Re: So - has the economy finally had it?
I would certainly rather see the system evolve than collapse. And I don't think there's any barrier to it other than humanity evolving. Whatever lizards were responsible for plotting and covering up assassinations in the past surely will have their powers revoked within the next five years. Or if we intend for it to be so then it will be, right? The fact that this issue seems to be behind more assassinations than any other political issue is a bit intimidating but it also shows how important it is.
Other than the possibly very real cartoonish villains lurking in the shadows I think the only major barriers to reform in this system are finding a way to successfully whittle the enormous complexity of it into sound bites and the stopping the lingering effectiveness of 'red-baiting' in places where it still works like the U.S. Actually I doubt the red-baiting would even work if the arguments were fairly held up in the light of the media, so getting to that point is the real challenge. I mean, assuming most of the quotes and facts in the above movie are real, I don't see how anyone could be against printing money directly from the Treasury instead of stupidly borrowing it and paying interest on it to the Fed bankers. It's well documented that the whole thing was set up as a fraud but everyone in a position to do anything about it is either too scared, doesn't understand it well enough, or is somehow benefiting from it. Back when we were still using precious metals for money I can sort of halfway see the argument for letting banks issue currency for metal deposits they supposedly had on hand. If there was a run and everyone asked for their deposits at once then it would be the banks misrepresenting themselves and not the government. But now that our dollars are backed by nothing except maybe possibly some scrap metal it seems completely and utterly insane. Why should we collectively pay interest (both income tax and inflation) on new money being injected into the economy that is based on nothing but bookkeeping trickery?? Even changing nothing else, by just cutting out the middleman of the Fed we could have either no income tax or no inflation or much lower rates of both.
I guess the other counter-argument is that if politicians are allowed to print money directly they will spend it irresponsibly on pork. Certainly that would be undesirable, but is it worse than having bankers do it and having them spend it on accumulating unlimited assets and power and keeping us enslaved?? Ten or 20 years ago they might have still been able to get away with calling it Communism to let the government print money but enough of the current population has been born since the height of the cold war than I honestly don't think it will work anymore. We should really try and do something, and the upcoming legislation in the U.S. to change coinage composition (thanks to rising metal prices and China) could be a perfect opportunity.
I know this post is rambling and this subject matter isn't exactly popular here but I really do believe that this monetary chicanery is at the heart of this "system" we all speak of and fixing it really is the first step toward freedom if we are to attain it on any sort of physical/material level. Other points of view besides waiting around for the ships or disasters to come are welcome.