Thursday, April 28, 2011

Where Are We-?

Like that hoary olde joke about the Fugawi tribe... I sense Americans are asking each other "Where Are We-?" and even more importantly "Where Are We Going-?"

I suppose we need t ask "Where Have We Been-?" Lyle Lovett once sang "You've got to look at what you've been thru to see what you've become"... That's us.

We are uncertain. We voted for "Change" but never knew we were signing up for "Fundamental Change to American society"... We got both, in varying degrees. Now we can only "Hope" that we can find ourselves and a way out. We are not like we were. The path we're on has never been done by anyone in the real world. Only academics, enjoying govt funding, have professed the collectivisation and re-distribution of wealth as a sustainable model. Even then, they assume humans are closer to angels than our own selfish, self-interested nature.

The TARP plan was flawed, but we faced a crisis of confidence in our financial institutions. Pres. Bush doubled down and requested the rest of the funds so that Pres. Obama could have flexibilty as needed. Pres. Obama then got the Stimulus Package and added bits of money. My memory-guess is approx $1.4 Trillion. How much has been spent-? We don't know. The rabbit holes got filled with cash. Some 200,000+ new federal employees were hired to monitor where it went.

I'm a simple guy. It seems to me that handing out $1 Million, tax-free to 1,400,000 (one million four hundred thousand) people chosen at random would have done more for the country.

People would have bought a lot of stuff; new cars, houses, furniture, started new businesses, paid down credit cards and so on. Plus No New Federal, State, County or Municipal employees would have been hired. So, our costs into the future would have been lower. The strings attached ar just beginning to be felt. They now hurt the states who took the poisoned money.

I'm tired and confused by all the funny numbers being batted around. I'm one of those who wants to know what's behind the numbers and what are the assumptions. we're not getting the TRUTH. Every set of numbers has a different source of actuals and different set of assumptions about the future. I've always believed that Revenue Forecasts are Promises. Expense Projections are Commitments. The revenue numbers are too rosy. The expense projections are short on details.

We owe money. We have NO way to pay it back. In business, that would be cause for great alarm. When a company files bankruptcy and you asked the owners/managers "What Happened-?" almost invariably they say "We Ran Out Of Time". Unless we recognize our problems; we will run out of time. when a person, business or country is stretched this thin, they lack any flexibility to act should an emergency arise.

Over 47% of US citizens pay no taxes.
Only 2% of those who do pay taxes pay over 56% of all our bills.
Over 50% of all of us, receive some type of check from the government.

We don't have a sustainable business model...
IOW, We are in deep _______ and know no way out of this mess.

We even refuse to believe we're in trouble.

So, should those who worry stock the bomb shelter and hunker down while we away the inevitable-? If we wait for those who say "Nope, No Problems" now to say "Oh S---!" won't it cost us a heck of a lot more-?

No business deserves to stay in business longer than it's value to its customers.

No country lasts forever.

What do we choose for our future-?


I'm thinking it's time for some more change. Hope alone is not gonna get us out of this mess.

Marxism Fails
You can't re-distribute what hasn't been collected because there is none to collect.

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