If you are not frightened by the growing national debt, you should be.
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On August 21, 2008 a movie called I.O.U.S.A. is going to come out. It presents compelling factual evidence that this ever growing governmental debt has created a looming economic crisis that will make the Great Depression look like a market correction. We are headed over a cliff.
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The national debt has especially been increased greatly during Republican administrations. During the tenure of President Reagan and President George W. Bush Jr. the situation has been completely out of control. The federal government has been spending much more than it has been bringing in through taxation. This is called the national deficit. And the Republicans continue to argue for even more tax cuts for the wealthy.
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The country as a whole has been importing much more than it has been exporting. This is called the trade imbalance. This situation has been greatly worsened during the Bush administration. Much of the country's manufacturing has been shifted from factories in America to ones in poor countries overseas. This was done to avoid minimum wage regulations and reduce labor cost by taking advantage of child labor. Moving the country's manufacturing overseas had the added advantage of avoiding environmental regulations and workplace safety regulations.
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These politicians were warned by the Republican President Dwight W. Eisenhower to be wary of the military-industrial complex. But they did not heed his warnings. Wasteful spending on national defense and nuclear bombs was what brought the U.S.S.R. to a crashing end, and now the U.S.A. appears to be pursuing the same track.
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The nation's debt now accounts for 66 percent of the gross national product. The film argues that it will rise to 244 percent by 2040, twice what it was at the end of World War II, and our highest level of national debt in the history of the country. Warren E. Buffett says that a national debt of this magnitude "could create real political instability."
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Duh. No shit Sherlock.
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I grew up as a patriotic 1950’s American kid. I once cried because our family’s American flag accidentally fell on the ground and my Father did not throw it away. During the Vietnam War I served for three years in the U.S. Army, and besides receiving a few medals, I was discharged honorably. So I sure have as much (or more) right to speak my mind than some loser who didn’t even serve in the military, like Vice President Dick Cheney.
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Most other advanced countries have universal health care. Everyone has access to health care whether they are rich or poor. But in America we just can’t seem to solve this problem. In fact we can’t even seem to begin the process…
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We go on and on talking about basic human rights, but we can’t seem to figure out that in most other advanced countries basic housing, free education through college for all, a decent government paid old age pension, and government funded health care are all viewed as basic human rights. Right up there with freedom of speech, freedom of the press, rule of law, racial equality, and all the other platitudes that we talk so much about but don’t really do much about.
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This is a link to the YouTube trailer for the film. LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBo2xQIWHiM
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