The Lazy Republic

When it comes to understanding the realities of our economy and it's role in the overall power structure of 21st century America, are millions of Americans soft-headed or just lazy?  I hate having to ask that question, but clearly it has to be one or the other.

I won't pretend to completely understand the events that lead to the recent financial collapse and subsequent bailouts that, to-date, total somewhere in the trillions of dollars.  But it doesn't take much digging to realize that the individuals responsible for the aforementioned collapse have yet to be held accountable.......for ANYTHING!  We bailed them out and it was right back to business as usual.  The same business, btw, that screwed us in the first place!

Upsetting, right?  I'm upset, you're upset.....individually, we are upset!  And as a nation?  As a nation we are so upset that we immediately call for the heads of these Wall Street scam artists.....these billionaire punks who used greedy politicians and an uneducated, uninterested public to help finance their criminal dealings.  We're talking full-scope investigations, baby!  Justice served.

*sigh*  Now, reality. 

We chose instead to be our usual uninterested, uneducated selves.  We took the easy, well-marked path of blindly following radio gurus and  TV talking heads who's own interests happen to be directly aligned with the same super-rich criminals who fucked us!  These self-proclaimed 'patriots' would have us believe that the poor (code speak: minorities) and Big Government are wholly responsible for our current situation, and that our saviors will be the very same 1% who, once again, plan to use our blessed, unregulated free market economy to make themselves even richer.  How will that save us?  Trickle down, silly! 

I'll give you a moment to wade from that bullshit........

Seriously, that's what they're shilling, and millions of Americans are buying it.  But why?  Is it the fear of not being considered a 'Real American' by these fact-phobic, flag-pinned pretenders who have sworn, while talking down to you, to not talk down to you?  If so, that makes you soft-headed.....which sucks, since there's not much that can be done about that.  But if those buying in are doing so simply because it's easier than sorting through facts, let alone becoming semi-knowledgeable about what is admittedly an extremely complex economy, well that's just good old fashioned laziness.

Perhaps the most frustrating part, for me at least, is that this laziness isn't absolute.  These folks have plenty of interest and fervor when it comes to being outraged, and it's not hard to understand why.  After all, 'outrage' is what they see and hear every time they tune into their favorite news programs. The #1 goal of these programs is to manufacture outrage by scaring the shit out of an uninformed audience.  This audience is then told that they're right to be afraid because that just means they possess that most coveted of American values, common sense.  That's a big favorite among the lazy crowd.  Common sense....sorta like smart's folksy cousin.  Nevermind that the most basic, fundamental element of common sense is fact.  Facts are common to all precisely because they aren't based on subjective emotions.....

......like fear, for instance.  Getting the picture?

-TRS

Dream On

A sobering, if not sickening excerpt from former Goldman VP Nomi Prins' book, 'It Takes a Pillage' ....

"Here are some numbers for you. There were approximtely $1.4 trillion worth of subprime loans outstanding in the United States by the end of 2007. By the first quarter of 2009, there were forclosure filings against approximately 4.4 million properties. If it was only the subprime market's fault, $1.4 trillion would have covered the entire problem, right?

Yet the Federal Reserve, the treasury, and the FDIC forked out $13 trillion to fix the housing "correction"… With all that money, the government could have bought up every residential mortgage in the country – there were about $11.9 trillion worth at the end of December 2008 – and still have had about a trillion left over to buy homes for every American who couldn’t afford them."

Got that? $13 trillion to fix a correction. She goes on to say that these bailouts were always more about paying off bets than stabalizing the economy. So that's it. Since not one bank exec has been brought up on charges, let alone convicted and jailed for any of this shit, it's time to acknowledge that the "American Dream" has become just that; a dream. Reality is that sign sitting in front of 'your' house.