TRANSFORMING THE ECONOMY -- The Ownership Society: Score One For Bush!

Iconoclast ^ | by R. Bastiat

[Apolitical]

George W. Bush's remarkable vision of an "Ownership Society" was perhaps the one fresh, bold, and exciting idea to emerge from the 2004 presidential campaign, and it clearly struck a responsive chord with the American electorate.

In a novel twist on the usual top-down, government-centered themes that previous chief executives have employed to define their presidencies -- the New Deal, the Fair Deal, the New Frontier, the Great Society -- Bush actually proposed a radical bottom-up, people-centered philosophy to guide the agenda for his second term. Its liberating message is clear and pointed:

Return control of their lives to individuals and families, and get the government off their backs!

[Toddsterpatriot]

Bubble inflated by the accumulation of over $1.5 TRILLION in National Debt.

Yawn.

U.S. household wealth stands at a record $51 trillion.

[KwasiOwusu]

"Bubble inflated by the accumulation of over $1.5 TRILLION in National Debt"

No bubbles.
Just pure, solid, economic performance.
The bubble you want to talk about is the Klinton Internet bubble, which proceeded to collapse at the end of the Klinton regime.
If anything the Bush economy is set for even more solid performance in President Bush's second term.
As for debts, you can't fight TWO wars against terrorist regimes and take out two terrorist regimes without debt.
That has always been the case in history

[Willie Green]

As for debts, you can't fight TWO wars against terrorist regimes and take out two terrorist regimes without debt.

Who are you trying to BS?
Dubya hasn't spent over $1.5 trillion fighting terrorism.

[KwasiOwusu]

"Dubya hasn't spent over $1.5 trillion fighting terrorism"

He doesn't have to.
Its part of what contributes to the deficit.
Give me the total cost (including defense spending increases, plus the special amounts voted by congress for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus huge extra homeland security bills and costs, plus the reduction in Federal government revenues brought n by the recession brought on by the 9/11 attacks etc etc) and you find yourself dealing with serious budget shortfalls.

Add in the vital tax cuts which are what saved us from the recession in the first place, and we are there already.
I'd much rather have the sizzling economic performance that we have now, with over 4.2 million jobs created, 4.2 GDP growth, home ownership at record levels, company profits at record level, etc etc, than have a recession any day.

[basil]

That's funny!

[Liz]

"Return control of our lives to individuals and families, and get the government off our backs."

We gotta get that on a tee shirt.

[SierraWasp]

WARNING: Government may be hazardous to your health!!!

Offa our backs and outta our faces!!!

[Kevin OMalley]

As posted in the article, "Bushonomics: FDR in Reverse?" :


I think George Bush has read and bought into Garrett Harding's "The Tragedy of the Commons". You can find some interesting interaction in a Freeper article, "Economics for Ecologists" and even Harding's article posted here. There is also, "The Commons and the Tragedy of Banking". I will try to bump these articles so that we can have a cool thread.

This is a rather sophisticated implementation of ownership society in the financial realm.

What I wonder is, how can I take advantage of this? If one were to KNOW beforehand how significant individual home ownership would have been in, say, Las Angeles, one could have bought wholesale land dirt cheap and cashed in for several generations. So where's the dirt cheap financial land we can buy and cash in on this trend?

[Toddsterpatriot]

There is nothing funny about constipation. You ever hear about Willie Green laughing? Or smiling?

[basil]

Now that I think of it---NO!

I often wonder if the guy has a little black cloud over his head wherever he goes.

[Toddsterpatriot]

I often wonder if the guy has a little black cloud over his head wherever he goes.

1rudeboy found this picture of little Willie.

[Toddsterpatriot]

I often wonder if the guy has a little black cloud over his head wherever he goes.

1rudeboy found this picture of little Willie.

[blabs]

Ownership society? Haha!! Ha! HaHahahahahaha! Hoo! Heeheeehee!

The only ownership in this society is the government owning you and you owing the government.

Wake Up! You people are delusional. Sheep led to the slaughter. Tares ready for the sickle.

This "ownership" society is a joke! Don't pay your taxes and see who owns who. What do you think you're number is for? Don't pay your property tax and see what you own. You're a top hat, sitting on park place avenue next to a posh hotel in a losing game of monopoly.

The only way the US will ever become an ownership society is when we retake our birthright, first in abolishing the "Federal" Reserve (aka Privately Owned Bank) and reclaiming the power of coinage and the creation of real backed currency, and second reigning in the unbridled power of an unrepresentative, unconstitutional government.

Until that happens, you'll just get more cooked up schemes to rob you of what little you truly "own". Now run off, be a good consumer, and take joy in what little freedom you are "allowed".

[Paperdoll]

>Exactly what Reagan preached. The very essence of conservatism.<

Say one thing, do another. Keep the people off balance. Fool many, enrage the few, I say. Apparently GWB is no Ronald Reagan. Reagan was a man of his word. Dubya has that yet to prove.

[Fritzy]

We just keep forgetting that we are the government.. we keep acting like the government is an entity to itself.. which we must fight... it is OUR money... our elected officials.. if we chose to let the "government" be the leader.. it is sort of like the tail wagging the dog... we have allowed this for over a hundred years... at some point we will have to have a huge uprising... to establish a government by the people...Bush may be on the right track.. but we still have to convince the citizens.. I really get rankled when I hear about how much "the Government" is sending to help the victims of the Tsunami... it is the American people who are sending this... our money.. our interest in being responsive world citizens.. then the Government turns around and suggest that we give the people's Tsunami dollars to an entity that is hounded by major financial questions.. I would rather give it to United Way of America.. they are documented shysters...what in the world am I not getting here?

[Toddsterpatriot]

The only way the US will ever become an ownership society is when we retake our birthright, first in abolishing the "Federal" Reserve (aka Privately Owned Bank) and reclaiming the power of coinage and the creation of real backed currency, and second reigning in the unbridled power of an unrepresentative, unconstitutional government.

Who owns the Federal Reserve? Does it pay dividends? Who collects them?

[macrahanish #1]

I wouldn't be so distrustful of the Patriot Act if it was accompanied by a corresponding tightening of our sieve-like borders.
I'm afraid the lax border and container ship security will allow an attack on the US, and those in charge, rather than tightening the borders, will implement more coercive anti-freedom legislation. For our own safety, of course(sarcasm).

[blabs]

The Federal Reserve System is an entity unto itself. The Fed's largest member banks are

* Chase Manhatten Bank
* Citibank
* Morgan Guaranty Trust Company
* Fleet Bank
* Bankers Trust
* Bank of New York
* Marine Midland Bank, and
* Summit Bank.

The Federal Reserve "System" is controlled by the Board of Governors (the Board) and the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).

The law does not permit the stock of a Federal Reserve Bank to be traded publicly like the stock of a typical corporation. The original Federal Reserve Act called for each regional Bank to sell stock to raise at least $4 million to begin operations. The stock was to be sold only to banks, not to the public. Only in the event that sales to member banks did not raise the necessary $4 million would the regional Fed Banks be permitted to sell shares to the public. However, all Banks raised the requisite amount of capital.

No stock in any Federal Reserve Bank has ever been sold to the public

The Federal Reserve rebates over 95% of it's profits into the Treasury, which it has been doing since 1947

My turn to ask a question. How can we owe almost 8 Trillion dollars in interest on money's lent to the US goverment by the Federal Reserve?

This should be good...

[Toddsterpatriot]

How can we owe almost 8 Trillion dollars in interest on money's lent to the US goverment by the Federal Reserve?

We owe 8 trillion dollars in interest? How do you get that number?

[blabs]

Yeah, let me rephrase that question.

How can we owe 8 Trillion dollars + Interest to the Federal Reserve for monies lent to the US Government?