By: Grainne Rhuad
On October 17th we have been informed that the United States will be reaching its credit limit and as a result all manner of catastrophe has been speculated.
According to the Huffington Post- “The very definition of financial risk in much of the world is predicated on the notion that America will never, ever default on its debt.”
This in fact, is fucking stupid because Americans practically make a pastime of defaulting on Debt. Ask Donald Trump, he made a fortune doing it.
“Absent a congressional debt ceiling hike or Obama debt ceiling magic, the U.S. will be missing bond payments by the end of the month, plunging the world into turmoil and chaos.”
Huffington post recommended “arming yourself”. To be fair, the article was satire, although it will likely never been seen that way by most of the people reading it.
Although their suggestion to plant a survival garden I can completely get on board with. You should really already be doing this. http://www.survivalseedbank.com/
They also gave a reading list suggestion to which I say: screw that, start memorizing shit. Didn’t anyone watch The Book of Eli?
Where they really screw up is in telling people to leave their guitars at home. I inferred this to mean all instruments. Clearly they never spent their childhood listening to the teaching of Pete Seeger who taught us all quite clearly “The musician always gets the seat closest to the fire.” (See Pete Seeger’s Children’s Concert at Town Hall)
But don’t worry too much; we won’t actually hit a ceiling until February-ish according to an analysis by the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Before you going running into the night remember there are things about hitting a ceiling that could be good for America, things that will wake us up (maybe)
Like, the possibility that the government will have to honor debts to other countries and banks rather than taking care of its people. People aren’t going to want to hear “You aren’t going to receive your veteran’s benefits because we owe the Chinese.”
Nobody likes to have to make budget choices. However people need to be aware of just how much we have overextended ourselves in the constant quest to appear to be the largest superpower on earth.
In addition we might all learn some constitution. Like do you know the ins and outs of The 14’Th Amendment?
You may find out if the President (who has said he unequivocally would not-but you know…your dad said that about your grounding too) There is a provision to allow the president to keep paying with what amounts to magick money. Actually it states that the debt of the United States Government, lawfully issued will not be questioned. Either way- magick!
This likely won’t impact anyone because we have been living on magick money for a long time now.
Or there’s the Platinum coin option which would allow the President to mint a trillion dollar platinum coin which we imagine would then be sold on QVC in between chocolate fountains and holiday sweaters. Again, magick money.
Or you know, we can go with Ron Paul’s plan and Abracadabra!
Speaking of magick, financial wizards, and I’m calling them that for a reason because I believe they practice dark arts, believe that hitting the debt ceiling would mean actual greater debt for the coming generations.
Duh.
When have we ever cared about the upcoming generations? However, who doesn’t want to see Mad Max and a Thunderdome situation happen? Why let Australia have all the fun? We are already halfway there!
While scaring people is fun and especially at this time of year, a lot of the information is really not being related in a…shall we say “truthful” fashion. Many reporters and pundits and politicians are reporting that SSI would be cut in order to pay our debt which is highly unlikely to happen as it is a trust fund that is completely separate from the other debt we are talking about. To do this congress would have to vote to steal from SSI (or disband it, use whatever language you like). This is highly unlikely to happen because they know scared oldster watching CNN religiously are the ones who vote for them.
Other scary campfire stories being told are of commies taking over making us all share stuff, which actually makes no sense as the most likely thing to happen is more contracts to private parties making the rich richer and the peasants more peasant-y. While I’m on that subject, I’ll just point out that Obamacare is not in fact communism or socialism either. All medical insurance contracts are being handled by private agencies. Which begs the question: Who isn’t getting their promised kickback, because really, the GOP admitted to agreeing to this stuff and pulled the plug at the last minute?
Forbes Magazine recently reported that the Feds actually reached their debt ceiling about four months ago. So really, why worry? There are lots of real world ways to fix this like…I don’t know…ending the “shutdown” so the IRS can get back to collecting taxes or something.
You know, we could also just hold the paychecks of people not willing to play well with others in Congress. But that would be too reasonable, no?
Oh and also, this isn’t the first time this has happened. It just sounds really really scary to the rest of us, because when we reach debt ceilings (or any ceilings for that matter) it hurts us a lot more. (Because we don’t have magick)
What we should be more concerned about is the fact that we have a bunch of egomaniacs that are purposefully trying to scare everyone into submission and we voted them into office. It scares me that despite the fact that the GOP is clearly responsible for the “shutdown” (Not to mention House Majority Leader Eric Cantor(R) is the only one who can end it )and the possible “debt ceiling” most Americans believe that it is the Obama administration’s fault for wanting to ensure that uninsured Americans have basic health care.
L. A. Breaux 
Subversify Staff
Personally, I blame both sides, the media and public attention, which actually seems to be the underlying theme of the article. Mandatory insurance for anything only means that if you’re broke and can’t pay a dime, you’re living outside the law. I suppose the homeless are going to pay twenty dollars a month to insure they have health care when the months of exposure and poor eating habits finally break down their immune systems? I suppose the hamburger flipper who lives with his parents because he can’t afford to rent an apartment (and the family could use a little extra income) will secure his insurance policy without a grudge?
Mandatory health insurance is a capitalist dream and for that reason, I’m surprised there was any dispute at all from our corporate kissing legislature. But it never was about opposition. It was about a group of narcissistic, self-serving people in love with the lime light and fascinated by their ability to wield power. It’s not “vote for me and I will do my best to serve my country and its people”. It’s “vote for me because I have the loudest voice and can make clever speeches that will stir up the hornet’s nest.”
The American people buy into it because the media buys into it, feeding us sensationalist news that fades away within two weeks, leaving us bored until the next melodrama comes along to draw us wringing our hands in front of the television set. Each crisis is a near crisis, one that gets smoothed out in the eleventh hour, while the real crisis is the inept functioning of a government that can afford to engage us in endless war but cannot rebuild our infrastructure, that can allow themselves pay hikes and privileges, but cannot find solutions for our unhealthy economy.
To be fair, karlsie, the United States Government is not the one who profits from war. When a country is captured by the US army, like Iraq for example, American corporations sweep in and take over the country’s market and economy, ensuring that no local business can ever get off the ground, let alone compete with them. The US had to undermine and destroy Communism because it was a system based on self-sufficiency, and in a fair fight, Soviet Russia would have very likely accumulated enough wealth to leave the US eating dust.
You see, whereas under a Communist regime, the wealth would have undeniably ended up in the people’s pocket eventually (and sooner rather than later, were it not for American military-bullying of Russia) the wealth of the United States belongs entirely to a big bank hiding in the shadows. This debt ceiling talk is all just a subterfuge in my opinion. The true policy makers, the banks, are threatening America like a parent threatens to cut off a child’s allowance. They’re just making up all these big words like GOP and government shutdown and what-not to confuse us.
Money has no inherent value. The capitalist economy is a complete scam. When you look at the big picture, you will see a big bank printing money without anything to back it up. Because it is the bank’s power and authority over the world which is upholding the value of money. And you can rest assured, the American people could not move this big global bank the breadth of a hair, even if they all magically united under a banner of truth and freedom. The bank will just exterminate the “flawed” population and replace them with indentured-servant-immigrants from third world countries, like they did originally.
The following are the two basic philosophies of money, in the words of one Joseph Farrel. I’m quoting his words unchanged.
a) Money was a receipt on the surplus goods and services, that is to say, on the gross domestic product, of the state itself, and thus was issued by the state debt-free as an instrument of exchange.
b) Money was monetized debt, i.e., an instrument of exchange loaned into circulation at interest by private monopolies, thus creating a closed economic system where there is never enough “money” in circulation to pay the interest on the principle. This creates scarcity, and led to the most useful tool of social engineering and private profiteering: war.
The second philosophy, which is apparently Babylonian-Jewish in origin, as opposed to the first which is essentially the Islamic-Christian “anti-usury” system, is in simpler terms, the bank charging you for printing money. In this system, the bank owns all money and backs up its value with (NATO) military might, and people are allowed the priviledge to use the bank’s money in exchange for paying it back with interest.
I am not against Jews or anything. But it strikes me as odd that such a fuss should be made about anti-semitism by the media, in an age where the majority of big banks and corporations (including the media) are owned by Jewish people, where a handful of them are so rich that they can create a new country and hold it with sheer brute force, while the global population can barely afford to live in their “own” (owned by the bank) homes.
Jewish or not-Jewish, even a child can see that the philosophy of monetized debt is a scam. The entire capitalist system, by extension, is just a long con. Hitler’s motivation for kicking out all the zuckermans and goldmans and bankmans from Germany is quite clear I think. (somehow, all the rich jewish people were able to flee to the United States before the Nazis supposedly killed all the poor ones.)
If a Hitler comes along today and makes it known that a handful of rich people, Jewish or not, are stealing our children’s future, and offers an opportunity to unite and strike them down, I will be the first in line hunting down the rich-scum hiding in their castles. If, however, this Hitler says that “We are Aryans. They are Turks pretending to be Semites. Let’s kill all their poor-people, because our race is superior to theirs” …I have a hard time accepting that even a single person would back him up, let alone millions of highly-educated Germans in the Golden Age of German arts, sciences and industry. (Sorry for going off-topic)