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Home <http://www.financialsense.com/>  > Who Destroyed the Middle Class,
Part 3

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Who Destroyed the Middle Class, Part 3

By James Quinn

Created 26 Jun 2012

This is the 3rd and final chapter of my series about the destruction of the
middle class. In
<http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/who-destroyed-the-mi
ddle-class-part-one> Part 1 [1] of this series I addressed where and how the
net worth of the middle class was stolen. In
<http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/who-destroyed-the-mi
ddle-class-part-2> Part 2 [2], I focused on the culprits in this grand theft
and in Part 3, I will try to figure out why they stole your net worth and
what would be required to restore sanity to this world.

Dude, Why Did They Steal My Net Worth?

"I have no problem with people becoming billionaires-if they got there by
winning a fair race, if their accomplishments merit it, if they pay their
fair share of taxes, and if they don't corrupt their society. Most of them
became wealthy by being well connected and crooked. And they are creating a
society in which they can commit hugely damaging economic crimes with
impunity, and in which only children of the wealthy have the opportunity to
become successful. That's what I have a problem with. And I think most
people agree with me." - Charles Ferguson -
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/030795255X/financialsenseon>
Predator Nation [3]

Description:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jEVYZZScUtw/TuWmEDW3LeI/AAAAAAAAHJc/3nVafP4stjI/s1
600/the_frog_and_the_scorpion_tale_619555.jpg

It is clear to me that a small cabal of politically connected elites have
purposefully stripped the middle class of their wealth and openly flaunted
their complete disregard for the laws and financial regulations meant to
enforce a fair playing field. Why did they gut the middle class in their
rapacious appetite for riches? Why did the scorpion sting the frog while
crossing the river, dooming them both? It was his nature. The same is true
for the hubristic modern robber barons latched on the backs of the middle
class. Their appetite for ever greater riches will never be mollified. They
will always want more. They promise not to destroy the middle class, as that
will surely extinguish the last hope for a true economic recovery built upon
savings, investment and jobs, but it is their nature to destroy. A card
carrying member of the plutocracy and renowned dog lover, Mitt Romney,
revealed a truth not normally discussed by those running the show:

"I'm not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. I'm not
concerned about the very rich, they're doing just fine."

The data from the Fed report confirms Romney's assertion. The poorest 20%
were the only household segment that saw an increase in their real median
income between 2007 and 2010, while the richest 10% saw only a modest 5%
decrease in their $200,000 plus, annual incomes. Meanwhile the middle class
households experienced a brutal 8% to 9% decline in real income. Table 2 in
<http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/who-destroyed-the-mi
ddle-class-part-2> Part 2 [2] of this article reveals why the poorest 20%
were able to increase their income. Transfer payments (unemployment,
welfare, food stamps, SSDI) increased from 8.6% of their income in 2007 to
11.1% in 2010. Government transfer payments rose from $1.7 trillion in 2007
to $2.3 trillion today, a 35% increase in five years. I'm sure the bottom
20% are living high on the hog raking in that $13,400 per year. Think about
these facts for just a moment. There are 23 million households in this
country with a median annual household income of $13,400. That means half
make less than that. There are 58 million households that have a median
household income of $45,800, with half making less than that.

Description:
http://dkl3fnj1o5loa.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/2010-Survey-o
f-Consumer-Finances-Federal-Reserve-Income-Chart.png

The reason Mitt Romney isn't concerned about the very poor is because his
only interaction with them is when they cut the lawn at one of his six
homes. The truth is the bottom 20% are mostly penned up in our urban ghettos
located in Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, NYC, LA, Atlanta, Miami, and the
hundreds of other decaying metropolitan meccas. They generally kill each
other and only get the attention of the top 10% if they dare venture into a
white upper class neighborhood. They are the revenue generators for our
corporate prison industrial complex - one of our few growth industries. They
provide much of the cannon fodder for our military industrial complex. They
are kept ignorant and incapable of critical thought by our Department of
Education controlled public school system. The welfare state is built upon
the foundation of this 20%. It is certainly true that the bottom 30 million
households in this country, from an income standpoint, do receive hundreds
of billions in entitlement transfers, but Table 2 clearly shows that 80% of
their income comes from working. The annual $72 billion cost for the 46
million people on food stamps pales in comparison to the hundreds of
billions being dispensed to the Wall Street banks by Ben Bernanke and Tim
Geithner, and the $1 trillion per year funneled to the corporate arm dealers
in the military industrial complex. The Wall Street maggots (i.e. J.P.
Morgan) crawl around the decaying welfare corpse, extracting hundreds of
millions in fees from the EBT system and the SNAP program as they encourage
higher levels of spending.

This is all part of the diversion. Forty five years after the War on Poverty
began, there are 49 million Americans living in poverty. That's a solid good
return on the $16 trillion spent so far. It's on par with the 16 year zero
percent real return in the stock market. We have produced a vast underclass
of ignorant, uneducated, illiterate, dependent people who have become a huge
voting block for the Democratic Party. Politicians, on the left, promise
more entitlements to these people in order to get elected. Politicians on
the right will not cut the entitlements for fear of being branded as
uncaring. The Republicans agree to keep the welfare state growing and the
Democrats agree to keep the warfare state growing -bipartisanship in all its
glory. And the middle class has been caught in a pincer movement between the
entitlement army and the entitlement corporate army. The oligarchs have been
incredibly effective at using their control of the media, academia and
ideological think tanks to keep the middle class ire focused upon the lower
classes. While the middle class is fixated on people making $13,400 per
year, the ultra-wealthy are bribing politicians to pass laws and create tax
loopholes, netting them billions of ill-gotten loot. These specialists at
Edward Bernays propaganda techniques were actually able to gain overwhelming
support from the middle class for the repeal of estate taxes by rebranding
them "death taxes", even though the estate tax only impacts 15,000
households out of 117 million households in the U.S. The .01% won again.

<http://dkl3fnj1o5loa.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Household-Ne
t-Worth-Survey-of-Consumer-Finances-Federal-Reserve-2010.png> Description:
Household Net Worth Survey of Consumer Finances Federal Reserve 2010[4]

It is easy to understand how the hard working middle class is so easily
manipulated by the corporate fascists into believing their decades of
descent to a lower and lower standard of living is the result of those at
the bottom of the food chain relying on their welfare entitlements. I drive
through the neighborhoods of West Philadelphia every day, inhabited by the
households with a net worth of $8,500 and annual income of $13,400. They
inhabit crumbling hovels worth less than $25,000, along pothole dotted
streets strewn with waste, debris and rubbish. More than half the people in
this war zone are high school dropouts, over 30% are unemployed, and drug
dealing is the primary industry. When a drug dealer becomes too successful
and begins to cut into the profits of the "legitimate" oligarch sanctioned
drug industry, he is thrown into one of our thriving prisons. Marriage is an
unknown concept. The life expectancy of males is far less than 79 years old.
But something doesn't quite make sense. Every hovel has a Direct TV
satellite dish. The people shuffling around the streets all have expensive
cell phones. There are newer model cars parked on the streets, including a
fair number of BMWs, Mercedes, Cadillac Escalades and Volvos. How can this
be when their annual income is $13,400 and they have $8,500 to their names?

This is where our friendly neighborhood Wall Street oligarchs enter the
picture. These downtrodden people are not bright. They are easily
manipulated and scammed. They believe driving an expensive car and appearing
successful is the same as being successful. Therefore, they are easily
susceptible to being lured into debt. Millions of these people represented
the "subprime" mortgage borrowers during the housing bubble. The tremendous
auto "sales" being reported by the mainstream media in an effort to boost
consumer confidence about an economic recovery, are being driven by subprime
auto loans from Ally Financial (85% owned by the U.S. Treasury/you the
taxpayer) and the other government back stopped Wall Street banks. This is
the beauty of credit. The mega-lenders reap tremendous profits up front, the
illusion of economic progress is created, poor people feel rich for a while,
and when it all blows up at a future date the middle class taxpayer foots
the bill. Real wages for the 99% have been falling for three decades. You
make poor people feel wealthy by providing them easy access to vast
quantities of cheap debt. I'm a big fan of personal responsibility, but who
is the real malignant organism in this relationship? The parasite banker
class, like a tick on an old sleepy hound dog, has been blood sucking the
poor and middle class for decades. They have peddled the debt, kept the poor
enslaved, and have used their useful persons in the media to convince
millions of victims to blame each other through their skillful use of
propaganda. They maintain their control by purposely creating crisis,
promoting hysteria, and engineering "solutions" that leave them with more
power and wealth, while stripping the average citizen of their rights,
liberty, freedom and net worth (i.e. Housing Bubble to replace Internet
Bubble, Glass-Steagall repeal, Patriot Act, TARP, NDAA, SOPA). Jesse
<http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/>  [5] cuts to the heart of the
matter, revealing the darker side of our human nature:

"Sometimes when faced with problems that are confusing and troubling it is
easier to think what someone tells you to think, particularly something that
touches a deep and dark nerve in your nature, rather than carry the burden
and ambiguity of struggling with the facts and thinking for yourself.
Repeating a party line is a shorthand way of avoiding real thought. And the
predators are always there to take advantage of it. They welcome trouble and
often foment crisis in order to advance their agendas."

"Anyone can be misled by a clever person, and no one likes to readily admit
that they have been had. It is a sign of character and maturity to realize
this, and admit you were deceived, and to demand change and reform. But some
people cannot do this, even when the facts of the deception are revealed. It
seems as though the more incorrect that the truth shows them to be, the
louder and more strident they become in shouting down and denying the
reality of the situation. And anyone who denies their perspective becomes
'the other,' someone to be feared and hated, shunned and eliminated, one way
or the other."

Until Debt Do Us Part

I sense signs of desperation amongst the plutocracy. Their propaganda
machine is sputtering. Their storylines are growing tired. They have fended
off the fury of the Tea Party movement by successfully high jacking it and
neutralizing their impact under the thumb of the Republican establishment.
The oligarchs called out their armed thugs to crush the OWS rage, while
using their media mouthpieces to misrepresent the true purpose of the
movement - Wall Street greed and criminality with Washington DC collusion.
The Savings & Loan Crisis of the late 1980s resulted in 800 bankers being
thrown into prison. After the greatest banker heist in history, not one
banker has been thrown in jail. Obama and Holder have been neutered by their
masters. The power elite openly brandish their glee at avoiding
accountability for their crimes. They are desperately attempting to
re-inflate the debt bubble, as debt is the lifeblood of these vampire
squids. The key piece of their current propaganda campaign is to convince
the people they have effectively deleveraged and their continuing austerity
efforts are actually detrimental to economic recovery. It's nothing but a
confidence game to keep the Ponzi going. The Ponzi operators want to extract
every last dime from the masses before the engineered collapse. The data
does not confirm the deleveraging narrative. Total credit market debt in the
United States is now at an all-time high and stands at 345% of GDP. In 1977
it stood at 155% of GDP and at 250% in 2000.

Description:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-opUWcy319ew/T9IdrQkhuHI/AAAAAAAABJI/6DQuKjxRoMw/s1
600/Total+Credit+Market+Debt+Outstanding.png

Total credit market debt is now $4 trillion higher than it was in 2007,
prior to the financial collapse. It has gone up by $1 trillion in the last
12 months. Does this sound like deleveraging? The chart below details the
truth the moneyed interests don't want you to understand. The bastions of
capitalism on Wall Street have dumped $3.4 trillion of their toxic debt and
$1 trillion of mortgage and credit card debt onto the backs of middle class
taxpayers and future unborn generations. They did this under the auspices of
saving the economic system. Their sole purpose has been to save themselves
from becoming part of the middle class. The transfer of wealth from the
quarry (middle class) to the predators (moneyed interests) continues
unabated.

Description:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xNo7Tt6fTA4/T9Ie2HQxIRI/AAAAAAAABJQ/kwEsJAACCFw/s6
40/Credit+Market+Debt+Outstanding+by+Sector.png

The faux journalists in the mainstream media have been pounding the consumer
deleveraging mantra. They babble on about the austere masses methodically
paying down their debts. It's a specious lie. The chart below shows that
banks have written off $218 billion of credit card debt since 2008. It also
shows outstanding revolving debt falling from $1.01 trillion to $819
billion, a $191 billion decrease. For the math challenged, like any Wall
Street shill paraded on CNBC, this means consumers have added $27 billion of
credit card debt since 2008. Does that sound like deleveraging? Households
have also taken on $300 billion of additional student loan debt since 2008,
buying into the government sponsored scam to keep the unemployment rate
lower by offering the false hope of jobs with useless on-line degrees from
the University of Phoenix. Does that sound like deleveraging?

Consumer Credit Card Debt and Charge-off Data (in Billions):

Outstanding Revolving Consumer Debt

Outstanding Credit Card Debt

Quarterly Credit Card Charge-Off Rate

Quarterly Credit Card Charge-Off in Dollars

Q1 2012

$819.4

$803.0

4.37%

$8.8

2011

$864.9

$847.6

Q4 2011

$864.9

$847.6

4.53%

$9.6

Q3 2011

$826.2

$809.7

5.63%

$11.4

Q2 2011

$819.2

$802.8

5.58%

$11.2

Q1 2011

$810.7

$794.4

6.96%

$13.8

2010

$857.4

$840.2

$77.9

Q4 2010

$857.4

$840.2

7.70%

$16.2

Q3 2010

$836.0

$819.2

8.55%

$17.5

Q2 2010

$847.5

$830.5

10.97%

$22.8

Q1 2010

$860.3

$843.1

10.16%

$21.4

2009

$921.9

$903.4

$85.6

Q4 2009

$921.9

$903.4

10.12%

$22.8

Q3 2009

$922.2

$903.7

10.1%

$22.8

Q2 2009

$933.1

$914.4

9.77%

$22.3

Q1 2009

$946.1

$927.2

7.62%

$17.7

Q4 2008

$1,010.3

$990.1

(Source: CardHub.com, Federal Reserve)

They only people with the courage to tell it like it is are skeptics and
outcasts from polite society inhabited by the power elite - people like
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1455501441/financialsenseon> Ron
Paul [6],
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393338827/financialsenseon> Michael
Burry [7], and deceased critical thinkers like
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000009VS/financialsenseon> Frank
Zappa [8] and
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000RPCJBG/financialsenseon> George
Carlin [9]. In one of his final appearances, Carlin brutally lashed out with
a torrent of truth, only spoken by courageous people not worried about the
consequences of their blunt honesty:

"Politicians are put there to give you that idea that you have freedom of
choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They
own everything. They own all the important land, they own and control the
corporations, and they've long since bought and paid for the Senate, the
Congress, the State Houses, and the City Halls. They've got the judges in
their back pockets. And they own all the big media companies so they control
just about all the news and information you get to hear.

They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying to get what they want.
Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for
everybody else. But I'll tell you what they don't want-they don't want a
population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well
informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not
interested in that. That doesn't help them. That's against their interest.
You know something, they don't want people that are smart enough to sit
around their kitchen table and figure out how badly they're getting coerced
by a system that threw them overboard 30 years ago. They don't want that,
you know what they want?

They want obedient workers, obedient workers. People who are just smart
enough to run the machines and do the paperwork and just dumb enough to
passively accept all these increasingly worse jobs with the lower pay, the
longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing
pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it. The table is tilted
folks, the game is rigged. Nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care.
Good honest hard working people, white collar, blue collar, it doesn't
matter what color shirt you have on. Because the owners of this country know
the truth, it's called the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to
believe it."

Grotesque Casino of Corporate Fascism

"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to
continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive
to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the
curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will
see the brick wall at the back of the theater." -
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000009VS/financialsenseon> Frank
Zappa [8]

<http://www.mybudget360.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/average-income-americ
ans.png> Description: average-income-americans[10]

"Specifically, over the past 15 years, the global financial system -
encouraged by misguided policy and short-sighted monetary interventions -
has lost its function of directing scarce capital toward projects that
enhance the world's standard of living. Instead, the financial system has
been transformed into a self-serving, grotesque casino that misallocates
scarce savings, begs for and encourages speculative bubbles, refuses to
restructure bad debt, and demands that the most reckless stewards of capital
should be rewarded through bailouts that transfer bad debt from private
balance sheets to the public balance sheet. What is central here is that the
government policy environment has encouraged this result. This environment
includes financial sector deregulation that was coupled with a government
backstop, repeated monetary distortions, refusal to restructure bad debt,
and a preference for policy cowardice that included bailouts and opaque
accounting. Deregulation and lower taxes will not fix this problem, nor will
larger stimulus packages." -
<http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/john-hussman-phd> John Hussman
[11]

None of the solutions put forth by Obama or Romney will fix the problems
facing the country today. They are two handpicked figureheads representing
the same owners. Both political parties are responsible for the grotesque
casino that passes for our financial system. These politicians have been in
alternating control of our government system for the last 150 years. They
don't want to come up with real solutions to the problems they created. The
owners want obedient workers, distracted by technology and shallow
entertainment, subjugated by debt used to buy things they want but don't
need, believing waging wars in distant lands keeps us safe, and favoring the
imprisonment of petty thieves and drug users while the grand thieves run the
country and control our currency. Keeping the willfully ignorant masses in
the dark and confused is a vital part of the plan. Debt is the ingredient
that enriches the issuers and keeps the dupes in check.  Wall Street
bankers, Federal Reserve governors, captured financial "experts",
journalists paid by corporations, economists with an ideological agenda and
bought off politicians all repeating the same theme with the same
unquestioning, strident conviction is a sure sign that we are being played.
The never ending series of titanic bailouts of Wall Street did not avert a
catastrophic economic collapse. They protected the corporate fascists from
experiencing the consequences of their monstrous predatory actions over the
last few decades. And it was all done for money. Simple human greed and an
insane desire by a few psychotic men to control and manipulate others for
their own selfish pleasure is what has turned this country into a corporate
fascist state bereft of its soul and original founding principles, as stated
by  <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1455501441/financialsenseon> Ron
Paul [6]:

"We're not moving toward Hitler-type fascism, but we're moving toward a
softer fascism: Loss of civil liberties, corporations running the show, big
government in bed with big business. So you have the military-industrial
complex, you have the medical-industrial complex, you have the financial
industry, you have the communications industry. They go to Washington and
spend hundreds of millions of dollars. That's where the control is. I call
that a soft form of fascism - something that's very dangerous."

The soft form of fascism easily transforms into the hard form as those in
control exhibit their supremacy with displays of military potency in our
cities (Boston, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Chicago), passage of liberty
stripping legislation like the Patriot Act and NDAA, along with
announcements about thousands of drones patrolling our skies over the next
five years. When propaganda begins to lose its effectiveness, brute force is
the next step. Whenever I write about the slow methodical disintegration of
our once great republic into a dysfunctional banana republic controlled by
bankers, mega-corporations and arms dealers; the apologists for the empire
scoff and cynically ask for my solutions. I, along with many other rational
thinking realists, have proposed solutions, but they don't have a snowballs
chance in Syria of ever even being debated by the existing ruling class. The
unholy alliance between bankers, corporate interests and politicians must be
broken. These proposals would go a long way towards breaking that alliance:

Political System

*	Since politicians cannot be trusted to exhibit courage or
intelligence when it comes to public policy, a balanced budget amendment to
the Constitution needs to be passed, with a five to ten year implementation
period to ameliorate the pain. 
*	Term limits of 6 years for Congressmen and Senators. Serving in
Congress should not be a career. It is a duty to the country. The purpose of
Congress is to represent the existing generations of citizens and ensure
that future generations have a country that offers opportunity to live a
better life than their parents.
*	The entire election process would be scraped. It would be
transformed into a 3 month publicly financed election. No money from
corporations, unions, or individuals would be allowed. Multiple candidates
would have an opportunity to debate on public TV. The two party domination
of our political process must be broken.
*	Corporations are not people. Extreme wealth does not give someone
the right to buy elections. Rich oligarchs operating in the shadows and
spending billions on negative advertising is not how a republic should elect
their representatives.  Lobbyists, special interests and PACs and would be
eliminated from the political process.
*	The President could no longer issue Executive Orders, undercutting
the legislative process.
*	Every bill before Congress would immediately be put online. The
constituents of every Congressmen and Senator would be allowed to voice
their opinion by voting yes or no online.
*	Every bill that is proposed by a Congressman must have a funding
mechanism. If the proposal increases costs to the American taxpayer,
something else must be cut to pay for the new proposal. This would be
unnecessary if a balance budget amendment was passed. 
*	No American troops could be committed to war in a foreign country
without a full vote of Congress as required by the US Constitution.
*	A cost benefit analysis would be conducted regarding every
department and agency in the Federal Government by the GAO. Those failing to
meet minimum requirements would be drastically reduced or eliminated.
*	The education of children would be delegated to localities, without
Federal mandates. Every child in America would receive vouchers for grade
school, high school and college. They could choose any school to attend -
public or private. If the private school cost more than the voucher, the
family would pay the difference. Excellent schools would flourish, poor
schools would be forced to improve or they would close. Teacher tenure would
be eliminated. Teaching excellence would be rewarded.

Economic Policy

*	The first thing to be done is to abolish the Federal Reserve. It is
owned by and operated for the benefit of the biggest banks in the world. Its
sole purpose has been to enrich the few at the expense of the many through
its insidious use of inflation and debt issuance. It has been around for
less than 100 years and has debased the USD by 96%. The U.S. Treasury has
the authority to issue the currency of the country. It did so from 1789
until 1913.
*	The 2nd thing to do would be to reinstitute the Glass-Steagall Act
because Wall Street cannot be trusted to manage their risk properly. This
would separate true banking activities from the high risk gambling that
brought the economic system to its knees. Privatizing the profits and
socializing the losses is unacceptable. 
*	The FASB would be directed to make all banks and financial
corporations value their assets at their true market value. This would
reveal the mega Wall Street banks and corporations like GE to be insolvent.
An orderly bankruptcy of all insolvent financial firms involving the
sell-off of their legitimate assets to well-run risk adverse banks that
didn't mess up would ensue. Bondholders and stockholders would realize their
losses for awful investment decisions. The economic system would be purged
of its bad debt.
*	The currency of the US would be backed by hard assets. A basket of
gold, silver, platinum, uranium, and some other limited hard commodities
would back the USD. If politicians attempted to spend too much, the price of
this basket would reflect their inflationary schemes immediately.
*	The 16th Amendment would be repealed and the income tax would be
scraped. It would be replaced with a national consumption tax. The more you
consume, the more taxes you pay. Wages, savings and investment would be
untaxed. The tax code is the source for much of politicians' power. Its
demise would further reduce Washington DC control over our lives.
*	A downsizing of the US Military from $1 trillion to $500 billion
annually would be initiated through the withdrawal of troops from
Afghanistan, Iraq, Germany, Japan and hundreds of other bases throughout the
world. Policing the world is bankrupting the empire.
*	All corporate, farm, education, and social engineering subsidies
would be eliminated. All Federal employees would have their pay slashed by
10% and the workforce would be reduced by 20% over 5 years. Federal health
benefits and pension benefits would be set at average private industry
levels.
*	The Social Security System would be completely overhauled. Anyone 50
or older would get exactly what they were promised. The age for collecting
SS would be gradually raised to 72 over the next 15 years. Those between 25
and 50 would be given the option to opt out of SS. They would be given their
contributions to invest as they see fit if they opt out. Anyone entering the
workforce today would not pay in or receive any benefits. The wage limit for
SS would be eliminated and the tax rate would be reduced from 6.2% to 3%.
*	The Medicare system is unsustainable. It would be converted from a
government program to private market based program. The Federal mandates,
rules and regulations would be eliminated. Senior citizens would be given
healthcare vouchers which they would be free to use with any insurance
company or doctor based on price and quality. Insurance companies would
compete for business on a national basis. Doctors would compete for
business. The GAO would have their budget doubled and they would audit
Medicare fraud & Medicaid fraud and prosecute the criminals without
impunity.
*	The healthcare bill would be repealed. Insurance companies would be
allowed to compete with each other on a national basis. Tort reform would be
implemented so that doctors could do their jobs without fear of being
destroyed by slimy personal injury lawyers. Doctors would need to post their
costs for various procedures. Price and quality would drive the healthcare
market.
*	The entitlement state would be dismantled. The criteria for
collecting welfare, SSDI, food stamps and unemployment benefits would be
made much stricter. Unemployed people collecting government payments would
be required to clean up parks, volunteer at community charity organizations,
pick up trash along highways, fix and paint houses in their neighborhoods
and generally keep busy in a productive manner for society. 
*	A free market method for stabilizing the housing market would be for
banks to voluntarily reduce the mortgage balances of underwater homeowners
in exchange for a PAR (Property Appreciation Right). The homeowner would
agree to pay off the PAR to the Treasury (and administered through the IRS)
out of future price appreciation on the existing home or subsequent
property. The homeowner would be excluded from taking on any home equity
loans or executing any "cash out" refinancing until the PAR was satisfied.
The maximum PAR obligation accepted by the Treasury would be based on the
value of the home and the income of the homeowner.

I'm sure there are many more solutions which non-captured, intelligent,
reasonable citizens could put forth to save this country. None of these
ideas would be acceptable to the country's owners. They would reduce their
wealth and power. What these oligarchs do not realize is that we are in the
midst of a
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0767900464/financialsenseon> Fourth
Turning [12]. Those who experienced the last one have died off. The existing
social order will be swept away. It is likely to be violent and bloody. Good
people and bad people will die. When the Crisis reaches its climax we will
have the opportunity to implement good solutions. There is also the distinct
possibility that our populace will turn to someone that promises them
renewed glory. Decades of delusional decisions will lead to a future that
will not be orderly or controllable.

Description: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1059/1415412459_b8acbcf625.jpg

"The Banks must be restrained, and the financial system reformed, with
balance restored to the economy, before there can be any sustained growth
and recovery. If the suffering becomes great enough, change will inevitably
come, but it may not be orderly or as controllable as the moneyed interests
often like to think." -  <http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/> Jesse
[5]

If you missed the first two parts of this series, click part 1
<http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/who-destroyed-the-mi
ddle-class-part-one>  [1] and part 2
<http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/who-destroyed-the-mi
ddle-class-part-2>  [2] to read both editorials.

Source: The Burning Platform

About James Quinn <http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn>
[15]

James Quinn <http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn>  [15]

Senior Director of Strategic Planning at Quinn Advisors
Primary Tel: (215) 573-5404 
quinnadvisors @ comcast.net
http://theburningplatform.com/ [16] 

James Quinn <http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn>  [15]
Archive

06/21/2012

Who
<http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/who-destroyed-the-mi
ddle-class-part-2>  Destroyed the Middle Class, Part 2 [2]

story

06/20/2012

Who
<http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/who-destroyed-the-mi
ddle-class-part-one>  Destroyed the Middle Class, Part 1 [1]

story

06/11/2012

It
<http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/it-only-took-a-globa
l-depression-to-reduce-gas-prices-by-forty-cents>  Only Took a Global
Depression to Reduce Gas Prices by 40 Cents [17]

story

05/07/2012

The
<http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/the-fraud-and-theft-
will-continue-until-morale-improves>  Fraud & Theft Will Continue Until
Morale Improves [18]

story

04/26/2012

H.L.
<http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/h-l-mencken-was-righ
t>  Mencken Was Right [19]

story

04/23/2012

Epic
<http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/epic-fail-part-one>
Fail - Part One [20]

story

04/04/2012

You
<http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/you-aint-seen-nothin
g-yet>  Ain't Seen Nothing Yet [21]

story

03/19/2012

Asleep
<http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/asleep-at-the-wheel>
at the Wheel [22]

story

03/06/2012

Cause,
<http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/cause-effect-and-the
-fallacy-of-a-return-to-normalcy>  Effect & the Fallacy of a Return to
Normalcy [23]

story

02/27/2012

Extend
<http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/extend-and-pretend-c
oming-to-an-end>  & Pretend Coming to an End [24]

story

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*	Economy <http://www.financialsense.com/taxonomy/term/9> 
*	Storm <http://www.financialsense.com/taxonomy/term/302>  Watch
*	Article <http://www.financialsense.com/taxonomy/term/18> 

The opinions of the contributors to Financial SenseR do not necessarily
reflect those of Financial Sense, its staff, or its parent company, PFS
Group <http://www.puplava.com> .

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View
<http://m.financialsense.com/print/contributors/james-quinn/who-destroyed-th
e-middle-class-part-three?device=mobile>  mobile site 

  _____  

Source URL (retrieved on 29 Jun 2012):
http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/who-destroyed-the-mid
dle-class-part-three

Links:
[1]
http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/who-destroyed-the-mid
dle-class-part-one
[2]
http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/who-destroyed-the-mid
dle-class-part-2
[3] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/030795255X/financialsenseon
[4]
http://dkl3fnj1o5loa.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Household-Net
-Worth-Survey-of-Consumer-Finances-Federal-Reserve-2010.png
[5] http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/
[6] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1455501441/financialsenseon
[7] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393338827/financialsenseon
[8] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000009VS/financialsenseon
[9] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000RPCJBG/financialsenseon
[10]
http://www.mybudget360.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/average-income-america
ns.png
[11] http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/john-hussman-phd
[12] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0767900464/financialsenseon
[13]
http://www.financialsense.com/print/print/contributors/james-quinn/who-destr
oyed-the-middle-class-part-three
[14] http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=financialsense
[15] http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn
[16] http://theburningplatform.com/
[17]
http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/it-only-took-a-global
-depression-to-reduce-gas-prices-by-forty-cents
[18]
http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/the-fraud-and-theft-w
ill-continue-until-morale-improves
[19]
http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/h-l-mencken-was-right
[20]
http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/epic-fail-part-one
[21]
http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/you-aint-seen-nothing
-yet
[22]
http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/asleep-at-the-wheel
[23]
http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/cause-effect-and-the-
fallacy-of-a-return-to-normalcy
[24]
http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/extend-and-pretend-co
ming-to-an-end

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