Posted on 05/13/2009 1:56:22 PM PDT by Conservative Coulter Fan
America is more than a country; it is the ideal of liberty. In economic terms, liberty translates into the entrepreneurial spirit of hard work, risk taking and self-reliance. And this spirit has made America rich beyond compare.
Unfortunately, over the past four decades, much has been undone. Under the guise of a new, “social” justice, political leaders have turned our native ethics upside down. Profit-taking is now seen as gouging; success is greed; businessmen are predators. This creeping socialist transformation of our culture has finally broken the back of the American economy.
The definitive fork in the road occurred in August 1971, when President Nixon ended the U.S. dollar’s link to gold. The move allowed the U.S. government to issue money without the restraint imposed by gold-backed currency. For most countries, this would have unleashed a wave of monetary inflation and, consequently, skyrocketing prices. But, since the dollar remained the world’s reserve currency, foreign central banks were compelled to subsidize U.S. expenditure, and our inflation was exported overseas.
With global funding secured, Congress offered increasingly generous entitlements to an increasingly dependent population. This has resulted in the decay of America’s productive sectors and a massive depletion of accumulated wealth. Now, socialist America subsists on the whims of the capitalist powers of the East. American consumption is dependent on loans from nations who just 40 years ago were economic afterthoughts.
Rather than dissipating their wealth through spending and borrowing, these economies have undertaken the difficult work of wealth creation. Though nominally Communist, China has become an intensely pragmatic state. While Americans have grown complacent about their liberty, China has quietly, but with determination, expanded economic liberty: courts are becoming more efficient, land reform has introduced private ownership, and obstacles to entrepreneurship are decreasing.
Many countries, such as China and Japan, which export massively to the United States, resist converting their U.S. dollar surpluses into domestic currencies. They fear that, in doing so, they will force up their own currency relative to the U.S. dollar, making their exports less competitive. Therefore, they invest the bulk of their surpluses in “secure” U.S. Treasury bonds, satisfying America’s appetite for imports and entitlements.
But this logic is economically flawed. Through their actions, Asian governments are transferring their citizens’ wealth to the United States. When a Chinese business exports to the U.S., the dollars earned are exchanged in a Chinese bank for local currency. Those dollars are then recycled by the Chinese Central Bank to buy U.S. Treasuries. America then creates more dollars (inflation) so that it can redeem those outstanding Treasuries. This mechanism props up the dollar and holds down the RMB. As a result, the Chinese are poorer and America richer. Unfortunately, many Asian governments are still too collectivist to cease robbing their citizens. If they would do so tomorrow, America would feel the full effects of years of federal profligacy at once.
What happens when half a century of socialism catches up with the “shining city on a hill”? Start with America losing its Triple-A credit rating, then the dollar free-falling, then interest rates rising into double-digits as a last-ditch effort to restore faith, which may lead to civil unrest — and certainly widespread misery.
Already the credibility of the U.S. dollar is being questioned by producer states. Any loss of its privileged “reserve” status would result in rapid diversification out of the U.S. dollar and U.S. Treasuries. In short order, the inflation gingerly spread around the world by the U.S. government would come back home to roost.
The outlook for the U.S. economy appears increasingly bleak. The final window for self-imposed reform has been forsaken, as both Democrats and Republicans have chosen to magnify the mistakes of the past. Huge investment losses experienced by investors worldwide may have forever tarnished the luster of U.S. stocks. Meanwhile, the threat of inflation and bank failure has discouraged domestic savings. Americans looking to preserve their wealth are turning to precious metals, commodities, and foreign shares denominated in the currencies of surplus countries.
Even in its most successful incarnations, socialism is a drag on a successful market economy. The U.S. has been able to have socialist entitlements within a relatively free-market only because the costs were borne by foreigners. But as the global economy strains under increasing weight, look for those funders to begin tending their own gardens.
This U.S. economy is now a runaway train, and anyone who has the courage to look out the window will likely want off. Short of the imposition of U.S. exchange controls (as during the last depression), American investment funds will flow toward countries that fuel their economies with America’s depleted resource: liberty.
Something about Cloward-Piven or something...
The dessire for big government to stabilize the lives of Main Street Americans has been growing ever since the global pump and dump approach to business cycle took hold in the US in the 1980’s. There is an old Asian saying - “king is a boat and the people is like the sea, if the boat creates too much turbulance, the sea will sink the boat.” Wall Street and corporate America has been like the boat. At the macro level economics, constant change (technology, off shoring jobs, mergers/buyouts, leverage speculation followed by bankruptcy) which have been great for the GDP and profits also have played havoc on the average working man and his psyche. Our population is growing older, and careers are harder to restart everytime people are laid off due to financial decisions made by Wall Street. After September 2008 (the straw that broke the back of faith in capitalism) he does not care if it is capitalism versus socialism, Republican vs Democrat, all he care for is who will look out for his interests. Obama has skillfully played and acted to his interests. Conservatives are hampered by their own ideology to even respond to the social/psychological issues created by a free wheeling pump and dump economy.
bookmark.
We are dying of democracy and universal suffrage. It’s always fatal.
Absolutely...I don’t see why it is wrong to express the opinion that perhaps citizens ought to have to pass a literacy test or an I.Q. test in order to vote...maybe it isn’t a bad idea that only property owners should vote (more cautious with this one). They should definitely have to prove citizenship....and show an I.D., if they don’t vote because of that...so what!
Ping!
Only taxpayers should be allowed to vote.
Thanks for these quotes. Maybe it’s time for another McCarthy. McCarthyism set communism back over 60 years. The same could be done with socialism.
The outlook for the U.S. economy appears increasingly bleak. The final window for self-imposed reform has been forsaken, as both Democrats and Republicans have chosen to magnify the mistakes of the past.
The outlook is not bleak . It is far worse than that. The U.S. is Bankrupt and running on Chinese Capital. You know it’s over when your country would be nothing without communists funding you. So keep on spending Obama. Watch the Great United States sink and disappear under a sea of debt you SOB !
Only taxpayers should be allowed to vote.
Only veterans should be allowed to vote.
Universal suffrage is the problem and the more government teat suckers we get the worse things will become.
Politicians on both sides of the aisle are more interested in the teat sucker votes than they are our votes. This is evident by just watching the current GOP "leaders" in action. The liberals have just been at it longer.
Property owners who are investors currently face a massive taxation without representation issue as do incorporated businesses. Voting should be apportioned by the number of residential apartments or the equivalent single family residence valuation times the value of the investment in the property for a given political division. It would equalize out the disparities and end the welfare state.
I agree with all those quotes. I am expressing the realities of the street. People are scare and tire of the violent ups and downs, and now the total collapse of free market economy drivened by Wall Street. Tell a UAW worker that the deficits will kill the economy in the future, he will tell you that the bailout deal kept his parents pensions and health benefits intact, otherwise would have been lost in a traditional lawful bankruptcy. He will take what he can get today and will worry about tommorow if it comes. The rest of the country feels the same way. What conservative are dealing with is not a political barrier, but rather a social psychological tensions created by the culmination of a free wheeling Wall Street drivened economy that finally broke public confidence on September 2008. Obama understands this sentiment and that is why he is declaring war on Wall Street banks, corporate CEO, hedge funds, credit card companies, etc, etc. If people are truly concern about free market system, they would not be giving BO a 66 percent approval rating.
- UAW Workers Actually Cost the Big Three Automakers $70 an Hour.
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