[lbo-talk] Fiscalopolypse ?

R rhisiart at charter.net
Mon Sep 13 17:40:17 PDT 2004


At 02:45 PM 9/13/2004, you wrote:
>R: however, there are a lot of "ifs" in both doug's and michael's
>postings. If we can do something about the boy president lowering taxes
>on the rich and super rich; if we manage to escape the DP being the only
>show in town; if we "propose ways to solve this," assuming any proposals
>will be acted upon.
>
>Of course. But these "ifs" address changing the low-intensity depression,
>not the collapse thesis.

so, the collapse thesis is irrelevant. these "ifs" don't provide a constructive resolution of the low-intensity depression thesis. they aren't addressing anything. they're "ifs." they're speculative. and they appear to have no possibility of having any impact on the real world.


>R: we have a huge deficit, growing daily by leaps and bounds. the interest
>on
>the national debt is about $25,000 for each US
>citizen. http://www.uwsa.com/uwsa-usdebt.html
>
>Yes, and if you want to see the low-intensity depression turn into something
>a bit worse, John Kerry's idea of balancing the budget would do that, if it
>were ever to happen, which it won't.

what's that got to do with the ballooning deficit, the interest on the debt -- which is money thrown down the drain -- the fact the average american is saddled with thousands of dollars in national debt? it's not a kerry/bush issue. it's systemic.

the low-intensity depressive, as you term it, is turning worse as we write.


>R: these day to day issues may appear uncomplicated to people who look at,
>and
>believe in, statistics and the "big" picture. but they are the kiss of
>death for the majority of americans.
>
>"Kiss of death?" Then why aren't people rebelling?

rebel? what do you mean by rebel? rebel against what? think people working two jobs trying to keep afloat are thinking about rebellion? desperate people are barely able to survive much less rebel. do you believe americans have the sense of history or the courage to rebel in any significant sense?

have you studied how the power elite deals with rebellion in the 20th century?


>Because they muddle
>through, as Greenspan and Bush stave off collapse.

this is preposterous: people aren't muddling through. some aren't making it at all. greenspan and bush aren't staving off anything. just the opposite. they are whittling away the economic strength of the nation by bits and pieces; transferring wealth upward in great bites; taking economic independence away from the people and putting it into the hands of the MNCs, the super rich, the power elite. because it's a slow process, most people don't recognize it -- until it hits them personally.


>This is exactly the kind
>of Chicken Little hyperbole that makes the left sound nuts.

sound nuts? who's doing the judging?


>The real kiss
>of death is the military and/or ecological disasters that are certain within
>the next century or so, if we don't alter our social order profoundly.

as opposed to an unreal kiss of death? people are dying due to lack of health insurance. people are dying due to unemployment. people are dying due to lack of housing. children are being damaged for life due to malnutrition and disease. and this is the United States. what do you think it's like in the third world? how big a die off do you want before you cease to consider it hyperbole?

you're only scratching the surface by focusing solely on ecological disasters, and whatever you mean by the military. there are pandemics of untreatable bacteria and viruses which are equally dangerous.


>Until then, the economy will not be allowed to collapse, just as the S&Ls
>weren't.

according to whom? explain who has the power to keep the economy from collapsing should that be its direction.


>Our rulers know they wouldn't emerge from another Great
>Depression.

how do you know they know this?

if you mean by "emerge" maintaining their standard of living and social control, they are the ones most likely to emerge. they're playing with a stacked deck as they deal more and more people out of the game. they don't need the rest of the human race to emerge. technology is making that more evident.

it's the manner in which they emerge that's the issue. the human race will survive a great depression. it may not survive the rulers.

whether or not the rulers and the rest of the human race survive ecological disaster, pandemics, and other natural disasters is questionable.

R


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