5 Complete Lies About America's New $18 Trillion Debt Leve

OKee Dokee My ATS Peers. So The Gist of this article it seems is that we are now at the point in This Ponzi Debt Scheme brought upon us by Our Great Leaders and Caring Central Bankers that we now have to take on a Trillion Dollars in Additional Debt (That's A Million Million Bucks BTW) and that's just to keep this economy thing just clunking along.

So, where are we at now folks, are we any better off from our Benevolent Zookeepers doing this on our behalf. Or are we coming to the end of this Little Gambit of theirs to Keep Things Going A While Longer, while they can make their plans for their own escapes.

Anywaze My ATS Friends and Family. If you like have a little gander at this and Let Us Know What You Thinx.

Thanks for reading Y"All and as always any Rants, Raves, Gripes or Bellyaches are Always Welcome. Thanks For Reading and Peace Arjunanda.

Mods Please Feel free to move this to a more appropriate location if you believe it to be necessary.

www.zerohedge.com...

Submitted by Simon Black via Sovereign Man blog,

On October 22, 1981, the government of the United States of America accumulated an astounding $1 TRILLION in debt.

At that point, it had taken the country 74,984 days (more than 205 years) to accumulate its first trillion in debt.

It would take less than five years to accumulate its second trillion.

And as the US government just hit $18 trillion in debt on Friday afternoon, it has taken a measly 403 days to accumulate its most recent trillion.

There’s so much misinformation and propaganda about this; let’s examine some of the biggest lies out there about the US debt:

1) “They can get it under control.”

What a massive lie. Politicians have been saying for decades that they’re going to cut spending and get the debt under control.

FACT: The last time the US debt actually decreased from one fiscal year to the next was back in 1957 during the EISENHOWER administration.

FACT: For the last several years, the US government has been spending roughly 90% of its ENTIRE tax revenue just to pay for mandatory entitlement programs and interest on the debt.

This leaves almost nothing for practically everything else we think of as government.

2) “The debt doesn’t matter because we owe it to ourselves.”

This is probably the biggest lie of all. Two of the Social Security trust funds alone (OASI and DI) own $2.72 trillion of US debt.

The federal government owes this money to current and future beneficiaries of those trust funds, i.e. EVERY SINGLE US CITIZEN ALIVE.

I fail to see the silver lining here. How is it somehow ‘better’ if the government defaults on its citizens as opposed to, say, banks?

3) “They can always ‘selectively default’ on the debt”

Another lie. People think that the US government can pick and choose who it pays.

They could make a bing stink about China, for example, and then choose to default on the $2 trillion in debt that’s owed to the Chinese.

Nice try. But this would rock global financial markets and destroy whatever tiny shred of credibility the US still has.

Others have suggested that the government could selectively default on the Federal Reserve (which owns $2.46 trillion of US debt).

Again, possible. But given that the Fed (the issuer of the US dollar) would become immediately insolvent, the resulting currency crisis would be completely disastrous.

4) “It’s the NET debt that’s important”

Analysts often pay attention to a country’s “net debt” instead of its gross debt. If you have a million bucks in debt, and a million bucks in cash, then your ‘net debt’ is zero. It washes out.

Problem is, the US government doesn’t have any cash. The Treasury Department opened its business day on Friday morning with just $71.9 billion in cash, or just 0.39% of its total debt level.

Apple has more money than that.

5) “They can fix it by raising taxes”

No they can’t. Just look at the numbers. Since the end of World War II, US government tax revenue has consistently been roughly 17% of GDP.

They can raise tax rates, but it doesn’t move the needle in terms of revenue as a percentage of GDP.

In other words, the government’s ‘slice of the pie’ is pretty consistent.

You’d think with this obvious data that, rather than try to increase tax rates (ineffective), they’d do everything they can to help make a bigger pie.

Or better yet, just leave everyone the hell alone so we’re free to bake as much as we can.

But no. They have to regulate every aspect of people’s existence: How you are allowed to educate your children. What you can/cannot put in your body. How much interest you are entitled to receive on your savings.

All of this costs time, money, and efficiency. So do never-ending wars. The bombs. The drones. The airstrikes.

This isn’t about any single person or President. The problem is with the system itself.

History shows that every leading superpower from the past almost invariably fell to the same fate.

Great powers often feel that their wealth and success entitles them to spend recklessly and wage endless, arrogant wars. The Romans. The Ottoman Empire. The British.

History may not repeat but it certainly rhymes. And the lesson here is very clear: debt weakens a nation. It weakens a society.

Generations that will not even be born for decades will inherit these debts by complete accident of birth.

And the people in charge of the system have backed themselves into a corner where there is no way out other than to default– either on their creditors (creating a global financial crisis), the central bank (creating a currency crisis), or on the citizens themselves (creating an epic social crisis).

Bottom line: this is not a consequence-free environment. And while you can’t fix the debt problem, you can certainly reduce your own exposure to what happens next.

There is no way to fix America. It will fall and it's been falling for years.

Not just the DEBT but the people themselves are crumbling from within. The control over the masses from what they buy, eat, earn, how they are taught, the numerous laws that can have people paying fines out of pocket every single Day, police state, Orwellian surveillance, racism...

I believe there is no way up for America from where it is right now. It has to crumble completely to rebuild again. The problem? What will it become since we never learn from history?

Peace

Good Reply Jude11, I think you've hit a lot of Nails on The Head. A Star for you my friend Arjunanda a reply to: jude11

just get rid of private ownership of an organization and this problem with cease to exist.

If a program is not benificial to humans it would be cut off in such a scenario. Where as operations that benifit for profit of owners of a private organization have incentive to remain open because of these problems. If there was no profit incentive it wouldn't happen.

Eliminate this incentive and there will be no problems.

We should beable to vote in which energy companies we want running with who we want running.

The energy sector should merge with other energy sectors in order to just become the energy sector. Merge all manufacting to the manufacturing sector. Mining sector, agricultural sector, and infrastructure sector.And law and humanitarian sector, Military sector. Problem?

a reply to: AnuTyr

Wasn't that the premise of Atlas Shrugged (at least the end of the book)?

I may be wrong though.

a reply to: 200Plus

Never read the book lol. I just played way to many Real time Strategy games growing up.
And the way i see how our social structure is set up would be putting my credits in the red.

One building on the map would be sucking out money from the rest making the happiness of my citizens go down.

If this was to be taken for a game. Then by now i'v lost control of the ability to start projects as the these money suckers have taken on a life of its own.

next thing i know all my citizens are under permenant marshal law. lol. Just from the stance of someone who played to many civ building games and thinks about society structure way to much.

I don't read books i read summaries, translated scrolls, reports and such. Most books iv finished from start to finish were fantasy novels similar to dragonlance.

With heroes who are put on a perilous quest to save the world or rebuild their lost society forged by magic.
Just what i was used to reading growing up.
Iv read some horror novels like Rats and Reef, and that stone henge book with that monster that kills people. Oh and iv read the silverwing series. Which is also another hero book lol only its about bats and and birds. I guess the only real social structure book iv ever read was The Giver. And all its concepts of eugenics and their control over the appearance and perception of humans. Hiding emotions from everyone with drugs as to have a peaceful society with no elderly. Because they kill them off. And anyone with any abnormalities. They would weigh babies and determine if the child was worth raising or not. I read that in grade 9 for a school assignment where reading this book was manditory at my highschool. So everyone in grade 9 read it.

Im 23 years old so i grew up in the generation playing sega and nintendo, tho i was active as a child i spent a majority of my time in the forest doing *parkour*.

I have also seen E.T so maybe that's why i take this whole real life real time strategy thing a little to seriously lol.
Probably not the answer you would expect but its my truth.

a reply to: AnuTyr

I'm by no means an expert on energy, commerce, debt, nor government. But I can name two reasons why consolidation like you describe would fail utterly: nepotism and cronyism.

But, I may be misunderstanding the way you are saying things. I do that sometimes, f so I apologize.

a reply to: AnuTyr

You do realize we are talking about the real world and not a video game right?
Your post is insane, off topic, and only proves just how inadequate you are to even have an opinion in REAL WORLD financial matters.
Also considering that you are of voting age, please don't do it.

ETA: Seeing as the Fed got us into this mess...what is your reasoning behind giving them even more power ie communism? What will that achieve?!

originally posted by: AnuTyr
just get rid of private ownership of an organization and this problem with cease to exist.

If a program is not benificial to humans it would be cut off in such a scenario. Where as operations that benifit for profit of owners of a private organization have incentive to remain open because of these problems. If there was no profit incentive it wouldn't happen.

Eliminate this incentive and there will be no problems.

We should beable to vote in which energy companies we want running with who we want running.

The energy sector should merge with other energy sectors in order to just become the energy sector. Merge all manufacting to the manufacturing sector. Mining sector, agricultural sector, and infrastructure sector.And law and humanitarian sector, Military sector. Problem?

Tell that to the former USSR. All your merging of companies under the government control is what happened in Germany during ww2 and is happening now throughout the 3rd world. Look what happenend in Soouth Africa they ran all the white farmers out took the land and gave it to the people and now what? They are starving because it is easier to blame someone rathern than do the work yourself.

It could be fixed with a simple change. The government is massive with many federal agencies and employees.

Right now every year people in charge have to find ways to spend all the money in their budget or lose it. Give them all a vested interest in saving and no penalty for not spending. Allow 10% of the savings as awards to be paid out to employees. You will see savings Iin every federal agency. Dictate that all savings go directly to the debt.

The debt would be paid off probably even within 20 years. More money would be available and spent helping the economy in many ways. It would be a win win situation.

a reply to: arjunanda

a reply to: arjunanda

The government can fix the debt crisis, but just like any REAL solution, the short term is going to be pretty painful. In this case VERY painful since Congress has been kicking the can down the road for quite some time. But in the long term, we will be much more prosperous. Here's the thing though. Congress CAN'T think in the long term. Their terms are very short term and people vote based on what is going on currently. So Congress actually implementing any real fixes would be political suicide for any politician that endorsed a real fix. We are victims of our own checks on government.

originally posted by: doompornjunkie
a reply to: AnuTyr


ETA: Seeing as the Fed got us into this mess...!

Exactly, this was inevitable as soon as the fed, (no caps for those b#$t%^ds), took over our currency with their fiat bs Ponzi scheme.

Let the inevitable reset happen and maybe learn from our mistakes? OK, maybe not the latter.

You'll have to fix the rampant corruption and it's perpetrators before you can even begin to fix anything else. Otherwise, this and any new system is doomed.

The corruption has gone unchecked for decades and now infests every authoritative body and I think it's too deep-rooted to fix.

Corruption is like a cancer, it needs to suck the life of a host in order to exist and has to be cut out at the earliest sign or it will destroy its host. Of course, destroying its host means it also is doomed to die. Let's hope the same fate awaits the cancer that is 'corruption'.

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: arjunanda

The government can fix the debt crisis,

Are you serious?


They created it. There is no hope OUR government can fix this, in the real world

I want you all to tell me how the country is broke after looking at these few examples.

If the government manufactures coins and currency (because some one is taking raw materials and turning it into money), where is the difference from the face value to the manufacturing cost going. What I mean by this, and you can look it up, is that when the government says it takes a penny to make a penny, and that is either slightly profitable for them or even just a net zero, well where is all the money from the higher denominations that multiply the face value by exponential increases, and yet the raw materials and manufacturing are still relatively close to what it takes to make a one cent piece.

In better terms, if it costs a penny to make a penny, what does it cost to make a dime? Where is the other $.09 cent going? What about the quarter? If it costs a penny to make a penny, and a quarter is only slightly bigger, yet 25 times the face value, where the other $.23 going every time a quarter is made? Half dollar? Nickel? Dollar coin?

There is actually a term for this, and it is called "seigniorage", defined as - a government revenue from the manufacture of coins calculated as the difference between the face value and the metal value of the coins per merriam-webster.

That definition leaves out the cost of manufacturing, but I cant see our government making pennies and nickels at a loss, so the other coins must be profitable too, and where is all that exponential money at when it doesnt cost that much more to create a quarter over a penny?

I also would like to know the same thing about our paper currency. Who gets to keep the difference from the face value the bill is sold at, versus its true manufacturing cost.

Again think of it like this, we dont make a $1 bill at a loss, and all we do for the other 6 bills is change a simple design, they dont cost any different to manufacture, at all. So if it costs only $.60 to make a $1 dollar bill, where does the $99.40 go when a $100 dollar bill is printed?

Where is all that money going, who gets it, and when do we see it in the budget as in income to the country?

I would really like to know why we are broke if for every single dollar or coin we manufacture, we are already at a profit from its manufacture cost to its face value? And that applies to EVERY single bill printed or coin minted.

I also want to know why we are broke when I sat in court yesterday, and in my little town, here in podunk North Carolina, watched it raise at least $50,000 in one day from court costs. Thats one town, in one county, in one state. I imagine this happens all across the country on a daily basis. Thats a mind boggling number that should be coming in as various income to the state/federal government.

So with all of that money alone, how is it still not enough to where I have to give up at least 20%-30% of my earnings too?

Someone is lying somewhere, and we are all being duped.

FOLLOW THE MONEY!

a reply to: stosh64

There is a difference between the words "can" and "will". Just because the government is able to do something doesn't mean they will. The government certainly has the ability to fix the problems, it's just not in its best interest to do so (or rather the politicians' best interest).

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: stosh64

There is a difference between the words "can" and "will". Just because the government is able to do something doesn't mean they will. The government certainly has the ability to fix the problems, it's just not in its best interest to do so (or rather the politicians' best interest).

Agreed they could try, which they wont.

I really don't think there is any fixing it. I just hope IT takes place soon so my kids, if they survive, which I am prepared as best I can to ensure that, wont have to suffer more for our stupidity. The longer the reset is put off the worse it will be.

a reply to: arjunanda

Everything you said makes a lot of sense...

& their only solution is depopulation.

The only way out it at this point is to form a new currency, hopefully something digital, cant see it happening though barring some sort of cataclysmic social upheaval.

Ive suspected for some time that was the plan all along to devalue currency to point of worthlessness in order to adopt a new global standard. Interesting times indeed.

originally posted by: Dabrazzo
The only way out it at this point is to form a new currency, hopefully something digital, cant see it happening though barring some sort of cataclysmic social upheaval.

Ive suspected for some time that was the plan all along to devalue currency to point of worthlessness in order to adopt a new global standard. Interesting times indeed.

Kill the dollar