Some one has to start it, Americas default.

Who would have thought a nation's fall could be summed up in a single bumper sticker?

Yet, it has.

Up until recently, every generation carefully invested in the future of their country and future of their family. It's precisely this uncaring incompetence of people with those bumper stickers that sunk us.

On a small scale, they sold family businesses instead of passing them down, burnt through family fortunes. Then, these same people ask why 20 somethings are so lazy and can't find a job.

Those people ruined this country more than any banker ever did.

 

Well yes, no, or even maybe. Tax laws and structure also contributed greatly to the decline of family businesses also. Many family farms and business were simply lost financially simply because to pay the tax liabilities they were often forced to borrow huge sums of money in what was often low profit but profitable enterprises and simply found they then simply couldn't make a go of it.

Here's what I'd call a great read on the overall topic here.

WHAT THIS COUNTRY NEEDS NOW IS HOPE

Look In the Mirror

The difficulty with trying to explain how we got here is that people want simple answers and a bad guy to blame. People want to blame the rich or blame the poor or blame the phantom ruling elite or blame the other political party. They prefer to blame someone else, rather than looking in the mirror. It took a century of bad decisions, delusional thinking, unparalleled hubris, greed, sloth and willful ignorance to place the country on the precipice of ruin. The American people are responsible for the situation they find themselves in today. We elected the politicians that passed the laws, created the agencies, borrowed the money, and spent the country into oblivion. The truth is human beings are flawed creatures. We are prone to greed, laziness, seeking power, worrying about what others think about us, delusional thinking, herd mentality, shallowness, and cognitive dissonance. All of these human weaknesses have contributed to our current dilemma.

Until the twentieth century the United States generally kept their nose out of foreign conflicts, only getting involved in small regional conflicts. The country experienced tremendous growth during the 1800s and early 1900s with virtually no inflation and no central bank. The country experienced this remarkable expansion with no personal or corporate income tax. The nation also benefitted tremendously from the discovery of oil in Titusville, PA in 1859, as oil fueled the industrial revolution in the U.S. The election of Woodrow Wilson in 1912 marked a dramatic turning point in U.S. history. Within one year the country had a personal income tax and a central bank. As with most things created by politicians, they seemed harmless at first. The tax rate for 99% of Americans was 1%. The central bank was given a limited mandate to keep our banking system stable. Within a century we have a 60,000 page Federal tax code and a myriad of taxes at the Federal, State and local level. The Federal Reserve has more power and control over our lives than any entity on earth.

Giving politicians the ability to tax its citizens and print money allowed them to do things and make commitments that would have been impossible prior to 1913. After being re-elected in 1916 on a platform of keeping the country out of World War I, Wilson committed the country to that war. By 1919 the tax rate was already at 4% for most Americans and the Federal Reserve was printing money to finance the war, generating inflation of 16% per year between 1917 and 1920. Thus began a century of foreign interventionism and debt financed social welfare programs. The Federal Reserve created the easy monetary conditions of the 1920s which brought about the boom and bust of the 1929 stock market collapse. This precipitated the Great Depression and the conditions that led to the rise of fascism and World War II. The tinkering by politicians with our monetary system created more problems, which politicians attempted to solve by passing new laws and creating new programs and agencies. Without an unlimited supply of taxes and money printed by the Federal Reserve, politicians would have been constrained.

Please consider reading the above in entirety here: http://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=22172

 

most of these don't sound frivolous to me

plead no contest to fishing without a license ? Seems like a pretty cheesey way to not admit you screwed up. I mean how much middle ground is there in; "do you or do you not have a fishing license" ?

Anyway I'm not seeing a whole lot of frivolous in these charges, maybe a couple but overall some pretty egregious infractions of the use of her position. Looks pretty obvious why her approval ratings fell like a rock the way they did.

oh and great post Bamby, I gotta get moving but I'll try and get to that link when I get home.

cheers
B

 

Oh come on. "Those people" ruined the country?!? You're trying to indict an entire generation.... most of whom worked their butts off their entire lives.

It's bogus to claim that every generation but mine "carefully invested in the future of their country and future of their family." What we've done is get by as best we can, just like all the generations before us. And despite your rather despicable claims, that includes taking care of our children... record numbers of whom we sent to college, for example.

If we have a fault as a generation, it's that we raised too many whiners and blame shifters.... and too many people who think a complex world can be reduced to sound bites and bumper stickers.

 

Troy, you may have done a fine job preserving your family's financial heritage and invested in your children's future, which you should be commended for. Maybe you also had some head start in life given to your by your parents and you propagated this familial success down the line. If so, you are not what's wrong here. It's those people with the attitude on the bumper stickers.

This isn't an attack on a single generation (though the one that behaves like this the most usually feels like it's an attack on them). Lots of generations can short change their kids. Well, probably two or three generations, anyway.

But here's the situation:

There's nothing in my post above that isn't true.

Before recent times, families used to work together on family businesses and there was a clear line down through the generations. As one became too old, the next took the reigns. That's how families in America (and around the world) stay strong. Land was passed along, businesses were passed along. People worked together to achieve what was best for the family.

Recently, this tradition was abandoned.

There is no difference between the elder member of a family who has p*ssed through everything they got from their parents and left nothing for coming generations and the corporate CEO who did the same thing with his company. In fact, they are one in the same people.

The unbelievable greed of someone who guts their family's financial lineage so they can have it cushy while the future generations are left to suffer is exactly the same as the corporate execs who now put instant profits before the long term good of the company and/or country. These two seemingly different people are not different. They are one in the same. Both selling away the future for the greed they partake in today.

I have seen it happen over and over again.

Countless families, gutted completely. Businesses sold off, land sold off, inherences wasted away and nothing put toward a better future for the family. Just as the rest of the country was gutted on a macroeconomic level.

The fall of an empire is usually from decay within. This is the decay that will bring us down. A lack of concern for the future generations.

... and if you consider this whining, it's not. I am already helping those generations below me, financially.

It's one thing to screw up your kids, but it's another thing to screw up your grand kids.

There is no excuse for that.

Now... let me address your post directly.

Troy, every generation has worked their butts off. Some just had a better environment to flourish in. Your post implies that any generation below you hasn't worked their butts off. Well, they have. They continue to do so, but you know what?

Since many people didn't invest in their futures (by preserving businesses, capital, etc...), they don't have much of a chance. There aren't many scraps left for them to fight for here anymore.

Yes, your generation has really done some damage in this area, but I will not generalize about them, like you did calling generations below you "whiners."

I'll pipe in and tell you the weakness of my generation (X). We are perfectionists. We are overly educated (for the jobs that don't exist anymore) and we see the world very clearly. We also will come out and talk about what we observe. We usually refrain from personal insults and prefer to make our points with logic and reason.

This all conflicts with your generation because as a generation, you guys tend to use emotion, especially in cases like your last post where you start calling people names instead of talking rationally when you are backed into a corner.

Anyway, the important thing here is our country and its future have been sold out on both a macroeconomic and a microeconomic (family) level by the same people. People who think like that bumper sticker you quoted. Greedy people who don't care about the future, though they may pretend to.

Lastly, there is the issue of retirement. Of course you know that Social Security payments are obtained from the younger, working generation. Well, since this younger generation was never invested in, guess what? They aren't making any money, even if they do have a job.

You know what this means?

Much lower social security income. All because someone never invested in the future.

Again, not pointing directly to you or your generation because I know some GenX people who have also sold their family out. But... it's this behavior that has brought down our country, both at a corporate and familial level.

 

The heck it wasn't about Democrats... do you even read what you write? You said specifically and repeatedly that Democrats are more corrupt than Republicans, and claim it's because the press lets them get away with it. Then you proceeded to give some half-baked and dishonest examples.

What was 'factual' about saying the press covered up Gerry Studds' affair with a page, because he was a Democrat?

What was 'factual' about claiming that several members of Obama's cabinet are 'involved' in Operation Fast and Furious? Janet Napolitano testified that she didn't know about it while it was happening, and so did Eric Holder. No one has even suggested that any of the other 14 people in Obama's cabinet were involved in any way. Nor is the press ignoring the story; I read updates on it on a regular basis.

What was 'factual' about saying, "this administration has been wall-to-wall scandals, and the media has ignored almost all of them"? Neither half of that sentence is accurate.

Show me those studies, please. Specifically, show me some that weren't financed by conservatives.

Then tell me why you believe Democratic or liberal reporters and editors are so dishonest that they're engaged in an ongoing conspiracy to hide wrongdoing and corruption by Democratic politicians, while rooting it out among Republicans.

Again, I don't have the time or patience to rebut everything you're saying here. Yes, I knew Byrd was a former KKK organizer in his youth. It's never been any particular secret, and the press never 'covered it up' (where did you get that nonsense?) But I had forgotten he was also part of the crowd who filibustered against the Civil Rights Act. Since it was filibustered for 83 days straight by a long succession of speakers, I think that's understandable... I assumed you were talking about Thurmond because his speech was the longest filibuster by a single speaker in history, lasting over 24 hours.

Let me get this straight. The article you linked to is complaining because the news coverage of Studds' death in 2006 didn't spend as much time on his scandal back in 1983 as was spent on the Foley scandal as it was unfolding? Please....

The stories I've read say Operation F&F guns were found at about two hundred violent crime scenes. That's hardly the same thing as saying they were used in two hundred murders -- unless you believe that Mexican criminals consistently and habitually throw their guns down after shooting someone.

And why should F&F be the lead-off story every single day, even if there are no new developments? Is there nothing else important or interesting happening in the world? Even Watergate wasn't the lead-off story every single night....

edit: It's sad that you would even pay attention to someone on the internet who headlines a story "Melson’s Testimony Proves Fast and Furious was an Obama Plot." Especially when his attempts to back it up are laughably lame... and you're not only reading it, you're linking to it.

Your claim about government pressure boils down to one reporter complaining that two people yelled at her for a story she wrote about Holder. You conveniently ignore the fact that she works for CBS, and did the story for CBS. Seems the liberal cover-up is slipping....

Two of your links directly contradict each other: one says ATF guns were deliberately planted at the crime scenes of the two murdered American agents, as part of a plot to build public support for gun control. The other one claims F&F was part of a CIA operation to arm the Sinaloa Cartel against Los Zetas, and that "if drug thugs hadn’t murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry with an ATF- provided weapon, who knows how many thousands more guns would have crossed the U.S. border?"

Two typical bits of right-wing paranoia and fear mongering, but mutually exclusive; they can't both be true. Which one am I supposed to believe

 

Catbuilder, those bumper stickers are a joke. Do you understand what a joke is? They probably have as much truth to them as the sticker on my truck, that says "Her job is to gripe, Mine is to give her a reason."

Would seeing it make you believe that's how I live my life,? You need to lighten up.

 

My favorite slogan is "Caution. Driver spits."

 

Joke or not, it would certainly keep me from tailgating....

 

The baby boomers whether they worked hard or not had a great life with more toys than anyone anywhere else in the world because the whole period was based on cheap finance and or debt.
And one day those loans will need to be paid for

 

Not at all, but if you have that sticker and jumped all over my first post when I didn't even mention the word "boomer", I'd have to guess you've probably heard this before. Possibly from your own children.

Listen, Troy... you participate in conversations like this all the time on here. I've enjoyed reading your posts and I don't think many people have told you to "lighten up" when you present your case.

I don't really appreciate being told to "lighten up" when presenting mine.

The fact of the matter is, the attitude you see on those bumper stickers is precisely what has destroyed our country. A lack of investment in the future, be it at the corporate level or the family level.

 

I worked hard all day and am done so forgive me for being brief-

"Ruined the country"

"Destroyed our country"

Exactly which country are we talking about?

I live in the United States.
The country I live in has seen a 7% gdp yearly per capita growth rate for some two hundred years running.
There is peace which has existed for as long as most can remember.
I easily saved enough to put myself through university. I find work by simply asking.
I am continually surrounded by talented and hard working people who strive each day for a better life and achieve their goals.
This as far as I can tell is a great place to live.

We are in a recession, they happen from time to time- don't sell it for more than it is worth.

 

It's been hard on families to keep the family business going when the death tax forced the sale of said business in order to pay said taxes. IRS needs to be humbled.

 

Where abouits in America is that then Binti, I notice you say MD is that Mid Dakota, or is it a secret.

 

No. 'The fact of the matter' is that the country hasn't been destroyed by anyone -- much less by white-headed old folks with a bumper sticker on their car. Seizing on that bumper sticker and going off the deep end like you did tells me you have issues, and I repeat: you need to lighten up.

Everything you've accused those old folks of is stuff that happens in every generation, and will happen in yours, too. For you to claim that it somehow became the norm among my generation and those a few years older is absurd on the face of it.

When you zero in on them and start contrasting their evil deeds with the virtues and restraint shown by "every previous generation," you don't need to actually use the word 'boomer. Dohhh...

I'm signing off this thread for a while. It was bad enough that the Aussies are blaming the Americans, the conservatives are blaming the liberals, the Republicans are blaming the Democrats, Dave is blaming the news media, etc.

But now the younger generations are supposed to start blaming older generations, on top of all the other fingerpointing? That's just one round of the blame game too many for me; I'm going to start sitting them out.

Y'all enjoy yourselves....