong of this attack is geared directly to the citizenship of the US. The Stimulus Package is designed to provide short term relief and to artificially prop up the economy. It is not meant to fix anything other than insure that as many people as possible are given an opportunity to contribute, and provide for their families. The best analogy for this is something akin to jumping a car battery, it doesn't fix a thing, but it gets you moving.
The third prong of this attack will target the toxic assets that are currently clogging up our financial system, and reinstating confidence in our economy. I have no idea what is coming with regards to this issue, but I sense that the government is going to take these toxic assets from the banks. This will level set the banking industry and put them in a positive cash flow position minus the income that was once generated from real estate income.
The last attack will resolve our financial crisis, but it will take years for our economy to recover from this spill. Intelligent expenditures in infrastructure spending and investing in our people power will shave years off of our recovery.
As to the notion that recalling troops from Afghanistan and Iraq will help the economy - this is sad because I think they need to be withdrawn - but those two wars are propping up a lot of businesses right now. I feel disgusted even saying that, but from an economic perspective the two wars are an economic stimulus for an entire sector of employers. Monstrous comment I know, but there is a reason Greed is considered a deadly sin.
Peace people!
Rick Beagle
President Obama and his economic team, and even the entire political class in this country, are suffering from collective myopic vision in viewing and tackling the current economic downturn. 2009 is not 1932 but they are trying to apply 1930's prescription to tackle the 2009 problems when the country had undergone a sea-change in its economic activities during the intervening seven decades. During the earlier era, almost everything this country's population needed - even articles like bedspreads, towels, pillowcases, children's clothes and toys, etc. - were manufactured within the country. Today nearly 90 per cent of the items sold in WalMart and Target stores come from China and elsewhere. Add to them all the consumer electronics, computer hardware, home furniture, etc. Any money which will be put in the hands of the general population by way of tax cuts and rebates will straightaway go into purchase of goods manufactured in other countries and will, possibly, ameliorate the economic situation in China, Mexico and other countries and certainly not here. The manufacturing jobs that had gone overseas are gone for good; they will never come back, let us have no illusions about it. No amount of exhortations, like King Canute commanding the tide to stop from coming in, will bring them back. This country, at the prevailing per hour labor costs, cannot afford to manufacture most of the everyday items and even other more expensive durable goods within its borders any more. This applies also equally to the services sector like software development and maintenance and other IT enabled services. The American worker is, of course, more productive than his counterpart in China or India but the advantage from higher productivity certainly does not compensate fully for the factor of 4 or 5 times increase in labor cost. The corporations in this country outsource their products and services from China and India not out of any particular love and affection for the Chinese and the Indians but because that is the only way they can compete and survive in the global trade and commerce.
Economists who draw parallels between the 1930's Depression with today's recession are rather loath to acknowledge the most vital difference between the two era. It is an unpleasant fact - but it is still a fact - that, despite the saintly FDR's valiant efforts to revive the economy, the Depression would have prolonged its ugly reign well into the 1940's and beyond but for the sudden simultaneous appearance of three other not-so-saintly actors on the world stage. It was the evil trio of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and General Tojo who, by plunging the world in a world war, brought a sudden end to the depression in a weird, cataclysmic way. The Allied war effort which created a demand for enormous numbers and quantities of weapons, ships, aircraft and munitions and other war supplies, together with the compulsory military service call-ups of eligible adults, opened up employment opportunities for men and women, which did not exist before. But, today, we are not in such (bad) luck. Even the Russian bear has gone into hibernation and the Chinese dragon has also stopped spitting fire towards Taiwan and is content with making and exporting Barbie dolls and baby diapers to the US and elsewhere. Thus, there are no likely contenders for starting a global conflagration in the near or distant future. All other miscreants like Iran or North Korea are no more than just miscreants and are capable of causing only some easily stoppable nuisance . Hence, the active ingredient that played a major role in stopping the Great Depression in its track is not available today.
There should, therefore, be a completely revolutionary change in the mindset of the "experts" who are now entrusted with the task of lifting the country out of the economic morass into which it has fallen. Otherwise, the trillion+ dollars of the stimulus plan will inevitably go down the drain.
The one thing that all of you on this blog seem to miss is that regardless of wether you are a democrat or republican, we will all suffer if this stimulus package isn't revamped. The current pundents are pushing this as the cure or solution to the problem to those who don't know any better. They have not come clean on how exactly this package will help, who it will "specifically" help and how much will it cost us in the future. Yes, we must past something but, to pass anything for the sake of it is madness. Let's stop talking about who is to blame because that will not get us back on track. Also, most if not all the money and jobs that will be saved in this current package will be government associated ones. Yes, state and federal government employs a hell of a lot of people. However, these same people will make you believe that if this doesn't happen, those jobs and programs will be lost. Fact is, they are scarring us into steering the money back into their own grubby govt hands and leu of employing fire fighters on police officers. So, we have enough money to run silly little pet project social programs but, have to fire a bunch of fire fighters cause local governments can't afford to operate. People, please, all of you! Educate yourselves about this package. It is not what they are claiming it to be. Your homes will not be saved. Your employer will not retain you or give you a raise if he cannot get credit from their bank. Only way to save the economy at this point is to sure up the housing market and getting credit back into the hands of small businesses so they can continue manufacturing and creating growth. The government is not our friend. Think of the government as the corner drug dealer who gets you hooked on drugs by handing them out at first to only then wait for you to ask for more...There will be no turning back after this. Open you freaking eyes
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