Our economy:

[Mythsaje]

At this point it's like a coal-fired train, with a couple of guys with shovels in the engine room taking turns throwing stacks of 100 dollar bills into the furnace to keep the engine running. They could use something other than money, but that would require someone actually take the time to go up top to inform the captain that they're running on greenbacks and for the train to pull to a stop to load something else for fuel. In the meantime, the full-speed ahead ideology that got us into the mess in the first place would end and the angry, torch-wielding mob might catch up with it.

I don't care how many time the pro-corporate "centrists" around here say it, this is one problem that can't be solved by throwing more money at it. That money has to come from somewhere, and it's being consumed by the flames of our massive debt before anything else can be done with it.

Some will tell me "Oh, the recovery has already started." The FUCK it has. Hey, I'm an optimist, but a WHOLE bunch of people, particularly the alleged "adults" we put in charge, better pull their heads out of the rotting ass of Ronald Reagan's corpse and figure out that "trickle-down" has never been anything but a way to con us out of money and that it isn't possible to scurry our way out of this mess.

People say Obama doesn't have the political capital to enact real progressive reforms. Fine. Okay. I'll buy that. We've got a complicit media echoing RW talking points (STILL) and conservative dems doing everything they can to shore up corporate interests even as the dam crumbles beneath their feet. We have one of our most powerful states going bankrupt, a company that employed hundreds of thousands of American workers turning tail and fleeing the country with its debtors on its ass and people are STILL trying to tell me that "it'll turn out all right."

Stimulus? Are you kidding me? The banks are gobbling money like kids with candy the morning after Halloween, and only to keep themselves from dying and dragging everyone and everything else into the grave behind them. People are losing their jobs at a tremendous rate and are frightened as hell of spending money on anything not absolutely essential.

THIS is not a recipe for recovery. It's a fucking disaster.

Sorry, "Moderate" "Centrists," but if you think we're anywhere near done with this mess, you've got your head so far up the establishment's ass you're breathing methane. Making excuses for half-ass band-aids while the economy is pumping blood faster than a fire hose on full blast wastes your time and ours. You may think we're "extreme" now, but when you're staring down the barrel of economic doom, you're going to wish you'd listened.

Unfortunately, it'll be too late.

[lovepg]

1. Our economy

We need a fund to "rebribe" our elected officials.
It could be a giant campaign slush fund filled with money from people all over the country.
The money from the fund would be divided equally among the members of congress who go against the large insurance companies and vote for single payer.
This money could replace money lost from contributions the insurance companies have been using as leverage against congress people.
Money talks or single payer walks.

[sendero]

8. That is ..

... a really good idea.

[Dragonfli]

10. So simple it might work! just think of all the cash we funneled

into various campaigns that could have been used instead to buy a lobby mouthpiece and feed a slush account for him to spread around!

For some reason our campaign contributions "don't count". It could be because we didn't send our money with a lobbyist in tow.

Welcome to DU.
:hi:

[Mythsaje]

11. My best friend, who tends to be slightly more conservative than I am

(until recently, when he started really feeling the bite of their economic ideology) thinks that anyone should be able to donate to political campaigns...only blindly. One fund for all candidates in any given race. No way to pick and choose who it goes to.

[Citizen Worker]

2. The working class needs a raise!!!

You're right Mythsaje. Until the political system purges the DLC centrists all we have to look forward to is doom.

Wages for the working class have actually declined for the period 1974 to 2004 by some $1,800.00 in round numbers. Credit cards, second and third mortgages filled the gap for all those years but the spigot has been turned off. Property values are down and many homeowners owe more than their homes are worth. It makes financial sense to just walk away. Property values have to drop to a level that reflects median income or wages have to go up to reflect current housing prices. One or the other.

With the Obama plan exactly the same as the Bush plan the plan is to reflate the housing bubble. It simply won't work without a concomitant increase in wages and I don't see that happening with the current political class.

The destination on the current road is doom!!!

[Mythsaje]

3. Welcome to DU...

Doom isn't certain, but it sure is if someone doesn't grow a brain or a spine to go with it. I don't know if they don't get it, or if they're afraid people will panic if they reveal how bad it really is. Frankly, I'm not sure I care. Don't pretend it'll go away, FIX IT!

[Jeep789]

4. Here is how I see it:

"People say Obama doesn't have the political capital to enact real progressive reforms. Fine. Okay. I'll buy that. We've got a complicit media echoing RW talking points (STILL) and conservative dems doing everything they can to shore up corporate interests even as the dam crumbles beneath their feet. We have one of our most powerful states going bankrupt, a company that employed hundreds of thousands of American workers turning tail and fleeing the country with its debtors on its ass and people are STILL trying to tell me that "it'll turn out all right.""

Obama doesn't have the capital, my only hope is that he has the smarts. Smarts beyond what I have, I will admit, because I see little hope out of this mess. He has done a great job so far with what he has accomplished and his speeches are magnificant. Whether it will be enough, I still have my doubts. But I can't help but give him great kudos for his efforts so far.

[DemReadingDU]

5. totally agree

The money being thrown at the banksters could best be used stockpiling warehouses of food to feed those millions of unemployed people.

You're right, this is not a recovery. It is actually a beginning of a depression.

People need to watch what is happening in California. Other states will have to do similar things to get their state within budget.

[CanonRay]

6. I can't believe how many people I talk to think things are getting back to normal.

Occasionally they are stupid enough to ask my opinion, which is that we haven't seen anything yet. I usually point to housing prices (still falling), forclosures (still going strong), bankruptcies (rising dramatically) and the fact that real unemployment is probably twice the government published lie. The profits the banks supposedly made is total bullshit. When the commercial loans really start to go, watch out. People believe what they want to believe. It's all a ploy to get consumer confidence up to re-inflate the bubble, rather than fix the problem.

[DemReadingDU]

7. I point to the people laid off in the auto sector jobs

all those thousands (millions?) unemployed from Chrysler and GM dealers closing and factories shutting down. If there were a recovery, these people would see new jobs being created and wouldn't be laid off.

The propaganda they hear constantly is mind boggling. And because of it, they still think there is going to be a recovery. It's just that they haven't been personally drastically affected, yet, to know any difference.

[Dragonfli]

9. I am no economist but I really do believe that a bottom up model

is the only thing that can restore our economy. The most successful aspects of the FDR economic recovery worked to strengthen and provide work to the larger "bottom base" of the pyramid. The people at the bottom spend nearly all they earn to buy goods and services because they need to in order to survive (never been much room for luxuries for us working folks). The spending then provides the demand that fuels the engine in an organic natural way rather than the cash shoveling infusions you mentioned.

Am I just crazy to believe as I do? I know they are re-writing FDR's history even as I type in order to blame him for the depression, but that nonsense is a re-write rather than a clarification of an error in the history I learned is it not?

What we need is leadership that runs the economy using such a "bottom up" model!! (I thought I knew an eloquent speaker that ran on such a platform but I must be mistaken)

[ixion]

12. here's my take on it:

They've known we were screwed for years. And by screwed, I mean that we're so deep in debt that there's no way in hell we'll ever be clear in my lifetime.

The stimulus was a glorified robbery, stimulating only the top 1%. The rest of us get to pay for it. Oh, and we can no longer declare bankruptcy, either.

It wasn't hard to see this mess coming.