The Sage Observer

Our Depression

We certainly hear a lot in the news today; our government is in serious doubt; and our politicians are flailing in the wind, so to speak. Even though, allow me to list below a few items which I consider to be facts, no matter what the propagandists say.

Fact No.  1. Our country is in serious economic difficulty with twenty million people, more or less, unemployed, under employed, and/or living on poverty level wages.

Fact No.   2. It would appear that our leaders just wish they will go away. Trust me. They won’t. We need jobs, and we need them now–not some Sunday after some Tuesday.

Fact No.  3. Real jobs will not come until there is increased demand, and demand will not reoccur without a massive increase in spending by government and the people, in which event, the people must have living wages.

Fact No.  4. Not one dollar of debt can be paid until our national deficit is eliminated, and our deficit cannot be eliminated until our national budget is balanced–in the end revenues must equal spending.

Fact No.  5. We will not recover from this very serious dilemma in which we find ourselves until our nation, at the very least, gets back to a “real” level of employment (You surely know this reported 7% unemployment figure is pure fiction to give us that warm fuzzy feeling which we all like ever so much [and help us to forget the twenty million discussed above]–don’t believe it.), and our national budget is balanced, i.e. our deficit is zero (then we can start on paying off the debt).

          At this point in the discussion, we come down to another very important matter–our national debt. The Nobel winning economist, Paul Krugman, for whom I have immense respect, tells us in his book, End This Depression Now, that we should not consider government debt in the same vein as we think of personal debt–government can print money and people cannot. I, also, read his book, Depression Economics; and, as I understand his thinking, he believes our level of government debt is not presently critical–we should concentrate on increasing spending, stimulate the economy now, and get out of this depression. Austerity at this point in time is a danger to our economy. Again, we should spend. To put people back to work we need to increase demand. A jobs bill is one way of doing that. At this point in the discussion, we move to my opinion.

          One of our ex-vice presidents, Richard Cheney, has said that deficits don’t matter (there is no way I believe that although the opinion of Paul Krugman borders on it), and his administration operated accordingly–a matter of record. Of course, in addition to enriching themselves, they had another motive in mind–the reduction, if not elimination, of our so-called entitlements. If the debt and deficit were high enough to become critical, they could force the negotiation of their elimination or reduction in the requisite budget battles. That’s where we are presently.

          Where am I going with this? I think our government should get their head “out of the sand” and pull this country out of the depression in which we find ourselves. You claim we aren’t in a depression. I submit to you that the only reason you may be right is the relief we enjoy from our safety nets of Social Security and healthcare, both of which enable most of us to hold our heads above water–one of which, Social Security, came out of the Roosevelt Administration in the thirties; and the other of which, Medicare and Medicaid, came out of the administration of Lyndon Johnson in the sixties (Without them, we would really be in deep doo in this country). We need to get out of this economic mess and we need to do it now, politics notwithstanding; and we need to spend the money to do it. In conjunction with this, we need to develop a ten year plan to eliminate our deficit and, after that, a twenty year plan to pay off or pay down our national debt (Dr. Krugman would probably say this is unnecessary, time will take care of the problem. He may be right; but, with all respect, I disagree.).

Deficit reduction could begin with implementation of the single payer healthcare system I recommended in an earlier blog, and serious cuts in waste, fraud, and abuse in government, defense, and intelligence. One suggestion to this end might begin with an auditable accounting system and integrated budgets and data bases in defense and elsewhere where they are needed. With all the computer intelligence in the NSA, one would think we would have been smart enough to do have done that already.

By the way, before I quit this for today, have you thought of the billions of dollars we have wasted with this ACA, Affordable Care Act– the division among us, and everything else? We could have just signed everybody up for Medicare and had this thing going already with much less muss, fuss, and bother. We just don’t make sense. We just don’t make sense. I’m sorry. I can’t stop. Look at the relief this approach would give to business and the economy. For the third time, we just don’t make sense.

Good night, folks.

Ronald Miller

mtss86@comcast.net