The State of the Union

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Wow, it's been a looong time since I last wrote anything here. This post is long overdue from a writing perspective, and I think some commentary on the subject of the condition of the United States is also long overdue.

I have some pent-up angst to flush out. Much of it due to the Tea Party bullshit artists, the latest BP disaster, and the Goldman-Sachs legal issues. That's the backlog of shit on my mind & what's been grinding on my conscience, but the real trigger was a video a friend of mine posted on Facebook. It's a video of Jon Voight reading his - for lack of a better term - open letter to America. He blathers about Obama & how he's turning this into a socialist state, and he also mentions that capitalism is the bedrock of America, and how it's the only true way that we'll succeed.

Well, let me shoot a couple of holes in his letter. First, I think that most Americans go into some sort of tizzy when they hear the word "socialist". The conjure up images of Nazi Germany or the USSR of the Cold War. But think about this: the US was originally a socialist state. What I mean is that when the pilgrims traversed the Atlantic, they established colonies & settlements. What were these colonies? Social living. Everyone shared food, water, and other resources. Everyone worked together to raise buildings & establish shelter. It was not an every-man-for-himself (or woman-for-herself) society. If it would've been that way, we wouldn't be where we are now. The colonists would've perished without working together. To quote a line from the Lost character Jack Shephard: "either we live together, or we die alone".

I don't think our nation is at such a critical tipping point now where if we refuse to work together we all die, but the concept still holds true. I think that so many people have gotten so greedy that the thought of sharing resources with another is abhorrent. This isn't standing on principle, or protecting what you've earned, this is greed. This is lack of concern for one another. I don't believe anyone thinks of the credo "I am my brother's keeper" anymore. That has totally gone by the wayside.

I firmly believe in a theory or concept of communal good. As I prosper, so will you. As you prosper, so will your neighbor. It's a chain effect: if one wins, we all win. But that sentiment has been totally lost along the way. So has the philosophy of the greatest good of the greatest many being the primary concern of any society. It so happens that those people bitching about the socialism are the richest in this country, or just the greediest. But let's look at the rich. Something like 90% of the wealth is held by 2% of the population. If we use the second philosophical tenet I mention, they'd have no say, as they are the clear minority, and their welfare should not, and would not, be the concern of the majority. So many people were opposed to HCR (healthcare reform), as the Republicans & Teabaggers painted HCR as redistribution of wealth. Like we were really taking money from the rich & giving to the poor. In reality individuals making over $250k and couples making over $400k would pay higher taxes, yes. But is this money going directly into the pockets of the underprivileged? Nope. It would be used to pay for visits to the doctor. And frankly, if one person makes 1/4 of a million dollars, or two people make just shy of one half million, I have zero sympathy for the extra 2% or 3% tax they'll pay. If you make that much, you should. And if it really REALLY hurts you, then you might wanna scale back your lifestyle & get real, get with the fucking times.

Now, let's get to capitalism, one of Voight's points. Jon seems to think that capitalism is just the shit, the best thing since sliced bread. With that in mind, what are the two biggest crises we've faced lately? One is the economic crash of '08, the other is the Deepwater Horizon disaster. At the core, what was the cause of both of these events? It was part greed, part lack of regulation, and both of those in pursuit of MONEY. This is capitalism folks: doing whatever it takes to allow business to make money.

Goldman-Sachs, as we now know, put together some very very dicey mortgage-backed securities, which it peddled to investors. And oh yeah, G-S 1) knew these securities would lose money and 2) bet money that they would. G-S put together losing propositions, made money when selling them, then hedged their bets in the event that the inevitable happens, and they fail. G-S made millions or billions on these deals. And it wasn't just one broker or financial wiz that is culpable, it goes way up into the executive ranks. So there's the greed part. There was also a gross lack of regulation or oversight of these securities. The gov't didn't know enough about the securities to look into them efficiently or closely, or recognize the warning signs or foul stench of poison. And even if they did, there are enough smarties in finance to work their way through loopholes in the regulations. And what happened? Well, the housing market collapsed, the stock market almost went 100% Titanic on us, millions of people lost trillions of dollars of wealth, and millions lost their jobs. Two years later and the recovery is still shaky at best, if you can even call it a recovery, and I'm not so sure about that. We're out of free-fall, and maybe the economy is growing a little. But this ain't no fuckin' recovery. Just ask the millions of people who've exhausted unemployment benefits & are still no closer to a job than they were at this time last year. And who shall we thank for this? Wall Street. Lehman Brothers. Bear-Stearns. G-S. And all the rest.

For the sake of brevity I won't even get into the Wankers of Wall Street & how they went right back to giving exec's & portfolio managers utterly gross bonuses while the rest of the country is still rotting. That's another topic for another time.

As for BP, by now we know that we have the biggest environmental disaster in our country's history on our hands. I live on the Gulf Coast of Florida, and while I'm not in the panhandle & haven't seen tar balls on my beaches yet, nor wildlife coated in crude, the thought horrifies me. Again, for brevity, I won't go into this much as it enrages me & brings me to tears at the same time. But let's look at the root cause of this event. As with G-S, it's greed, and lack of regulation. BP is pushing the limits of safe offshore drilling in the name of bringing in more profits. Making money for exec's & stockholders, and no worries for the collateral damage. Along the way they ignored obvious risk, and did nothing to mitigate it. As BP exec's admitted this week they didn't have the tools in their toolbox to deal w/a disaster like this. It's like jumping out of an airplane w/a poorly packed 'chute, and no backup. Unfortunately, in the real world, there are millions of people that will suffer, millions of animals, and millions of acres of precious, fragile ecosystem. It'd be one thing if the jackholes at BP jumped outta the plane & put only themselves at risk. Instead, they've imperiled thousands of people & animals, and have done damage that will take years to repair. If it can be repaired.

So, greed was the impetus, that's pretty easy. What's equally easy to see is that our gov't let BP get away w/this. Our gov't & its regulatory bodies were very lax on enforcement of safety measures. The Canadian gov't doesn't allow offshore drilling w/out the presence of relief wells ahead of time. Oh yeah, relief wells might stem the hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil spilling into the Gulf. Whoops! The US gov't lacks that requirement, and BP is now drilling relief wells, which should be ready in another couple of months! The broken pipe is spilling - according to realistic estimates - between 400k & one million gallons of oil into the Gulf each day. Do the math & multiply the low end of the estimate by 60, see what you get. The guesstimates at how much oil has REALLY spilled, and how much might spill before the well is capped, and where the oil will go, as total SWAGs: Serious Wild Ass Guesses. They're talking about the oil reaching the Atlantic coast of FL, and up into the Carolina's. How many fucking miles of coastline is that? How many thousands of people will be impacted when they can no longer fish or shrimp, bring in clams? What about the charter captains of sport fishing boats? Those that run snorkel & SCUBA operations? The thousands that depend on the tourism industry? Let me be clear: this is important, but in my mind not nearly as important as the ecosystems that could be decimated, ruined, totally fucked, and the potentially irreparable harm. And the birds, fish, manatees, all the wildlife. And again, how did this happen?

Former oil execs working for the MMS (Minerals Management Service) & other gov't agencies that were supposed to be looking out for the safety of workers on the rigs and surrounding waters & coastlines. But the old boys club rules are in effect here, so why would former oil company exec's or workers want to impose stringent regulations on their former employers or cronies? Gee, that might cut into the profit margins! And after all, a big-time spill will never happen. Right? Well, look at where we are now.

So, those are two of the biggest disasters we've experienced in the last 24 months. And trust me, we won't recover in the next 24. And what got us here? That's the important lesson: greed, and lack of self-control (regulation). They say that the most valuable lessons are learned from the most painful experiences. Well, I guess we'll all learn some SERIOUS shit then, won't we? I can only hope so. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. I don't think that's something we can afford, do you?