a fact for those who want to increase taxes

I think that what needs to be noted here also is who the people are that MADE the national debt. Was it the people who make minimum wage that put our country into debt? I don't THINK SO! Sure, you could technically argue that we vote on what happens with the money. But that's just another excuse when it's obvious who the ones are that created the national debt.

And by the way, I am a communist. Just wanted to put that out there. I say it loud and say it proud. HAHA!!!

Edit: This reminds me of the time that someone in one of my classes had the nerve to say that it's worse when people with tons of money lose money than when poor people do. How about you just let that marinate for a second. less

This statement: Just think about all the great things that were invented here in the short amount of time we have been a country.

You know what? We did. We are no longer making any real advances in technology or goods. Basically, we ejaculated prematurely. It was great for a while, but now everyone else has caught up and learned to do it better. (i.e., better and cheaper)

I'm all for capitalism to a degree. Small businesses. People using what they have to provide and earn from their own resources to make a better life for themselves? That is amazing. It's fantastic. And then the problem is when major corporations can offer similar products for cheaper because they outsource, then people won't pay for what small businesses offer because they can find it cheaper elsewhere. Big corporations ARE the problem in this country. Instead of customer service representatives working out of the US, I get some guy from India named "Bob" who CAN'T answer my questions because he doesn't understand what I'm saying, and who is working for $5 less an hour than I would. less

how about not bringing politics and-or religion to EF? somehow i got the impression (maybe from something i read, maybe from the simple lack of it here) that those topics were to be avoided to maintain a friendly environment. which this site has done an excellent job of doing, which is NOT easy, i'm sure!

there are plenty of forums on other sites where you can get all fired up about it. as it is, leave it at the front door, man.

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If we took the 2008 profits for exxon mobil (45.2 billion), GE (17.41 billion), wal-mart (12.7 billion) and IBM (12.3 billion). for a total of 87.61 billion. If we taxed those profits at 100%, we still would not have enough to cover 1/3 of the interest payment on the national debt. (in 2008, those are the newest numbers I could find)

For all those that believe taxing "the rich" more would solve our problem. less

I'm trying hard not to get offended by the rhetoric here.

I like to think of myself as a progressive person, preferring to push the envelope and learn more rather than sticking to the "tried and true" methods that are usually remnants of by-gone eras with staid boundaries and, often, stagnancy. I don't think my views are a "cancer".

I despise the free market, in that it promotes greed and avarice. Those who have can, those who don't can't.

I do agree with you, our country needs to change direction. The two party system of rich white guy one and rich white guy two needs to change. less

I despise the free market, in this case Wall Street, the Banks, and the top wage earners of the country who really don't have to work to get their money.

Wall Street - The financially minded people only interested in getting more money. It's a support system for...

The Banks - Yeah, there was that whole bank bail out that got pushed on a very new president after his predecessor... well, that's a different topic. Just look at who worked on the board of people on the bank bailout. At least the car companies (except Ford) paid back their loans. Good thing we didn't have another S&L issue! What about credit unions, not a one needed a bail out to my knowledge. If I'm wrong, please let me know. I'd rather be wrong and in then informed, rather than working on half facts.

Top wage earners who really don't have to work to get their money - Glad you came from a rich family. Good thing the Bush tax cuts are helping you out, capital gains are great right? Isn't this like winning the lottery, but you pay less taxes and the element of chance is dictated by your birth?

Sure you deserve your paycheck! But isn't the government running because of the taxes we pay? We can't decide who/what/where our taxes go to, that's just not feasible. If the person living next to you is a drop high school drop, smoking pot all day, and makes the same as you...either ask for a raise or figure out his scam.

Looking to Europe - so much history... No way Americans can compare their government to Europeans ones except on topics of money! That health care system...wow. I hate how most of the EU has a better health care system than we do! It must suck not having to consider bankruptcy vs. surgery!

The direction I see our country going is continued stagnancy and ineptitude until the special interests of big business finally start taking over the legislative branch overtly. I'm starting to wonder how long it'll take before we see a situation like in shudder "RoboCop". When the city can't afford to run its police force, it gets out-sourced to a large corporation with the money to run it.

I've read bits and pieces of the Federalists Papers. Very interesting stuff. The forefathers of the country were definitely a forward thinking progressive bunch of guys. Ben Franklin is one of my faves in that group.

Seriously though...turn off Glen Beck and Fox News. Ignore their rhetoric and venom and see it for what it is...a Rupert Murdoch company that's known for their honesty, integrity, and unflinching eye in the site of a cream pie. less

I agree that we do not need to look to our government for all our needs.

When you hear a knock on the door and say 'Who is it?' and hear the reply " Its your government, we're here to help" get worried because there will be tons of double speak and red tape.

Government needs to be downsized. The Bill of Rights was written to protect the people of America from greedy politicians. What ever happened to that? less

What we all need to understand is that
Chance Didn’t Create The Current Economic Crisis –

What the world is experiencing today did not happen by chance, it was planned that way.

What Congressman Louis McFadden said of the “Great Depression” is as true today as it was in the 1930s. As Chairman of the House Banking Committee he said, “It was no accident; it was a carefully contrived occurrence. The international bankers sought to bring about a condition of despair here so they might emerge as rulers of us all.”

What you are experiencing economically and financially today is nothing new. Just study history all the precedence is there. The bankers and their willing helpers do the same thing over and over again. What these banks represent is corporatist fascism and monopoly. Through their great wealth they control most governments and their court systems. That is why your elected representatives do not listen to you. They have already been purchased by Wall Street and banking. These are the same people who have financed most wars on both sides for centuries.

These bankers and denizens of Wall Street and the City of London control our societies and in particular, business, finance and economics – almost every event within society is controlled by these elitists. Markets are no longer free and are under constant manipulation by elitists behind government.

The media is filled with one fraud after another. In country after country we see runaway deficits. Economic progress is frozen. Inflation grows with each passing day. At the same time the poor get poorer and the middle-class is being destroyed. We are witnessing the deliberate destruction of an empire.

America has lost 11.7 million jobs and 440,000 businesses over the past 11 years, but Congress evidently is ignorant of the fact that keeping jobs at home is easier than creating new ones. The jobs lost are high paying and the replacement jobs are at the bottom rung. All that has to be done is for Congress to pass legislation implementing tariffs on goods and services and to rescind corporate tax breaks for transnational corporations. It is just that simple.

Unfortunately, 95% of Congress is bought and paid for by the very interests that perpetuate this stripping of America. We hear nothing from economists or market commentators regarding what passes for free trade. We learned as a nation in the late 1700s that British mercantilism does not work. We then found, on our way to greatness as a nation, fair and equitable tariffs work very well. Not what we have seen for the past 30 years; the deliberate destruction of our nation and our jobs.

Every answer to the job’s problem or meeting competition is a subsidy of one form or another. We know such socialist solutions do not work, but government uses them and business welcomes them. Very simply, nothing has been fixed and the palliatives haven’t worked and that is why we are about to enter credit crisis II, with assistance from Greece and the rest of Europe. All America now specializes in is financial fraud and corruption. We have a country run by a crime syndicate and even when caught the companies are merely fined and among the connected, no one ever goes to jail.

Our system has deliberately been programmed to fail. It has taken $4.3 trillion just to keep the system afloat until the characters behind the curtain decide to pull the plug.


Most major banks in the US, UK and Europe are insolvent, and are made to look solvent by keeping two sets of books and via accounting ledgermain. Unbeknownst to most, the bank nightmare of commercial real estate is being financed by the Fed. When and if that stops the banks will have a new set of insurmountable problems. The banks are trapped in a dilemma of their own making and there is no way out.

The government might use this opportunity to commandeer 401Ks and IRAs, and replace them with government guaranteed annuities. This threat is very real and if you do not cash in now you may not get the chance to later. Pay the tax and possible penalty and get out. Most workers are trapped in IRA’s and the only way they can get funds out is to borrow against them. Some 30% have already done so to live on having been laid off.

There is no political will in America to cut spending. In addition, the President has been given marching orders for war by those who control him to cover up what they have done to the country and to make ever more profits for the connected Illuminists. There has been no way back for America since June of 2003. The debt is beyond payable. Even if by some miracle a solution to the financial crisis was found, the system is still yet to be purged, so that the banking system could be allowed to go bankrupt, along with many others that have engaged in malinvestment. Then there would be the end of market manipulation.

At the top of the list is the criminal prosecution of those on Wall Street, in banking and government who have committed fraud and treason. They should be tried, sentenced and their families relieved of all of their wealth. That should also be applied to those who committed treason and they should forfeit their lives.


The Fed has been forced to purchase about 80% of US Treasury debt issues because not only are foreigners not interested in such overrated debt, but also no longer are American households and hedge funds. The players all know the economy is weak. Mr. Bernanke verifies that. This is all leading to a major international conference where all currencies will be devalued and revalued and all debt will be multilaterally defaulted upon. A new international trading unit, or currency will be put into service as the world reserve currency and it will be backed by 25% in gold. That is what these sessions by the Fed are all about.

As long as QE3, or something similar, is instituted to prolong the fall into collapse, we can project inflation out for the next few years. The level will depend on what is needed to keep the economy afloat. For QE1 and 2 and stimulus 1 and 2, we see 25% to 30% inflation by the end of 2012. If the Fed injects $1.7 to $2.4 trillion into the economy under QE3 then we will get close to 50% inflation, which to us is hyperinflation in 2013 and 2014. The minute stimulus stops deflationary depression begins.


In Greece the fate of the European financial system hangs by a thread. Like it or not Greece is catalyst number 2, Lehman being catalyst one.


Policymakers main job now is to assist Greece, not to rob and loot it, to save their own corrupt system. Greece, Ireland and Portugal didn’t cause the trillions of unsound debt, the bankers did. They are the experts. They made the loans that should have never been made in the first place. Needless to say the bankers are at least 80% at fault. Banks have to be held responsible.

Worldwide liquidity is drying up because players are afraid to play and the Greek crisis has yet to be contained. These international bankers wanted world banking to be interconnected. They got their wish.

Never give into a lie no matter who is perpetrating it. There is no recovery and there never has been a recovery. Thus, we should not waste our breath discussing such a non-event. About $1.8 trillion, or perhaps more, has been squandered and the only thing QE2 and stimulus 2 have accomplished is slight growth and they have guaranteed 25% inflation next year.


Governments, and central banks never solve debt or economic problems by throwing money at it. CDS, credit default swaps, are not the answer because those on the other side of the trade are losers.

There is no easy way – or perhaps no way – out of this financial morass. less

I think you are right. Handing the ENTIRE the country over to the Rich, as the Bush Administration did (and as was started by Nixon and Reagan and continued by Daddy Bush and then the final nail driven into the coffin by Dubya) destroyed our country, erased our SURPLUS and put the middle class and the poor into a near slavery like condition by the upper 3% in order to serve the upper 3%. What amazes me is that there are people who are not PART of that upper 3% who support their mission. Why? From the people I know and have talked to and read about and seen on TV and in person who support the policies of the Upper 3 Per Cent, hatred and racism is the driving force behind their belief system and the main reason they vote the way they do. Either that, or they just don't get it.

A Revolution, by and FOR the middle class (and NO the Tea Baggers are not the Revolution we are needing) may be the only solution.

And people are too overstuffed and lazy from shopping at WalMart and "saving" to want to revolt. (So, what do they do? Join the Tea Baggers? Or just sit on their asses hoping "things will get better as soon as that black guy is out of office." That's an exact quote given to me by a relative who is part of the Tea Party. Only she didn't say "black guy" you can guess what term she used.)

I don't know. We're fucked and The Rich get richer. less

They know not what they do. The media spreads disinformation and people believe it not knowing any better.

What to do? I believe it is too late to do anything. After all the rich have been systematically putting this plan in action for hundreds of years now. And as you stated, Americans are worn out from their trips to Wal-Mart and are over stuffed with chemically laden foods, flouride laced water, and of course, bug sprayed by Rockefeller Chem planes. Our resistence is low from all that. The brain does not work properly while poisoned. less

Yes, I agree that the 2 party system is a joke. No matter who we vote for, it is the same old thing. Government today helps the corperations and wall street as you stated. Not all of us little people out of work. The Rothchilds and Rockefellers run and own most of the world now. They have been working on this since the 1800's possibly earlier.

J.P. Morgan has already taken control of Virginia. Running the school systems, banks, healthcare, welfare, transportation, etc.
Everyone on food stamps today? Guess who this account is run through? J.P. Morgan. Making a profit off of the food stamps of poor people!

It is quite disgusting to me that the Rockefellers main concerns on this earth are curbing back the population. They actively have laboratories making vaccines which lower the tolerance to diseases in children who are required to take them, and older people who take flu shots. I used to think that the chem trails were funded by the government--no! The Rockefellers are funding this! Spraying chemicals on us daily like we are bugs! They call it "population control". less

If we took the 2008 profits for exxon mobil (45.2 billion), GE (17.41 billion), wal-mart (12.7 billion) and IBM (12.3 billion). for a total of 87.61 billion. If we taxed those profits at 100%, we still would not have enough to cover 1/3 of the interest payment on the national debt. (in 2008, those are the newest numbers I could find)

For all those that believe taxing "the rich" more would solve our problem. less

But, who is going to protect us from greedy Big Businesses?

Whom are now, due to our biased, in-the-pocket-of -big-business-Supreme Court considered "Individuals."

Sadly, the Constitution doesn't protect us from the most predatory of all things we face in this day and age. The Rich. less