Alexander's Sword

The story of Alexander and the Gordian Knot is used to illustrate the idea that sometimes problems are too complex to be solved by picking at the strands, and it might be better to just cut it off and be done with it.

The US economy is said to be so intricate and complex that only Yale educated economists can understand it. Our role as citizens is just to keep working and paying taxes, while they run the thing.

If the economy worked for all citizens, that might be a wise thing to do, but how many Americans living on the streets and in doorways, how many hungry children, how many elderly fast food workers do we have to see before we realize that the economy is NOT working for us?


Odd that our media tells us that the leaders whose countries we are attacking still have the responsibility to their people to make sure that they are fed and housed, even as we drop bombs on them, but here in the good ol' USA, our leaders have no such responsibility at all to us. There is no one dropping bombs on us, but many parts of our cities look like they have been bombed. There is no one enforcing sanctions on us, but we still have millions going without basic health care. There is no naval blockade, but we still have hungry children.

In the meantime, when Wall Street crashed in 2008, the 1% went running to the government for help, and the government obliged. During Obama's entire presidency, the banks were handed $85 billion a MONTH, all of which was put on the taxpayer's tab. The federal debt soared to $21,000,000,000,000, to be paid off by American workers.

How are we supposed to come up with that kind of money, when even members of the working class who can actually find work are working for such low wages? Over half of US workers make less than $40,000/year, but we are supposed to pay off a 21 trillion dollar debt run up by those who fly their private jets to their multiple mansions to have lavish parties with other members of the global elite?


How, then, can we pay their debt? Oh, that's simple. Our ruling overlords have informed us that they will simply use our Social Security and Medicare funds, (which are separately billed from the federal income tax, to be used only for the stated purposes) to pay off their debt, while we tighten our belts.


Yes, those who have looted the public treasury, stripped and polluted public lands and waters, used the public military to attack and loot other people's countries, are now trying to take over the public pension and health care funds, to further enrich themselves.


Meanwhile, when it comes to maintaining the Empire, the sky is not the limit. They just raised the military budget (the announced part, not the Black Budget) to $712 billion, including projects to extend into space. There is never an outcry about austerity when it comes to bombing other people. Money is no object. Please note, though, the screams of outrage when Trump stopped the war games in Korea during the Olympics or announced that the US will leave Syria. (The occupation of 30% of Syria is so blatantly illegal that any other country would be ostracized for such a war crime of aggression). So, we can't afford health care, education or feeding children, because......where will the money come from? But, no one ever asks why we are dropping million dollar bombs on impoverished peasants if we are so broke?


No. That is enough. Sometimes, as with spoiled children, you have to set limits. Our overlords have run wild, destroying, killing and stealing, but those days are now over. That is, if Americans are smart enough and brave enough to set those limits.


We didn't run up the tab, we don't have to pay it. They can pay it, or declare bankruptcy. We don't need to keep the Wall Street gambling regime going in order to make sure that Americans are fed, housed and educated. Wall Street, the war machine, and the 1% are leeches on the economy, not the economy.


Soon, "the economy" will collapse, which means that the gambling debts will be too high for Americans to pay even the interest, and the banks and Wall Street will fail. At this point, they will throw everyone out of work, and intensify the stripping of public wealth for export.

Either we cut the Gordian Knot of debt, get rid of the leeches, and figure out a way to feed and house all Americans, or watch ourselves fall deeper into 19th century American poverty, (now playing in the 21st Century in Indonesia, for those who don't know what it looks like).