Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Debt, Defaults, and Defiance - It couldn't be simpler.

The corporate media continues to paint a picture of overspending Walmart housewives throwing our global economy into chaos. Who Do "Wal-Mart Moms" Blame for the Down Economy?

People want to buy houses. Banks lend them money. Banks sell the mortgage. Mortgages are combined into a security that is traded on the global market. The global market slips a little, jobs are lost and people can't afford the mortgage after adjustment, but the banks make money on the losses, after selling short! The mortgage owner forecloses and gets to sell again!

Do we blame the homeowner for wanting a house, taking a mortgage, or losing their job because a few Banksters, Brokers, and Billionaires bet the farm? Of course not.

Do we blame people for taking to the streets because for 30 years we have wasted the wealth of the middle class on an increasingly smaller and wealthier few? Of course not! It's not Life Liberty and Happiness for a few Oligarchs, it's Justice for All. It looks like the Occupy movement has started to give a voice where one was needed, but it's just a start.

We must first stop blaming the poor, the immigrant, LGBT, abortion, teachers nurses & firemen, liberals, those born with brown skin, the elderly, the sick, the homeless, Muslims...those not born White, Christian, and Wealthy. In fact, we must stop blaming. We have to learn from the past, look deeply at where we are today, and design our fix for tomorrow.

There is a Supercommittee in Washington preparing a fix for our global economic meltdown, and they are first and foremost planning do do this by decreasing the debt we owe by punishing those Americans least able to afford it, and those who didn't cause it. Each and every member of this Supercommittee is part of the 1%, with their elections, jobs, and daily lives bought and paid for by wealthy and powerful interests, and these legislators should be the last people to have extra power and influence over this critical Super-Issue.

We are in a Depression. With little hope for 99% of us every having hope for prosperity, health, and a secure retirement because we as a nation redistribute these to a few already-wealthy individuals, there is no other word for it.

Debt did not cause this. The poor, sick, elderly, etc. did not cause this. A few miscreants playing the rest of us like dominoes did. They deregulated banks and investing, they ran wars for profit like Bernie Madoff ran retirement accounts. They bribed seniors with Medicare Pt D, unfunded and unneeded. And now the rest, and most, and best of us will be paying for it for the rest of our lives.

Walmart mom - you may have spent too much, but they convinced you to. They run bright shiny Chinese-made objects and expect you to buy more, they run bright Kardashian shows on TV and expect you to watch more and want more, they pay for issues to be hoisted up like scarecrows during elections, issues that will never  come up for a vote, in order to get you to vote against your self interests.

Instead of wondering which of the GOP candidates in their Reality TV Debate series will be the next president, use your new voice. In body or spirit, don't join the self haters that think they caused the global economic meltdown - join the movement that has given voice to the 99%.

No comments: