“It’s really a make-or-break occasion. That’s why it’s so important. The chances of a depression are quite high — even if that is averted, the recession will last a long time. Look, we are not going back to where we came from. In that sense it’s going to last forever.”
Actually, nothing ever comes out of the Gxx meetings. The various heads of state meet, an international army of self-proclaimed victims riot and litter, and then everyone goes home. What has ever resulted from a Gxx meeting?
But while I'm on the subject, Soros's remark reminds me of something our illustrious president said while he was trying to sell the Stimulus Package. He commented that the nation was in danger of going into an economic depression that would be "irreversible" unless congress acted immediately.
What the hell does that mean? If the banks fold up the American people will all just stay in bed all day and suck their thumbs until they die of starvation? Without government help, that is.
I thought this was a very telling statement from the prez, telling about what he really thinks and how he views the world. If citizens don't have government assistance, they just curl up and die?
Why would that happen? It's absurd.
Free individuals -- who were often pretty distant from any form of effective government -- were the people who built the US, not the government. Government actually generally stands in the way of creativity and innovation because stuff that does not yet exist can't be regulated, and all government does is regulate. Government tends to discourage creativity and innovation precisely because government can't regulate these things.
Our government, as defined by the Constitution, exists only to preserve the rights we're born with and to prevent us from killing each other. That is, the government is supposed to leave us alone and interfere only when one citizen violates the rights of another, or when the nation is under attack from a foreign power.
When people are free of oppressive government and political control, they flourish. The USA has proven that. People congregated in the US from all over the world, from all different kinds of cultures, people of all races and religious backgrounds. The only thing they all had in common was the freedom they found here, under protection of the US Constitution. And look what they built. It's really amazing.
So what happened to that? Are we all now born brain-dead?
Does our president seriously believe that we are all so dependent upon government direction and support that we're completely helpless without it? We wouldn't be able to figure out how or what to eat and couldn't set up a tent somewhere? I mean, really, how stupid does he think we are?
Typically what happens when a business -- particularly a large business -- gets into trouble, it begins selling off non-critical assets. It cuts staff to the bone and often lowers compensation rates. It may even chuck its primary products and services and move into another direction. This happens over and over and over again every day without the assistance or even the notice of the federal government. Do we need Tim Geithner and the Treasury Dept, or some disjointed "community of nations" to fix these problems? Do these buttheads even know what they're doing? How many of them have ever run a business?
People aren't stupid, and all but the genuinely psychopathic have enough self-interest to make some kind of effort to keep themselves alive. We do this all on our own. We don't need the government for this. In fact, we're better off when the government stays out of it.
Survival requires being able to move pretty quickly to respond to an ever-changing environment. (And I don't mean climate change.) We have the inborn capability to perceive our surroundings and need to be able to decide how to react to it. This is freaking biological, not a political decision.
We have to be able to do this independently and individually. This can't be legislated or regulated. There's no government in the world that could contrive a code of laws that could fairly and effectively tell every single individual how to act in every possible situation. This is not even a remote possibility. We need the freedom to act independently in order to survive.
Government only gets in the way of this by imposing regulations and rules of behavior that may or may not be applicable to our situations, and may or may not support our own goals and aspirations.
So, rather than admitting that it can't control every situation and meet everyone's needs, what government does is restrict human activity to keep it within the scope of government control. This is totalitarianism. When a government begins trying to micro-manage its citizens, it steps off down a highway that can only end in totalitarianism.
History provides so many examples. In fact, this march toward oppressive and coercive and destructive government is almost a common trend among any government in any nation. That's where the US Constitution broke with tradition -- by limiting government.
So what the hell is the purpose for undoing that now? Who's going to gain anything at all from an expanding government, or by adding a layer of international government? Maybe a few politicians will live large for a while, until they piss someone off, or turn their backs, then it's over for them, too. Like every dictator in history. How many of them died peacefully of old age?
And about the G20....
Germany and France, having suffered from hyper-inflation, don't like the idea of spending more money. No, they're going for more and more regulation. Apparently regulation that has some kind of authority that supercedes any national government. And who or what would this be? God?
It would have to be God. No one else could do it. And I, for one, am not willing to accept some cosmic (?) authority that's entirely unaccountable to myself as a voter.
So hopefully G20 won't accomplish anything more than providing a photo-op for the heads of the participating nations and making a big mess in downtown London. And that's bad enough.
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