Berie and Big Government
Bernie Madoff has been back in the news lately. According to his wife, when their fortunes turned for the worse, they attempted to kill themselves. In case the most infamous Wall Street name in recent history doesn’t ring an immediate bell, he is the man who developed a billion dollar ponzi scheme that defrauded clients from little old ladies who put their life saving in his care to non-profits who tried to expand their balance sheets to do more good work. He was a con-man, a cheat, and he took advantage of people’s trusting and sometimes greedy nature to make a lot of money at their expense. He is in jail for life and the “investors” have gotten back pennies on the dollar.
What did Bernie really do that has made his name so infamous, that made him a worthy target of the ire of America? He convinced people to voluntarily part with their own money on false pretenses with false promises, promises that were impossible to fulfill, so he could take that money and use it to enrich himself and his friends. It was theft, pure and simple. Instead of a gun, Bernie used lies and half-truths. Instead of a knife, deceit and greed. In his wake, he left people destitute, destroyed their faith in their fellows, bankrupted worthy organizations, and besmirched the reputation of a whole sector of the American economy. In case you haven’t noticed, there are a bunch of ignorant, smelly and sometimes violent protestors camped out on Wall Street and in cities around the country that think the whole world of investing and capitalism is crooked and every wealthy individual got that way by swindling the rest of us.
While Madoff's swindle got a lot of media attention, it only involved a few thousand people and a few billion dollars. I don’t know anyone directly affected by his crime and you probably don’t either. It didn’t bring us to the supposed edge of economic collapse like Lehman Brothers. It didn’t start a tsunami of foreclosures that affected hundreds of thousands of people like the sub-prime mortgage debacle. It didn’t put millions of people out of work. It was simply one more swindle in a long history of swindles.
There is a swindle going on right now, however, that does affect you, does put people out of work, is putting the economy at great risk, is stealing your money and enriching the few at the expense of the many based on lies and deceit. This is the great con of the Federal Government. It is based on the lie that government is a wise and benevolent entity that exists to equitably distribute the nation’s resources and direct the lives of the people for their benefit. What makes this fraud so egregious is not simply its scope, which encompasses a fifteen trillion dollar economy and three hundred million people, but the fact that your participation is not voluntary. In fact, this wise and benevolent government has developed an effective system of brainwashing known as the public schools that have convinced most people that government is the answer to all problems. But not all the people. If the appeals to “fairness” and “social justice” don’t work, and we can’t be scared into feeling good about our “contribution” through doomsday warnings about global warming, mass unemployment or homelessness, the gun of the government will be put to our heads to force us to relinquish our hard earned money to support the scam with the threat of confiscation, financial ruin and imprisonment.
Is it fair to compare what our Federal Government does to Bernie Madoff’s fraud? Not really, what the Federal Government does is so much worse. Ponzi schemes? The government perpetrates the largest ponzi scheme in the history of the world. We call it Social Security. While the early participants received generous benefits for small investments, as the number of contributors have declined, instead of simply losing their money, which may yet happen, they are forced to contribute ever higher amounts to support those who currently benefit. It is a ponzi scheme whose collapse is forestalled by ever larger involuntary contributions by the latecomers.
Of course, the voracious appetite of the government cannot be satiated simply through forced contributions. To cover the growing gap between spending and income, they borrow. And borrow. And borrow. And borrow. Bernie may be broke and have nothing to pass down to his children except an infamous name but his children and grandchildren are not on the hook for repaying his fraud. Not so the Federal Government. Today’s free spenders from both parties will be gone when the bill comes due for future generations. Future generations of Americans have been condemned to involuntary servitude, forced to pay back trillions of dollars to the Chinese and Saudis by the greedy politicians and bureaucrats of today. Nothing is more immoral.
When the numbers of people contributing to Bernie’s racket fell below the level needed to sustain it, it collapsed and those who came in late lost their money. No so the Federal Government. In addition to confiscating more money from the rest of us and borrowing from future generations, it has another method of maintaining its malevolent work. It can simply print money. Ah, if Bernie had just used a printing press he could have kept it up indefinitely. Oh yeah, that’s illegal; its called counterfeiting and it is so because it destroys the value of, and confidence in, the currency. Is it any different when the Federal Government does it through the Federal Reserve bank? No, we are destroying the value of our currency and our standard of living. The fact that our buying power and real wages continue to go down is a direct result of this hidden theft. The very real possibility of hyperinflation and the total collapse of the currency and economy are also directly tied to this fraud.
If Bernie was a mobster and a thug in addition to a cheat, he could have forced people to “contribute” to his growing power and punish those who didn’t pay the required protection money. The Federal Government, operated as a thugocracy under this current administration, does have that power. As Gibson Guitar found out, not contributing to the right party will result in armed goons breaking into your business, endless lawsuits designed to harass and intimidate, limitless regulations selectively applied for the sole purpose of putting one out of business to serve as a warning to others. This works for individuals as well as businesses.
Bernie used his ill gotten gains to live the life of the rich and famous. The benefits of working with and for the Federal Government are similar. The average annual salary and benefits for a federal worker is over $123,000, a salary and benefits we pay through our tax dollars, and those salaries are rapidly increasing. While the politicians and bureaucrats live the high life on our dime, partying at seminars and training sessions in Las Vegas, going on fact finding missions to Tahiti and dolling out billions of dollars to friends and relatives, how are the serfs who pay for this living? Seventy five percent of us make less than $50,000, forty seven percent of us, less than $25,000; salaries that are going down in real terms. Almost half of us are making less than a fifth of our “public servants.” And when we fail at our jobs or do something illegal, our income goes to zero or we go to jail. Bureaucrats who lose millions like those at Fannie Mae are paid millions when they leave. Gun runners at the ATF are promoted. Tax cheats are given cabinet positions. The standard of justice for the rulers and the ruled has never been so different in America.
The politicians and bureaucrats are not the only beneficiaries of the fraud. Just as Bernie spread the wealth around to his friends, so does the Federal Government. The rewards of the “protection money” paid to campaigns can amount to millions and even billions of dollars. Business like Solyndra and General Electric enrich themselves at our expense. Grants are dolled out to those who support the party line. Homes, health care and cash are the rewards of the poor voters who consistently put these con men and women in office even if what they receive is a pittance compared to the “in” crowd. Its all about the money, your money and my money, and using it in ways we would never even consider. Would you choose to invest in a company with a faulty business model, pay the living expenses of a man who lives in a crib and wears a diaper or train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly? No? Ah...but you and I do and we are not given a choice.
Bernie is in jail for the rest of his life. We name roads and buildings for the thieves in Washington DC. We expect so little we don’t even care when another robber is caught and released, or even promoted. The Federal Government, our Federal Government, is looting our country, stealing the wealth of its citizens and their progeny and destroying the best economic and governmental system ever conceived by man. It is doing so by perpetuating the lie that if government just had enough money and power life would be better for all of us. It is a lie. It is a failure. It is immoral. It is evil. Bernie may get the bad press but compared to the Federal Government of the United States of America, he looks almost angelic.
What did Bernie really do that has made his name so infamous, that made him a worthy target of the ire of America? He convinced people to voluntarily part with their own money on false pretenses with false promises, promises that were impossible to fulfill, so he could take that money and use it to enrich himself and his friends. It was theft, pure and simple. Instead of a gun, Bernie used lies and half-truths. Instead of a knife, deceit and greed. In his wake, he left people destitute, destroyed their faith in their fellows, bankrupted worthy organizations, and besmirched the reputation of a whole sector of the American economy. In case you haven’t noticed, there are a bunch of ignorant, smelly and sometimes violent protestors camped out on Wall Street and in cities around the country that think the whole world of investing and capitalism is crooked and every wealthy individual got that way by swindling the rest of us.
While Madoff's swindle got a lot of media attention, it only involved a few thousand people and a few billion dollars. I don’t know anyone directly affected by his crime and you probably don’t either. It didn’t bring us to the supposed edge of economic collapse like Lehman Brothers. It didn’t start a tsunami of foreclosures that affected hundreds of thousands of people like the sub-prime mortgage debacle. It didn’t put millions of people out of work. It was simply one more swindle in a long history of swindles.
There is a swindle going on right now, however, that does affect you, does put people out of work, is putting the economy at great risk, is stealing your money and enriching the few at the expense of the many based on lies and deceit. This is the great con of the Federal Government. It is based on the lie that government is a wise and benevolent entity that exists to equitably distribute the nation’s resources and direct the lives of the people for their benefit. What makes this fraud so egregious is not simply its scope, which encompasses a fifteen trillion dollar economy and three hundred million people, but the fact that your participation is not voluntary. In fact, this wise and benevolent government has developed an effective system of brainwashing known as the public schools that have convinced most people that government is the answer to all problems. But not all the people. If the appeals to “fairness” and “social justice” don’t work, and we can’t be scared into feeling good about our “contribution” through doomsday warnings about global warming, mass unemployment or homelessness, the gun of the government will be put to our heads to force us to relinquish our hard earned money to support the scam with the threat of confiscation, financial ruin and imprisonment.
Is it fair to compare what our Federal Government does to Bernie Madoff’s fraud? Not really, what the Federal Government does is so much worse. Ponzi schemes? The government perpetrates the largest ponzi scheme in the history of the world. We call it Social Security. While the early participants received generous benefits for small investments, as the number of contributors have declined, instead of simply losing their money, which may yet happen, they are forced to contribute ever higher amounts to support those who currently benefit. It is a ponzi scheme whose collapse is forestalled by ever larger involuntary contributions by the latecomers.
Of course, the voracious appetite of the government cannot be satiated simply through forced contributions. To cover the growing gap between spending and income, they borrow. And borrow. And borrow. And borrow. Bernie may be broke and have nothing to pass down to his children except an infamous name but his children and grandchildren are not on the hook for repaying his fraud. Not so the Federal Government. Today’s free spenders from both parties will be gone when the bill comes due for future generations. Future generations of Americans have been condemned to involuntary servitude, forced to pay back trillions of dollars to the Chinese and Saudis by the greedy politicians and bureaucrats of today. Nothing is more immoral.
When the numbers of people contributing to Bernie’s racket fell below the level needed to sustain it, it collapsed and those who came in late lost their money. No so the Federal Government. In addition to confiscating more money from the rest of us and borrowing from future generations, it has another method of maintaining its malevolent work. It can simply print money. Ah, if Bernie had just used a printing press he could have kept it up indefinitely. Oh yeah, that’s illegal; its called counterfeiting and it is so because it destroys the value of, and confidence in, the currency. Is it any different when the Federal Government does it through the Federal Reserve bank? No, we are destroying the value of our currency and our standard of living. The fact that our buying power and real wages continue to go down is a direct result of this hidden theft. The very real possibility of hyperinflation and the total collapse of the currency and economy are also directly tied to this fraud.
If Bernie was a mobster and a thug in addition to a cheat, he could have forced people to “contribute” to his growing power and punish those who didn’t pay the required protection money. The Federal Government, operated as a thugocracy under this current administration, does have that power. As Gibson Guitar found out, not contributing to the right party will result in armed goons breaking into your business, endless lawsuits designed to harass and intimidate, limitless regulations selectively applied for the sole purpose of putting one out of business to serve as a warning to others. This works for individuals as well as businesses.
Bernie used his ill gotten gains to live the life of the rich and famous. The benefits of working with and for the Federal Government are similar. The average annual salary and benefits for a federal worker is over $123,000, a salary and benefits we pay through our tax dollars, and those salaries are rapidly increasing. While the politicians and bureaucrats live the high life on our dime, partying at seminars and training sessions in Las Vegas, going on fact finding missions to Tahiti and dolling out billions of dollars to friends and relatives, how are the serfs who pay for this living? Seventy five percent of us make less than $50,000, forty seven percent of us, less than $25,000; salaries that are going down in real terms. Almost half of us are making less than a fifth of our “public servants.” And when we fail at our jobs or do something illegal, our income goes to zero or we go to jail. Bureaucrats who lose millions like those at Fannie Mae are paid millions when they leave. Gun runners at the ATF are promoted. Tax cheats are given cabinet positions. The standard of justice for the rulers and the ruled has never been so different in America.
The politicians and bureaucrats are not the only beneficiaries of the fraud. Just as Bernie spread the wealth around to his friends, so does the Federal Government. The rewards of the “protection money” paid to campaigns can amount to millions and even billions of dollars. Business like Solyndra and General Electric enrich themselves at our expense. Grants are dolled out to those who support the party line. Homes, health care and cash are the rewards of the poor voters who consistently put these con men and women in office even if what they receive is a pittance compared to the “in” crowd. Its all about the money, your money and my money, and using it in ways we would never even consider. Would you choose to invest in a company with a faulty business model, pay the living expenses of a man who lives in a crib and wears a diaper or train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly? No? Ah...but you and I do and we are not given a choice.
Bernie is in jail for the rest of his life. We name roads and buildings for the thieves in Washington DC. We expect so little we don’t even care when another robber is caught and released, or even promoted. The Federal Government, our Federal Government, is looting our country, stealing the wealth of its citizens and their progeny and destroying the best economic and governmental system ever conceived by man. It is doing so by perpetuating the lie that if government just had enough money and power life would be better for all of us. It is a lie. It is a failure. It is immoral. It is evil. Bernie may get the bad press but compared to the Federal Government of the United States of America, he looks almost angelic.
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