Going Commie

As the economy continues to unravel, and nothing, including the $700 billion the taxpayers have forked over, seems to solve this catastrophic problem, you have to wonder what the short term future looks like for this country. What's wierd, is that the dollar seems to be coming out of this clusterfuck as the strongest currency around, while others, the Euro, and the Pound are bleeding value by the day. No one knows for certain what the future looks like, but nearly every expert you hear on CNBC, is saying that this recession is going to be deep, and long.

Oh...I forgot to tell you guys, it's official. We're in a recession.

Many experts are now predicting that the jobless rate will climb to nearly 10 percent. You have to picture what that really means by picturing the neighborhood or the city block where you live. If you're affluent, and only have ten homes on your block, 1 of these families will not have employment. If you live in the city, and there are say 20 apartments in your building, two families in your building will not have work, and if there are 5 buildings on the block, 40 in a square mile, the number is unfathomable. And when you consider that it takes two incomes to stay solvent in America today, the 10 percent takes on a meaning that is much more real and frightening. In 1933, we had 25 percent unemployment, but back then, traditionally, only 1 member of most households worked. If you really think about what your neighborhood might look like with an unemployment rate of 10 percent, you probably think that the safe neighborhood you used to live in, might become a dangerous place, with people trying to scrape by on 66 percent of what they used to have, and after six months, that 66 percent is down to pretty much nothing. If your neighbors are decent, that nice little old lady next door might offer to clean your windows for 10 bucks, but if they're not, she might be trying to steal your cable box while you're at work.

Hungry people do crazy things. And I can't really blame them. In a country with this sort of wealth, no one should be hungry.

I totally love Naomi Klien. In this video from the Nation, she suggests that if we're going to nationalize American companies, don't go for the shit assets of AIG, but think big, and go for the big bucks, nationalize Exxon Mobile. If we're going Communist, why not do it up big, Texas style? Let's seize some companies with solid books. Let's start with the energy companies. And instead of buying bad mortgage loans at market value, let's let those loans go bad, and then solve the homeless problem by turning those McMansions into low income housing. There's this homeless guy who hangs out at the 7-11 in my neighborhood, he's kind of a jerk, but I gotta tell ya, I wouldn't mind seeing him living in Donald Trump's mansion. It would be worth it, just to see the look on Trump's face.

If capitalism is dead, let's kill it big, and not piss around buying shitty commercial paper. Let's let the economy tank, and then the taxpayers can buy Disney World, and send every low income child to summer camp. Let's take over all of the Ritz Carlton's, and let the soldiers coming home from Iraq live there until they can find gainful employment. Let's move everyone from Detroit to San Diego. Why not buy all of the insurance companies, and then give every American good health care? Take all of the CEO's salaries and give it to the teachers?

If this country is going Commie, then I say let's do it up big.

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