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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RealMuLan who wrote (71524)	11/22/2007 12:31:34 AM
From: RealMuLan	Respond to of 116555

Our National Credit Card by Beth Grimes Page 1 of 2 page(s) opednews.com by Beth Grimes We Americans carry a lot of credit card debt. Of course, we’re required to pay it back or at least keep the finance charges paid. The nation’s credit card is also over-loaded and our nation, too, must pay finance charges. Our national debt is in the neighborhood of nine trillion bucks. That’s trillion with a “t,” folks. A billion is a “one” followed by nine zeroes, a thousand millions. A trillion is a one followed by twelve zeroes. Most of us have trouble wrapping our minds around a billion, let alone a trillion. Will that ever be paid off? We’ll see. We’ve faced a worse debt problem. Presidents Truman Kennedy, Johnson and Carter eliminated most of the WWII debt. Republicans Eisenhower and Nixon did their part, but their Republican administrations were dominated less by ideology than is the present one. ... The source of money thrown down the rat holes of war and preferential treatment for some is you and me, babe. So we should take it personally. What else could we have bought for all that spending? Start with infrastructure. We live in a country where bridges fall down and levees break. Repairing those would save lives and create jobs. We live in a country that does not provide health care for everyone as does every other industrialized nation in the world. Our life expectancy is lower than that in 41 other nations. Our infant mortality rate is higher than most of the developed world – just above Latvia which is at the bottom. Health insurance in the USA covers a smaller percentage of our population compared to other rich countries. You think maybe that’s why we lose more of our babies and live shorter lives? Our nation compares unfavorably with other industrialized countries in spending on transportation and education and 37 million Americans live in poverty, an increase of 1.1 million just last year. ...