Sunday, April 6, 2008

The reasons behind all the problems we have: The collapse of America in a nutshell

Never before have our lives moved so quickly, the earth been so highly populated, the rich been this powerful and the world so small. Never before have the stakes been greater for our immediate future and never before has our democratic society been as powerless. We live in a two party system which is a result of a number of factors, but two stand out more than others: Money and Media. And don’t take this lightly; it’s this power structure, the two party system, which is literally leading our country straight to its demise, serving the interests of only a few. Now money and media, what does that mean? Well if you haven’t noticed, the privately owned media outlets in this country, which are nearly all of them, really only cover the two main political parties, save for the occasional brief mention of a third party candidate. And this is intentional, it isn’t by chance. There are vast amounts of wealth concentrated in the hands of a small minority of this country’s population, who have economic and political interests in seeing the republicans and democrats in office, who are really one party, but I’ll get to that in a bit, and neither represents the majority of the people who vote for them. Unsurprisingly some of the wealthiest people on this planet are American media moguls. And just so it’s said, political favor is a two way street, and it’s no coincidence that the wealthiest members of this society have received the greatest in tax breaks over the last 30 years, while capitalism has been almost completely deregulated in that time. You’ve heard of media bias? Well there’s your bias.

The world has become a very hostile place. Some would say it’s always been that way, and for the most part they’d be right. Others might claim that it’s all that ever will be. One thing we can all agree on is the world doesn’t have to be this way, not if we went about things a bit differently. We tend not to tell our stories from the beginning and there are great misconceptions out there on a number of issues where a great deal of life is at stake.

I’m talking of course about issues such as imperialistic warfare, environmental degradation, climate change, special interests, campaign financing, political corruption, the two party system, the rich getting richer while the poor, well, you know. I’m talking about the whole picture, not just bits and pieces, and there is a common thread that ties all these issues together.

At the forefront of all our problems is the economic structure of this country, and I’m not talking capitalism here. Capitalism is different than what we are currently experiencing. We have now entered a state of fascism, it’s just that the current players are different from their historical counterparts. Go Wiki the term when we’re done and you’ll see the correlation.

We don’t live in a complete dictatorship, but as citizens we don’t really have any power.

We elect politicians into office who promise to fight for the man, only to stick it to him once there.

Further our President, while not officially a dictator, has effectively operated as one internationally and domestically, waging an imperialistic war without required congressional declaration, using fear and deception to get his way and infringing on the privacy of our citizens through such unpatriotic acts as the patriot act. We live in a very controlling society, and that’s mostly because our political options are greatly limited.

The American democratic system is broken. Dominated by a two party structure of wealthy elite our system of politics has been overcome by the rich. There are more than two points of view to every argument, but that’s no longer true in this country, not when there are only two dominate political parties in possession of any real power. And what really separates the republicans in office from the democrats? There are a few talking point issues which rarely come into play, but by and large these are wealthy individual politicians who receive lavish fringe benefits in their elected positions, who talk a good game but put profit over social responsibility time and again, looking out for the interests of businesses who contribute to their campaigns and members of their fellow social class, not the interests of you and I. Make no mistake, politics is economics, and everything in this world revolves around money. We American people are not being represented by our politicians, we are being exploited, and the future of our society lies dangerously in the balance.

Back to the economic factors contributing to our democracy’s demise. This fascist capitalism which has driven our economy into this recession, which will most likely lead to an economic depression, nearly 10 trillion dollars in debt already against the gold standard due to an exploitative Federal Reserve, growing at nearly a billion and a half dollars in debt per day, this type of irresponsible controlling fascist capitalism by some of the wealthiest members of our society threatens more than democracy.

Now for a brief examination of the Federal Reserve, how the wealthy are made and who holds the ability to shape politics in this country.

Now why is our economy in so much trouble and what factors are contributing to this? Well to begin with, the Federal Reserve is a network of privately owned banks which run the centralized banking system, which our government has put in charge of creating currency, albeit that wasn’t the original intent of the Federal Reserve act of 1913. The Federal Reserve was originally created as a safety defense mechanism against bank runs, which occur when too many people at once wish to exchange hard currency for gold, a problem only because banks lend out much more money than they actually possess, and currency we tend to forget is based off gold reserves. By creating an interlinking network of banks which could cover for one another in the event of a run, unless all banks are run simultaneously, the centralized banking system essentially insures itself against being run. However there is an offshoot effect to this. Because of this network an economic loophole was created. The Federal Reserve serves as an economic safety net for all banks to pool from, but at the same time, since bank runs are a rarity, banks have exploited this resource and used it to loan out many more times the amount of money they can actually account for, banking on the fact they won’t all be run at once. Think of it this way: The dollars you and I trade in the marketplace are worth only as much gold as there is to back them with. There isn’t enough gold in the Federal Reserve to account for the cash in the marketplace.

So where does money come from and why are we in so much debt? Well prepare for a shocker. Money is created whenever a person takes out a loan from a bank. You’re not actually borrowing money from the bank per se, but are borrowing it against the national debt. This is because banks lend out much more money than they actually have, a la the Federal Reserve. Let’s say you get approved for a loan to buy a house. After being approved the bank literally creates this money out of thin air and charges you with the responsibility of repaying it to the government. The bank keeps the free interest it did nothing to earn, other than being well connected, and most of the money is eventually repaid back to the government, save for the $10 trillion or so that hasn’t been. That’s $10 trillion dollars more in currency than we have gold to back it with, because banks have exploited the system and put the worth of the dollar in peril.

Now let’s take it a step further, just what does all this mean, besides an enormous debt which threatens literally to destroy our economy? Well by having a system which for all practical purposes creates free fortunes for those fortunate enough to be born into wealthy banking families, there is a small portion of this society that is doing nothing to earn their keep, simply given a free ride through life along with the power to shape politics, leeching off the backs of the masses. You’ve heard of money as power? Money is power and the system is set up to keep the rich wealthy. These super powerful Americans are then able to take their free wealth and use it shape politics, assuring that the democrats and republicans in Washington are well kept for preserving their fortunes and the system which sustains this.

What we have here is an unsustainable economy run by the wealthy, supporting a two party system which assures the wealthy continuous wealth. It’s like we’re at a ball or some fancy dinner left on the outside looking in, or worse yet, charged with making the meal, and blamed whenever something goes wrong, despite the fact we wanted nothing to do with the stupid ball in the first place.

That is the reason America we have so many problems. The rich have exploited our economy and driven it to the brink of ruin. And the ignorant label me a communist or socialist for such sentiment without understanding the power of the propaganda they’re coming to that conclusion through. Most are headed for a rude awakening. Not me though, I’ve seen this train wreck coming for a while.

Voting for a democrat or republican is voting for the rich. Now that is throwing a vote away.