Normally I don’t really think much about other people’s debt. I have plenty of my own that will take me at least the next 2-3 years to pay off now. However, what frightens me is not that I have this debt, but that the total debt for the US economy, even counting the $1,000,000,000,000+ bailout package that just got flushed through Congress this past week, is so high that it is nearly impossible to repay. The total debt *exceeds* the total GDP of every country in the world… Combined.


As the Obama administration pushes through Congress its $800 billion deficit-spending economic stimulus plan, the American public is largely unaware that the true deficit of the federal government already is measured in trillions of dollars, and in fact its $65.5 trillion in total obligations exceeds the gross domestic product of the world.

The total U.S. obligations, including Social Security and Medicare benefits to be paid in the future, effectively have placed the U.S. government in bankruptcy, even before new continuing social welfare obligation embedded in the massive spending plan are taken into account.

The real 2008 federal budget deficit was $5.1 trillion, not the $455 billion previously reported by the Congressional Budget Office, according to the “2008 Financial Report of the United States Government” as released by the U.S. Department of Treasury.
Federal obligations exceed world GDP - WorldNetDaily

I think Obama’s bailout is a big mistake. Tax cuts are not the answer. But what this US bailout package does is circle the wagons, much like was done during the 1930s. The whole “Buy US made” ticket is dangerous and has a massive effect on other economies globally. It pushes other economies to do the same sort of thing and we will see international trade whither as a result. Not dry up, but shrink dramatically.

This is a bad thing.

Bailing out the big car corporates and the banks is not the answer. A true free market would let those that screwed up fail. They can suffer for their mistakes and pay the consequences of their actions. Bailing these organisations does not force them to change anything. It merely allows them to continue along as normal. There is a reason these companies failed. Without a complete culture change within these companies, from top to bottom, that will not change.

I’d support a law change that said that any person in charge of one of the big failures receiving a bailout could not hold a position of financial responsibility for a minimum of 10 years afterward. That is not to say these people can’t work in their industry of choice, but merely that their failure means they cannot be trusted to hold a position of financial responsibility anywhere. Force them to return to the rank and file jobs. They have shown they cannot be trusted to manage money, so they should not be permitted to.

It might also awaken their eyes to just how the staff truly feel about them. And if they don’t like that, they can easily live off the many millions they have stolen for the next ten years. Most people get by quite happily on far less than $50,000 a year.

On that note, I’m off. I gotta get my hair cut before my brothers wedding next week :-/ So much for the scruff Retrosexual look I’d been developing over the past few months.