Most Americans aren't familiar with the Bank of North Dakota. It is the only state run bank in the United States. Perhaps other states and the federal government should consider adopting a Bank of North Dakota model in order to safeguard the American banking system. To that end here is a link to a Wikipedia article giving basic background information to the Bank of North Dakota system.
(Quote from Der Spiegel: "From Wall Street to be thrown onto the street")
"For many families the American dream became the American nightmare. Their falling into poverty placed them outside of the consciousness of American politicians, who placed greater value on campaign contributions than on the worries of the silent majority.America seems to have a short memory. Brokers are celebrating the end of the crisis. While the crisis is beginning to repeat itself, the banks are just as shameless in their speculation as they were before the crash." (Block quote based on writer's paraphrased interpretation of German text of the magazine Spiegel December 30th 2010 issue)
http://www.spiegel.de/...
How could Pam Brown expect to be treated from a nation where the top 1 percent has a higher net worth than the bottom 90 percent of Americans. The only major industrialized nation in the world which warmly greets its new college graduates with decades of the repayment of student loan debts, wherein when they aspire to the American dream, when they aspire to home ownership, only to find their homes are repossessed. We ask for justice from a justice system that turns a blind eye to the biggest conspiracy of bank fraud in the history of the planet, wherein no one is charged, no one is prosecuted, nor anyone seriously investigated.
While it is true we can all be proud Americans, we surely don't have to be proud of the broken American social safety net, or the mockery of lady justice, whose blindfold has become a badge of shame, whose scales no longer measure anything, as they have now become a useless relic in the hands of a justice system that will not act when faced with the largest insider bank fraud in the history of the planet. This in fact nearly collapsed the world financial system!
If you think the German mainstream media is alone in it's criticism of the American social safety net then please consider this British newspaper article from the Guardian.
"Guardian.co.uk - America's cracked political system" (28 December 2010)
The US budget deficit is enormous and unsustainable. The poor are squeezed by cuts in social programs and a weak job market. One in eight Americans depends on food stamps to eat. Yet, despite these circumstances, one political party wants to gut tax revenues altogether, and the other is easily dragged along, against its better instincts, out of concern for keeping its rich contributors happy.
This tax-cutting frenzy comes, incredibly, after three decades of elite fiscal rule in the US that has favoured the rich and powerful. Since Ronald Reagan became president in 1981, America's budget system has been geared to supporting the accumulation of vast wealth at the top of the income distribution. Amazingly, the richest 1% of American households now has a higher net worth than the bottom 90%. The annual income of the richest 12,000 households is greater than that of the poorest 24m households.
The Republican party's real game is to try to lock that income and wealth advantage into place. They fear, rightly, that, sooner or later, everyone else will begin demanding that the budget deficit be closed in part by raising taxes on the rich. After all, the rich are living better than ever, while the rest of American society is suffering. It makes sense to tax them more."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
Jobless benefits in Germany never run out, as noted in "America in Decline: Why Germans Think We're Insane'. When unemployment benefit 1 runs out in Germany, unemployment benefit 2 kicks in and for people who qualify it never runs out. While unemployed the head of household and their family members continue to receive medical insurance. Essentially speaking, the same thing exists in Britain, jobless benefits don't run out, and while a person is unemployed, they and their family members likewise are covered by the British National Health Service. Ask yourself why isn't that the case in America? Who profits from the weak American social safety net?
"In some countries, unemployment benefits are only paid for a limited period of time following a redundancy. After that, the unemployed are on their own. In Britain, this is not the case. If you are unemployed, you can continue to receive some form of government support even over an extended period if necessary."
http://www.redundancyexpert.co.uk/...
Why can't the American working class have a European style social safety net, that includes jobless benefits that never run out? Imagine if that were the case the Republicans would not have been able to hold the renewal of jobless benefits hostage for a quid pro quo trade, which provided tax cuts for the rich. Again ask yourself who benefits by the weak American social safety net? Ask yourself who benefits from unemployed persons finding it nearly impossible to pay for medical insurance, and finally who benefits from unemployment benefit insurance being time limited? Why are the Europeans so vociferous in their criticism of the weak American social safety net? Moreover, why isn't the mainstream media reporting on this issue, except in very forgettable sound bytes.
"Guardian.co.uk - Weakening the welfare state just doesn't add up
"the US government is too ready to stimulate its economy with badly thought-out tax cuts or pork-barrel public spending increases, and to take appallingly stupid risks with monetary policy.""Rajan is no liberal softie; he is a former chief economist of the IMF " and one of the few economists who can honestly claim to have forecast the global financial crisis. America's weak social safety net, in which so many benefits are time-limited to make finding a job a life-and-death issue, is one of a series of deep global fault lines. Rajan admires well-designed, strong social safety nets such as those in Germany and Scandinavia, that do not remove work incentives but look after people out of work. They take the pressure off governments to take wild risks to create employment."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
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