>by EssDee C.
>April 21, 2008 03:30 PM EDT

>I read and listen and listen and read and I keep hoping someone
>somewhere will actually get to the root of our current situation. I
>hear about froth in the housing market, a bubble in commodities, a
>conundrum in this, a puzzlement in that. On and on. But, I still
>haven't heard anyone actually address the real problem at the bottom
>of our current economic crisis in this country.
>Once long ago, in an economy far, far away... OK. OK. No drama.
>I was born in the baby-boomers generation, near the end. During my
>lifetime the world has changed in so many ways it's beyond belief. Sci-
>Fi became reality and then reality doubled-down.
>In 1974 a van came to my high school and 3/4 of it was a computer.
>They demonstrated it's "power" and "abilities" and printed each of us
>a calendar... :) Cute, huh?
>This little known technology turned this country on it's head. On the
>way up it gave birth to the YUPPIE. High tech produced a huge wave of
>good paying middle class jobs. People in these jobs bought nice homes,
>fancy cars and designer clothing. They bought into high tech
>themselves. VCRs became DVDs TVs became big screen, hang it on the
>wall 3" thick plasma giants, video games in every home, home PCs and
>laptops, and anything we could imagine became available for our buying
>pleasure. The demand for all the goodies these families wanted and
>could easily afford made job opportunities for people working in
>construction, the automotive industry, clothing, technology, retail
>sales, etc, etc, etc. Then there was the restaurants and fast food
>industry, (These high-teckers didn't cook, they ate out.) Vacations
>and home decorating. Their good fortune created a whole country of
>people who worked in support of the techies lifestyles and improved
>the quality of living for those people too. So, what happened?
>What happened... The middle class broke the golden rule, they started
>moving up the financial ladder on a large scale in a big way- fast.
>Too many started making too much money. They were on a rocket ship to
>the sky and pulling the lower class up behind them in their back
>draft. The rich were in danger of too much company. It was starting to
>get crowed on the elevators up to the clouds. The insolence!! This
>just could not be allowed. So, the powers that be showed them. They
>outsourced the good paying, high tech jobs. Poof!! And then there were
>few.
>The corporations began to make really big bucks, record profits and
>the rich were wallowing in it. They laughed and laughed and laughed.
>Those arrogant geeks who thought they could rise to be one of them had
>been struck down. The job market started slowing. Annual raises and
>bonuses gave way to pay cuts or be fired and replaced. Wall Street was
>doing great but Main Street was faltering. Thirty year olds still
>living with their parents couldn't afford to live in a place of their
>own. The economy was slipping but as long as the general public was
>working 2-3 jobs per household and didn't have time to catch on, the
>rich were raking in their losses.
>The middle class had beautiful homes, fabulously expensive cars,
>closets filled with high priced designer clothes, a TV, computer,
>video game system and cable TV in every room and their jobs were
>disappearing faster than they had been created. Their biggest assets?
>Their homes. When the slip in the economy started, they were offered
>equity lines of credit up to 110% of the value of their home. Their
>paychecks were going down, the cost of living was going up but this
>would all blow over and then when the economy came back they could pay
>off the mortgages, credit cards, etc and all would be as it was. Then
>came the froth in housing. The problem was not that a bunch of
>irresponsible people got home loans they couldn't afford. It was that
>no one told them they weren't going to be able to afford them after
>all their jobs got outsourced to foreign countries and would never
>come back. They got blind-sided.
>Problem is, we still haven't seen just how deep this hole is going to
>get. The jobs that sky-rocketed this economy are now in India, among
>other countries where the pay is low, the working conditions are
>deplorable and corporations and the super rich can continue to make
>record breaking profits.
>They stripped the middle class and picked their bones. But, they went
>too far. Got too greedy. Wall Street took a big hit. Oops!! Hedge
>funds went under. Oh, No!! That's, that's the rich... Gotta stop that.
>Pumping millions, billions into the banking system. The Fed
>guaranteeing loans. People are still being dumped out of their homes,
>but, hey, at least Wall Street and the rich will be OK now. So, what
>now?
>What now... Until this government admits they let a dumb, red-neck
>idiot (whose only goal was to impoverish and punish the arrogant
>middle class and re-fund the rich) destroy this country through his
>arrogant "I'm the decider" policies, nothing. We just keep sinking. If
>they do step up and bite the bullet, admit the screw-ups instead of
>trying to cover them up and go around them, we have a chance. Jobs
>MUST be brought back. Corporations MUST be made to re-invest in this
>country- and NOT with tax-payer tax breaks that they hoard as cash!!
>Rather with some of the record breaking profits they stripped out of
>this country over the last 7+ years. Taxes on the upper class SHOULD
>be higher than those on the working class. THEY should carry the bulk
>of the tax burden. I am so sick of the old line about them being
>punished for being successful!! It boggles the mind that people who
>have enough money to buy a small country from money they made off the
>sweat and backs of the average American citizen actually resent paying
>taxes. Well, it's only fair that those who paid the most taxes should
>get the biggest tax breaks?? OK, so let's give the rich their tax
>breaks, forgive oil companies billions upon billions owed to the
>American citizens for drilling on public land, let them enjoy the
>health-care made available from research paid for through grants paid
>for by taxes paid by every American who ever worked and paid taxes. I
>could go on for hours, but you get the point.
>If the next president does not undo everything Bush screwed up. We are
>screwed and you can watch that rocket ship fall from the sky and make
>an economical crater with a bottomless pit. During the Bush
>administration the two worst tragedies in my lifetime occurred. 9/11
>and Katrina. Bush used them to rape this country and the US Congress
>let him.