Let's rule out The Roman Empire, which required its satellite nations to pay heavy taxes to support the various Caesars, the Roman army, and building projects. The satellite nations generally didn't have a voice in the Roman government.
Let's rule out the various Communist regimes of the past century, and the North Koreas and Cubas which claim to carry the Marxist dream into this century. Those unfortunate people didn't have a choice about the actions of their government either.
I also propose an exemption for the various Imperialist structures of the 1500's to the present. When Great Britain, for instance, ran India and Hong Kong, the subjects of their Commonwealth didn't get to vote on the activities of their government.
I think that covers the broad, general exceptions.....now, the question.
Can anyone think of a time when the citizens of any country voluntarily allowed their government to take this much from the poor to prop up the rich?
Let me define rich: AIG, The Big 3, The members of the United Auto Workers Union, Wall Street, assorted banks and bankers, and possibly American Express.
Is everyone too busy watching Dancing With The Stars to care? Are the struggles of The Dallas Cowboys to clinch a playoff berth too much of a distraction? Is Ron Paul not photogenic enough to get our attention?
Or is it because we don't get a bill for these expenses in our mailbox every month, and these charges are all being put on our grandkids' Bar Tab? My God, this is sickening.
Are we now a nation of sheep?The picture of Sheeple Grazing In Their Pasture came from here.
5 comments:
No I can't think of a time. YES, I agree, this is sickening! We are a stick our heads in the sand people who don't want to bother with the truth or details, and to what extent, we are allowing our elected officials to have our pockets picked.
It's not that Bailout-palooza is bad. It's that it's SO bad that we need a whole new word to describe how bad it is!
Check out this summary of the cost of the bailout (so far):
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/024178.html
If we add in the Citi bailout, the total cost now exceeds $4.6165 trillion dollars. People have a hard time conceptualizing very large numbers, so let’s give this some context. The current Credit Crisis bailout is now the largest outlay In American history.
Jim Bianco of Bianco Research crunched the inflation adjusted numbers. The bailout has cost more than all of these big budget government expenditures – combined:
• Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion
• Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion
• Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion
• S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion
• Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion
• The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)
• Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion
• Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion
• NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion
TOTAL: $3.92 trillion
Yeah and the Tax Payers Alliance over here in the UK worked out that Bodger and Badger have with their bail-outs (inflation adjusted) spent twice what WWI cost Britain and that damn near bankrupted us.
All,
Bodger and Badger are two characters in a British cartoon. NickM is referring to a couple of British politicians who have an uncanny resemblence to those characters.
See here....
http://wwwjohn-m-ward.blogspot.com/2008/08/badger-and-bodger.html
As a public service to the people of Fort Worth, I'm working on a blog post that will translate one of NickM's blog entries into High-Toned Fort Worth TX literary English.
Stay tuned.
I don't think the American people are doing these bailouts voluntarily either. As far as I can tell most average people are against these bailouts, its only the criminal-political class who support these bailouts (and of course those who stand to profit directly from the bailouts).
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