I heard good news regarding one of the jobs I applied for, but it is certainly no guarantee as of yet. It would be a federal job, but that's not quite as comforting as it could be.
If there were one way those in charge were completely screwing up, I might feel a little better. Since there are many, I am a little afraid for the future of our country.
The first, and, in my opinion, most obvious mistake is the printing of 1 trillion dollars. Yes, you may think that might not be a big deal, but before the printing of these bills there were only 900 billion US dollars in circulation. Half of that is sitting in foreign banks for tourists or businesses to have available if they want to exchange money. This leaves, effectively 450 billion dollars actually in circulation in the U.S. where it has an effect on the value of the dollar and American goods. Now, no one can tell me that throwing in an additional amount of money that is twice that amount will not cause extreme inflation of a kind we may have never seen before in this country. It makes me think of stories I heard of Russia after the Soviet Union collapsed, when people literally had to pay thousands of rupees in order to buy basic goods such as milk and bread, and thus many, children and adults all, went hungry. They still have far from recovered from this extreme inflation. Maids in hotels are forced to sell their bodies, giving most of the profit to their pimps, in order to scrape by with enough for shelter and food. This should never have to be the case. This is my number one fear. That in only a few years time the value of our money will be so minuscule that businesses fail and children go hungry. And we will have to blame a naive, badly educated man and his scheming advisers for it.
But no, the mistakes do not stop there. This outrageous spending of money that we do not have, and that may not really exist threatens a great crisis in the near future. For now China still buys our debt. If we keep this up and cannot pay up, why would they continue to do so? There is no reason for them to buy it even as I type this. So when no one buys our debt, and the Chinese demand payment on the interest, what will we do? I fear we will collapse. I cannot actually even begin to imagine what would happen.
I blame the politicians, many of which say math is their least favorite subject, with a laugh, as if managing the budget is not their primary task.
Oh but I can't stop there. Then we have this idiotic "cash for clunkers" program, which will give a 4,500 credit to irresponsible citizens who purchased vehicles which get 18 mpg or less on the highway to upgrade by 2 mpg. We responsible, forward-thinking citizens who purchased fuel efficient vehicles are going to pay for it. The funniest thing, is that it only supplements the value of the car you turned in. Thus if your car is worth 4,500, you just get that total, and not an additional 4,500. If your car is worth 3000, they will supplement with 1,500. But still, they will pay this money for a measly 2 mpg. How absurdly ineffective.
And sadly, the tea party rallies are next on the 4th of July, and I fear they will not be as big as before. Independence Day should be spent celebrating the family, our freedom, and this country, and while I feel we need to fight to keep us strong, I think I will be spending time with my family instead of going to a rally. I fear I will not be the only one. If you add that to our biased, idiotic media, who managed to downplay the tea parties where hundreds of thousands of Americans turned out on April 15 as almost nothing and totally insignificant, I fear our cause will be hard to fight.
An then, we have this health care reform. The health care reform that encourages doctors to reduce the number of tests they order and referrals they give in order to keep from having an additional 5% of the salaries taken from them. How will this help sick people? Huh? This is supposed to be better? This is the country where people from Europe and Canada come in order to get routine procedures done in days instead of months. Why would anyone think it smart to take that away? 75% of Americans are happy with their health care! Why is that not amazing, considering how unpleasant it is to be sick?
I wish I could post more positively, but I find I do not feel very positive right now. I am sincerely worried for the future of this country. I hope we can act against these horrible ideas before it's too late, but I'm pretty certain it already is.
The reason China buys out our debt (they're not the only ones) is because we're their biggest customer. Their economy would be in a lot of trouble if we collapsed.
ReplyDelete75% of Americans may be satisfied with their health care, but 16% don't have any health care. I'm not for a single payer system but would be for something like the health care in the Netherlands. We're ranked #37 by the World Health Organization in health care btw.
Hundreds of thousands sounds high for the tea parties, and I don't agree with the wreckless printing of money or the CARS bill either but just a few points.
Just because 16% of Americans do not have health insurance, does not mean they do not health care. Often those without health insurance are given complex procedures (such as repairing broken bones) for free because you can't just say no. There are free clinics everywhere which never ask whether or not you have health insurance. I would guess that many of those 16% actively choose not to have health insurance like my aunt and uncle have done, even if it may not be the most intelligent thing. Interestingly enough, they've never missed it.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that's a low number for the tea parties. In Roanoke, which is a small city, we had at least 800 at one point, and many people were coming and going. I know some cities like Chicago and Atlanta had near 15-20 thousand each, and there were hundreds of small towns which had turn-outs of at least 250 people each on top of the rest of the American cities. I would guess that the pajamastv estimate is a couple thousand high, but probably not much more than that.
Considering over 800 cities reported, even if each only had 250 people, that is still at least 200,000. However, we know many had much, much more.
Free clinics aren't always available and emergency room visits are incredibly expensive, especially if you're uninsured. But like I said I'm not fan of a single payer system. Still though there is obvious room for improvement when we're ranked 37th and spend the most of any country on earth and are always this sick. It's due a lot more to a poor diet than anything but some things can not be changed with legislation.
ReplyDeleteI'll cede the point on the Tea Party turnouts but I still have to disagree with the main point of the protests in that the only new tax passed at that point in time was on Cigarettes, with the rest being tax cuts. It's reckless policy for sure but perhaps I'm just a dispassionate person.
That is actually another common misconception about the tea parties. They were not about taxes we currently had or about those being passed at the time, rather about taxes due to come because there is no other way to pay off the ridiculous debt. They were more about the taxes my generation and your generation will have to pay in a few years.
ReplyDeleteAnd I've heard a lot of stories where the hospital never gave a bill to people who really couldn't possibly pay it. There are actually good people in this world.
Just want to clarify - not that I'm arguing that there is nothing wrong with healthcare - I just think you have to be incredibly naive that government provided healthcare would be better. The last thing I want is politicians rationing my health care because they don't have money for it, or taking away certain services so that they can offer them as a reason to vote for them.
ReplyDeleteIt creeps me out that's all - it could never be a good situation, especially with the way American politicians work. And I don't really want to pay for the health care of lazy bums. As selfish as that sounds, I have enough in my extended family with their hands out all the time that I simply can't stand the idea of such obnoxious people getting money from hard workers.