L.W. Nicholson
As “they” say, it takes all kinds to make a world. Some believe this, some believe that, and some believe something entirely different. There may be a hundred different beliefs about the same thing. Some believe they know what they are doing but all too often they don’t. And, unfortunately, this includes many people in high positions in our society. In early 1929 it was said that “business is on a permanently high plateau, the poor house is disappearing from among us, and that those who were not getting rich were not trying.”
Then, in Oct. 1929 the stock market took a nose-dive into the third basement level. People jumped out of 20 story buildings and crashed into the sidewalk, or shot themselves in the head, and the nation embarked on a course of financial collapse that lasted a full decade, until World War No. 2 bailed us out with the increased spending of borrowed money to buy war materials to fight a war with drafted men. The greatest war in history ended the greatest depression in history with the greatest increase in debt ever before recorded. And, with 27 million people withdrawn from their regular duties to fight the war and build the equipment for it, the United States, with only a few exceptions, produced the highest living standard ever known for its citizens.
What did we learn from this experience? We learned that a financial depression could be held at bay if the debt was increased fast enough. SO — Since WW2 the U.S. has had only 5 years with a balanced budget.
What should we have learned? That the financial system could no longer pay its way in a highly industrialized society. That technology has antiquated this system of price based on scarcity values, that it could no longer be maintained without massive injections of debt. That privately created debt wasn’t sufficient and that federal debt must be added to make up the difference.
What has happened within the financial system since WW2? The total debt of the U.S. including the federal, state, local, plus all private and corporate debts have increased to more than $30 trillion (and is increasing at about a trillion per year) an amount equal to $108,000 for each individual American citizen, regardless of age. For a family of four this debt would be $438,000. Can you pay your share plus your regular living expenses?
During this same time the federal debt has increased to $5,881,561,697,442 as of Dec. 20, 2001. The U.S. population is 285,842,000 and the per capita federal debt is $20,576.26. Further, there has been no balanced budget for more than 30 years. This can be verified by logging on to the U.S. Treasury Department’s own web site. We shall be extra polite and say that those in high government positions who are saying that we have a balanced budget and even a small surplus are “mistaken.” There is no surplus and there is no balanced budget, period.
For the sake of understanding how much this debt is, let us consider a small unit of time, the second. 60 seconds equals one minute, one hour equals 3,600 seconds, and 1 billion seconds equals 31.7 years. If the $5.881 trillion federal debt were converted into an equal number of seconds they would add up to 186,428 years. At this point remember that all of recorded history extends back only 6 to 7 thousand years.
If we could discontinue any increase in the debt and pay it off at 1 dollar per second, it would require 186 CENTURIES to do so. NOW, after considering the above plus the fact that we now pay over $360 billion per annum in interest charges on the federal debt alone, can one be so naive as to believe that this total debt of $30 trillion can ever be paid? Need one ask why the 1940 dollar is now worth less than 10 cents? Need one ask why we now work almost half of our working hours just to pay taxes? Need one ask why it is so expensive to live in a “free” country?
Can one actually believe that on top of all the interest we must pay on a total of some $30 trillion that we can also pay another trillion or so for an environmental cleanup, the increasing price of fossil fuels as they pass a peak in production and decline at about 3 percent per annum? Or to pay the increase in prices of everything that depends on fossil fuels for their production?
The depression of the 1930’s is only a sample, a small sample, of things to come. We have never before experienced a world shortage of major natural resources, especially energy resources. Our history hasn’t prepared us for such an event. The U.S. financial system is already bankrupt, it can’t pay its way even now, so what can we expect for the future? That future is already here, we are in the midst of it at this very moment. We are in process of the greatest social change that humans have ever experienced in all the recorded history of our species. The financial system which has existed since the “barter System” was devised is now in process of disintegration. The process which developed into today’s problem began its rapid growth when James Watt improved the steam engine which allowed a significant substitution of extraneous energy for human muscles. This trend has now progressed far beyond the capabilities of human muscle power. Without the technology powered chiefly by fossil fuels, about 5 of the 6 billion people now present on this little planet couldn’t exist. The present financial system has been the control technique of our society for thousands of years, that control technique is in a rapid process of deterioration to a point of complete failure.
An entirely new method of control must be found and installed, human survival depends on it. The petty thieves, either legal or illegal, who have prospered and installed themselves in positions of power in an incompetent system of finance do not posses the knowledge to design the methods required. WW2 ended the depression of the 1930’s, however, we can no longer spare the resources for a war big enough to save the system in the future.
This little war in Afghanistan is only a drop in the bucket. Again we draft men to fight a war while we pay enormous prices for their equipment. (have we the unmitigated audacity to call this fair?) This little war will add only a few jobs, increase the profits of the “defense” industry and waste more of our nonreplaceable natural resources, which are already reaching scarcity proportions. The only semi-permanent effect will be an oil pipeline across Afghanistan for the oil companies to transport oil and gas to the seaports of Pakistan. And any other plans for little wars for any purpose will accomplish nothing of lasting benefit for humanity but will shorten the time that 6 billion people can survive on this earth. In the face of these events, at this time in history, such behavior can only be classified as idiotic.
Where is it written that the citizens of this country must continue to be a nation of idiots? Have our problems become insurmountable? Are we destined to be a temporary species? Where is the great American ingenuity? Who provided the intelligence to build the greatest technological mechanism on earth? Why shouldn’t that same intelligence be put to work solving the greatest financial problem in human history? The Manhattan Project required the coordinated efforts of many people with specialized scientific backgrounds, and this project was small potatoes in comparison to the human survival project we now so desperately need. Further, this project must be accomplished on a volunteer basis since we don’t have the financial resources, or the willingness of those who control them to pay the cost of the project. Where are the qualified scientists who are willing to overcome the political and economic resistance now existing, or the ridicule of those who don’t know enough to know they don’t know, in order to initiate such a program? Who are the people who are willing to assist when, and if, such a project is started?