Monday, June 13, 2011

Reality check

I have a different post about reality at Family and Friends blog.
Staying on my Ayn Rand kick, here's another quote from Atlas Shrugged conservatives have forgotten.
Diatribe by Fransisco D'Anconia on what the root of money is: The root of money is production. Money is used to exchange one man's produce for another. It only works if both sides get value for value.

"When is a society doomed? When those who produce something have their production taken away by force by those who produce nothing, and laws are passed to protect them from you. That's when you know that the only real law is from the barrel of a gun."

Now let's do a short comparison/contrast. The year 2008, months before the presidential election. Wall Street, which produces nothing, is going belly up, the economy is collapsing as banks are forclosing on all real estate, not just private homes. The stock market crashes and the legal monetary lottery, again which produces nothing, wipes out Billions in imaginary wealth. Hedge funds, the housing bubble, speculation are to blame. People are losing everything because there's no credit. Bushco with a vote from then Senator Obama doesn't blink an eye and they bail out Wall Street to the tune of 800 Billion dollars with no strings attached. The top brass of those too big to fail banks, hedge funds, whatever get fat multi-million dollar bonuses. All those bailed out kept the money and are continuing the same practices that caused the problem. The economy is still suffering from tight credit and the top brass still get the big bonuses. 800 billion and no jobs saved, the housing industry is still comatose and good hard working, producing, tax paying, citizens still having their houses foreclosed so the banks can pocket the money the government gave them for their losses and after they foreclose and resell pocket that money too. The love to double dip.

At the same time General Motors and Chrysler are going belly up they do produce automobiles which gives jobs to dealers, mechanics, gas stations, transport companies, etc. Should they go bankrupt thousands of jobs would be lost. Obama is now president. The republicans want him to let them die. Their problems are due to the unions, bad management, we don't need those jobs. Money is allocated, but tight strings are attached. Actually that was the right thing to do and GM and Chrysler are now solvent and have paid back what was loaned. Partly because of a timely program called "cash for clunkers." Part of what the republicans called in the 2010 elections Obama's failed stimulus package. The net result is that the loans to producers saved thousands of jobs, not all as the corps did close plants in Detroit and some dealerships. The stimulus package is still being spent and it did save jobs for a few years.
Aren't the Republicans the ones who think Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged is their supply side economic Bible? Did any of them ever read it?

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