The Value of A Banking Industry - Debt

I give you a quotation: "Financial services are not included in calculations of domestic product." Why do you think this is? Could it be that all those credit unions, finance corporations, banks, and other money lending and leverage institutions actually produce nothing?

These same institutions want us to believe that our economic prosperity is due to their existence. After all, they argue, where would large sums of money come from to fund society's great works?

While that argument can be made, we wonder if any alternative has ever really been tried in history. One side-effect that we must contend with is the enormous amounts of debt generated with all this "prosperity". Is there any logic to the fact that the more industrialized a nation becomes, the more the people of that country find themselves in debt to financial institutions?

Consider that in the United States right now, the "national debt" is $9.5 Trillion. This is $31,100 for every man, woman, and child in this country.

Consider also the fact that according to the money aggregate statistics released by our government, there is only $800 billion of actual money in circulation.

So how can we possibly be expected to pay a debt more than ten times larger than the amount of money that exists? Doesn't that sound a little absurd? If so much money has been loaned, where did all that money come from? And to whom is it owed?

I would like you to think about this. We are told to believe that Americans owe a debt to the Federal Reserve system of over nine trillion dollars. But we are also told to believe that the Federal Reserve system is a part of the government. Since we are the government, in essence, we are taught to believe that "we owe ourselves." But I ask you... if this is the case, then why is there a record kept of this debt, why is there interest being charged on it, and why aren't we profiting from that interest?

The question becomes simpler if I ask "do you keep track of how much money you owe yourself?" Of course not. You know what you have... you don't borrow money from yourself, keep a record of it, then pay it off as if it were a debt. So why does the government do this?

The very simple and easily understood answer to the question is this: The people who owe the debt, and the people who collect interest on it are not the same people. If it didn't affect you personally, and if it didn't change your understanding of the government "of, by, and for the people" it might be an easy statement to swallow.

Easy or not, the fact remains. Our government is allowing an organization which calls itself the "Federal Reserve" to loan money out to the government, then collect interest from the public on that debt. Today the interest alone on this debt amounts to over $1,083,604,000.00 per day. It is estimated that since the nation debt began, that Americans have paid over $12 Trillion to this banking system in interest alone! In the United States today, one dollar in four of income earned is paid to those operating a finance "industry".

What do the banks give us in return? They do not build a single school, road, bridge, or boat. They do not perform any services for the public that people would expect of governments. They supply the country with no lumber, bricks, concrete, or cars. They have not created one sellable product for purchase by any American consumer... except debt.

So I ask you, how necessary is this system, really?





[edit on 28-5-2008 by ianr5741]

reply to post by ianr5741


Why would you consider investments into the GDP.. the investments essentially make money because of the GDP to begin with.

If you calculated Mutual Funds, ROTH accounts, IRA's, 401k's, savings accounts, bonds, annuities, insurance even .... it would grossly distort the view of the economy.

And they do produce something.. when a consumer has 10k on a credit card or a car loan and it has 6-30% interest ..... the bank is making .. well .. bank.

It's the consumer who's worth nothing.