The Illusion: Financial Freedom
An American wake-up call
By Eric Coltrane
What can be accomplished in 15 years? It’s a long time. A time in which a baby becomes a teen-ager; half a mortgage can be paid (a 15 year mortgage can be paid in full); wars can be fought; a business can start and thrive…. or fail. I personally went from being a dishwasher to becoming an Executive Chef. The Great Depression lasted 16 years, but in the last 2 years, millions of people lost trillions of dollars of “saved” wealth. What kind of system allows that?
People were convinced to save using the stock market (Which wouldn’t be a bad thing if it were a true Free Market). There are Mutual Funds, Pension Funds, Hedge Funds, Derivatives, and many other forms of savings and investment. They were also convinced to use their homes as profit producers. I personally know people that bought boats and cars, and other such items, using the equity from their homes. Now they are racing to sell them to pay off their important debts. During this current economic “crises” my mother’s “retirement” fund was cut in half. HALF! Just like millions of other Americans who bought into the provided “security” of investment funds. So, what gives here? What’s going on? Simple. When money is produced from nothing, when it goes bad, it’s not there anymore. When a loan goes into default the debtor is basically saying I don’t have this money or the means to make the money to pay this debt. When tens of thousands of people do that in a very short time frame - POOF! - trillions of dollars are gone. Not only that, but it has a snowball effect and that snowball is still growing, “greenshoots” or not.
The problem now is that the Federal Reserve is monetizing debt. The Fed is creating more money from nothing. How is that going to solve the problem? The government is bailing out companies that should go bankrupt. In a free market bankruptcies are good. They cleanse the market of companies that make bad investments, and they are doing it on the backs of the average American. Do you think General Motors going bankrupt is a bad thing? No, because some entrepreneur would come along and buy up all the assets and start a new company that just might make cars at a profit. Who is going to foot the bill for the bailouts? You guessed it! You are - the average American. Even if they don’t raise taxes to pay for it, the hidden tax from inflation of the money supply will.
The creation of easy money caused the “Housing “ and “Credit” bubbles that are plaguing the economy now. The Federal Reserve setting artificially low interest rates made it easy to borrow money (capitalism works when the Free Market is allowed to set the interest rate). Under the Fractional Reserve Banking system that is in place in the U.S. now, “money” is created from debt. The more you borrow, the more money is created, and it is created from nothing. Every dollar in your pocket is owed somewhere. Hell, at the peak of the “Housing” bubble a bum panhandling on the corner could have borrowed money to buy a house. Credit cards are the worst. You aren’t truly creating money from debt you are just redistributing money that should go to pay off real debt, and creating a blowback of interest payments that generate economic slavery.
The insanity of it is mindboggling and it is all a grand illusion. While you are sitting there wondering who is going to win “Dancing with the Stars” your hard earned money is quietly being stolen. Congress is passing bills without even knowing what is written in them. The Cap and Trade bill will effectively reduce 0.06 percent of carbon. 0.06%! - I could hold a fart in long enough to do that! What it will do is raise your energy bills, and when you want to sell your home you will be subjected to a federal inspection to see if your home meets the requirements to sell it. Your appliances will have to be up to date and energy efficient. Your windows will be examined to see if they meet the correct standards. Weather stripping, and insulation must be adequate, and who knows what other standards you will have to meet. There are literally millions of homes in this country that won’t meet the requirements of the federal government.
Being “free” is going to cost you producers a lot of money, which most of the population doesn’t have. The government getting bigger and bigger is not going to ease these problems or make you a more “free” or independent individual. But, cutting taxes and government spending will go a long way to ease the problem. Creating entitlement programs that cost trillions of dollars will only make things worse. Bailing out insolvent corporations will only make you poorer.
There is an ancient Chinese text that reads:
“If a country is governed with tolerance, the people are comfortable and honest.
If a country is governed with repression, the people are depressed and crafty.
When the will to ‘Power’ is in charge, the higher ideals, the lower the results.
Try to make people happy, and you lay the groundwork for misery.
Try to make people moral, and you lay the groundwork for vice.”
Government isn’t going to rescue you. “Politicians” aren’t your friends. The only true laws are the Natural Laws and they manifest themselves every single moment of your life, for better or for worse. Thomas Jefferson knew this when he co-wrote the Declaration of Independence. Freedom is a Natural Law.
Do you really want to wait 15 years and lose who knows how much freedom, and hard worked for wealth (wealth is not bad unless it is ill gotten) to insane legislation and policies? How about 10 years, or 4, or, like my mother who (at this rate) could lose everything, even 2?
Freedom is a choice and it’s yours to make.
So, America, what are you going to do?
(Ron Lee contributing)
Sign-up for our free e-mail News Flash Alerts!