California Becomes the National Leper like Greece is for the EU. They Need All our Money and More.

Abstract: Surveying the civilized world, even including places like California if we must, we note that many nations are sinking in a murky swamp of unrecoverable debt and now many nations are obliged to cut spending and take severe austerity measures to cut their deficits. Such a process is the very last item on a long list of progressive programs in California and nearly all of those failed states that emulate this wreckage.  They spend; they do not cut; they beg unashamedly.  The progressive leaders of many states in the US and Europe apparently believe there is some pot of gold hidden by the ‘rich’ and that monotonically increasing taxes will eventually recover enough of that undeserved loot to cover current expenses and pay off a bit of the massive debt they have brought upon us. Their quest for other people’s monies to solve their financial woes is in high gear and headed for a massive collision with economic reality and national stability. What is at stake here is the accumulated wealth of the entire planet if the far left can implement their taxes and Cap and Trade Follies. They can spend much more than we have.

The unchecked growth of leftist government is the most serious menace we could experience as a collection of societies on this planet.  We could cite the ugly histories of the USSR, PRC and other similar financial, economic and social disasters as overwhelming proof against the left and their failures, but such a lesson is not convincing evidence to millions who have their hands out for alms, drugs or other remedies or ameliorations to their squalid existence. Compounding this problem, elitists who display the glittering laurel wreaths of the cognoscenti[1] and parade around as Ivy League-educated ‘progressives’ argue against success in any form that evades big government’s taxes and controls and demonstrate to the ‘poor’ that their plight is solely due to the greedy capitalists hence justice must be served only after they ‘spread around the wealth’ of the avaricious wealth hoarders as president Obama has orated. As such, the mere promise of goodies, particularly for no expended effort, perhaps accompanied by drugs or other amenities, provides a magnetic and hypnotic snare that traps millions. 

Many governments are on a terminal, psychotic spending binge reminiscent of the old California[2] opium dens of the last century. The patrons are going to smoke it all up before they expire. Once governments attain a certain level of power they tend to fortify their position with massive spending programs that have a built-in tendency to capture and sequester certain blocs of voters into their party. This is the opiate of liberal governance. The principle objective is always to make   people dependent upon government so they will continue to vote for alms and whatever they can get. The political leaders act as paternal advisors always offering ‘help’ and sound advice to those who they would victimize as long as tax revenues or fees can back up their offerings. This drama resembles a leper colony where the inhabitants are soothed and made glad by the handouts they get as they can do nothing for themselves given their hopeless condition. This creates a spiral of ignorance tempered with poverty and disease and that regenerates leftist governments as we see in most of the world. This process tends to continue to infect the entire society until some revolution or financial collapse happens then governments tend to change economic direction if the citizens are fortunate. If not, it just gets worse. 

When some social problem arises, or the cure to an existing problem festers, such as poverty, the first option of leftist governance is always to spend more money whether they have the economic and financial basis to do so or not.  Money can always be borrowed at a price. The temptation to spend everything a given country owns is illustrated by FDR who went to war on his own whim and transformed an entire nation into a military machine resulting in the death of 400,000 US soldiers and more civilians along with 31 million others world wide and fashioned a debt equal to the U.S. GDP. The ostensible excuse was to save us from Fascism but, then, we inherited a nuclear cold war for a half century from our ‘allies’ (the Soviets) after that scuffle and that was also costly since it is still progressing. Many believe that this massive spending was part of a personal grand plan crafted by Roosevelt to aid Europe, ignoring or modifying our several Neutrality Acts[3] while antagonizing Japan and deliberately provoking a war. The tragic predicament here was that FDR was expertly counseled that another involvement in a second Great War would mire the US deeper into the enduring depression after the termination of hostilities and we would be stuck with massive debts even if we won. He was prepared to sacrifice our entire economy perhaps for decades for selfish, personal geopolitical reasons, many born of arrogance, mental illness or corruption. Nothing could be viewed as more irresponsible, but Germany, England, Italy, France and other countries have also willingly followed this path toward financial oblivion. A careful reading of the 1957 book: War and Aftermath 1914-1929 by Pierre Renouvin enlightens us on the curious practice of ‘diplomacy,’ its manifold failures and questionable utility, and the unavoidable events that led to World War 1, the conduct of World War 2 and the many wars of the 1920s.[4] FDR was not that different from Wilson, the Kaiser, Lloyd George, Winston Churchill and the leaders of Germany, Austria, Italy and most European states. Such detailed histories do not offer us much solace or hope that governments can make reasonable decisions about spending, debt, taxation or war.[5] Thus, they have little prophylactic value. Given a plausible excuse they will spend away everything we have.

California[6][7][8][9] New York and soon New Jersey and Maryland, along with several other tottering states, are all in deep financial trouble and are so frantic that they will do odd things like try to peddle and tax dope to get some cash. Greece and Spain and Ireland are in the same shape in the EU. Although the Golden State is more than broke they can still conjure up some purchase orders for furniture, cars and other goodies to satisfy the comfort of the state agency officials.[10] The legislators gave themselves nifty raises and continue to spend vast sums on illegal aliens that vote anyway and bolster their supporters. [11] This is progressive we must understand. States are finding ways to get the federal government to take on full funding of local problems such as foster children.[12] Thus, the convenience of other people’s money [OPM] is central to the progressive expansion of government in failed states such as CA an NY.

Arnold flips into the game with threats like this:

“Unless the federal government coughs up $6.9 billion dollars more for California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger says he will completely eliminate a host of social programs, including Healthy Families, the state sponsored health insurance for children; CalWORKS welfare program; and In-Home Support Services for the elderly, blind, and disabled (IHSS).”[13]-- California Budget Crisis Cuts Close to the Bone New America Media, News report, Aaron Glantz, Posted: Feb 04, 2010 [Emphasis is mine in all quotes.]

Where, could we ask, might our bankrupt federal government get money for this? Perhaps the West is unaware that we are 12 trillions in debt producing threats that our AAA credit rating will be slashed and we just boosted the debt limit to 14 trillions and that is not enough to carry us into 2011 and beyond.

Whatever disease has destroyed the mental facilities of those in Washington and  Sacramento have apparently infected the German state as they now are willing to supply alms to the Greeks who are as irresponsible and spend thrifty as any U. S. state.

“Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany's finance minister, has asked officials to prepare a plan in time for a summit of EU leaders on Thursday, according to reports in the German media. The options include either a loan from EU states or some sort of institutional EU response.”[14]--Germany backs Greek bail-out as EU creates 'economic government' By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor 09 Feb 2010

The Greeks, famous for subterfuge in financial matters[15][16], may be compared to the Californians in their desire to avoid any austerity process that might even slightly deflate their sacred socialism. The apparent threat here is complicated but may result from the stark fact that Greece might default on their debts, denominated in euros, and might even exit the EU. This is the only substantive difference when comparing t he Golden State to the US as presumable California is not permitted to succeed from the union although this might be tested  by the rest of the states soon if the financial situation becomes much worse. This appears as some form of blackmail to me.

Similarly, if we compare the looming Spanish Case and compare that to New York we can draw a similar parallel and that is: if California is bailed out then what about New York? Is NY not too big to fail? This argument now extends to MI, MD, NJ, OR and some other states that are swimming in debt and have no prospects to pay off the principal for eternity. As NYC believed for decades, they can just keep borrowing and borrowing and spending forever.[17] Emergency money finally came from the teacher’s union pension fund to rescue the city as President Ford refused a direct grant.  

Thus, the frantic grab and grunt. What is most fearful and bothersome about the mentalities of Abraham Beam, Gordon Brown, Barrack Obama, the Californians, Europeans and others is the total lack of fiscal responsibility. They must believe that there is some mountain of wealth buried just beyond their view by the ‘rich’ and that a simple hike in taxes will transfer some of that into the hands of the progressive  leaders so they can do good with those ill-gotten gains. Such a psychotic and collective view is financially and socially unsustainable.

It May Be Time for a Bunker Mentality: The Economy is Crashing and We have a New Dictator in Charge.[18]

We need to think seriously about a few things in light of the recent political and economic disasters we are swimming in.  We have some serious problems that are not being considered or given only light treatment:

[1] We have a nation with fully ¼ of the population that has an IQ lower than 85[19].  We have people who cannot grasp even the simplest notions about business, society and conduct. Many of our cities are now simply rescue missions.[20] Many of our high schools have dropout rates of 50% or more.

[2] We have 2 million felons in prison now and some 5-10 million more on ‘probation’ and even more including those who are still committing crimes and haven’t been caught yet. There is much sympathy for druggies.[21] California is now releasing felons for financial reasons and court orders.

[3] We have 12-20 million illegal aliens running around the country hustling drugs and evading taxes and 5 million of them got sub-prime or zero-down ‘affordable’ housing mortgages[22] a the urging of our government. California is festooned with illegal aliens.

[4] We have college-educated citizens who believe that carbon dioxide is a pollutant[23] and that we must tax every form of energy to save the polar bears.

[5] We have fully 1/20 of our society who wants to take drugs rather than work and many of these have an IQ exceeding 120.  We have cities where drugs are not only tolerated but they are celebrated.[24]  We have drug ‘rehab’ programs that do nothing but waste money and revive druggies so they can return to their habit.

[6] We have very large cities where the crime rates are the highest in the world for their sizes.  The solution is to let the miscreants go free.

[7] We have so-called experts who advise us that paying excessive taxes is ‘patriotic[25]’ and that the government can solve our social problems if only they had some more tax or borrowed money.

[8] We have millions of people who believe that we can subsidize the auto industry in Detroit[26] and that they can compete with their bloated $80 dollar per hour wages and benefit costs against other auto makers with 1/3 of those costs.

[9] We have an ‘educational’ system where we cannot give and publish the results of standardized tests because it makes some students ‘feel bad.’ We have teachers in our public schools systems that apparently cannot read and are rated well in their job performances evaluations.

[10] We have ignoramuses that think that a ‘redistribution’ of wealth will allow everybody to live above the average. We have people who think now that Obama will pay for our mortgages and fill up our gas tanks for nothing.

[11] We have university professors expounding on the logic of the Neo-Keynesians featuring Paul Krugman[27][28][29][30][31][32] who advocate running the printing presses so as to flood the economy with paper money and that will produce prosperity some time down the line.

[12] We have phony ‘scientists’ and assorted  EcoNazis fudging data and groping for massive Cap and Trade taxes to fund their ‘research’ and provide trillions for third world.[33]

We ought to be firstly concerned and secondly prepared to avoid taxes and fees as much as possible. There will come a tipping point or a Black Swan[34] [or even worse  a Brown Swan[35]] that will pull us all down and leave the progressives in control of everything if we let them. These people must be exposed and voted out of power before they bankrupt the world.

Debt is very destructive and can ruin our society and allow the government to pull off another October Revolution or its counterpart. These people are vicious and hate corporations—the very source of almost the entire tax base and the source of 98% of our jobs.  California and Greece are examples of a leprotic disease that can infect us all if we let them. They will borrow and promise and spend and promise and bawl and beg to the edge of oblivion if we let them. They must learn hard work and fiscal discipline however difficult that is for them. We cannot let them trash our system.

rycK [a 5^th generation Californian in exile]

Comments to: ryckki@gmail.com

[13] California Budget Crisis Cuts Close to the Bone New America Media, News report, Aaron Glantz, Posted: Feb 04, 2010 http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=0152bbe37f5edc31175bd7fa21a197ee