The real problem with the state of the American Republic is the finance system.

SOTN Editor’s Note: Some of the best articles that have been posted at this Alt Media site over the years were originally written as comments and posted under thoughtful titles such as this: The New Congress And The Rolling Catastrophe Of The US Body Politic.  The comment below is just such an example of an excellent commentary on the roll of modern finance in the breaking of America.


Comment posted by swmnguy

The problem at the root of all the real issues in America is that our economic system has failed. Finance was an incredibly useful tool when it made up about 5% of economic activity, and allowed us to do things we needed to do, that required more money over time than we had at the moment, and allowed us to leverage the money earned over that time by doing the things that needed doing.

Now Finance has metastasized like a cancer, and is killing the host. Finance is now nearly 50% of economic activity in the US, and the costs, 50 cents on every dollar, are preventing us from doing what we need to do.

Farmers can’t earn a living growing food because of finance. Employers can’t find qualified employees to fill the jobs they have, and people can’t afford to buy the education necessary to be qualified to take those jobs. Schools can’t teach students adequately because everyone has always known that having more than 10 students in a class works very poorly for teaching, yet we can’t afford to hire enough teachers to do an adequate job teaching; so we spend more money every year to get worse educational results. Uncovered healthcare costs incurred by people who have healthcare insurance is the #1 cause of consumer bankruptcy. People and regions that used to be dependent on industries that have become obsolete can’t retrain people or provide the infrastructure to get into new industries that would be lucrative. America needs more single-family housing that single families can afford, but builders can’t make any money building those houses at those costs, despite overwhelming demand.

This is a very short list of the absurdities we endure because our Finance system is broken. All of us can add more and more to the list.

Our political system is broken because the Oligarchy prohibits anyone’s mentioning that our Finance system is broken. The Oligarchs are the “Donor Class,” and control politics because they control the flow of money.

I could criticize Democrats or Republicans each as harshly as the other, but they’re both the symptom of the root problem, not the cause. And they’re sure as hell not the solution.

I’m afraid the solution is a complete collapse of our finance system. Fortunately, or unfortunately, it looks as if we have just the right politicians in place to bring about that collapse, by studiously and vehemently ignoring the problem and allowing it to grow out of control.

We’re heading into a recession right now. That means millions of Americans, within the next year, will lose their current healthcare insurance. Without their employer paying for it, they can’t pay for it themselves, even with the Federal subsidies to insurance companies. Right now, federal workers are going to have to quit their jobs to get jobs that pay, so they can pay their bills. Like 70% of Americans, TSA screeners live paycheck to paycheck, and can’t get far enough ahead to have $1000 in the bank. If they have somehow bought a house, they might lose it if the furnace goes out.

Our War Machine is bankrupting the country, yet both factions of the Oligarchy demand we spend more. We’re imposing 25%-40% taxation on our consumers who need to buy things that are no longer made in the USA, through tariffs. As the effects of those tariffs set in over the next few months, consumer spending will stay the same but the quantity of goods sold will drop by the percentage of the tariffs. Charging more for a product doesn’t put more money into the pockets of consumers who are losing their jobs; especially not when the good-paying jobs in America were terminated so good could be made in the Third World at 1/6th the labor cost, and shipped to America using nearly-free energy, and rewarded by our corrupted corporate tax system.

Again, the list of examples of collapse is nearly endless. Our Oligarchic Elites have decided not to allow any solutions to the problem, so we need to come to terms with the fact that only complete and outright collapse will bring the opportunity for us to adopt a new system that actually works to give us ways to do the things we all need to do.

Comment posted at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-04/new-congress-and-rolling-catastrophe-us-body-politic

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