Over the Fiscal Cliff

The Fiscal Cliff.
Nothing more needs to really be said these days when we hear those words, and earlier this week a deal was done to (supposedly) avert The Fiscal Cliff, but did they? Four days later, the consensus of independent opinions is no, but they did delay it.
The reasons are obvious-no appreciable reduction in deficit spending relative to the current debt and related interest payments, combined with no large scale changes to our current tax system, or a broad increase of income taxes to everyone actually drawing a paycheck from the private sector economy. What, exactly, they did to "avert going over" this metaphorical cliff outside of raising the debt ceiling no one is exactly sure of. One thing that only non partisan news sources are willing to talk about is the fact that everyone will see a tax increase/pay decrease effective on their first paycheck of 2013 as a result of a 2.5% increase in payroll taxes to cover parts of Obamacare.
Debt ceiling talk currently isn't getting as much "talk time" as it will by the end of the year.
Raising the "debt ceiling" lets Congress spend more money-money we don't have collectively as a nation. The Fed has also announced that it plans to pull back on quantitative easing (printing more money) by the end of fiscal 2013, but when debt ceiling talks in Congress resume again at the end of the year, QE is the only tool our Federal Government has to adjust for more lending and increasing debt loads, but QE leads to a weak dollar on the international markets and rapid fluctuations on inflationary pressures.
The point I'm trying to make clear is this: nothing was actually done to prevent the inevitable from happening-bankruptcy on the part of the US Government within a decade. Raising the debt ceiling just means they plan to borrow more money to pay for things, and there are only 2 ways for them to achieve that: higher taxes (almost double) on everyone working in the private sector, or through QE. We all know the former isn't happening unless Congress actually wants open social rebellion on its hands, but hey, maybe they do...

What (I feel) needed to be done was for Congress, as a whole, to address us a nation and admit to us all that "we've f***ed up", and the only way to fix it is for all of us to take the hit for the next 5 years, during which several major changes in how our taxes are collected, applied and budgets established; and the rules by which Congress and the Federal Reserve are allowed to manage our collective finances. The biggest hurdles in achieving both of these goals would be in repealing the 16th and 17th amendments to allow for a new tax system and the return of states fiscal rights, thereby reducing the influence, power and size of our Federal Government back to Constitutional designs, and relative to the current domestic and international climates once states rights are properly protected again through appropriate appointment of Senators-a process originally designed to guarantee that Senators understood their role within our Federal Government. A role they couldn't do 100 years ago without becoming corrupted, but one that can be done today without that fear so long as the 3rd important change to how our Federal Government operates: the prohibition of all lobbying in Washington D.C. as well as limiting how much in corporations are allowed to donate to any one candidate (I'm for not allowing corporations any rights as financial support of an elected official, but even this watered down idea, I know, is asking far too much)...
There is little question for those who pay attention, that almost nothing was done to avert the financial inevitable in America, and that whatever was done, it wasn't what was needed to be done to avoid the inevitable collapse, financially, of the American Government.

Don't be fooled by short term prognosticators who say that by the end of 2013 our economy will turn around. Not only is this very short sighted of them, but unless they have a crystal ball and have seen that Congress suddenly chops $1T out of our budget and closes all tax loopholes and reductions on non business related spending, raising all of our taxes while fundamentally creating a Flat Tax (something I don't like, but that is better than what we have now), then we've already gone over "the fiscal cliff"-the bottom is just too far down to for them, or any of us, to see-yet. 

Happy New Year! The "world as we know it" didn't end, but it still could.

Happy 2013 everyone! If you're reading this, we made it past the end of days Mayan Calender lol...I can laugh now because, I have to be honest: I believed-up to a point.
You see, I try not to wholly disregard anything, unless obviously irrational, and the Mayan's knew their science. I wasn't so worried that I went to the "doomsday prepper" place a lot of people are now going too because of climate change. No, I just accepted that something climatologically catastrophic could occur in and around Winter solstice 2012. Scientific research revealed several rare astronomical 'alignments' occurring around this time and lo and behold, for those of a logical mind like mine, there was real reason to at least not ignore that something could happen. It didn't and, for now, the civilization as we know it will go on.
Our problem, obviously, was figuring out why the Mayan calender ended when it did. Now, it seems, it ended when it did because the Mayan were simply recognizing that they couldn't realistically "see" that far into the future because so much is possible of happening...

Of all the "new" years, this one is shaping up to be something no one has ever seen before. I really wish I could say this was going to be a good thing, but unfortunately, you have to be deaf, blind, and naive to not notice what is happening around the world (much more, locally to you): between the never ending and always increasing debt loads of nearly all industrialized nations on the planet; social upheaval seemingly everywhere and in every socioeconomic segment of society; and middle eastern tensions at an all time highs, the social, cultural, and economic situations around the globe are nearly all on the proverbial cliff.
But I don't like to dwell on negatives, even for as many as can broadly be seen (especially at the beginning of the year, jeez), I'm tired of that. I'm about solutions, and have been for more than a decade now. The negativity and bickering has to end among us if we are going to move forward as a species and society...
I try to read as many international daily news sources as I can on a daily basis. It's not as time consuming as some may think, so I manage to get in at least a couple every day (plus any local sources from where I have lieved in my life) within a reasonable amount of time. Everywhere I look, I see serious turmoil relative to one of those 3 issues. It's so obvious to me what is occurring-globally-that the only thing wrong about any predictions of the end of the world on 12-21-12 was the date.
If you read my blog regularly, then I take you for someone with the ability to put yourself in another's shoes-to see multiple perspectives of things: with that in mind, look around you at the culture and society you see, hear, smell, etc. What does this tell you? What direction are things in general heading in around you? Is this the reality you want for you, and the generations after you, to grow up in? If yes, then move on to something else, if not, then how do we fix it?...
This is where I am in my thoughts as we head into 2013 and beyond.
If you take a serious and honest look at the world around you, to be honest (again), it's scary. Everything seems to be unstable-from personal relationships to local governments to "market" fluctuations, no where can stability seem to be found. But for myself, I can't think about that. I can only think about how to fix it, and yes it can be fixed, but only through the collective will power and foresight of all of us. It will take sacrifice and hard decision making (ask the poeple of new Republican governors of Wisconsin, Michigan and Florida who can't argue w/the results those governors have had in turning around those states). No one likes to make sacrifices, but if we can all see the light at the end of the tunnel, and know there is a purpose to it, then there is no reason for us to not work towards that goal. This is best done is smaller regions and with populations under 25M, which makes America the best fit for at least attempting the fixes needed to turn around the direction our society, as a whole, is heading.
In the past, I've posted many (not all) of my own ideas for fixing some of the problems we face in America-most of which I see represented globally as well; in the 2 years since I last wrote regularly on my blog, I've seen few ideas to fix any single one of our problems, much less multiple of them, and all have been doomed to failure at the beginning due to their lack of public/private partnership and inherent burdensome government bureaucracies. As a result, our civilization is where it's at: closer to the Mayan's prediction, than not.