By Vern Ware
After reading Mr. Hall”s rebuttal to Al Duncan”s column “A word to the wise” I felt compelled to answer on Al”s behalf. Below is the text of the e-mail that I sent Al after reading his column.
“Good piece, but I think it may be optimistic. I doubt that six month”s food would be enough and if the government gets really desperate, they might privatize gold a la FDR. We”re in this because of Greenspan”s irrational exuberance all across the board, from government more interested in getting re-elected and greedy corporations siphoning off cash with privatized profits and then doing a re-run on socialized losses to voters that found out they could vote themselves keys to the treasury.
“I believe we are on our way to becoming a banana republic both economically and politically. Our country has thought of itself as an entitled and “God”s chosen people” for too long without acting like it. Thomas Jefferson said that he ?trembled for his country when he reflected that God is just.””
I recently watched the documentary “Plunder” about the bailout of the investment houses in 2008. One scene showed a clip from a 2007 Fox News in which an economist was predicting the bursting of the housing bubble and the Fox News commentator was laughing at the absurdity of it all. Mr. Hall”s comments brought that scene to mind.
As for doing something about it, America?s lawmakers and voters need the political courage to make the hard choices about spending and taxes.
The government”s advice about loosening credit and spending our way out of trouble is ludicrous. That”s like throwing gas on a fire to put it out.
Our government”s idea of balancing the budget by raising the spending ceiling is equally unsound. Someday China, India and Saudi Arabia are going to wake up to the fact that we owe more than we can pay back and foreclose on America .
We have a new Republican House of Representatives, I hope they don”t prove the old adage that “Republicans run on the platform that government doesn”t work, then they get elected and prove it.”
Vern Ware
Lakeport
