America: The land of opportunity! We’ve heard it often enough and if one were to enumerate the various conflicts considering each as an opportunity then by all means we are an extremely affluent people submerged in a sea of abundance. As offered in a recent article, WiNiP – It’s Not About Jobs; It’s About Clarity, this affluence has rendered the American conscience afflicted with a severe form of congestive dysfunction in desperate search of a remedy: clarity.
“Clarity is the gift of revelation; the precision of grace when the narrative of ambiguity ceases to be a reliable source of information!
It is for this reason I’ve come to the conclusion that the all-consuming narratives, whether they be Political, Legislative or Economic chaos, are mere characterizations of a much simpler and fundamental omission: Clarity! Clarity as to Ideal, Clarity as to Purpose and Clarity as to Tender.”
At the moment however we seem to be engaged by a process offering a charade of its own one I characterize as merely Grasping at Flaws.
Americans are beginning to realize their torment does, in fact, reside in a core dissonance and one which truly does relate to an absence of Clarity. So much so that as we look for resolutions, by way of a Candidate that we hope will compose a message which aligns with our best wishes, we find it increasingly difficult to settle on any one of the choices made available. In truth, we find ourselves Grasping at Flaws unaware that Candidates themselves are engaged in the very same process in desperate hope of attaching themselves to your ambitions when what they should be doing is drawing attention to themselves on the strength of their strategic plan of attack.
The end result of this is that Americans are now trapped in a series of deceptive anomalies each hopelessly irreconcilable with their best wishes. I believe, once again, it is the absence of clarity that is the root-cause for why most are unaware of this ever-occurring process and all the more reason for why we must be compelled to attack it head-on. To seed the process we will approach the issue by addressing core elements by way of a soft-diagnostic review of a few observations each having been witnessed throughout the numerous GOP Debates thus far. They are as follows:
Ron Paul:
Rep. Paul attracts the interest of many voters primarily due to the resonant tone of his constitutional convictions and for good reason. He speaks of limited constitutional government, the preservation of individual liberty, fiscal and monetary discipline and on the occasion of his speaking/responses he is met with a robust audience response. However, on the occasion of his comments relating to foreign policy the appeal-divide surfaces and herein lies our first example of the irreconcilable; the deceptive anomaly. The audience responds with a powerful affirmation to his “we need to stop fighting all these foreign wars and bring the troops home” and yet when he speaks of his objection, mind you on Constitutional grounds, to U.S. involvement in the Middle-East specifically on the subject of unilateral response to terrorism or on the subject of Iran’s nuclear program, the response suddenly turns to the negative.
Clarity #1: For the most part most Americans have bought in to the endorsement of the American Global Police Force regime of thought. The selling of this anomaly has occurred primarily by way of the fear anecdote; that the suspension of freedom and liberty is somehow justified in any circumstance; real or imagined. The truth of the matter is that what is actually occurring, strategically, are two distinct events: The first being expansion or preservation of economic interests and the second being the use of military resources to insure the former. Few seem willing to trace the events to their origins and see them for what they are. Fewer still seem to consider the answer to an even more profoundly relevant question: Considering the trillions of dollars spent in waging and maintaining a global military presence, since World War II, can any individual identify an economic or security improvement? Moreover; can any person look at a soldier’s grave-marker or a disfigured veteran and honestly say their sacrifice is measure in terms of a positive economic, social, political or security gain? Has your loss of economic freedom, your personal freedoms and liberty or your reverence for our political system been worth it? However one chooses to resolve the matter, for themselves, the fact remains that these are disparate issues and the Public, knowingly or otherwise, has been lured into believing they are one and the same; they are not. If you believe in the universality of our own Declaration of Independence specifically as to “..all men….” then it is simply not possible to suggest that we have the right to selectively apply the principal regardless of how unfashionable it may seem. Therein lies the anomaly. I would also suggest that one reads George Washington’s Farewell Address for more substantive dialogue on this very subject; it is as relevant today as it was in 1796.
Gingrich, Santorum & Romney – Back to the States:
Whatever the opinion one might hold as to the character of these gentlemen one attribution is unassailable: They epitomize the purest form of what can only be described as the career politician. They exhibit every nuance and feature necessary for the indiscreet exhibition and oration of the deceptive anomaly each executing the effect in so many different ways that I will simply compress (paraphrase) their routine expressions by way of the following two examples:
1. “I want to preserve these programs by addressing waste, fraud and abuse.”
2. “We need to package all of this into block-grants and send it back to the States where they can best administrate these programs.”
Clarity #2: The point, as you will notice, is not how or in what way the Candidate might resolve the irreconcilability of the economic burden or, for that matter, the even greater issue as to proper role of government but merely to only appear as if they will take it under consideration. The reality is, if you look very closely, not only are these not solutions they are actually terminal anomalies and for one very simple reason: These options simply cannot occur simultaneously and even if you elect to affect the block-grant approach you might want to ask yourself a very simple question: where is the funding for the block-grant coming from? In short, the problem hasn’t been resolved it has merely been duplicated. On the other hand, if one sides with the “preserve these programs” approach then you must also accept that the programs not only remain but due to the imbedded political attachment to the programs, so do the risks of waste, fraud and abuse. In summation: These Candidates are simply toying with incongruent notions none of which are purpose-driven or begin to approach alignment with the Ideal of our own constitutional-based covenant. And so, we witness yet another irreconcilable deception.
It’s the Economy, It’s about Jobs:
Here is the simple truth: The current U.S. Economic landscape is the direct result of merging two distinct and natively incongruent domains: Government and Economic Freedom. The moment Politicians discovered they could gain elite political status by accepting the influences of Economic Interests (including Unions) and Economic Interests discovered that no prohibitive boundaries existed preventing them from purchasing the influence of willing Politicians, the conscription of Constitutional Government began. The process then became one of maximizing economic outcome at the expense of economic freedom and the illusion that the ascending form, under the banner of the newly created moniker known as Capitalism, became nothing more than a license for global predation. Then, enhanced by the successful cross-generational schooling of the public conscience, the American Public accepted this neo-socialized reinterpretation of economic-freedom along with licensing the notion that somehow the machinery of American Economic Interest was now only serviceable by way of a global buffet at the point of a gun and not based upon the compelling success of our Economic Model. Well, look around you; the nation’s economic capacity has been cannibalized.
Clarity #3: The perfecting element of the previous comment is proven by the contemporary use of the word Capitalism particularly when used as a reference to the licensing of processes where individual economic liberties are placed in peril. Examples of this being outsourcing, deconstruction, loss of individual property and contract rights, corporate bailouts, bank bailouts and so on. It is not possible for me to view these processes as example of individual economic liberties; they are, in fact, both examples of cause and effect as to the very forms of licensed abuse serving to impale the very liberties we opine as being sacred. With deference to sacred truth, the economic principal of laissez-faire is more emblematic of economic freedom than is the use of the term capitalism. Capitalism is what becomes of laissez-faire economic freedoms when the advantages of Government Legislative/Regulatory-Influences are used to affect the interests/bias of the Capitalist who despises and fears the economic freedom implicit in free-market economic systems. To truly understand the despotic anomaly of our current economic blight one must come to terms with the substantive relevance of this paragraph and the disparate relationship between Government and Economic Freedom.
Clarity #4: Over many years I’ve written numerous articles, papers and books that go deeply into the financial-noose that is neatly tied about the economic neck of this Nation and its People. I’ve also learned that providing numbers and statistics is largely a waste of time and there are many reasons for this; mostly I believe it is simply a lack of clarity on the part of the American Public; the numbers are so massive and the processes that have been licensed are equally extreme that for many the mass appear unbelievable, unmanageable and indiscernible. Further, assigning numbers with the hope of providing the endorsement of clarity only clouds the picture and many simply don’t know to accept that they should care to understand the why behind it all. For this reason I will simply provide a few bullet points, all of which I assure you are substantively reliable as they are each based on provable fact. It is also imperative that one consider that each of these are known factors and most certainly not anomalies unto themselves. With this in mind,
There will be no Effective U.S. Economic Recovery without:
- A complete suspension of the current U.S. Monetary Policy and Banking Practices. The most immediate way of accomplishing this is to reinstate the Glass-Steagall legislation and vacate every legislative or regulatory action, at the minimum, since 1974. Tinkering with the mess is not a solution.
- Eliminating the current tax code and moving directly toward a base-rate tax system based solely on Gross Income (for Households) and Net Product Income (for Corporations). Household income subject to tax will be exempt as to the first $200k of income provided that all Households contribute 15% of their income toward a personal retirement account and maintain, at the minimum, a major medical plan. Corporate Tax rates will be tiered and tethered to Domestic vs. Foreign source. There will be no distinctions between “active” or “passive” income and the idiotic notion of Non-Profit entities will be eliminated as will Estate Taxes. If you eliminate the distinction between “active”, “passive”, For-Profit and Non-Profit incomes you will witness a critical economic revitalization and significant change in cross-generational wealth. Simplicity and universality is an absolute necessity; the fact that these two attributes are missing in the current Code is precisely why it is dysfunction and emblematic of all Government processes.
- Coming to grips with a quiet risk which looms ahead specifically as it relates to Entitlement Programs and the current litigation, relating to Obamacare, now before the Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court determines that the “mandate” provision is unconstitutional then one should be prone to ask: What becomes of Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare? It is well known and understood that these programs will collapse within the next five years and for this reason I see no need to entertain government-based fixes. The appropriate solutions, being strictly private sector-based, are thoroughly discussed in one of my books; specifically, Valor in Prosperity.
- Considering that the U.S. GDP (2011) is hovering about the $15 Trillion mark and barely 23.4% of this ($3.5 Trillion) represents productive tradable-output. The balance ($11.5 Trillion) consists of consumer spending, services (less than 4.5% of which might be deemed “tradable”) and/or government spending. Now then, setting aside for the moment the massive Federal, State, Individual, Corporate and Financial Services Notional Debt ($175 Trillion) and only considering current and projected growth of government spending alone, one can clearly see that the measly $3.5 Trillion U.S. productive tradable-output is microscopic by comparison and specifically the reason why debt has been used in an attempt to subsidize the shortfall. Not only is the U.S. Economy not capable of addressing its debt problem, the projected growth in debt and debt-servicing costs exceeds the U.S. Economy’s current and projected output; far worse, the project growth in debt and debt-servicing cost expands, annually, and at an exponential rate. Let me place it in more finite terms: A mere $3.5 Trillion output is somehow believed to be capable of servicing an exponentially expanding Spending-Spree and an ever-increasing Debt-Load now at $175 Trillion. If one were to include the notional-value of the debt-exposure owned by the U.S. Financial Services Industry along with Government Guarantees (including the Federal Reserve) then I would suggest one consider the use of the term, a black-hole, when searching for an appropriate caricature.
Now then, the last of my examples of the hopelessly irreconcilable and remarkably deceptive anomalies:
The Greatest Flaw of All:
Save for Rep. Ron Paul, and by no means do I intend an endorsement as even he is a bit scant as to specifics, not a single Presidential Candidate has ever, even remotely, approached a functional discourse or proposed a rational and effective approach toward resolving or addressing these issues.
Clarity # 5: Given that the U.S. Economy and Political Processes are so thoroughly contaminated and the flaws so conspicuously horrific; what is it that the Candidate knows which keeps them from taking advantage of an opportunity for distinguishing themselves before the American Voter in a way that would demonstrate their understanding of the problem(s), a command of the processes at work having created the problem(s) and the ability to articulate these contaminants along with a specific and deliberate strategy for attacking each of them? I should think that the American People would want an answer to this question as I believe it holds the key to understanding why the anomalies exist and why they are so irreconcilably deceptive.
AS with every cross-road one encounters there is no escaping the simple fact that a decision is required; a choice will need to be made and this demand is both implicit and perpetual. My greatest concerns emanate from a fundamental understanding of the processes at work, the years dedicated to their study and analytical review and a seasoned command of the anthropological factors. Without question the U.S. systems of government and economy, both co-conspirators in the anomaly of deception, have long passed the point where they are reconcilable with our National Ideal and we no longer possess the privilege of time to play a game of wait and see.
What remains to be determined rests solely on the element of clarity: “Clarity as to Ideal, Clarity as to Purpose and Clarity as to Tender” and not simply Grasping at Flaws.
“What becomes of the future often retains the imbedded flaws of the past; to cure the reproductive risk one must express a commitment to excising the contaminants; mere caricatures of deceptions far too long held as being true.”
If we can simply dedicate ourselves to the task of securing one another to the precision of clarity then we will accelerate the perfecting of our future and therein lies the foundation upon which to build our next and greatest season yet and avoid the anomalies of deception risk!
Curtis C. Greco, Founder
