Revolution: Change you can *really* believe in…
In the comments section of another post, I’ve been having a conversation with a woman about our collective ire over the whole bailout mess. She puts my thoughts into words better than I ever could, and, given she has more life experience than I, does it with a touch more clout. I wanted to bring her voice up from the comment level to a top level post. Hope you enjoy her insight. Her name is Shirley, and trust me, she’s a fighter. Says she,
I’m an old lady. I raised my family. I’m retired. I’m a true republican in some sense and a true democrat in others and until now I didn’t even know it. All my life, I’ve voted for who I thought would make the best leader, not by any party line.
We bitched back and forth a bit about the bailout, Wall Street, the apathy of Washington. Ultimately, the conversation turned to how we really feel. I’m including some of our comments here, hers will be indicated by the quote marks. Please try to take the anarchist revolution remarks in stride. I think I can speak for both of us that we love the country, and we hate to see it in such dire straits; we’re just at wits end thinking about it, and the word “revolution” is starting to have a nice ring to it.
In her first post, she said:
The gov’t needs to forget a bailout. The market will fix itself, eventually. But the wealthy, power-mongers that got this country into this mess need to be broken – especially financially. Let them get in line for the dole. Let them live on the other side of the street. No bailout, no more money, no FED(my parents were against it when it started and I see no reason to argue their logic now). Small government, people helping each other, better education, and less “I want to be rich so I’ll do it by not paying my employees squat so I can keep the profits” business management.
I questioned whether all the talk of “bailout or Depression” was real or just bureaucratic ballyhoo, and she responded:
You know, Anthony, I think it’s a little fear-mongering and a little truth. If some of the biggest financial corp.’s are allowed to crash and burn, so to speak, then yes, I think we will have another Depression. However, I also think that on the other end, the country will be better for it. The American Dream is a fantastic thing, but that dream has changed in my life time. It used to be own a home, have money in the bank, be able to live comfortably without having to pinch pennies. Now, at least in my view, the American Dream has little to do with living a comfortable life and everything to do with being Bill Gates. And the fact of the matter is that people have long voted with that concept in mind. Reality is that nary a percent of us will ever have Bill Gates wealth and we shouldn’t believe we will.
The only thing I see this bailout doing is acting as a stop gap measure. The whole mess is going to crash and burn and then we’ll have an unqualified Depression with the lead weight of a trillion dollars around all of our necks. Oh, wait, excuse me, around 95% of American necks. The rich will still be rich and still won’t care about Americans. Like Bill Gates, billions to Africa, a few million here. Disgusting.
I agreed, and responded, “If you want to know how I really feel about it, I’m starting to lean towards the idea that we need some kind of upending anarchistic event to reset the system, something that wakes us ALL up, and this bailout is 180 degrees in the opposite direction from that. A “Depression” would heap powerful suck, but maybe it would level the playing field a little and (after a time) bring us back to the American Dream you once knew. Seems we had to suck it up in the original Depression, ration and conserve during WW II, and things outright flourished in the 50’s.
If the government is going to engage in socialism, then they need to give it to the people that really need it, not the corporate scum that squandered away all that they had. Give the $700 billion to us. Now THAT would be a stimulus check. Let Wall Street burn.”
She agreed with me on that last point, “…let Wall Street burn”. We talked a bit about the bailout proposal; she went out and read it between comments. I’m including her final comments in their entirety. I think we should all read them and think about them a little…maybe tomorrow as we’re filling up for gas or going to the ATM.
I read through the bill, and it has a provision for payback [to taxpayers], though to be honest in all the congressional-speak I can’t actually say it’s actually beneficial to most tax payers (see CNN for a pdf of the bill).
Honestly, it’s more section 135 that really bothers me. If I read it correctly, and I’m pretty sure I did, it says the Fed Secretary can’t be held legally accountable for anything. Excuse me? Paulson is the first head that should be chopped off. He, the Fed, and all the other left overs of money/power bastards (Rothschilds, Rockefeller, etc. etc.) that screwed the US in the teens, twenties, and so on should be offed. Damn right they should pay the price, end of conversation.
As to an anarchist uprising, well Anthony, I don’t know that you are far off. It’s going to take the People rising up in the streets to change this crapshoot. I’m a little old to take up a war, but by god, I might look for some amphetamines to help me out in an endeavor like this, to take back this country.
Speaking of civil unrest, according to the Army Times (the official ‘paper’ of the US Army) and entire active-duty batallion is being recalled from Iraq and redeployed here, in the states, in order to be on hand for possible terrorist activity and civil unrest. What? Now when can you remember an active battle group of soldiers being recalled to the states during war time?
One final thought: it’s clear to me that – despite Obama’s clear message of change – the only real change can come from us. I’m hoping that a simple vote in November is enough to do the trick, but if not, we might need to take matters in our own hands. Shirley’s ready, and so am I. Are you?
This Blog Left Intentionally Blank 
My parents went through the Great Depression. I know a few of their stories — stories that negatively affected their entire lives and that of my brothers and mine. My mother’s parents lost their home and furnishings. They lived in a cousin’s barn. My grandfather walked miles upon miles throughout eastern Washington looking for a job. He begin drinking too much. My father’s parents put their seven kids in a Catholic orphanage. The family moved in with my grandparents to save money. My grandfather lost his farm and everything. My dad quit school at 16 and rode the rails looking for job.
I don’t want a repeat of the same kind of financial meltdown.
Imagine, if you will, China, Japan, India, the Middle East and Europe deciding to cash in their trillions of dollars in Treasury Bonds all at once — which the US government definitely does not have the financial resources to pay — because they no longer believed in the financial viability of the U.S?
Where would this country be then? Which barn would you be living in?
Valerie Curl
September 29, 2008 at 12:56 am
I hear you, Valerie, I really do. I hate that so many had to go through that, and would not be thrilled if it were to happen again.
I think my biggest problem is that I don’t think any lessons are going to be learned here. Sure, it’ll be harder for people to get loans now because banks are going to be scared to death about lending money, but are we as a nation learning anything here? More to the point, are the people in power (both Washington and Wall Street) going to change their evil ways? I’m sure we’ll see more oversight of the financial sector in the future, but when lobbyists start whining, will that oversight go away, only to create a repeat scenario?
Sure, that may be a fatalist, pessimistic view, and the bailout may be the path of least resistance, but real change rarely happens via the easy way out. Obviously, if the world called in their notes we’d be screwed, and if world banks stop lending to each other we’re doubly screwed, but are we not doomed to repeat these mistakes if we do not learn from them somehow?
Here’s essentially where I’m coming from: It infuriates me that those responsible are allowed to essentially walk away from this unscathed. THAT is what makes me want to damn the consequences, give the $700 billion to us as a big fat stimulus package and watch the whole Wall St. shooting match burn to the ground.
Honestly, if I thought we’d come out a stronger nation, I’d gladly live in a barn…right next to Paulson, Martin Sullivan, Richard Fuld, and the others. We’ll roast marshmallows over fires fueled by the bad mortgage paperwork. I’m sure there’s plenty to go around.
But seriously, picking what barn to live in is exactly my point: I’m afraid that’s where we’re headed. We’re going to need the kind of giant Reset Button that the Great Depression was. I hope we don’t, I hope the bailout works, but again, I’m skeptical, and I’m damned tired of sitting by while our government spends all kinds of money and tells me, “trust us, we know what we’re doing”.
Anthony
September 29, 2008 at 1:20 am
I’d be living in my barn and taking in any of my neighbors I could. Because in all honesty, Valerie, it really is going to happen any way. Only instead of now, it might be at Christmas instead.
Consider this, the foreign markets aren’t booming as of now (just after one am EDT) and Hang Seng is down almost 400 points. That isn’t good news. The sad fact is that the rest of the world is pulling away because they know something that the US media seems to favor hiding: the days of the booming American consumerist lifestyle are over. In fact, those countries that have been trying to help us out with influxes of cash and capital are the ones hurting most right now.
In truth, foreign markets are going to slip some, but they are going to stabilize much faster and with less fallout because they still work off the ‘old’ American dream: saving and production. It’s only in places where they are entangled with the US that they are hurting. But the Chinese still produce things, and will continue to do so. The EU has many businesses that make products used across the world. Plus, other global economies aren’t all ready broke. The US is broke, which is why this bailout is such a joke. All the US has is a printing press and with every dollar created for this bailout, you can guarantee an incremental rise in inflation. Now think of that as 700 billion incremental percentage increases.
I’m not looking forward to hard times. I was born not long after the Great Depression. Times were very hard for my family when I was growing up. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. That said, times were also different. Family was important and communities came together to support one another. Life would be exceptionally hard in major metropolises across the US, but in rural and smaller cities/towns I think you’d see a lot of people coming together to make life work. And when the dust settled, the American People would be stronger for it, prouder for it, and better able *hopefully* to stand up and demand that this country live up to its potential.
shirley
September 29, 2008 at 1:27 am