3 companies, 2 bail-outs, trillions of dollars of tax-payer money SAVED

I just saw a very interesting story on CBS Sunday Morning for 22 January 2012 on the auto industry of the United States and what happened. First, some background

The year is 2008 and every American manufacturer have mostly been building monster cars that are the size of tanks, thousands of cars go unsold (according to Sunday Morning) and their net revenue collapses. Millions of Americans are at risk of losing their jobs, 100 years of heritage, down the drain. President Obama proposes to bail out a number of corporations who have paid back the money (don't tell CBS, FOX, NBC, or ABC by the way, that makes the government look good) to the present date. The act known as TARP spent $17,400,000,000 on Automotive manufacturers. They were loans, not gifts. All corporate media is clearly against our government by misreporting this fact.

Assuming every unemployed worker got $10,000 for unemployment per year had the companies failed, the government would have paid that to every worker, using 2010 employment numbers, adding over $516,230,000 for Chrysler, $2,020,000,000 for General Motors, or $2,536,230,000 for both companies. I could stop here, but that wouldn't be enough, these 253,623 Americans also had earning potential. Assume they worked at $10 per hour on average (Union and non-Union workers, they get different wages, the benefit of representation and the cost of not having those protections) at 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year, comes out to $25,362,300,000 lost income per year for the United States for a few years, which is a dollar value higher than that which the government spent to keep car companies afloat, meaning in other words, a net gain to the economy of $7,937,700,000, which is a low-ball figure.

 I believe in representing money without scientific notation, because scientific notation gives the wrong impression, the difference between 10 million and 10 trillion don't look very different to the average you write $10,000,000 and $10,000,000,000,000 when the difference becomes obvious to everybody, because of that I put no scientific notation in this post to keep perspective intact.

All American manufacturing companies have received new management that are more responsible and in-tune to what Americans actually want, as Honda and Toyota have been for years.

I understand what the people who claim this was an irresponsible thing to do are saying, but they are not looking long-term. They are seeing the immediate cost of $17,400,000,000 and say it is too much, without realizing that the amount of money that would have been spent on unemployment, and the amount of taxable income is a savings for the government, given the unemployment.

The same sort of analysis can be done for the bailout of the big four banks. President Obama had a choice, spend $17,400,000,000 dollars to keep them afloat or spend several trillion dollars fulfilling the government's promises to pay on the insurance through the FDIC and NCUA to every bank that collapsed. Presidents Bush and Obama and Congress made the right decision saving trillions of dollars in national debt to pay out the insurance to every American that has a bank account in a bank that sputtered, or keeping them afloat. Granted, it would have been prudent to divide them up into regional banks to prevent their influence, but the Republicans wouldn't go along with that so there was no use in trying because of the filibuster. So they did the least of all evils. If Americans want to break them up (which is a good idea given the amount of influence they have) than they would have to tell Congress in an election that they want to see it, we didn't, so it isn't going to happen with our voter turnout.

As I have proved in this point the government made the right decision to bail out these companies and replace their management, and saved trillions of dollars. They also avoided a great depression which was inevitable if we had lost our financial system, it would have taken a decade to recover. We did it in three years. Trillions of dollars and millions of jobs saved.

Arab Spring and the Euro, patience is the key.

There is a lot of talk around the world that the Arab Spring has failed. People are worrying that it has failed because Egypt is under military rule, people are being massacred in Syria, Yemen is still having protests, Bahrain is seeing protests, Libya is still waiting for elections, and this is one year after the movement started. Very few movements have lasted just over one year with positive results for freedom. The overthrow of Communism lasted from 1989 to 1993 from the first protests in to the overthrow of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. That the revolution is not over should not surprise anyone, this is the natural state of the world going back through history. It took Germany 45 years from the overthrow of Nazi Germany in 1945 to Wiedervereinigung in 1990. The people of the Arab world need our support in the West where we have already gone through our own changes (The American Revolution lasted from 1775 to 1783, the final system of government was not in place until 1789, 14 years after the Boston Tea Party). So, be patient, revolutions hardly ever happen overnight, and history shows us that the most successful revolutions take years to happen, and the Arab Spring is one of those revolutions.

This also applies to the Occupy movement. I must divulge my personal bias, everybody has bias, and say that I am proud to be a member of the Occupy movement. The Occupy movement has similarities to the protests of the late 1800s in response the Industrial Revolution which ended the Gemeinschaft economy and replaced it where people were no more than tools, and the wages people got were worth nothing. It took a few decades before the poor Irish and German immigrants (who were biased against because of their nationality, but that's a different topic) were able to get recognition as full Americans as you can see now by many of America's elite having roots in these immigrant populations, for instance the Kennedy family among others. Their demands were simple. They wanted a fair day's wage for a fair day's work. They wanted to get benefits that would allow them to live good lives and to be treated as more than just gears which is what was happening. After several decades laws were made in response to the General Strikes and other important events. These include minimum wage laws, people need to be paid in real money and enough to live on, OSHA requirements, people need to be safe at work, the right to form unions to negotiate with employers, the right to have a work day of 40 hours a week along with overtime for work past 8 hours in a day, to prevent people from being overworked and keep their health. Occupy has similar goals, a fair tax code, eliminate or decrease campaign contributions, destroy the power of lobbyists, and other things that give politicians to vote in ways against the interests of their districts that as Democratic representatives of the People (We the people in order to form a more perfect union...) to move away from the system that has been in place where politicians do not represent the average American but only the richest people in the country and are able to win through smear campaigns year after year. This is why I expect Occupy could take several years to fulfil the goals. This could be different from the others in this country (remember there are Occupy movements who self-identify as being in solidarity with the protests in New York across the world) and other countries with Democratic principles if we did just one thing, we could win in less than a year. We could go to the polls and vote for the candidates who will represent the interests of the American people. The Republican Party is scared of this, and they are putting barriers to vote in the Deep South and now the Midwest that make it so that many Americans who have lived here their whole life will be unable to vote. I won't go into detail, but Amnesty International has excellent reports. This shows the power of Occupy if the far-right party of the richest and most corrupt Americans are invalidating votes that will undoubtedly go to the more progressive (yet still conservative in many aspects) Democratic Party. They also both have made registering candidates in all but two states (Washington and California) near impossible if the candidate does not have support of one party's leadership or the other. We need nothing less than full election reform to deprivatize the methods our elections are done. The first step is to demand of our leaders that we want a change in how our leaders are selected and how our government is being run, which has been done. The second step is to vote for the candidates who will fulfil our goals as Americans the most. The third step is to hold them accountable and not give up on the United States of America. Nothing else is needed. Victory is in our grasp, and they know it.

The Euro, the third and last current event with the same characteristics, has been completely created by the media. The European Union has debt rates and unemployment rates less than the United States. My previous post was untrue, there are some countries in Africa that have defaulted on their debt and seen their currencies decline, these tend to be authoritarian African nations which have "Presidents" with no fair elections and are dictators, with destructionist economic policies, no industry, negative economic growth, rapid population growth, and no social safety net of any sort from the country. Europe is a totally different story. The governments of Italy and Greece have been replaced, the governments of France have everything to lose no matter what they do, and there is no pleasing the loud racist noise machines in those nations (or ours for that matter. I am referring to the people who hate Turks and believe that Eastern Europeans are coming to destroy their countries, Eurosceptics in other words). So no matter what they do Sarkozy and Merkel have already lost their next election, do not bail out parts of Greece and Italy's debts and they will lose for the economic catastrophe that can happen, bail out parts of Greece and Italy's debts and they will lose for helping their political neighbours. There is no way they can win the next election. It is not possible. Their least destructive course of action is to pay off maybe 10% of each country's debt to boost faith in investors in Europe so that demand doesn't continue to plummet, because when demand plummets the price plummets, and a panic happens because most people do not understand what is happening and the noise machines hate Europe. The Euro will continue, the cost of implementing currencies for each nation is just not worth it, and the future benefits of having a single market will benefit everyone. Since the European Community (the predecessor to the European Union) was formed there have been no conflicts among those nations in Europe and racial stereotypes between the oldest nations have diminished. International around the European Union for every nation is less expensive because of no tariffs, helping the economies of everyone. For the first time in history for the past ten years Europeans have had a stronger currency making it easier to travel around the world through better exchange rates.

Again, patience. The situation will resolve by working towards it. FDR was right when he said "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" because when faced with a daunting challenge cowardice is never rewarded.

On Ron Paul

On Ron Paul

His policies, his speeches, and his true friends.

In light of Ron Paul recent success in Iowa, let's look at his policies.

I am using the sources Wikipedia uses, to save space here they are the same interviews wikipedia uses from all sorts of news organizations.

Ron Paul’s beliefs

Foreign policy

• non-intervention in both peaceful and military matters
• Lift the embargo against Cuba
• Withdraw from all international organizations
• WTO is a “barrier to free trade”
• States he supports Free Trade, but opposes all free trade agreements
• Patrol our borders
• Policy with Mexico is in line with Republican Party of building a fence and deportation
• No birthright citizenshi
• Opposes hunting terrorists who do us harm.

Economic Policy

• End the Federal Reserve (bad idea, see below)

Social Policy

• Opposes Gay Marriage, Supports DOMA, says he opposes efforts to define marriage.
• No separation of Church and State
• No flag desecration
• No gun laws
• Opposes torture
• Opposes the Draft
• Opposes Affirmative Action, meaning Colleges are allowed to scan applicants for their background.
• Opposes adoption.
• Supports Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
• While stating he supports State’s rights, he has proposed to define life as starting at conception in the US House several times.
• Supports Stem-Cell Research
• Opposes Universal Health Care
• Supports tax credits to cover medical costs
• Supports Marijuana use
• Supports legalizing drugs.
• Opposes Department of Veteran’s Affairs
• Opposes FDA
• Opposes the 1965 Voting Rights Act (2005)
• Opposes the 1964 Civil Rights Act
• Opposes direct election of Senators
• Supports direct election of the President

Environmental Policy

• Opposes Federal emissions standards
• Rejects Global Warming

Overview of inconsistencies

He is inconsistent with his policy on direct voting, by opposing the electoral college and supporting the original method to elect Senators.

Why the Occupy Movement Cannot Support Ron Paul

The first reason is, of course, economical. The Federal Reserve is a Federal agency that is appointed by Congress and approved by the President, despite what Ron Paul says. By removing the power of the government to manage its currency it will go back to where it was during the last period of no central bank from 1869 to 1913, the largest banks in the country will print their own currency with no regulation from the Democratic government. This is what happened then, and that is what will happen now if Ron Paul becomes able to do that. He has been paid by banks, there is no other reason he would support it short of insanity. Having worked for the Federal Reserve he is the perfect member of Congress to make this case for them.

While being a libertarian he supports the government prohibiting federal recognition of gay marriage. Many people make this out to be a libertarian argument, but a Libertarian would not support the Defense of Marriage Act or Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy, calling them “government intervention”, but Ron Paul does no such thing and has consistently voted to uphold those two policies. He supports a state religion, and to have religion and state intermingle, something a true Libertarian would not dream of supporting. His Abortion policy is directly opposed to Federalism. He opposes giving military employees pensions and lifetime health care after going to war. He opposes free trade, meaning he is a Mercantilist, someone who believes very strongly in the Government sanctioning trade. He has consistently voted against the Federal Government renewing the 1960s human rights legislation that gave African Americans the right to vote and other rights, along with having racist newsletters go out in his name in the 1990s. He supports the Federal Government building a fence with Mexico.

Ron Paul is not a libertarian. He is just another Republican, his policies are all Republican, and his attitude is a Republican attitude. He usually  votes along with his Republican colleagues on important issues unless if it has to do with the Federal Reserve System.

Ron Paul supporters do not know Ron Paul. Ron Paul supporters do not know what Ron Paul stands for. Ron Paul supporters treat Ron Paul as a Jesus figure, and he is the leader of their religion, just like Ronald Reagan has been made into a religious figure by the Republican Party. Follow, and be blind.

If you are part of the Occupy Movement, you cannot support Ron Paul, because he will privatize our monetary policy. The big banks whose practices we oppose will control the United States dollar and you can believe there will be a really rocky ride with many bank runs as soon as this would be done, because that is exactly what will happen. Keep the Federal Reserve, it is our only protection against the banks. He supports expanding government into our lives and leaving our economy to the power of mercantilists. Because that is the economic philosophy Ron Paul follows, Mercantilism.

Do not vote Paul. He is not our friend.

The ideal election system

The ideal elections system would be designed so that every person has an equal vote, and no individual person or party has absolute power over the candidates in the final election.

This is exactly how America's decentralized unregulated election system has been designed. It is confusing, many people's votes don't count, and they can easily be stolen from us through unfaithful electors. The best system is currently practiced in Washington State and it works extremely well. It is popular among many people in both the Democratic and Republican parties. The People own the election. Direct election of our representatives has been done.

What is most important is this could be done on the Federal level, hopefully 2012 will be the last unregulated Federal election which is where people can donate unlimited amounts of money if they own a large corporation and the Primary System is unregulated and owned by the heads of the Democratic and Republican parties together. Neither one is truly our friend in this respect.

The Presidential election should work like this:

1. All candidates will appear on the same Primary Ballot in August. They will sign up on January 1st of the year of the election to slow a constant election cycle that is currently done here.
2. The two candidates who do the best in the Primary Election will face each other in the General Election in November. The winner of the election takes office on January 20th of the following year.

Simple, clean, effective. That is what we need in the United States. Let Freedom Ring.