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7/31/11

Of Great Social and Political Import

A stopped clock is right twice a day...

American Exceptionalism, Individualism, Mutual Help will restore us.

The progressive peddlers of programs and tea party tinkerers of taxes are locking horns in Washington DC and personally I don't subscribe to either major political party's agenda. My belief is neither side is acting in the best interest of the American people but merely serving their own purposes. I keep hearing a variation on the statement "they are trying to drive us back to the pre-Depression era." 'They' being I suppose that enigmatic collaboration of tea party, Republicans and conservatives and the complaint coming from liberals who have redressed themselves as progressives. My first thought is I wonder if anyone has considered that the programs of the Great Depression may be what got us into the Disruption Depression we are in today? That and consumerism.

There is a ridiculous headline in the Wall Street Journal "Slow Growth Stirs Recession Fears." Recession? What!? A recession implies a bump in the road and what we're experiencing is far larger than a recession. Statistics can be manipulated anyway someone wants but the reality is our credit rating will be downgraded regardless of any machinations of the Administration, US Treasury, Congress or Wall Street. There are two systemic problems that cannot be ignored by printing money. We are overleveraged as individuals and so is our government and additionally unemployment has become structural. Therefore if people are not able to productively earn money then debt cannot be paid off and will be repudiated.

We never pulled out of the recession in 2009 as some economists would have us believe, merely suspended it. Paul Krugman of the New York Times can rename this the "Little Depression," after all the damage he has done promoting the excessive printing of money, but the bottom line is we are heading for a long decade of economic restructuring and rebuilding. We will have both stagnation and hyper-inflation more endemic than the US in the seventies and Japan in the nineties. If you take the political and bureaucratic classes in DC and the financiers in New York seriously and rely on them for a solution then the joke is on you. They don't have a clue or care about anything west of I-95 and are concerned only with protecting their own self-interests.

In the long term I believe American Exceptionalism and Individualism is alive and well, although buried just beneath the surface, it is burgeoning resurrection. That ideal will be the ultimate resolution to the death of consumerism by technological and economic disruption and is a great thing. We will relearn and return to what it means to be innovative and creative and produce unique and valuable goods that are useful for the new era. It will take time and hard work. The sooner people recognize that reality we will be prepared to move forward. What our government is doing now is pure folly and nonsensical and you can't make sense out of a nonsensical situation. They are postponing the inevitable by trying to revive a dead concept, the old economy.

The American people must relearn to work for themselves. If it is for an employer they need to embrace the concept of being a free agent and not love an employer because they won't love you back. Americans should accept we are not entitled to anything except what we create by reinventing our lives and subsequently recreating the country. It is about our individual responsibility to take care of ourselves and mutual help with each other. The government cannot simulate or stimulate real people doing real things only real Americans can do that.

7 comments:

  1. I will confess, I am secretly hoping for a default. Not because I'm totally ignorant to the consequences of such an event, but because the American people need a good swift kick in the pants, as well as, a slap across both cheeks.
    Our government will put off the inevitable as long as possible, the masses must feel the pain to learn, I'm afraid.

    As you mention in your blog, we need to move away from mass consumption, but rather, focus our efforts on creation and investment. One obstacle I see is, Americans have been very conditioned to consume now, pay later, they are all too willing to keep feeding the monster... this brings me back to hoping for a default. By force, Americans will learn a new way. ;)

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  2. I totally agree with you Maryann. I'm not only hoping for a default, I think it's inevitable, we're technically insolvent already. No QEIII, that is being discussed now, can prevent it. Neither do I think we're alone in thinking that a default will force the American people to deal with feeding the monster. I know too many people and get too many comments that basically say that.

    It's as if we're having a heart attack and telling the doctors "no, no, no, wait until I can smoke another cigarette" before being treated. It's just crazy. It's an unfortunate fact of life that people have gotten hooked and the only way is to force many of them off the drug of consumption and "buy now and pay later."

    Creative and innovative people will always invest in themselves and each other to rise above at the end of the day. Thanks for commenting. ;~}

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  3. Another excellent post JR, we do need a default it's the only way the lesson will be taught.We have to balance our own budgets, and they can't even do that. The spending is out of control, and they are addicted to it,just like crack, makes them out of touch with reality.I wish people would pay attention to history, and how parallel we are to the Wiemar Republic.

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  4. Deb I think even with Obama and Congressional leaders making a "deal" tonight it's still going to have a bumpy road through Congress. If it does go through I think your original comment on G+ still stands, either way we're our credit rating is going to be downgraded. That will be the beginning of withdrawal from their addiction. I think even some politicians will be so disgusted with the idea of a "deal" that they will start introducing bills to cut entitlements or vote against other legislation.

    The progressives are wrong about programs and taxing the rich and the conservative activists are wrong about taxes. The problem isn't raising taxes, it is our entire tax structure that needs to be revamped, they're fighting the wrong thing when they argue about "not raising taxes." They need to be thinking smarter, considering a restructure the whole tax code to a simplified three tier flat tax or anything to get rid of everyone's loopholes, including mortgage deductions but they're afraid to "go there."

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  5. JR The deal doesn't change things we are still in debt, and handing out to many entitlements, we are going to be downgraded one way or another.The Progressives have been the problem hiding behind a R or D.Most of the Liberals are so called Progressive Elites, with their social justice, that puts more restraints on our freedoms,in their mind we know nothing,we got it all wrong,do as I say not as I do politics.All I can say is we haven't seen the worst of it yet, bad times are coming.

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  6. Deb...I agree with you and hard times are already here for some people, harder times are coming and will filter up in society. The politicians who have made this Deal are just the Top Dogs of their useless parties and the little dogs will argue over the details. It still means nothing though, they're arguing over nothing, it's a foregone conclusion, the collapse is inevitable.

    I'm a lifelong student of history, particularly the 20th Century. I know the history of the Progressive Movement since the early 1900s. I know what happened after WWI, the 20s, 1929, the 30s, 1937, WWII, 1973, 1987 and yes, the Weimar Republic and Argentina.

    We're in the 21st Century, disrupted by a new technology and in the US. How this plays out will follow many patterns of history not just one. There's always a variation and the Exceptionalism of America and our people will factor in...the only thing certain is the status quo will not continue no matter how much they try to preserve it.

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  7. I totally agree with you JR :-)

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