On Borrowed Time

So the debt ceiling just got raised to almost $15,000,000,000,000 - an almost incomprehensible sum, a ludicrous sum, an amount so high that I'm getting spasms just thinking about it. Whose idea was this? "Well boys and girls we're in a lot of debt, and the economy is in the shitter, what shall we do? I've a great idea, let's borrow some more fucking money until we've borrowed so much that all of the toner at the fed and the treasury run out of ink."

Good plan eh? But seriously, who actually believes that you can borrow your way out of debt and economic downturn? I know everyone loves the Keynes bandwagon, but there has to be some kind of threshold as to where his philosophies just come short. I can't possibly believe that if this country continues to try and borrow it's way out of the problem while the citizens continue to be frugal then the shortfall between what the government is spending and what the government is bringing in just has to be too large of a gap to fill with anything shorter than taxing the living shit out of people.

The latest figures on each American's portion of the debt is estimated at around $45k, that doesn't sound too good does it? But this also is a skewed figure, the formula they used to make that projection is debt/population, or roughly 15t/300m. What really should have been the formula to get a good rough estimate is debt/population that actually pay taxes - and by that I mean people who ACTUALLY have to pay taxes, so no kids on there, no illegal immigrants on there, no one below the threshold of when you have to pay taxes (aka poverty line folks etc...) - when you re-do the math, and this is important for those who actually do pay taxes, it works out to roughly $100k per tax payer. Add on top of that interest that is going to compound over time, or add the leniency for separate tax bracket groups and this gets a lot worse for certain people on the social spectrum. THAT IS ABSURD.

I can't really offer any more on this post, I normally like to be snarkier than this too, but so egregious the nature of this problem is I don't think I can bring myself to do it. That's a jaw-droppingly large figure, and stands as proof for me that this government needs serious reform; we need to cut the fat, get back to the basics, and stop trying to provide everything to everyone. Being everyone's provider isn't the most selfless thing to be, the most selfless thing to be is taking care of yourself so that no one else has to.


Cash for Wankers

...Also, did anyone hear about the new cash for appliances program? Same theme as cash for clunkers except now you can help your neighbour get a brand-spanking-new dishwasher. Are you fucking serious? I already shit the bed after watching cash for clunkers give the market an unnatural spike in car sales for about a month and a half because people waited for the legislation to pass before buying their new toy - on a side note thank you ever-so-fucking-much for disqualifying my shitty 1997 VW Jetta (I love you Jetta Jameson, don't break down because of my harsh words) from the program because apparently it is better off on the road (technically usually on the side of the road) whereas a 2009 Hummer wasn't - illogical!

Anyway, I'm being discursive. The point is that yet again my money is going towards improving other peoples' homes and lives through the buying of dishwashers, dryers, and fuck only knows what else. On top of this it really pisses me off that when stuff like this is done it's done for the massive voting block called the middle class. The upper classes don't give a rats ass about this because they can afford to buy shit on a whim. The middle class eat this shit up because they have enough put by to take advantage of stuff like this. Us little poor folk who have no savings because we live pay cheque to pay cheque get nothing out of programs like this, in fact in the cash for clunkers deal we didn't even get the possibility of a lot of second hand cars for cheap because they were all scrapped. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not looking for a hand out, I enjoy being self-sustainable and budgeting for myself, it's called being responsible, I just hate that when you preach inclusiveness and the merits of an equal society and a fair society and whatever other bullshit rhetoric that is the buzzword of the week to the masses, and then you turnaround and roll out programs like these that go against everything you've just said. Don't you assholes see the hypocrisy?!

I'd now like to address "the man" - "Excuse me, Mr. Man, please stop fucking me. I can barely afford to get by myself, but it is quite disheartening to know that the money I give you, in trust that you will use it to keep me safe from rapers, terrorists, and to educate little fuck-bag kids that aren't mine, is actually going to be used to subsidise Mr. and Mrs. Jones over at number 43 while they remodel their kitchen. Again, I feel the need to reiterate, please please please, stop fucking me. Sincerely yours, The Little Guy."


Pink Floyd -Welcome To The Machine - The best bloopers are here

BRICs and Mortar

According to the Times Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC) have just formed an alliance that is based on economical and political policies that will be used to take away total power in the world system from the United States.

The article explains that;

...The first summit of heads of state of the BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China — ended with a declaration calling for a “multipolar world order”, diplomatic code for a rejection of America’s position as the sole global superpower...

...The declaration also satisfied a key Kremlin demand by calling for a “more diversified international monetary system”. President Medvedev is seeking to break the dominance of the US dollar in financial markets as the world’s leading reserve currency. He favours the establishment of more regional reserve currencies, including the Russian rouble and the Chinese yuan, to prevent economic shocks. Mr Medvedev said: “The existing set of reserve currencies, including the US dollar, have failed to perform their functions."...

Extraordinary, but extremely hard to accomplish, and a little unrealistic. For starters China has billions of US dollars owed to them which they are using as securities for their own currency. The value of the Yuan would plunge with the decline of the value of the dollar.

Brazil is regionally challenged due to it's geographic relativity to the US as well as having the majority of it's neighbours and trading partners being so tied in to the US economy. Plus, where is all that surplus coffee they started making going to go?

Russia is a mess in their "democracy," the Ruble is worth next to nothing, the leadership and high profile businessmen over there consist of mostly ex-KGB warlords and higher-ups from the old guard. This move for them is more about world status than actual effects.

And India is a country whose educated workforce (think phone banks, IT Tech support, debt collection calls) and uneducated workforce (think tea and rice production, clothing and apparel, and now Range Rover) is so tied in to the US/UK economic system that it would be murderous for them to try and change that balance.

Let's not even start talking about Russia's idea of "regional reserve currencies" either...did all of these world leaders forget to bring a map with them to this conference? Hint, and I'll be nice and whisper it, Russia, India, and China are right fucking next to each other, wonder if that could cause a dispute?!

I'm not too sure that I want to go into this too much more as it's all a bit over the top, and I really don't see it hashing out into anything productive. If anything it will increase trade relations between these countries, but as for political and economic dominance it will do very little, and if it does start to make an impact you'll be sure to see either trade barriers/tariffs against these countries rise, and/or a further closening between the US, EU, and British Commonwealth (with or without India on board). I wonder what Orwell would have made of that?!