July 3, 2012
If you went out and took a poll of the American people on
July 4th (Independence Day) and asked them if they are free, what would the
results look like? Of course the results would be overwhelmingly
lopsided.
Most Americans believe that they live in "the land of
the free" and that they are not enslaved to anyone. But is that
really the case? Slavery does not always have to involve whips and
shackles. There are many other forms of slavery.
One dictionary definition
of a slave is "one that is completely subservient to a dominating
influence". I really like that definition.
Today, millions of Americans are slaves of the system and
they don't even realize it. Debt is a form of slavery, and millions of
Americans having become deeply enslaved to our debt-based financial
system.
When someone enslaves someone else, the goal of the master
is to reap a benefit out of the slave. You don't want the slave to just
sit there and collect dust.
Today, most Americans
have willingly shackled themselves to a system that systematically drains their
wealth and transfers it to the very wealthy. Most of them don't even
realize that they have been enslaved even as the system sucks them dry.
Just think about it. Where is the "big
money" in the United States today?
When asked that question, most Americans think of Wall
Street.
Well, who controls Wall Street?
The bankers do.
The borrower is the servant of the lender, and they generate
massive amounts of wealth by lending us money.
Perhaps an example will be helpful.
Have you ever run up $5000 of credit card debt? Many people have run up much, much more than that, but let us use $5000 for our example.
According to
the Federal Reserve, if you only make the minimum payment
every month, at a 20% interest rate it will take you 49 years to pay that
credit card off and you will pay back a total of $26,169.
So you would have gotten the original benefit of spending
the $5000 and you would have had to work extremely hard to pay back an
additional $21,169 to the bankers.
In essence, you would be working as a servant of the bankers
until you had paid back that entire debt plus interest.
Unfortunately, our entire system is now designed to get you
to go into debt.
It starts before we even get into the "real world".
We are constantly told that we cannot get a "good job" without a
college degree, but a college education is so ridiculously expensive these days
that most of us cannot afford one without
going into lots of debt.
Many of you out there know exactly what I am talking about.
Do you have a pile of student loan debt?
I do.
In fact, the total pile of student loan debt in the United
States is now over a trillion dollars.
.
Unfortunately, when a lot of us graduated we found out that
the "good jobs" that we were promised simply were not there.
Last year, 53 percent of all Americans with a bachelor's degree under the age
of 25 were either unemployed or
underemployed.
So many young adults are starting out life already enslaved
to a gigantic pile of debt but without a good job that will enable them to
comfortably service that debt.
The really "lucky" graduates from the top schools
flock to Wall Street so that they can make lots of money running the debt-based
financial system that is enslaving all the rest of us.
Once young people leave school, there are lots of other
"debt traps" to fall into.
Once you get out into the "real world", just about
every major purchase is going to involve another pile of debt.
Do you want a house?
.
.
That is going to mean more debt. As I have written
about previously, mortgage
debt as a percentage of U.S. GDP has
more than tripled since 1955.
Do you want a car?
About 70 percent of all vehicle purchases in the U.S. now
involve at least some borrowed money.
Consumer debt is particularly insidious. Our stores
are filled with very beautiful things, and it is really easy to buy a bunch of
stuff and "put it on plastic".
Since 1971, the total amount of consumer debt in the United
States has increased by 1700%, and
approximately 46% of
all Americans now carry a credit card balance from month to
month.
We just keep plunging ourselves deeper and deeper into debt slavery.
Most Americans never seem to learn. Over the past 30 years those of us in
the "bottom 95 percent" have seen our financial shackles just get
heavier and heavier. The following is from a recent CNN article:
In 1983, the bottom 95% had 62 cents of debt for every dollar they earned, according to research by two International Monetary Fund economists. But by 2007, the ratio had soared to $1.48 of debt for every $1 in earnings.
When you pile up lots of debt, you aren't just working for
yourself anymore. You are also working for those that you owe the debts
to. Your hard work and sweat end up making them a lot wealthier..
Our state and local governments have enslaved themselves to
debt as well. Total state and
local government debt is now about 8 times higher than it was
30 years ago.
At this point, many U.S. cities are in very serious trouble
with debt. In fact, another California municipality has just declared
bankruptcy. On Monday,
the town of Mammoth Lakes announced that it has formally filed for bankruptcy.
But this is just the beginning.
The truth is that we are a nation that is absolutely
drowning in debt and we need a lot more money in order to keep up with all of
this debt.
But there is a problem.
In our debt-based
financial system, the creation of more money actually creates
more debt.
So how are we ever going to get out of the hole that we are
in?
Today, the U.S. national debt is more than 5000 times larger than it was when the Federal Reserve was first created back in 1913.This is why it is so important for the American people to realize that the Federal Reserve is a perpetual debt machine.
The Federal Reserve system itself does not make much
money. The vast majority of the profits that the Federal Reserve makes
are transferred back to the U.S. government.
But that is not what the Federal Reserve was created to do.
What the Federal Reserve was created to do was to set up a
system where the U.S. government would borrow money and pay interest on it
instead of just creating the money itself.
Last year the U.S. government spent more
than 454 billion dollars just on interest on the national
debt. That is a form of national slavery. 454 billion dollars that
we worked very hard to make was taken from us and transferred into the pockets
of some very wealthy people.
The truth is that the U.S. government does not actually need
to ever borrow a single penny from anyone. As a sovereign government it
could directly issue money into circulation.
But lending money to governments is very, very profitable
and it is the kind of thing that wars are fought over.
For example, the First Bank of the United States (the very
first central bank in our country) was established in 1791 and the charter for
that bank expired in 1811 and was not renewed.
So what happened the very next year?
The War of 1812. During that war Washington D.C. was actually
captured and burned. The final major battle of that war was the battle of
New Orleans which took place on January 8, 1815.
So what happened the very next year?
President James Madison signed the charter for the Second
Bank of the United States on April 10, 1816.
The goal has always been to enslave the American people.Debt is used to enslave us individually, it is used to enslave our businesses, it is used to enslave our state and local governments and it is used to enslave our federal government.
So are you a slave of the system?
If you are in debt, then you are a slave at least to some
degree.
Unfortunately, the global financial system has become so
saturated with debt that it is now on the verge of
collapse. It appears that things could be getting
significantly worse during the second
half of this year, and the years ahead do not look very promising at
all.
Sadly, most Americans do not see any of this coming.
In fact, a new CNN/ORC International poll has found that about 60 percent
of all Americans think that the U.S. economy will be in good shape next year.
Can you believe that?
The mainstream media
has done a fantastic job of brainwashing the general public.
.
The "blue team" is convinced that if Barack Obama
wins the election and the Democrats take control of both houses of Congress
that prosperous times are on the way.
The "red team" is convinced that if Mitt Romney
wins the election and the Republicans take control of both houses of Congress
that the U.S. economy will be put back on the right track.
Well, the truth is that there is not going to be a solution to
our economic problems on the national level. We have accumulated the
greatest mountain of debt
in the history of the world, and it is going to collapse and crush us no matter
which brand of corrupt politicians we sent to Washington.
On July 4th, millions upon millions of Americans will
celebrate "Independence Day" with cookouts, parades and fireworks
without ever realizing the true nature of what is really going on.
Hopefully we can get more of them educated while there is
still time.
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