WHEE-conomy

Why is it that except for a few hardy souls in this country no one really has any idea how precariously perched the US economy really is? OR if they do, they're afraid to tell the truth. In the meantime, and 'mean' will be the operative part of that word, we will pretend indefinitely, well, at least until the oil runs out. Then I guess we’ll all recognize that we’re well and truly fucked.

In order to party on with our 24/7 entertainment culture let’s continue to deny that we are utterly reliant on imports from other countries around the world for virtually everything we need to survive at this point, except for two basic commodities, quite a bit of food and a whole lot of coal. Even some of our food addictions, particularly many of the things we identify as 'staples', such as all of the coffee and much of the sugar we use, to name just two, are brought in from abroad. As for durable goods; we make practically nothing of significance or genuine value here any more. Virtually all of our clothing and most of our oil is imported. All of the gadgets, like computers, cell phones and TVs, those devices which have come to symbolize lifestyle and which keep our version of it humming along in the way that it does are made ‘over there’ somewhere. Usually it’s some poor as cat shit 4th world nation like Bangladesh, but we also get stuff from Malaysia, and absolute boatloads from China. Sure we still manufacture a lot of cars and airplanes here, but if we don’t have enough gasoline to run them at a reasonable price they become more of a disposal problem, rather than a transportation luxury. For the most part as a nation we continue to ignore the scary fundamentals of the reality of our situation. Much of what we have come to consider ‘valuable’ has no value whatsoever when it comes to meeting the requirements of actual sustenance and survival.

Meanwhile the government is trying to reassure us that everything is OK. Just the fact that the President of the United States has to go on national television to try to convince the world that the sky that is already dropping chunks on our shoulders really isn’t falling is a momentous event. To listen to his empty rhetoric is unnerving; certainly it isn't reassuring. His record as a prognosticator is about as good as his record as a uniter. And if you watch his face and see the expression in his eyes you realize that not only is he frightened, he also knows he is lying. Even his tiny gnat brain has finally begun to understand that the foundation of our economic house outhouse has not only cracked, it has commenced crumbling and cold air is blowing up our asses. When we let corporations dictate the rules, in the name of all-holy-capitalism, we gave away the farm, literally. And as more and more of our nations actual productive capacity was shut down and left to molder and rust, a smiling cadre of contemporary carpetbaggers moved in. We consigned the economic fate of our nation to con artists, speculators and financial patent medicine salesmen. Their seductions have sold well, very well indeed. And not only here, but around the world --- ‘Everyone loves a winner!’ Now, even as the glitzy gala of faux prosperity they have sold us is seen for what it is, little more than a shoddy Disney ride, they are still trying to spoon feed us more of the same. Already the guys and gals in Armani suits are appearing everywhere on TV to reassure us that ‘the fundamentals of the US Economy are sound.’ Their only hope is to convince us, and the rest of the world, that the paper on which we have built our futures as well as our present, is actually worth something.

And the rest of the world has no choice. The rest of the world will probably quietly agree to go along with the gag. They’ll agree to not notice the sleight of hand for a while, since we’re their best and most gullible customer and their biggest debtor. But it will only be for a while; it won’t last forever. Then the buying spree will begin again as everything is hyped up in ‘value’. The USofA is already seamy bazaar and soon it will be bought lock stock and barrel by people who don’t live here. Like every cagey business-folk everywhere, they love cash cows and they know they have a slavering pre-sold mob over here who'll buy anything. They will own all of it, and all of us, and it will be run with a different set of rules. We built the golden calf and convinced everyone to worship it; what did we expect would happen? Meanwhile the oil is draining out of the crankcase barrel by barrel. I wonder what it will sound like when our ‘mighty economic engine’ seizes up?