SLAVES TO THE SYSTEM

I watch the markets climb day after day along with the incessant happy talk from the traders about recovery and a return to the days before the depression began. But how does any of this translate to the average American? All of the money feeding on itself on Wall Street doesn't seem to be creating new jobs. Investing used to denote, for the most part, a commitment to an idea. The investor looked for the company or individual that had built the better mousetrap and gave him his money, in hopes of a return on investment after the mousetrap became profitable. Stocks were meant to raise capital to help in the development of companies which would create jobs, make profit and grow the economy.

Now the stock market has become a play ground for the gambler. It isn't about long term risk and reward but about short term gain. Some bet that the mousetrap will succeed, some that it will fail, but none are concerned about anything but themselves. The greater economy and the lives of the average American be damned.

And this is why our cities, counties, states and country are failing. We've built a system of taxation and the service it supports based on the idea that there would always be jobs and that those jobs would always grow in number and wages. Unions have built themselves and their power around the principle that the worker has a "right" to the wealth of others. Governments have stopped trying to even make the pretense that they were created by the people to serve the best interests of the people. They are fighting for their survival in the new reality of shrinking revenues and higher demands for services they've addicted their citizens to. Governments believe they have the "right" to the wealth of others, too.

Wall street, government and the unions are all linked in their avarice. Each works with the other in a circle of destructive greed aimed at amassing power through the bald faced theft of the peoples money and freedom. And most can't see it. The white collar worker is mad at the unions, the blue collar worker is mad at Wall Street and everybody is mad at the government while at the same time holding out their hand for the dole.

As our cities, counties, states and country collapse we will be rounded up into smaller and smaller areas because it's too inefficient to service a large urban area. The unions will refuse to give, keeping the cost of government supplied services high. Wall Street will invest in short term gain, not caring about the country, just their own wallets. Government will increase taxes to pay for the dwindling services we've come to rely on, taking more and more of the little wealth in the private economy. Eventually the only good jobs left will be government jobs. So the government employee will work for a wage which is handed back to the government so that the government can supply the services the free market used to supply.

Welcome to the "Brave New World", comrade.

"The superintendent calls it the "Right-Size" plan," but many Kansas City, Missouri, residents say it's plain wrong.

Superintendent John Covington called for the closing or consolidation of almost half of the city's public schools. A divided Kansas City school board voted Wednesday to approve the downsizing...

...Covington proposed the "Right-Size" plan arguing that the financial future of the entire school district was at stake. The plan shutters 28 of Kansas City's 61 public schools, cuts 700 jobs and saves $50 million to help reduce a burgeoning deficit."
CNN

"A while back, Tasha Kheiriddin wrote about the Detroit mayor's plan to forcibly relocate parts of the crumbling city's dwindling population, huddling them together in greater densities for the sake of efficiency. Why spend good money sending garbage trucks out to neighbourhoods that have been all but abandoned, after all?

"If we don't do it, you know this whole city is going to go down. I'm hopeful people will understand that," said Mayor Dave Bing. "If we can incentivize some of those folks that are in those desolate areas, they can get a better situation."

Fair enough. Efficiency is good, though herding people out of their homes and forcibly replanting them elsewhere has some disturbing historical connotations. But let's ignore that for the moment; it still leaves the question of what to do with all those newly-depopulated areas. What, exactly, did Mayor Bing have in mind?

Well, now we know. Amber waves of grain, or something close to it. According to this report from Associated Press:

Operating on a scale never before attempted in this country, the city would demolish houses in some of the most desolate sections of Detroit and move residents into stronger neighborhoods. Roughly a quarter of the 139-square-mile city could go from urban to semi-rural.

Near downtown, fruit trees and vegetable farms would replace neighborhoods that are an eerie landscape of empty buildings and vacant lots. Suburban commuters heading into the city center might pass through what looks like the countryside to get there. Surviving neighborhoods in the birthplace of the auto industry would become pockets in expanses of green."
National Post

"The city's major hospital network, which runs Miami's only round-the-clock trauma center and is a safety net for the poor and uninsured, is running out of money and could close, a predicament that illustrates the precarious financial state of many hospitals around the country.

The Jackson Health System will have little cash on hand by the end of March if it does not receive a $67 million advance from the county, said Marcos Lapciuc, treasurer of the Public Health Trust, the institution's governing board.

"We are very close, if not already in, a health care death spiral," Chief Operating Officer David Small said."
Yahoo

"If the Jackson Health System runs out of cash, the county would be responsible for paying Jackson's 10,500 union workers, but not necessarily the other 1,500 employees, according to a legal analysis by County Attorney R.A. Cuevas Jr.

It's unclear exactly how big a tab that might be, but it would be a huge chunk of the $86 million of salaries and benefits that the public hospital system spends each month. At present, Jackson is expected to run out of cash in May or June unless drastic cuts are made."
Miami Herald

"Township officials expressed frustration that several unions representing Moorestown government workers have not agreed to reopen contract negotiations.

Last month, township council asked the unions to consider making wage and health benefit concessions this year even though they have contracts that continue through 2012 and guarantee annual pay raises of 3.75 percent.

At Monday night's council meeting, Township Manager Christopher Schultz disclosed to the public the specifics of council proposals to the unions -- a wage freeze and a payroll contribution to health care benefits to help cut costs to the township.

As of Monday night's deadline to respond, township officials said none of the unions had agreed to reopen negotiations."
Courier Post

"Gov. Pat Quinn today called for a 33 percent increase in the state income tax rate to raise money for education and ease deep cuts he's proposed in his new budget plan.

In his short budget speech to the House and Senate, Quinn argued that an income tax "surcharge" would be enough to restore Illinois' education budget to current levels and allow the state to get caught up on some of the millions owed to public schools, community colleges and four-year universities.

Quinn wants to increase the personal income tax rate from 3 percent to 4 percent --- a 33 percent increase --- with the corporate tax rate rising from 4.8 percent to 5.8 percent. The tax hike would bring in $2.8 billion a year."
Chicago Tribune

"The recession and the ongoing jobless recovery devastated much of the private-sector work force last year, sending unemployment soaring, but government workers emerged essentially unscathed, according to data released Wednesday by the Labor Department.

Meanwhile, the compensation for state and local government employees continued to easily outdistance the wages and benefits for workers in private business, a separate Labor Department report showed."
Washington Times