Guy Stevenson’s article is stimulus for framing the economic and social problems inflicting our nation and expanding your thinking about solutions to reverse the concentration of productive capital wealth and empowering ALL Americans to acquire ownership in future income-producing economic growth assets freed from the slavery of past savings––an economic future that pays for itself within a reasonable capital cost recovery period.
People just don’t want to hear it.
By GC Stevenson 01/07/2009
The headlines read “States to ask for $ 1 Trillion in a two year aid package, 2009”. The new stimulus bill will be on the Presidents desk on January 20, 2009, with debate in Congress first part of January 09’.
Governors of five U.S. states urged the federal government to provide $1 trillion in aid to the country’s 50 states to help pay for education, healthcare and infrastructure as most states struggle with their own budget deficits during a deepening recession.
Additional fiscal news came from Washington this week, when President -elect Obama said the annual Federal Budget Deficit, will be “trillion-dollar deficits for years to come“, concluding that the stimulus package will be more than a one time event. What a smart man.
STOP! And wonder, and give some thought. What is a trillion dollars?
It’s a one, followed by count them, 12 zero’s, $ 1,000,000,000,000.
(Compounding, Relativity)
Albert Einstein once said, “The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest.” Was he a smart man? No, he was a genius; I wonder how he would look at a trillion dollars?
-Now, this will be fast so please pay attention.
Compound a trillion dollars at 3% each year, which equals $ 30,000,000,000 (30 billion) a year in interest alone to finance that debt, stimulus package alone. The U.S. Treasury sells Government bonds; a 10 year Treasury note pays 3.09%, as of 1-07-2009. Thirty billion is a 3 followed by 10 zero’s more simply $ 30,000,000,000.
Okay try calculating that for ten years (kicking it down the road); at 3% each year with no principal paid down,- compounded- that $ 1 trillion will grow to or equals, $1,343,900,000,000 (1.35 Trillion) and the interest then will equal $ 40,000,000,000 (40 billion) a year in interest alone.
And finally in 2029 (twenty years) compounded at 3% interest with no principal paid down, -compounded- that $ 1 TRILLION will grow to or equal $ 1,806,000,000,000 (1.8 Trillion) in 2029 and the interest then will come to $ 54,000,000,000 (54 billion) a year, in interest alone, provided Treasury rates remain at 3%. This is the impact of the most powerful force in the universe, on that supposedly one time stimulus package.
Now entertain the total U.S. fiscal national debt (not budget deficit or National Debt) both on and off book, which includes Social Security and Medicare all, and not counting Swap’s that’s another $ 33 trillion and the figure is, a chilling or frigid $ 53 trillion, estimated in 2007 by (I.O.U.S.A.) David M. Walker former head of the General Accounting Office GAO. [Estimated 2008 $ 56 trillion]
STOP! Here we go again; $ 53 Trillion -Compounded- at just 3% each year equals $ 1,590,000,000,000 (1.6 Trillion) a year in interest payments alone.
In ten years at 3% each year with no principal paid down and compounded, that $ 53 trillion will grow to or equal $71,227,568,000,000 (71.3 Trillion) and the interest at that time will equal $ 2,136,700,000 (2.14 Trillion) a year, again, in interest payments alone.
And finally in 2029 compounded at 3% interest with no principal paid down, -compounded- that $ 53 Trillion will grow to or equal $ 95,723,000,000,000 (95.7 Trillion) in 2029 and the interest then will equal $ 2,871,000,000,000 (2.87 Trillion) a year, again and again, in interest alone. This is the impact of the most powerful force in the universe on our total debt.
You may think it’s tough now but just wait for in twenty years time the gravity of this force is disastrous. That interest, if we are lucky to borrow anything from China, Japan or any other universal entity, and get it at just 3% will total: $ 2,871,000,000,000 ($ 2.8 Trillion).
Now, do you know what a Trillion dollars is?
America is a nation of Indentured Slaves
What if it was reversed, what if you owned?
What if the theory of compounding worked in your favor?
What if it was of, by and for the people, who received the interest/ earnings on production?
Debt Slavery
Knowing this force well, it is no wonder, that the Federal Reserve Bank is the ‘preferred buyer’ or ‘buyer of last resort’ of Treasury Debt, and Fannie and Freddie debt, as of this time. Ask yourself why is that , and more important how is it, that a Private Banking system like the Federal Reserve, can buy its own nations debt obligations… where do they get the money and who owns the Federal Reserve Bank? (Focus on the Fed.) Can they do that? Does the commerce clause in the US Constitution cover this and what is money?
Trailer to Money is Debt (Slavery)
The poison pill above that we are asked to swallow, is only possible provided Congress doesn’t spend a penny more, there is no war, no additional stimulus spending, no interest rate inflation, full production and no increase in Baby Boomers healthcare spending or others, and that’s not going to happen. “Yes we can”
That’s the negative side of the balance sheet.
Let’s look at the income side;
Total GDP- Gross Domestic Product equals $13.81 trillion (2007 that was a good year, the recession hadn’t really started yet). GDP is all of what the nation produces. It’s expected to drop by 5% for 2008.
So, in the year 2029 (twenty years) in order to pay off the total deficit in one shot (hypothetically), taking all of what we produce (the GDP) it would take 8.5 years to pay it all off, with no interest added. Or 10 years with that 3% interest adjustment. Think on this, for ten years in order to pay off all the debt, what would we or our children live on? And what if we sold everything we owned and produced? Would it be enough? – NO.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_TjBNjc9Bo [Link]
I.O.U.S.A.
David M. Walker his new employer; The Peter G. Peterson Foundation (PGPF) reported on December 15, 2008 that, the sum of America’s liabilities and other financial commitments now exceeds the collective net worth of its citizens, the PGPF has calculated using the latest official data. Growth in the government’s unfunded promises for social insurance programs such as Medicare, combined with a drop in Americans’ net worth due in part by lower home equity values, is causing this unprecedented milestone.
The Foundation’s calculations are based primarily on the new consolidated federal financial statements as of September 30, 2008 which do not reflect the additional toll taken by more recent market declines, bailout packages, and record October and November deficits. The financial statements show approximately $56.4 trillion in debts, liabilities, and unfunded promises for Medicare and Social Security versus the Federal Reserve’s estimate a total household net worth of $56.5 trillion, both as of September 30, 2008. Now add in the “New” Administrations Stimulus package(s) and “trillion-dollar deficits for years to come” and what do you get? –Bankruptcy-
In case your wondering what $ 56.4 Trillion at 3% compounded for twenty years, will total $ 102 Trillion, and it is $ 3.56 Trillion in annual interest payments alone. “People just don’t want to hear it” – Total Denial-
Debt Slavery
The mantra from both major political parties, administrations, mayors and now the States is “we aren’t going to raise taxes… on citizens–directly”. We will do it indirectly –through debt. We will even give you back a little of what you pay us, and call it a “Tax cut”, or ‘Free Candy from the Candyman’.
(Keyes On Taxes)
Tax Slavery
The story is told that the most horrific after math of the sinking of the Great Titanic,isn’t so much the rate of dissent of that marvelous giant, or the mass of people lost, or the manor by which so few survived; It was the truth told by ‘memories witnesses’, held by those fortunate to survive, to behold that carnage of those floating in the cold dead sea. And to share that same truth with others, that did not perceive that truth. Death their helpless breath frozen reminds us each of their despair and loss. That is the definition of Depression – ‘the truths of memories witnesses to a horrific event’, their history if told. (“The Forgotten man” –
Amity Shlaes)
“the truths of memories witnesses”
Ocean of Memories
You as I, may be fortunate to survive this, that which upon us now lies, but don’t be surprised or deceived for that which your eyes will deny. Cry out if you are alive. Fight with every breath, for the cold dark sea of debt, waits. If not for you it waits; it waits for your neighbor; it waits for your family and friend’s, and most certainly waits for posterity’s seed, the next generation. That cold dead grip, our nation’s debt toll is a death toll.
“Do you want to live or do you want to die”
Death of Titanic
Now do you know what a trillion dollars is? “People just don’t want to hear it – the truth”.
Wage Slavery
Our life income we must protect, especially in times of economic hardship, people become concerned with securing income. “I must get on that life boat; I don’t care if it requires that I bail or who else must die”. Most all will submit, conscientiously or unconscientiously, and most eagerly to effective slavery. The wage slavery mentality rules over 70 % of households today because of the yoke and burden of that debt or loss of wage. Karl Marx quite rightly called this the plight of the property less workers. He also said; “give capitalist enough rope and they will hang themselves”.
The wage slavery mentality finds no solace in either Marx’s socialist wage slavery or in America’s capitalist wage slavery. Neither capitalism nor socialism makes little difference to the (Debt) Slave, they own nothing not even the pail to bail or the rope to hang. Blessed are the poor in spirit. “People just don’t want to hear it”.
The problem with this obsession with wages as the only legitimate way to earn income and stay alive is that it locks people into a slave system, a mentality of unending servitude. Thereby adding a new meaning and dimension to the words “better red than dead” or “better a slave and live, and to pray for a good master”.
“What would I do free, I can’t swim”. We are conveniently convinced by ‘those that own’ that there is no alternative to the wage system, no third way (just or otherwise) to monopolistic capitalism, socialism, or a surreal mixture of the two, “you’re just going to have to swim, with no life vest”. People, would just as soon stay on the Plantation or on the deck of the sinking ship, until another boat comes along or Homesteading in 1862. This paradigm of waiting causes people to dismiss the Just Third Way or freedoms choice, particularly it’s “Capital Homesteading” proposal, because it doesn’t fit into their preconceived ideas concerning income generation in a modern industrial or service economy, nor does it fit our post modern conditional reflexes of ownership (Pavlov’s). And yet the Federal Reserve has found these tools most helpful to their own end. To build their own life boat filled with their selected corporations and elite. Through Section 13; (Emergency Powers) Federal Reserve Act.; their own Capital Homestead Act.
Missing the point of Empowerment
“Looking at The System”
The Just third way thesis is out side academia’s (those smart folks) black box, as is a ‘Binary Economic” model (LIFE boat). The original Homesteaders knew well, that their labor could and would have a productive good (God willing) and a higher probability of survival. As long as the homesteader could ‘own” he could create, repair, defend and with a moral certainty survive and produce (subdue and multiply). And with the multitude of homesteaders all around them, they could and would nurture each other with a sense of common good. So when in this age the Economic Titanic hits the ice berg, people just don’t want to hear it. People and economists would prefer to just move the deck chairs on the Titanic until the panic attacks. They will just sit and listen to the music as if nothing is wrong, and “Hope” for “Change”. (By 1900, there was estimated 2 million homesteaders in America)
Those in panic will grasp first for life preservers (more debt), and others (unemployed) will fight for that hope of a wage and fewer still find their (Just) way to that life boat. We will go back to Homesteading (That is the home) one way or another, either in the grave or as “Capital Homestead Owners”.
Those fortunate survivors (“memories witnesses whose truth be told”) our posterity.
Debt Slavery
Debt slavery is part of the culture of death, which covers most all of us. If your provided for, and looking forward to your next Social Security check or Pension check you better get off your deck chair and take a look at that cold dark sea below. Just because your next in line to get into that life boat or into the water with your life vest, doesn’t mean you can’t be pushed out or overboard, or that you can handle the fall, to that freezing dark sea.
Ask anybody that has a General Motors – United Airlines- Enron-, Pension. Ask them if they are secure in their “pension” income. Ask the pensions that had money in the Bernie Madoff scam. Ask the teachers in Illinois who have lent their Government millions of dollars, if they feel secure. Or any number of faltering companies that where fortunate to have such a safety net, is it secure? Ask this generation with their 401-k or I.R.A., is it secure?
A scam is defined by two things, 1) a lie of what you owe and 2) a lie of what you earn. And ends with a lie, an inability to pay it back. As “Keepers of the Promise”, have you checked out the lie of Social Security. It makes Mr. Madoff look like an alter boy, and is his only defense, “the Social Security system did the same”. Still don’t see it, “What is a special issue bond?”. Thou shall not steal.
Do you know what a trillion dollars is yet or are you hooked on the candy?
Welfare Slaves
Up to this point, we have not even examined the personal or self inflicted slavery/sin called revolving credit debt, but why should we? Elisabeth Warren does a fine job explaining this paradox for the “End of the Middle class”. And with scientific examination, gives the plain truth for families held as debt slaves. “The idea that the American family will quickly spend us out of this recession is a fantasy. It won’t happen,” said Elizabeth Warren, a professor of law at Harvard University who last month was named chair of the Congressional oversight panel tasked with overseeing the distribution of the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program funds, TARP. She has been fighting the Credit Card scamers for over 12 years. People just don’t want to hear it.
Elizabeth Warren
The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class
It is the natural law broken, that brought all of this upon us, a willingness to spend that which we did not produce or own, basically ‘stealing’. It began, caressed by “free” candy, credit cards first taste of addiction, then binds and holds. And when the debt gets too high, just transfer that balance into your home equity and get a tax deduction, with no money down. It’s always the other guy’s problem and yet it effects every one of the slaves on the plantation. Is not your Governor asking for a bail out, more ‘free’ candy. And now another ill wind blows, for bailing out the Municpal bond markets. “ People just don’t want to hear it.”
“Let them get their own life boat! Hay massr! I got a great idea, why don’t we sell off a few of them ‘tharr’ slaves, break up a few of the families, kill their babies (in the womb) and the rest of us will be alright”. To say that no one can be a slave today is rubbish. Slavery is sin, it effects all, and destroys the common good and virtue, our solidarity. And saying nothing for my brother.
Debt slaves, Tax slaves, Welfare slaves, Wage and salary Slaves- in makes no difference, when the Titanic is sinking and the Plantation is in Bankruptcy, it matters little to your condition. Except for those “memories witnesses of the truth” our posterity. People just don’t want to hear it.
America’s slave Plantation
‘Capital Homesteading Now’ is the only life boat and refuge. And it’s as big as you can make it. “Noah!, build me an arch”. And this time you own it. The angel of God’s wrath is truly upon this nation and while I and many pray for divine mercy the Titanic sinks. But until we wake up to ‘He’ who is the ‘truth’ and the ‘way’ there will be no “Change or Hope”.
So with all this unreported news, I have to ask a question;
“Why don’t people want to hear it, or is the ‘truth’ not being told”?
I beg, find consolation, in the later and seek the ‘truth’.
“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of the currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.” (or wake-up not at all) – Thomas Jefferson, 1802
Was Jefferson thinking Bank credit cards, and is, Warren Buffet the “Oracle of Omaha” and largest owner, shareholder of same? (No, it’s not a sin to charge 25% interest! –compound that-)
“Conventional wisdom says there is only one way to earn a living, and that’s to work. Conventional wisdom effectively treats ‘capital’ as though it were a kind of holy water that when sprinkled on or about labor, makes it more productive. Thus, if you have a thousand people working in a factory and you increase the design and power of the machinery so that one hundred men can now do what a thousand did before, conventional wisdom says, ‘Voila it’s a miracle! The productivity of the labor has gone up 900 percent!’ I say ‘hogwash.’ All you’ve done is wipe out 90 percent of the jobs, and even the remaining ten percent are probably sitting around pushing buttons. What the economy needs is a way of legitimately getting capital ownership into the hands of the people who now don’t have it.”
(Louis O. Kelso, Journal Asset Based Finance, 1982)
In effect convential wisdom would prefer replacing wage/salary slaves with “energy slaves”, they are cheaper.
Although all men are born free, slavery has been the general lot of the human race. Ignorant – they have been cheated; asleep they have been surprised; divided – the yoke has been forced upon them. But what is the lesson?…the people ought to be enlightened, to be awakened, to be united, that after establishing a government they should watch over it…It is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can be permanently free.
–James Madison
People just don’t want to hear the truth, because ignorance is bliss.
“It is absurd to entrust the repair and defense of a country to people who own no part of it.” Greek historian, Diodorus Siculus
Think about it!
Silent no more
America, own or be owned
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Related texts;
Capitalism; An economic/financial system where a relatively small number of individuals own the vast bulk of capital assets, and where the majority of the population is employed at a wage and owns little or no capital. http://just3rdway.blogspot.com/2008/09/when-wall-street-abandoned-its-mission.html
Hey buddy can you lend a fellow a dime or can you pass the ketchup? (How to eat an elephant) http://www.pgpf.org/blog/?storyId=21212
Press release: America will soon owe more than America is worth.
http://www.pgpf.org/newsroom/press/owe/
De Tocqueville’s “Wage Slavery in America” by Michael Greaney
http://just3rdway.blogspot.com/2008/08/de-tocquevilles-wage-slavery-in-america.html
Elizabeth Warren Conversations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1Uk-DwUvJw
Revolving Debt; “End of Middle Class”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=akVL7QY0S8A&feature=channel
Kiss your 401k good bye;
http://www.aipnews.com/talk/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=861&posts=4#M3238
John Maynard Keynes – America’s Oracle of Economic Theory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_thrift
Keynes Biography; Why America is flawed.
“If the economic principle, the means to what you strive, is flawed,… so will its end be.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Maynard_Keynes
Whom shall I Fear!
http://www.aipnews.com/talk/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=723&posts=4#M2214
Tax slavery or Freedom at last; Alan Keyes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXHWFu4oGDU
..To be free. Alan Keyes http://www.keyesarchives.com/play.php?mp3=277
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You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men.
1 Corinthians 7:23
