Bailouts aren't really gifts, are they?

I guess we are all probably dismayed - well not all, but most of us that make $50,000 and under probably are - with what many bill as a criminal act perpetrated by Washington DC. The great Bailout of those that caused their own problems. Really, isn't that really what just happened?

These people tried every shady way known to man, and some that hadn't been previously known, to swindle money from investors. Let's face it, when you package what you truly believe to be worthless paper, and that is what some of the derivatives were, and sell them as a viable commodity, you are, in effect, swindling anyone that buys in, period. These people were no better then stage coach robbers, or muggers. They abused the trust given them by people trying to set up their retirement programs, and flat stole from them!

And what did the elected representatives of the American citizenry do? After being inundated by enough calls and emails to practically take the system down with a 90 to 1 against ratio, they played hardball! They voted down the original bill - under pressure - and when enough "goodies" were added, they passed it and ran out of town! Never mind that the people that voted them into office - that they are supposed to represent - said leave this dog lying! No, they gave to the rich any amount necessary to insure that they would have adequate bribes and campaign funds for the upcoming, and apparently already fixed, election. Why else would you totally ignore the voters demands unless you KNEW the election was already fixed, and your re-election was in the bag! Of course, knowing that you would never have to work again due to your retirement program, should you be one of the token losers, doesn't hurt to much as an incentive.

A few years ago, the Euro and dollar was at approximate parity. Now the Euro is worth about $1.40. In fact, since Bush took office, the dollar has lost about 50% of its value against nearly every currency in the world. In effect, then, the cost of labor in the US has been brought down by an equivalent amount. That is, if you were making $15 an hour doing the same job someone overseas was doing for $10 an hour, you are now effectively making the same wage. Thank George and Congress for that. Don't blame that one on the companies that have been running all our good jobs overseas for the new parity. Their taking the jobs overseas in the first place we can probably blame on Clinton's administration.

But we have slid into a second tier nation in the past few years, when you look at standard of living as a rule of thumb, heading for third world status. We make far too little of the things we use in this country to pretend we aren't closer to third world then first world. We look at our standard of living and "think" we are doing well. We are still making big money, right? Wrong! We might be making big sums of money, but when you think of it in real buying power, the only thing that keeps you thinking you are doing okay is that manufacturers of products are still finding places that are so impoverished, that they can still steal from them by "industrializing" them with outmoded, polluting factories, and pay so little labor that the price is still cheap enough to sell to us with our shrinking currency. Some day, however, they will finally run out of those labor markets, but when that happens, the FED will have sent the value of the dollar so low that you won't be able to buy anything, even if you are making $50 an hour!

I remember a day, many years ago, when my Mother said that she wished they'd stop making pennies since there was so little you could buy with them. I responded to her that the day they stopped making pennies would be the day that prices changed 5 cents at a time instead of 1 cent at a time. I didn't want that day to come. On the other hand, I can see in the not too distant future that there will be a day coming when there won't be pennies and nickels. There probably won't even be dimes, and maybe not even quarters. The only coins we will carry will be half dollars and probably a whole host of new coins such as a dollar, 5 dollar, 10 dollar, 20 dollar, and maybe even 50 dollar coins. The bills we carry will be 100s, 500s, 1000s, and probably 5ooo dollar bills. Why? Because the dollar will be about the same value as a penny is now. And you probably won't have to wait too long to see that day, now that the government has chosen to take on the trillions of dollars worth of worthless paper that the rich people used to steal wealth from the rest of the world.

Enough of this rant. It's giving me a headache, and I can't afford to buy aspirin anymore!