----- Original
Message -----
From: geno
Sent: Friday,
August 08, 2003 10:10 PM
Subject: [money-ethics] This
fits this web site and is "ON TOPIC"
Idle Thoughts On The Road To Understanding
by Charley Reese
Here
are a few random thoughts that might help you to figure out the world
in which we are currently
living:
The
U.S. dollar is backed up by nothing and is convertible to nothing. It is
a
medium of exchange, and compared with the Euro, the currency of the
European
Union, it has lost 30 percent of its value since 2001. This is bad
news
for those of us whose investments, savings and life insurance are
denominated
in dollars. These dollars are exchangeable for less and less in
goods
and services. If the value of the dollar completely collapses, we will
all be ruined.
The
American citizen has no control over the purchasing power of the
currency.
That is in the hands of the U.S. government and the Federal
Reserve.
The Federal Reserve banks, by the way, are not government. They are
privately
owned central banks, owned by commercial banks. They serve the
banks, not the people.
Cash
is not wealth. Remember, money is a medium of exchange, and how much we
can
exchange it for is out of our control. True wealth consists of assets
land,
buildings, tools, vehicles, knowledge, skills, etc. unmortguaged, of
course.
Anything you owe money on is not really yours, no matter what some
shyster tells you.
There
are 30,000 to 40,000 lobbyists and representatives of special-interest
groups
in Washington, compared with 435 members of the House, 100 senators,
one
president and one vice president. Ever wonder why it's so hard for your
voice to be heard?
For
every intelligent, educated voter, there are probably 1,000 or more
functional
illiterates, apathetic people and ignoramuses. By enfranchising
the
functional illiterate, the apathetic and the ignorant, politicians are
in
effect disenfranchising the intelligent and educated. Most Americans
haven't figured that out
yet, but it explains election results.
How
is it that under a supposedly liberal Democratic president, we went from
federal
deficits to federal surpluses, and under a supposedly conservative
Republican
president, we have gone from federal surpluses to record federal
deficits in two years?
The
words "conservative" and "liberal" have become largely
meaningless. We
have
two major political parties, and each party has two wings. The
Republican
Party has a Rockefeller wing, which is liberal Republican, up
East,
old money; and an opportunist wing, which is largely located in the
South
and West. The Democratic Party has a socialist wing and a smaller
opportunist wing.
Since
it now requires hundreds of millions of dollars to win a presidential
race,
both parties cater to big business and to the super-rich. As the old
bank
robber used to say, "That's where the money is." Neither party
adequately
represents the working men and women of America, and both major
parties
go to great lengths to make sure no third party will ever get the
chance to challenge their
dominance.
The
real question is not whether we are conservative or liberal, but whether
we
favor a small government with defined and limited powers or a large
government
with unlimited power. Whether they call themselves
"conservatives"
or "liberals," a majority in both parties favors a large
government
with unlimited powers. The correct term for such people is, in my
opinion,
"Jacobins." The name derives from the radical democrats of the
French
Revolution. Today's presidential candidates debate details of the
same
policies rather than principles or different policies. We have, in
effect,
one-party rule. "Republican" or "Democrat" is a mere label
for
factions
of the Jacobins. Both are going to give you big government with
unrestrained
power domestically and imperialism as a foreign policy. They
differ
only on the details, the competence of their administrators and the
people to whom they owe
patronage.
I
don't foresee much improvement until more Americans learn that being a
patriot means more than
being willing to kill a foreigner.
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©
2003 by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
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