America is Shutting Down

[babsbunny]

http://www.economyincrisis.org/content/america-shutting-down

by Thomas Heffner on May 7, 2011 - 10:26am

"When people lose everything, and have nothing left to lose, they lose it." - Gerald Celente

Publisher's Preface: I urgently suggest that you meet with your friends, neighbors and congressional representatives to discuss this article. It is obvious that we cannot continue like this. Ask your representatives what he or she can do to work in the best interest of the country and right our current wrongs.

America is shutting down. Our political system is flawed and no longer benefits Americans. Our priorities have been completely displaced.

How could we be so careless as to let the the U.S. descend in so short a time from being a wealthy and productive nation to one controlled by lobbyists, living on imports, selling our companies to our foreign competitors and living on ever increasing debt.

[murrayhillfarm]

1. Soooooooooooo

scary, isn't it!

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. If you don't have your head in your backside, why yes, yes it is. n/t

[rhett o rick]

9. Is there a point in there somewhere or are you just here to disrupt. nm

[Tuesday Afternoon]

14. Desperate people will do desperate things. The number of desperate people

is growing in this country. It is something to think about. Awareness of your surroundings and knowing who your friends are would be things to consider. Not so much fearful just looking at options.

[russspeakeasy]

29. Good advice.

[bobbolink]

59. Some of us have tried to sound that warning about poverty. It goes unheard and unheeded.

We will have no joy in saying "We told you so."

But, we WILL say it.

[mntleo2]

67. Learn from the poor, we've been here all along ...

One of the things to note here is that people who are"losing it" are people who have never had to deal with the stress from the continual betrayal and invisibility of poverty that has been under these "losing it" folks' noses all along.

WE"VE managed and now perhaps we can give you some tips:

1.Accept that poverty is ALL YOUR FAULT

2. Prepare to make arguments about why is it not your personal failure that is all about how you obviously "made all the wrong choices".

3. Brace yourself for simplistic "solutions" that assume that your "attitude" about poverty is your fault like, "Have you tried to look into counseling to deal with your anger?" or, "Just be glad for what you have ..." (even if what you have is nothing).

4. Forget about the availability for housing subsidies, food stamps, or medical help, all that went down to nothing after the middle and upper classes decimated it because "they shouldn't have to provide for other people's choices" while applauding the complete dismantling of our safety net like they did with Welfare DEFormed.

5. Stop feeling sorry for yourself going over and over about how "you did all the right things" (sob). Look over there at that homeless person: they "did all the right things" too. The difference is they "did all the right things" while not being paid enough to provide for rent so when you could afford it when you could buy all those cheap things and that they not only lived morally and generously they "did all the right things" ~ without even having a home ...

6. Admit to yourself and the world that poverty is not a "choice" but a society sickness based on an institution that has embedded it with racism, sexism, ageism and classism where the upper classes benefit from the lower class in so many ways while blaming you (see #1)

7. Then after you realize all I have written is true realign yourself and become an activist instead of shooting up your former place of business, beating your spouse, or kicking the dog

8. Get up off your sorry asses and channel that anger into something GOOD for ALL not just think of yourself.

9. Like the upper classes, most of us are not drug addicts, alcoholics, wife beaters, but where we are a little more savvy is: WE STOPPED THE SELF PITY, SHARE WHAT LITTLE WE HAVE, AND CARE ABOUT EACH OTHER NOT JUST OURSELVES.

10. THIS is what the poor do every day AND NOW YOU CAN DO IT TOO.

Thanks Bobbie you began it now, I will continue it, lol

Love
Cat

[bobbolink]

71. That's a list that should be writ large in many, many places!

I love the way you take it from the other end, and get right to the point!

:loveya:

No *wonder* you are a threat! You scary woman! :hug:

[GreenPartyVoter]

73. There is no justice in the world, except when people have fought for it.

[Jakes Progress]

47. Soooo. You are a banker would be my guess.

[Octafish]

2. K&R and it stayed at ''zero.''

With what part of the article do unreccers disagree?

The nation is failing, precisely because it acts as an empire of benefit to the very few at the top.

Gee. Now that you brought it up, babsbunny: Didn't there used to be a political party that once worked to prevent the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the few?

[Initech]

10. There was? When was this?

:shrug:

[Jackpine Radical]

70. Heh. I think Octa's talking about the Socialists. (nt)

[Plucketeer]

45. Now THERE'S a novel idea! nt

[radhika]

63. They fear our CLARITY ... we are really starting to GET IT n/t

[msongs]

4. the wealth of working people squandered on the welfare military/corporate war profiteers nt

[leeroysphitz]

30. Well you have to do something with it. Can't just let the working people have it. n/t

[ixion]

5. Yep, that's a very apt description

And it will continue to be shut-down, locked-down and dragged down until We, the People say enough is enough.

[Initech]

6. RIP America 7/4/1776 - 12/9/2000

That's the day the America I knew it ceased to exist in its current form, when the Supreme Court selected Bush for the presidency after failed recount after failed recount. It's been just completely downhill ever since.

[onethatcares]

7. I agree with your assessment and would like to add

that when that selection happened, America didn't give a flying fuck. Everyone just shrugged their shoulders and went to work the next day, except for a few hundred thousand that said, "this can't be happening here". We were labeled as nutjobs and conspiracy theorists. That's the same label we've worn as the slippery slope became a straight downhill slide.

[Initech]

8. The corporate coup started on that day and it ended with the Citizen's United decision.

That was the worst SCOTUS decision in the history of man, and it means that now our elections are totally fucked. Companies can persuade its employees who to vote for (it's now legal) and they can spend unlimited amounts of money on elections. We're fucked.

[abelenkpe]

64. +1 nt

[annabanana]

11. When we get enough voices to declare this, regardless of Party,

We will have begun to fix it.

[Quantess]

12. Gerald Celente correctly predicted the housing bubble.

While everyone else was optimistic about the real estate market, Gerald Celente knew it was going to come crashing down hard.

[Exultant Democracy]

13. Nov 7 2000, our country was stolen we didn't let it happen.

They own the voting machines and they own enough of the politicians, it will probably get worse here before it gets better.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Donnachaidh]

16. ALL of my reps are Koch Sockpuppets

Personally, I'd throw them in stocks and take every single thing they own, liquidate it, and put it in the SS fund.

Traitors are MORE dangerous than drug dealers - treat them as such.

[tomp]

21. virtually all of everyone's reps are koch sockpupets.

ye shall know them by their actions...or lack thereof.

[Zorra]

34. +1

[Donnachaidh]

48. no -- Georgia has a special crop of water-carriers

Tom Price has been in the forefront of the sockpuppets for years.

[Kurovski]

17. K&R. (nt)

[emilyg]

18. knr

[earthlight101]

19. Our political system was not designed to "benefit Americans. "

you wrote "America is shutting down. Our political system is flawed and no longer benefits Americans. Our priorities have been completely displaced.

How could we be so careless as to let the the U.S. descend in so short a time from being a wealthy and productive nation to one controlled by lobbyists, living on imports, selling our companies to our foreign competitors and living on ever increasing debt."


the american political system was never really designed to benefit americans in general. The father of the constitution, james madison, wrote that the federal govt was designed to 'protect the minority of the opulent against the majority.'

that is what our system has always done and is still doing.

[eomer]

22. The Preamble to the Constitution:

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

To me that sounds designed to benefit Americans.

And I don't know how any other source could be a more authoritative statement on what the nation was designed to do than the Preamble.

[earthlight101]

23. read and learn

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4026/is_200607/ai_n17187913/?tag=mantle_skin;content


btw, it may interest you to know that the preamble is not binding, i.e., it is not law, as is the constitution itself. However the preamble has been cited in SCOTUS opinions.

[liberation]

51. The founding father's definition of "people" was a bit different than our modern understanding

Context is everything.

Remember, when the constitution was passed most blacks in this country were still considered "property" for example.

[KansDem]

68. Yeah, but corporations are "people" now...

I guess corporations now can "form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty..."

[brentspeak]

36. It may have been Madison's desire to protect the rich from everybody else via the federal gov't

But in the end, he did endorse the Constitution as it was ratified, and what the Constitution says is all that matters. Further, while the specifics of the Preamble itself are not themselves legally binding, US courts since the very beginning of the Republic have recognized -- and indeed, stated -- that the Preamble is a clear summary of the what the Founders (Madison, included) wished the Constitution to accomplish (such as "to promote the general welfare").

[earthlight101]

38. the business end of the const is the structure of the fed govt

as that structure is outlined in the constitution. Madison said so, and every other western nation agrees with that, and they show it by structuring their own govts in the same way that the state govts were structured under the Articles of confederation, prior to the intallation of our present constitution by the founding aristrocrats, i.e., structuring their own nations UNLIKE our present structure and similar to the way america was structured prior to the installation of the aristocrat's federal constitution.

I can see you did not read my link, and if you did, you failed to understand it.

[brentspeak]

50. Your link doesn't really back up your assertion

The article you linked to argues that the Founders constructed the Constitution primarily to minimize the state legislatures' power. Even if we assume that conclusion is correct, we still can't say that the Founders, in general, wanted the states' powers curbed so as to maintain aristocratic wealth.

Interestingly, your link cites Douglass Adair's The Intellectual Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy to support its thesis. However, Adair's dissertation was an explicit argument against Charles Beards' view that the Founders wrote the Constitution merely to keep themselves and their aristocratic descendents wealthy; Adair pointed out that the Constitution was essentially a "compromise" between the "Democrats" like Jefferson and the "Aristocrats" like Hamilton. This critical review of Adair's work makes a good argument that even an aristocrat like Hamilton believed that the power of the federal government should come only from the People: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=6018

[earthlight101]

57. reply

you wrote:
"The article you linked to argues that the Founders constructed the Constitution primarily to minimize the state legislatures' power. Even if we assume that conclusion is correct, we still can't say that the Founders, in general, wanted the states' powers curbed so as to maintain aristocratic wealth."


But madison, the father of the constitution, in federalist 10, wrote that the purpose of his governmental design was to 'protect the minority of the opulent against the majority." You tell me what that means. He also wrote that his new govt would prevent agrarian reforms. You tell me what that means. He said that the design of the senate had as its primary purpose the preservation of wealth INequality. You tell me what that means.


you wrote:
"Interestingly, your link cites Douglass Adair's The Intellectual Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy to support its thesis. However, Adair's dissertation was an explicit argument against Charles Beards' view that the Founders wrote the Constitution merely to keep themselves and their aristocratic descendents wealthy;"

So what? If you have a particular argument as to the PARTICULAR aspect of the citation, point it out and make your argument.


Here, read and learn:
http://cyberjournal.org/authors/fresia/

[jwirr]

37. I love FDR but even I can see that what he did in the face of the threat

of communism in this country was act to protect the rich from the angry masses. I think you are right about the goal of the government in the long run. The rich have forgotten one thing - they are the ones being protected by the safety net FDR fashioned and without it - in the words of the French revolution "I'll meet you at the barricades" could be the result.

[earthlight101]

40. ah, the "National Razor" of France...

it made such beautiful music.

madison, the father of the constitution, wrote that the primary purpose of the structure of the american govt was to preserve wealth INequality. Strange that this fact is not foremost in the minds of Democratic party activists, such as DUers--this itself is an extremely important fact and something that any real progressive/leftist should understand. In fact, the fact that the father of the constitution said this is almost unknown among so called educated and poltiically aware americans. This is both fascinating and sad.

[leveymg]

58. If history were to truly repeat itself, the gullotine would be replaced by Napolean's bayonets, that

in turn would lead to a series of losing wars, a restoration of the ancient regime and incompetent royal pretenders, and then more military defeats. Hitler in Paris. Americans in Paris. Back to the Future. Fourth Republic, anyone?

[Le Taz Hot]

20. Maybe, or . . .

to quote a line from "Apollo 13," -- "I believe this can be our finest hour." I'm sorry, but I'm seeing things that are actually encouraging me. Not the least of which is happening in Wisconsin and Ohio. I'm seeing an awakening withing the unions. I'm seeing REAL populist movements. I'm seeing the Sustainability Movement gaining an enormous following. Our mayor, though I didn't vote for her, just launched a "Buy Local" campaign urging residents, basically, to purchase not from the Big Box Stores but from our local mom-and-pops (those who have managed to survive). I don't know, maybe it's glass half-empty/half-full sort of thing but for the first time in a very long time, I'm actually feeling a little tiny bit optimistic.

[Doctor_J]

25. You're part of the problem then

Sorry to be so blunt, but anyone who thinks what's happening in WI and OH is encouraging is a major part of the problem. Those demonstrations accomplished absolutely nothing, except to pinpoint how futile they are. It is going to take a lot of SERIOUS work to get the country back (probably is way too late), and pretending that we're now headed in the right direction is extremely counterproductive.

[marions ghost]

53. You're both right:

1. Wisconsin and Ohio are "encouraging."
and
2. "It's going to take a lot of SERIOUS work."

-----

Dissing the fledgling efforts in WI and OH is what I call "counterproductive." :eyes:

[Le Taz Hot]

77. After 40 years of activism

I'm not sure why *I'm* the problem. :shrug: Anyway, it's just my perspective. I'm old enough to recognize the winds of change when I see them. Been there before. This is it. We as Americans can either rise to the challenge or wring our hands and "Woah is me" all the way to a two-tiered social and economic system. Personally, I'd prefer to continue my activism. Know your enemy and it is not people like me.

[leveymg]

60. You're allowed to drink the water left in the glass.

It's not entirely bad newz and disaster of the week. Keep you hopes and wits about you.

[socialist_n_TN]

24. It might be time to find a SERIOUS anticapitalist

group to support or, at LEAST, support allowing their options to be heard, even if you consider them "fringe". "Fringe" ideas back in the 30s being SERIOUSLY discussed was what pushed FDR to make the moderate changes he did.

Now, the support I'm talking about right now is NOT so much electoral as it os on issues. Dems are usually STILL the lesser of two evils in today's electoral politics. I'm just not sure electoral politics does much good anymore. The fascists are stealing elections EVERYWHERE and they're not even HIDING it anymore. They know they own most of the judiciary where these electoral issues are ultimately decided.

[Donnachaidh]

49. +10000!

:thumbsup:

It's past time to clean house -- both parties do not work for US.

[OneGrassRoot]

26. This paragraph is spot on:

Our leaders priorities are misguided. Our representatives are too preoccupied with running for re-election that their time is consumed with fundraisers. They are too busy trying to keep their job, to actually fulfill the duties of the job they were initially elected to perform. Following their run as government officials, most ex-officials then turn to the lobbies who funded their campaigns to attain their new careers as lobbyists. They then lobby for the interests of other countries and "free trade" proponents to further dismantle the U.S. economy.

:thumbsup:

K&R

[Doctor_J]

27. My rep is completely useless. He campained on his birtherism

My district is so under the thrall of hate radio that it's beyond repair. So while I agree that the country is shutting down, I also firmly believe that more talking will accomplish nothing but a sore throat.

[Snoutport]

28. k & r

[Zorra]

31. IMO, the only way to remove the plutarchs from power is through direct action.

The political process is broken and is now a tool of private enterprise. Calling representatives about this problem is a waste of time, it's too late for that.

The fate of the US was determined the day Reagan took office.

Non-violent, semi-unified direct action --strikes, boycotts, and methods of non-cooperation--are now our next line of defense against the multi-national wealthy private enterprises that have seized control of our government.

This will be uncomfortable for many people, and many will not be willing to trade their temporary security for liberty, but...

If we do not take direct action, things will continue to deteriorate, and we will end up so powerless that we will not be able to engage in any effective form of resistance to the globalist plutarchal dictatorship.
----
"The global power of the financial centers is so great, that they can afford not to worry about the political tendency of those who hold power in a nation, if the economic program (in other words, the role that nation has in the global economic megaprogram) remains unaltered. The financial disciplines impose themselves upon the different colors of the world political spectrum in regards to the government of any nation. The great world power can tolerate a leftist government in any part of the world, as long as the government does not take measures that go against the needs of the world financial centers. But in no way will it tolerate that an alternative economic, political and social organization consolidate. For the megapolitics, the national politics are dwarfed and submit to the dictates of the financial centers. It will be this way until the dwarfs rebel . ."

http://www.raptorial.com/Zine/Marcos/Marcos6.html

[Marblehead]

32. The mega banks

now control our government. The fed gave away trillions to foreign and domestic banks that we have to pay back.

[jwirr]

39. It isn't just the banks because multinational corporations, the

military and fossil fuel companies are doing their share.

[Marblehead]

78. who do you think

owns those corporations? the banks

[Atypical Liberal]

33. The big "flaw" in this article:

"A country’s companies are its wealth producers. If all of our wealth production is easily bought at an accelerated rate – and our foreign competitors companies won’t be sold to us, it is easy to see America has no future ability to generate wealth. This is the reason the media highlights thousands of store and factory closings everyday with increasing unemployment. Allowing this systematic depletion of American industries will lead to social disruption, poverty and increased crime."

The big "flaw" in this country is that the people in power in this country do not see manufacturing as creating wealth.

Wealth is created by managing the work of others - anywhere on the planet.

The people in power in this country don't make anything. They simply own the controlling interests of those who do. They work very hard to control the intellectual property and distribution of what is manufactured. They don't give one single solitary damn where it is actually manufactured nor who manufactures it. Manufacturing is simply a task to be outsourced to the lowest bidder. The real money is in controlling the intellectual property, so you can block any competitors from competing against you, and marketing your goods to the places on the planet where people have the money to buy the product.

I'd be willing to be that most of the people in power in this country, and this includes politicians as well as the wealthy elite who control them - have never physically worked to produce a physical product in their lives. That is a task for the little people.

[bertman]

35. Atypical Liberal, you are exactly right. This applies to a large number of our

Democratic leaders and to the investor class in general.

They consider themselves smarter than the rest of us because they have figured out how to get wealth without working.

REC this thread.

[JEB]

43. Time to bring back

sentences of HARD LABOR. So many politicians and white collar criminals could benefit from developing a few callouses on their hands instead of just their hearts. Rehabilitation for the criminal class that runs this country.

[hack89]

41. What a bunch of nonsense

Domestic manufacturing as a segment of our economy has never been stronger. The problem is that productivity and automation has reduced the number of workers needed to produce goods. Manpower intensive manufacturing will never come back - it makes no economic sense.

The United States is the world's largest manufacturer, with a 2007 industrial output of US$2.69 trillion. In 2008, its manufacturing output was greater than that of the manufacturing output of China, India, and Brazil combined, despite manufacturing being a very small portion of the entire US economy as compared to most other countries.<98>

The manufacturing sector of the U.S. economy has experienced substantial job losses over the past several years. In January 2004, the number of such jobs stood at 14.3 million, down by 3.0 million jobs, or 17.5 percent, since July 2000 and about 5.2 million since the historical peak in 1979. Employment in manufacturing was its lowest since July 1950.<101>

The U.S. produces approximately 21% of the world's manufacturing output, a number which has remained unchanged for the last 40 years. The job loss during this continual volume growth is explained by record breaking productivity gains. In addition, growth in telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, aircraft, heavy machinery and other industries along with declines in low end, low skill industries such as clothing, toys, and other simple manufacturing have resulted in U.S. jobs being more highly skilled and better paying.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_States#Manufacturing

[salinen]

42. we are not careless

they are corrupt and violent. Those qualities are difficult to correct when you're trying to make ends meet and raise a family.

[JDPriestly]

44. This is extremely important.

Thanks for posting this. I am happy to finally read a widely disseminated and very clear statement of the facts on the issue of trade and economic development in the US.

Chicago School economics have been tried and proved wrong. We have to end our attempt to prove them right.

We have been led by fools in recent years. It is time to get them out of leadership and bring in some people with wisdom who will act in the interest of our country and not in the interest of other countries and a few multinational megacorporations.

[nonperson]

46. The man America ignored

The man who helped Japan implement and continually improve the principles highlighted in the article:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHvnIm9UEoQ

The Deming Prize

http://deming.org/index.cfm?content=511

Instead of following these proven principles the greedy and the ignorant chase after profit at the cost of all else.

[liberation]

52. Quoting Celente, seriously?

[Quantess]

74. What's wrong with that?

He correctly predicted the real estate crash, while everyone else was wearing rose colored glasses.

[KansDem]

54. Will the last one to leave please turn off the lights?

Thanks...

[leveymg]

55. The Russians asked themselves the same questions 20 years ago. Same problem, same

response. Their Cold War empire collapsed for largely the same reasons of systemic corruption, economic overextension, and imperial hubris. Oligarchs, foreign corporations, and organized crime took over and looted what was left. Eventually, when things got bad enough for normal people who were cast out of work, homes, and stripped of their pensions, they just embraced another dictator.

[fredamae]

56. How? Because over the past several decades

"they" have systematically taken small incremental steps to "set their staging arena". We never believed "this" could happen in America. Many of "us" were naive and far too trusting.
The bush admin embedded many of his people, justice system is embedded with bush nominees, monopolization of MSM that controls the propaganda, NAFTA, SCOTUS appointees by the bush admin, patriot act...all of this goes all the way back to regan...deregulation, tax loop holes opened for the wealthy and corps and tax loop holes for us closed, all of it, now easily identified, lead us to the "Starving of the Beast" reality.
The question for me is that now that We can see the "who, what, where and how" of this...what are we going to do to change things?

[sendero]

61. The pragmatic view...

.. (to which I sadly prescribe) is that it is already pretty much too late. You are on your own and the best thing you can do is try to prepare for yourself, your family and your friends, because those who now control our country are not going to let go easily, if at all.

The country's debt was already high, and then we added several trillion dollars to bail out the bankster's fraud.

At this point, most of that debt has to be rolled over fairly often. Just a few percent of interest rate rise will put the US in a situation where total income won't even pay the INTEREST on the debt.

The Fed can force rates down with extraordinary measures for a time. But economics is just like physics, only over a longer time frame. The laws of physics are immutable, as are the laws of economics, its just that manipulations can be made in economics to kick the can down the road for a period of time.

That period of time might be months or years but it won't be decades. The people running the show know this and they are trying to soak the system one last time. People who have money in the stock market, for example, are just sheep that are going to get sheared one more time before the whole thing tanks.

Any of you who think we are in a "recovery" or that things are getting "better", answer just this one simple question. Why is the Fed keeping interest rates at ZERO, an unprecedented manipulation that should make alarm bells go off everywhere and in fact should not even be allowed.

[w4rma]

72. One option is to just not pay back the debt. (nt)

[sendero]

75. It is a given...

.. that we are not going to pay off the debt, it is mathematically impossible. The problem is the fallout/consequences of that action, which is a collapse in the value of the dollar.

[xxqqqzme]

62. "...Our government and its leaders have developed no

industrial policies....to protect American owned companies or to be more instrumental in developing and creating more productive industries in our own country.

A country’s companies are its wealth producers..."

Except US 'wealth producers' are no longer American companies. If they have not been sold to foreign in estors, they have completely moved offshore but continue to be a drain on the economy.

[lsewpershad]

65. I saw it coming but

never thought it would happen in my lifetime.

[lonestarnot]

66. We are fucked, but we "got" Bin Laden.

:evilgrin:

[reggie the dog]

69. this is sad but true

[SoCalDem]

76. How could we be so careless ?

Easy.. we became a consumer nation, one that prizes entertainment over all else.

We chose to live vicariously, and let our guard down. We (collectively) thought that the battles we fought and won, would always stay won.. we underestimated the avarice, malice and contempt that the conservatives who live amongst us, have for their fellow man.

We thought that "they" were capable of compromise and would accept reason. We were wrong.. While most people were apparently satisfied with their lives, the conservatives were busily plotting their next move.

They are truly the Wil E. Coyote of the human world. They always fail in the end, but they never stop devising ways to stay in the game.. and they DO see it all as a game..