Monday, May 24, 2010

Business Friendly

Greetings good citizen,

I apologize for the quiet weekend but I had stuff to do and there are only so many hours in the day.

I could have posted last night but I joined in the ‘national obsession’ that was the ‘Lost’ phenomenon. I didn’t see much of the series nor was I ‘attracted’ to it because the only answer that made any sense was provided at the end of the series…they were all fucking dead!

There was ample evidence of this from the beginning and it must have tickled the producers to no end to have successfully pulled off such a ‘mind-fuck’.

Sort of says something about society we live in…and it’s not good.

Sadly good citizen, the truth, once again, trumps fiction.

Let’s have a look at tonight’s offering so we can examine what else is ‘wrong’ with this picture…


32 States Have Borrowed from the Federal Government to Make Unemployment Payments; California Has Borrowed $7 Billion

EconomicPolicyJournal.com has learned that 32 states have run out funds to make unemployment benefit payments and that the federal government has been supplying these states with funds so that they can make their payments to the unemployed. In some cases, states have borrowed billions. As of May 20, the total balance outstanding by 32 states (and the Virgin Islands) is $37.8 billion.

The state of California has borrowed $6.9 billion. Michigan has borrowed $3.9 billion, Illinois $2.2 billion.

Below is the full list of the 32 states (and the Virgin Islands) that have borrowed from the federal government to make unemployment payments, and the amounts that remain borrowed as of May 20 . (Numbers in red are billions)


Alabama $ 283 million
Arkansas 330 million
California 6.9 billion
Colorado 253 million
Connecticut 498 million
Delaware 12 million
Florida 1.6 billion
Georgia 416 million
Idaho 202 million
Illinois 2.2 billion
Indiana 1.7 billion
Kansas 88 million
Kentucky 795 million
Maryland 133 million
Mass. 387 million
Michigan 3.9 billion
Minnesota 477 million
Missouri 722 million
Nevada 397 million
New Jersey 1.7 billion
New York 3.2 billion
N.C. 2.1 billion
Ohio 2.3 billion
Penn. 3.0 billion
R.I. 225 million
S.C. 886 million
S.D. 24 million
Tennessee 21 million
Texas 1.0 billion
Vermont 33 million
Virginia 346 million
Virgin Islands 13 million
Wisconsin 1.4 billion
Total $37.8 billion


Okay good citizen, three quarters of the country is on the hook to the Federal government to support payments to the people ‘private enterprise’ tossed out the door (so THEY could remain ‘profitable’!)

What do you suppose is ‘wrong’ with THAT picture?

Worse, why have so many states exhausted their unemployment pools? Should we grill our ‘free marketers’ over that mystery?

I can’t speak for all of the, er, ‘troubled’ states listed here but the legislature in my state decided they needed to do more to make climate more ‘business friendly’ and chopping what employers were required to contribute to the unemployment pool was just one of the ‘tactics’ they used.

Who knew states would find themselves in the position of supporting such large numbers for such a long time? (Understand, this is the same as asking ‘who knew’ capitalism was going to fail?)

Capitalism only works under certain, er, extreme conditions. Capitalism DOESN’T WORK once productive capacity outgrows the labor pool, decimating the customer base.

Since it is rather obvious that capitalism doesn’t work, why isn’t capitalism abandoned? Because capitalism works very well for the few it works for. (And these are the same people that are telling you a better way doesn’t exist.)

Lately, and you have probably noticed this too, there has been a lot of, er, ‘speculation’ about how severe the ‘blowback’ from the ‘financial crisis’ will be.

I think this early, er, ‘testing of the water’ is intended to take some of the edge off of the giant’s rage. I also suspect this is an ‘exercise in futility’.

The fuckers are hoping against hope that it doesn’t come totally unraveled, that some semblance of control/authority tempers society’s outrage. They should have thought of that before they fucked us…it’s a little late now.

But, no matter, the ones who decided ahead of time they could escape the wrath of the crippled nation(s) they made knew there was no turning back. We can only wonder how many of them (stupidly) thought the ‘non-extradition’ policy of certain governments would protect them?

In that respect, the otherwise inexplicable, er, ‘resurrection’ of large scale (and perversely ‘private’) mercenary organizations becomes much clearer when viewed from the ‘personal protection’ perspective. The Bush years minted roughly a thousand brand spanking new billionaires…what do you think of that?

Understand that if it weren’t for ‘federal funding’ these ‘private security’ outfits would have no clients capable of paying for all the foreign troops they rely on.

You and I are ‘subsidizing’ the thief’s protection! Actually, this is little different from the ‘stated vs. real mission’ of the world’s police force. They SAY it is there to protect YOU but come crunch time, the police are really ‘tasked’ with protecting commerce, you come in a distant second! You pay for it but it isn’t there for you…it’s there for them!

When you sit down and think about it for a while, it just starts to mount up, doesn’t it? Everytime you turn around you find more evidence of the owners of commerce screwing over the workers.

So how bad do you think the ‘blowback’ is going to be? I think its going to make the French Revolution look like a kindergarten outing.

‘Off with their heads’ will be the least of it.

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

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