Since
the Crash of 2009 we've been in prolonged civilian austerity, repeatedly
relapsing toward recession. A large segment of Americans, roughly 120 million
middle-income and 45 million poor, suffered severe losses in pay and home
value. Republicans and Democrats passed phony tax-cut "Recovery" acts. They
failed utterly to restore us. Recovery is, for us, a lie. Some got lower-paid
jobs. But many are so discouraged they drop out of the labor force entirely.
It's no conspiracy, but free-trade job abolition, merger and acquisition
downsizing, automation, Boom and Bust, and the imposition of austerity with
threats to cut Social Security, Medicare, SNAP, etc., have left many of us
dangling precariously! Since the first quarter of 2009, in eight quarters, the
Gross Domestic Product has declined to stall speed, less than 1% annual GDP
increase, nearly recession. We 165 million Americans are still poorer, very
insecure, angrily waiting for some real help! Nothing,
of course, can make us whole from the $13 trillion asset loss in the Crash. But
something can give us some slack! And now appears the ultimate stall tactic: governor versus legislature "gridlock" against spending even tax money for schools, etc. How does this differ from the crime of failure to make required distribution of funds entrusted to one?
Greenbacks, government-created money (not taxed
out from us) could spread some oil on the roiled waters! Greenbacks would break
the gridlock between our need for reparations and Republican pledge threats of spending cuts and
no new taxes. Come on, Mr. or Ms. President! Order
the Treasury to create greenbacks, electronically only, like the $ trillions
created by the Federal Reserve and "quantitatively eased" (QE) into the
gambling banks. "Easing" meant, in part, that by the process entered, that
money was sterilized against inflation,
and never got in our hands! We never got to pay down our mortgages, our debts,
nor to buy stuff to inflate consumer prices ("CP"). The CP index never rose beyond
2% annually. So create greenbacks!
Greenbacks can also be spent in a controlled, contained way, over some years, through jobs offered at living wages, to working and poor American citizens. Start with those, employed or not, who can give prima facie evidence of wage, or small business income and/or home loss during, say, 2008 - 2012. The Federal Payment Management System already processes over 1 billion payments a year. Social-service agencies (e.g. county Social Security offices) already help some impaired individuals manage by seeing to it that their legitimate bills are paid. There could be a small hold-back, say, 10 to 15%, to pay out of such job income, verified bills for necessary expenses.
Greenbacks were created twice in American history when the nation was in much worse condition than now (the Revolution and start of the Civil War.) War scarcity and counterfeiting inflated them in the end. But they were essential to create our armies and "bought," in the end, our precious independence from Britain and a Union without slavery! Now we face a deepening crisis of class war between billionaires' wealth-tool propagandists and our need for foundational repair to make for a future with opportunity. Only marginalized "outsiders," Ron Paul, and Dennis Kucinich (the NEED ACT) have been allowed to even introduce debt cancellation or greenback legislation. Create greenbacks! Let Fox TV, Koch Stink Tanks, and the Republican "Freedom Caucus" of Congress whine about usurpation! Let crony-credentialed "expert economist" liars blow this Last Trump: "Killer Inflation Ahead!"
Modest, uniform inflation helps American workers in exporting industries, and helps all debtors pay off our debts. So control the amount of greenback spending with an inflation target: say, to double the Federal Reserve's inflation target rate from about 2% to 4%. Only the worst exploiters of workers in America might have to pay more wages. So come on, billionaire individuals and corporations, suck it up! Put up with programs that help us repair ourselves, even if it means some "low productivity" public employment. It won't be "stolen" out of your precious tax money. Let Washington's "Serious People" sue all the way to the Supreme Court, the court that Republicans gridlocked by refusing to consider a Scalia replacement!
"Ooooh! You can't just give people free stuff or money!" I'm not arguing that. Make us victims of the Crash work for it. Paid work is ennobling at living wages. But under globalized wages, many Americans, blamelessly, can never again be profitably employed by private enterprise! So find needed government-payable work, at living wages, for infrastructure maintenance, environmental adaptation, Universal Day Care, Health and Respite care assistants, etc. maybe a second job for a family. Loving child care is at least as morally valuable as Hedge Fund speculating! Greenbacks can also be merely deposited (without investment in government bonds) just to top off allegedly "insolvent" entitlement funds like Social Security, and Medicare and college scholarships.
No specie needs to back them; just a
new noble meaning for "Full Faith and Credit of the United States." This meaning is that
it will not abandon its citizens to Yo-Yo Wealth-Tool politicians. (These
largely Koch-elected, now "House Freedom Caucus"
stooges are National Debt Terrorists. Call them "Yo-Yo's." Their philosophy is basically "You're on your
own.") Current National Debt accounting rules are maintained by the Executive
branch (Treasury Department.) They're not Holy Writ! The Federal Reserve Note
isn't Eve's Apple, nor are greenbacks treyf
or haram! Non-creation is just banker taboo!
Republicans and Democrats: You have
neglected and exploited us. You owe us! Let American
governments hire a few million eligible (un- or under-employed) people at living
wages and maybe tax those wages! Hires will buy some stuff, pay some legitimate
debts and taxes; the taxes will "trickle around," up through local governments
and down into services like school funding. Home property values will rise
slowly, and many will have a future again! The alternative to our stall-speed,
terminal-velocity situation, plainly obvious from the campaign of 2016, is an
increasingly violent struggle between fascist- and socialist-tendency movements
similar to what happened in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. Come on, Greenback
Reparations are a way to help make America great again. It'll be
yuuuge!
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