Take Your Austerity Measures And...

     okay, you can guess the rest of that sentence.  The whole "austerity", "budget cuts", "runaway spending" thing has gotten itself under my skin, like a sliver you can't see, but feel every time you touch something.


    According to Steve Rattner, our former "Car Czar" (who had to step down in a hurry due to an investigations about his hedge fund and "pay to play" with the New York Pension system... hmmm...), "it's going over all right in the UK..."


    Jim Rogers, of Rogers Holdings agrees - it's for the good of the country, ya know.


    Pierre LaPointe, global strategist for Brockhouse Cooper, agrees that tax hikes, expenditure cuts, et. al., are necessary to arrest a growing deficit problem... specifically, Social Security "entitlement" programs.


    Here's my sticking point with "entitlement programs"... at least Social Security and Medicare.  Since the age of 15 - quite a while ago - I've been paying into both programs.  Involuntarily.  Matched by my employer.  Okay, so have an awful lot of other people.  Why did we put up with it?


    Because we were pre-paying for our old age, that's why.  There's not one person who has worked during their adult life who HAS NOT paid into Social Security or Medicare.  There have been "contributions".  Period.  End of sentence.  No, none of us in my generation (X) thought we'd get out of it anywhere near what we put in, but we hoped we'd get some supplemental income to make our "useless" years (let's face it, that's what you are when you stop contributing, according to our government) a little less painful.


    So, am I entitled?  Well, I've paid in... faithfully, whether I wanted to or not.  The payoff?  Pennies on the dollar, especially when you factor in inflation.  What about the Baby Boomers?  They made a bunch of money, and now they want what was promised when they paid in during their entire careers. 


    So, how does that turn into a "Sense of Entitlement"?  That's plain old ROI (Return On Investment).  I helped the previous generation, now you can help me out.  Period.  So, how does this become an "entitlement program"?  It isn't, plain and simple.  This is payback for all the folks that got help from the working population during our most productive years.  Fuck you.


    Okay, that horse is now dead.  Moving on...


    This is why "austerity" programs get me even more so... here's what happened, in my denim-blue brain:


    A bunch of financial geniuses came up with yet another way to fuck the middle class - faulty loans on houses that went up in value like skyrockets, with the cooperation of surrounding regulatory agencies - our government, btw - and transferred a bunch of wealth way up the ladder.  Too bad it was a ponzi scheme, and fell apart.  Think 2008.


    GW Bush, in a last swipe of a horrible presidency, looted this generation, and at least two others, of their taxpayer dollars, and got approval for TARP.


    He left us on the hook for what would turn out to be 12.3 TRILLION dollars in direct and indirect bailouts... wait for it...


    Of the same fucks that had raped us in the first place.


    Bonuses got paid... that same YEAR... to the gambling crack-heads that got us into this mess.  And AGAIN, in 2009...


    And THIS year, the bonuses look to blow the lid off the record books.


    But I have to adopt "austerity" to pay down the deficits?


    I have a plan: it's called, "I'll Adopt Austerity Measures When..."  Here's the first of the list; feel free to add your own:

• We see "claw-backs" of the bonuses paid out in '08, '09, and stop this crap about records being set in '10.
• We see Jamie Dimon, Ken Lewis, and Lloyd Blankfein do PERP WALKS.
• We see foreclosure moratoria that MEAN something, and last long enough to save families that have done the right things STAY in their homes.
• We see job creation here in the USA, and all incentives to move labor overseas eliminated.
• We see that LESS THAN 41% of all GDP income go to the "Financial Services" sector of the economy.
• We have less than 5% unemployment.
• We pay our teachers to lead our children into the next century of innovation, not just produce a bunch of "good test-takers" that can't do a damn thing if it isn't World of Warcraft.  I want "my" teachers focused on opening and filling kids' heads with good knowledge, not sweating over whether the gas and water will be turned off today.
• I see President Obama have a ceremony on the White House lawn, where he burns his "owned by wall street" collar in effigy.
• We bring home our troops from Iraq and Afghanistan - not to settle civil unrest here, but to actually come home to their families - preferably in one, sane piece.

    It's a good starting place, anyway... maybe, if we all put in our two cents' worth, we'll come up with a good set of rules to make a difference.


    What else have we got to lose?


    Brutal Truth