Northern Colorado Gazette

 

 

In George Orwell’s 1984, government had made it a crime not to think as it wanted you to. It had broken down the family by having individual members report on other members. So everyone was essentially alone in his or her private battle with authority and particularly the Thought Police.

 

Orwellian projections for a dysfunctional society are almost here in reality. Today, while there are no specific laws prohibiting thoughts against the State, we are seeing drawbacks to owning a mindset that questions policies of this Administration. Petty drawbacks to be sure but drawbacks nonetheless. One of the more blatant is the undisguised hostility with which opposing views are met in press conferences in Washington. If you agree with the government’s position, there is no question too redundant or too idotic to get a fujll beaming smile and a lengthy, detailed response. Contrast that with the icy anger that meets an opposing question on the same topic. Watching the by-play you’d think the questioner not favored just mutated into something with a third eye or a second set of limbs but he’s definitely not human.

So while the control is subtle in nature now, the stage has been set for a “new, enhanced” version as things progress.

 

Orwell definitely lagged in his projection of public perception control. The biggest issue facing America today is its unpayable debt but most of the public doesn’t know or doesn’t care about the “debt ceiling.” That is the way government likes it.

 

For far too many years government has extended its control into our daily lives by selling the advances as “doing what is best for consumer interests.” In other words, government is looking out for you because you, you robot, are incapable of thinking properly for yourself and “need someone on your side in your daily struggle and we can provide that someone.”

 

So the perception of the average person is it is OK to have government poke into my daily life because it is for my own good. This dogma has been drummed into our collective conscience since 1933.

 

This perception made the selling of TARP. the bailout and QE2 much easier, even to elected officials. There should have been an outcry over these programs but there was hardly a whimper. When the elected representatives don’t hear what they wanted to hear in the town meetings, they walked out or canceled further meetings.

 

A prime example was the Consumer Credit Card Act. The passage was assured when those in government told the consumer the regulations would protect them from those evil credit card issuers who were getting rich. Those that abused the cards or had no idea how to handle credit (which is more than 70% of the population) fell into line with having government “look out for them.”

 

For the past two years government mouthpieces have been repeatedly stating the recession ended. Every scrap of positive news is announced with fanfare and photo ops. This is done solely to prop up the sitting administration and promote confidence in the population.

 

But something went horribly wrong. The easy-communication capability we have now has surpassed government’s ability to stifle the truth. The good news theory worked for a while but then people realized they still didn’t have a job, still couldn’t put enough food on the table and had trouble keeping a roof over their heads. The perception government knew best began to peel away like the layers of an onion.

 

And governments across the globe had no logical response. The suave, smooth veneer at all levels is sheeding like a cat and the ugly, incompetent core is being exposed for what it is.

 

Ineptitude and wasted resources in everything connected with government cannot stand the light of exposure which more and more professional bloggers seem intent on uncovering.

 

Even small towns are no longer exempt from having their secrets exposed. Have you ever heard of Central Falls, R.I.? I hadn’t but it is a small town just north of Providence and has a big pension problem.

 

Central Falls has been operating under a receiver (bankruptcy trustee) for the past year. It has an $80 million bill in outstanding retirement pay for 214 police and firefighters. According to the New York Times the “city is small and poor but over the years it has promised police officers and firefighters retirement benefits like those offered by big states like New York. These uniformed workers can retire after 20 years service, receive free health care for the resty of their lives and qualify for full disability even if partially disabled.” The Times then capsulated Central Falls’ problem. “Filled mostly with immigrant families, the city stuggles on a median household income of $33,520 per year.” The Times then stated the obvious, “It is hard to see how anyone thought such an impoverished tax base could come up with an additional $80 million for retirement benefits. These benefits total more than 57% of the total budget annually.”

 

That’s Monday morning quarterbacking but it summarizes the U.S. federal government’s predicament in a nutshell. Entitlement programs designed to get past the Great depression are now coming due to a generation that has always paid in. The Baby Boomers are beginning to retire and, unluckily, their Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid bills are going to run much more than 57% of the receipts the government is taking in from payroll taxes. In the early years there was a surplus called the Social Security Permanent Trust Fund. The current Trust is being held in Parkersburg, W.V. but good luck collecting any money. The $2.5 trillion fund is empty, replaced instead by government IOUs. Our illustrous leadership over the years has nicked the Fund each time funds were needed for this or that project.

 

So while the perception the government has these funds is out there (remember the AARP reps pounding their canes on the floor at numerous town hall meetings?) the poor shmucks now in office had almost nothing to do with raiding the cookie jar but must pay the bills.

 

But we, as a society, are so used to government stepping in and preventing such calamities we cannot adjust to the notion government no longer has the funds to step in with bailouts, or emergency funds or massive amounts of food or clothing. We stand, idiotically, with our hands out for waiting for a government that is economically bankrupt.

 

And we need to look in the mirror. No politician ever got elected telling us the economic truth. Where is the last elected official who told us, “I’m going to stop all government entitlement programs which means Gramma and Gramps will be your responsibility.” That animal doesn’t exist because he told us what we didn’t want to hear.

 

It is the economic end and we can see the emperor has no clothes.

 

One more little item about our willingness to perceive stability in government. The Greek bailout gave the world’s central bankers additional life expectancy and let the Euro Union continue its false front of getting control of an indolent society. A hidden fact is private banks, maybe your local bank, own Greek debt by the bushel-load. The total owned by these private banks around the world is, SURPRISE!!!, more than the total of the bailout but these bankers will be third on the list at best in case Greece goes ahead and collapses into default. The numbers by country, of privately-held Greek debt at the end of 2010 were published by the Bank for International Settlements. The U.S. banks own more than $7.3B, German banks hold $34B, France’s $56.7B, Britain’s $14B, Italy, Portugal and SPain (all members of the PIIGS’ club with Greece) hold $15.3B. In all some $178B in Greek debt is held by private banks around the world. This debt is for a country whose government had less than 900 million euros in assets at the end of June. So where’s the funds to cover those debts coming from?

 

But the bailout went through to protect the central bankers and the ECB and IMF. See how important it is for governments to have the public think they are working for them and to maintain the perception they know what they are doing?