I would very much like to adopt Harley's promotional mantra, "screw it, lets ride". But I can't. Besides being totally irresponsible it is not reality. It takes fuel to ride. Yes, the price of gas has come down. The price of everything has come down. But we can not suspend or ignore the laws of physics.
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Where is all the money that the Fed is printing at right now? And what will happen when all that money hits the streets?
We also can not disregard that due to our own ignorance history inevitably repeats itself. I understand that when I write posts such as these that number of hits on this site goes down. That saddens us but does not deter us. The chains of bondage come in many forms. Sometimes your only choice is to choose the chains that you will wear.
Economic slavery is the most insidious of all bondage because the government does not have to enact laws to dictate your actions when you can not afford to Act!
Below I have laid out a very familiar scenario using info from here:
in an economic crisis or a war, the pressure to inflate becomes overwhelming. Any alternative may seem politically disastrous. Whether it be the Roman emperors repeatedly debasing their coinage, the French revolutionary government printing a flood of assignats, John Law flooding France with debased money, or the Continental Congress issuing money until it was literally "not worth a Continental," the story is similar. A government in financial straits finds its easiest recourse is to issue more and more money until the money loses its value. The entire process is accompanied by a barrage of explanations, propaganda and new regulations which hide the true situation from the eyes of most people until they have lost all their savings.
"The government did not want to upset people with heavy taxes. Instead it borrowed huge amounts of money "
"But the fuel for inflation was accumulating in the form of vast hoards of money."
"Also, the new democratic leaders had promised the people all types of bounties--increased wages, reduced hours, an expanded educational system, and new social benefits. But all this meant a vastly increased demand on a limited production capacity."
"Meanwhile, middle-class people who depended on any sort of fixed income found themselves destitute. They sold furniture, clothing, jewelry and works of art to buy food. Little shops became crowded with such merchandise. Hospitals, literary and art societies, charitable and religious institutions closed down as their funds disappeared."
" The inflation was caused by the government issuing a flood of new money, causing prices to rise. Then, as the inflation gained momentum, events seemed to demand the printing of larger and larger issues of currency. To half the process would have taken political courage, and this was lacking. As usual, the true facts were hidden behind a barrage of excuses, explanations and propaganda laying blame on everyone except the true culprit.
First, it would be wrong to think that everyone was opposed to inflation. Many big business leaders accepted it cheerfully. It wiped out their debts. They knew how to protect themselves and even profit--by speculating in foreign exchange, by converting money into goods and fixed plant, by borrowing money from the bank and using it to buy up cheap stocks and competing companies. Their wage costs, in true value, decreased, swelling their profits. Yet many workers also thought that they were benefiting, at least in the earlier stages of the inflation. Their wages were increased, and it took time before they recognized that, with prices soaring even faster, they were actually suffering a cut in true income.
A crew of speculators arose who traded in goods and foreign exchange, they had a vested interest in continued inflation's. And the government could not help realizing that the inflation was wiping out its burden of debt and would ease its financial problems."
Millions of middle-class, normally the mainstay of a republic--were ruined by the inflation. They became receptive to rabid right wing propaganda and formed a fertile soil for a totalitarian leader. Workers who had suffered through the inflation turned, in many cases, to the Communists. The biggest beneficiaries of this enormous redistribution of wealth were feudalistic industrial leaders who distrusted the democracy and who proved willing to deal with the totalitarian leader, thinking that they could control it. The democratic parties and the labor unions lost their capital and were weakened. The liberal democratic regime was discredited.
The problem with this scenario is that it actually happened. The Totalitarian Leader that industrial leaders were willing to deal with was Adolf Hitler. Head of Germany's Nazi Party misappropriately named the National Socialist German Workers' Party.
Many are not old enough to remember gas lines that blocked the roadways and the rationing that allowed you to buy gas on even or odd numbered days. Our how corporations made good money of the backs of college graduates that were forced into menial jobs just to feed their kids. That has happened in America.
Yeah, I'm a crazy son of bitch because I believe that history will repeat itself. That the laws of physics can not be ignored. That we have been lulled into a stupor by propaganda designed to immobilize us or that we have become frightend into inaction by our percieved "powerlessness".
And probably crazier yet because if I did focus on the butts, boots and parties I might could even make a buck or two doing this shit.
But what really validates my insanity is my conviction that someday Americans will wake up and become the Americans of our forefathers and put an end to the abuse perpetrated on us by those in power.
I choose to embrace my insanity. To do otherwise would drive me crazy!Add to Technorati Favorites
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