situation in American

chrispence (25)in #news • 6 years ago

America in Crisis
The recent global financial crisis has been extremely painful for many. At the risk of sounding overly pessimistic, the facts presented on this page show that the recent crisis is just scratching the surface of a much larger problem. America is under a mountain of debt and the risk of massive inflation appears unavoidable. The nation's financial situation is extremely ominous given the fact that America has shifted from being a nation of producers to being a nation of consumers. Additionally, Americans' wealth is being expropriated at an increasing rate to fund the special interest of the growing Welfare/Warfare State. The current incentives inherent to our system suggest these trends will continue. If the current path is not changed, it is not unreasonable to expect the result to be either a collapse of the monetary system or a power play to vastly increase in the scope of government - or a combination of both. The first step to saving America is to identify the situation as it current is. The action taken to 'stimulate economic recovery' is a sedative, not a solution.
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The Facts of America's Current Situation

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An Unsustainable Burden of Debt in America
Historic Charts of the US Debt and Personal Savings Rates

National Debt

Today, the United States of America is in debt $16 trillion as of time of writing, and climbing! That is a debt burden of over $42,000 for every man, woman, and child in the nation.
According to US Debt Clock.org, the current Debt to GDP Ratio is 105%.

Unfunded Liabilities

The current national debt is dwarfed by the obligations of America's unfunded liabilities, currently running about $37 trillion. The current deficit coupled with the unfunded liabilities of massively unfunded entitlement programs leaves America in the hole over $50 trillion ($50,000,000,000,000)!
These numbers are astronomical. Still, the true picture of total government obligations might be distorted thanks to rosy accounting.  The GAAP-based deficit from the U.S. Treasury show that the total federal obligations as of September 30, 2009 (current debt, unfunded liabilities, Fannie and Freddie debt), stood at a mind-numbing $70.7 trillion.

No Personal Savings

America, as a nation, is in debt.  Not only is our government obligating future generations to trillions of dollars of debt, the personal savings rate of American households has become almost nonexistent.  Inflationary monetary policy and government 'stimulus' programs offer incentives for increased spending and decreased savings.  This is the exact opposite formula sound economics recommends during periods of recession.  What is the best way to get out of credit card debt? Hint: It's not going out and buying a new big screen tv.


                                   Read More About the Debt Crisis

Legalized Theft - Systematic Expropriation of Wealth
Inflation

The recent financial crisis has brought pain to America as real estate and stock prices plummeted. According to Washington and the mainstream media, the prospect of inflation is near the bottom of the list of worries facing America today. In the near future however, extreme levels of inflation will be the primary concern.
The damage of hyperinflation to an economy makes the financial crisis of 2008/2009 look mild. There is strong indication that continuing on the current path will unavoidably result in massive price inflation.  The current levels of unsustainable debt, vast expansions of the money supply / extended periods of artificially suppressed interest rates of 0%, and rapidly declining inventories may already make a monetary crisis unavoidable.
Warning of the prospect of a complete collapse of our monetary system may seem to many like unwarranted fear-mongering. However, sound economic principles explain that continuing a policy of artificial credit expansion to avoid an inevitable depression (the precise scenario we are in today) will result in the collapse of the monetary system. According to Ludwig von Mises in Human Action, it is not a question of if, but rather when: “One day the crack-up boom will annihilate its monetary system.”

Please see Legalized Theft – The Expropriation of Americans' Wealth to learn more about inflation.

Taxation

Until 1913, revenue for the government was collected primarily by means of import tariffs. “Many people do not realize that the income tax in this country is less than 100 years old. That's right. The 16th Amendment was ratified in 1913, meaning that we had survived as a Nation for 137 years without an income tax.”   AmericanlyYours.com 
But, in 1913, the ratification of the 16th Amendment permitted the government to impose a new income tax on the very wealthy. Income tax rates were 1% - 7% for taxpayers with income in excess of $500,000. Less than 1 percent of the population paid income tax at the time.
Like any other government program, once the government got its foot in the door, it only grew from there. According to the Tax Foundation, the average tax burden on Americans has increased from about 5% in 1910 to nearly 30% today. What started as a populist movement to take some of the tax burden off the folks importing goods and tax the incomes of the extremely wealthy has turned into a way for the government to expropriate wealth from all Americans, including the poor and middle-class.
Besides the fact that taxation is an explicit violation of human rights, it is also extremely detrimental to an economy. “Every act of taxation necessarily exerts a push away from more highly capitalized, more productive production processes in the direction of a hand-to-mouth existence.” - Hans-Hermann Hoppe, The Economics and Ethics of Private Property p42

Please see Legalized Theft – The Expropriation of Americans' Wealth to learn more about taxation.

Imperialism - America the Warfare State
Charts Showing the Historical Trend of US Military Spending

Military Occupation Abroad

According to the US Department of Defense, as of 12/31/2007 there were:  288,627 Active Military Duty Personnel deployed outside the United States and its territories, including but not limited to; 57,155 US Military Personnel in Germany, 33,164 in Japan, 388 in Honduras, and 19 in Switzerland. The US has over 700 military bases in over 120 countries.  How many German or Swiss military personnel are currently stationed in the US?

Military Spending

According to the Budget of the US Government, Defense operations for the 2010 fiscal year are project to be $755 billion - a mere $2.06 billion per day.  In the same budget, the current administration projects defense spending to reach $821 billion by 2015.
This is a trend that is set to continue for at least the next decade.  The CBO projects defense will account for 15% of the federal spending in 2020.

The Myth of National Defense

Enormous military spending and otherwise unjustifiable military occupation in foreign nations relies on an acquiescence of public opinion.  The public must not only trust these imperialistic operations are undertaken to maintain the safety of the American people but must also assume that there would exist a real danger without the protection provided under the existing institution.  In the Myth of National Defense, Hans-Hermann Hoppe dispels these false assumptions.  The book consists of three sections: 1)State-Making and War-Making, 2) Government Forms, War, and Strategy, 3) Private Alternatives to State Defense and Warfare.  Here is a link to a free audio lecture by Hoppe summarizing his book, the Myth of National Defense. 

Here is a good review by Lew Rockwell discussing Hoppe's book, The Myth of National Defense.  A-equals-A.com piggybacks on Rockwell's conclusion in saying, "...rather than email me your outrage at my lack of patriotism, or inform me of my failure to understand the sacrifices that our military men and women have made in the service of freedom, do something more constructive. Get this book and read it to discover why socialism in defense of the nation works no better than socialism in any other area of life." 

                    Read More About Imperialism - America the Warfare State

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Thumbnail : Calm down Democrats – your troubles aren’t over

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ABOUT SEAN COLLINS

I write about American current affairs for Spiked, the online magazine. I am a native New Yorker, and I divide my time between New York City and upstate New York.

In addition to articles for Spiked, The Australian and other publications, I contributed an essay, "BDS: Demonizing Israel, Destroying Free Speech," for the book Unsafe Space: The Crisis of Free Speech on Campus (2016). I also wrote a chapter on New York City's economy for the book London After Recession: A Fictitious Capital? (2012).

My writings have been cited in American Conservative, Arts & Letters Daily, the Financial Times, Fox News, the Huffington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, the New York Times, Real Clear Politics, and the Times of London, among other media.

For more about The American Situation site, go here.

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