by
William McCullough
“Failure is simply the non-presence of success. But a fiasco is a disaster of mythic proportions.”
Orlando Bloom
Author Mark Steyn in his book, ” America Alone,” writes a powerful comparison of our current economic state to the failed economic entitlement policies of the Greek socialist government. This is an apt analogy of the oncoming disaster to the U.S. economy, once the most successful on earth, thanks to the entitlement mentality of Obama and the progressive liberal elites and their over-educated elites and under educated followers. Obama and his rat pack, through their total failure to understand macro economics, are slowly eating away at the economic fabric of our country and any hope of a propsperous futures for our children and grandchildren. The following are a few excerpts from that book:
While Barack Obama was making his latest pitch for a brand-new, even-more-unsustainable entitlement at the health-care “summit,” thousands of Greeks took to the streets to riot. An enterprising cable network might have shown the two scenes on a continuous split-screen — because they’re part of the same story. It’s just that Greece is a little further along in the plot: They’re at the point where the canoe is about to plunge over the falls. America is farther upstream and can still pull for shore, but has decided instead that what it needs to do is catch up with the Greek canoe. Chapter One (the introduction of unsustainable entitlements) leads eventually to Chapter Twenty (total societal collapse): The Greeks are at Chapter Seventeen or Eighteen.
What’s happening in the developed world today isn’t so very hard to understand: The 20th-century Bismarckian welfare state has run out of people to stick it to.In America, the feckless, insatiable boobs in Washington, Sacramento, Albany, and elsewhere are screwing over our kids and grandkids. In Europe, they’ve reached the next stage in social-democratic evolution: There are no kids or grandkids to screw over. The United States has a fertility rate of around 2.1 — or just over two kids per couple. Greece has a fertility rate of about 1.3: Ten grandparents have six kids have four grandkids — ie, the family tree is upside down. Demographers call 1.3 “lowest-low” fertility — the point from which no society has ever recovered. And, compared to Spain and Italy, Greece has the least worst fertility rate in Mediterranean Europe.
By the way, you don’t have to go to Greece to experience Greek-style retirement: The Athenian “public service” of California has been metaphorically face down in the ouzo for a generation. Still, America as a whole is not yet Greece. A couple of years ago, when I wrote my book America Alone, I put the then–Social Security debate in a bit of perspective: On 2005 figures, projected public-pensions liabilities were expected to rise by 2040 to about 6.8 percent of GDP. In Greece, the figure was 25 percent: in other words, head for the hills, Armageddon outta here, The End. Since then, the situation has worsened in both countries. And really the comparison is academic: Whereas America still has a choice, Greece isn’t going to have a 2040…. http://www.americaalonebook.com/offers/offer.php?id=AMAL001
I am not endorsing this book. I am however suggesting that you consider Mr. Steyn’s argument of the disastrous future we can look forward to as a result of the inept leadership of the Obama administration and their seemingly blind devotion to the concept of economic bankruptcy. Just my opinion.
I disagree with your assessment of the Obama administration and their understanding of economic conditions whether local or worldwide. I would have to agree about the sheep following Obama and the Dems though. I believe the administration and the Congress know perfectly well that what they are doing is going to bankrupt this nation. That’s the plan. And we are going to make the Greeks look like rank amateurs.
Look, our currency and financial system is dead and is only being propped up by the actions of the Federal Reserve. The last auction the US Treasury held in February had virtually no foreign government bids and yet the entire offering was absorbed by agents unknown and undisclosed. This means that the Federal Reserve is buying up the debt of the Federal Government. Total monetization of government debt! The same cast of characters is running the administration, the big banks, wall street, and the federal reserve and when they decide to quit buying the debt everything will crash. I politely disagree with our learned precious metals and financial experts about the introduction of a new currency. I think the power mad “elites” want to introduce us to a cashless system with a card at first and an implanted RFID chip later, taking advantage of the crash.
The Hellth Care Reform bill(s) is about control, nothing less, and is your final warning to get your affairs in order before the crash and subsequent crack down. All of the measures proposed by the Obama administration and the CONgress have failed or will fail.
The Lehman, Bear/Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, and tax fraud scandals have failed to produce one indictment. Not one. The same crooks who created this financial mess in this country are still running the same institutions that failed and are in control of the
Treasury, the SEC and the Federal Reserve and probably had a hand in the Greek crisis also.
Until and unless we remove the crooked politicians and prosecute those responsible we will have no economic recovery and the future will be grim indeed for our children and grand children.
Thank you, Mr. McCullough, for your insightful and well written articles and commentary.