Federal Government Shutdown

[Aractus]

Okay, here are my thoughts. As many of you know I am an ordinary member of a political party here in Australia.

We have compulsory voting in Australia, and it is of utmost importance in a democracy to have it.

The USA claims to be a democracy, but lacks mandatory voting, so you see the parties representing the views of their supporters; and their supporters are voting citizens, and as a result of having non-mandatory voting, the poor and underprivileged are the people least likely to vote; and thus the rich are the ones who have their wishes appeased.

The USA has a huge problem with Federal government debt. They don't so much have such a large problem with State government debts (although there are obviously examples of States that are an exception to this generalization). The figure that most people hear presently is that the USA has USD 16.7 Trillion in public debt - this is totally incorrect, that figure is the federal government debt only. The total public debt in the USA (federal/state/local) is closer to USD 22 Trillion, yet you almost never hear this quoted as the "US public debt" figure!

China owns about 1.3 Trillion of the federal debt, Japan owns about 1.1 Trillion. Think about this, if China decided to liquidate their bonds, what would happen? Would the USA really be able to find investors for 1.3 Trillion overnight, or would money be printed and the economy go into spiralling inflation and interest rate rises? What about if Japan wanted to liquidate their bonds?

So like the wealthy US citizens that vote, China and Japan also have to be listened to by the government as they are, if you will, the primary shareholders of the USA. Between them, they can prevent the USA taking military action against countries they consider allies (eg North Korea), or they can strongarm them into taking military action against countries that they consider enemies. The USA has no problem taking military action against countries for fiscal reasons, for instance Iraq.

So when I hear Yanks go on blaming one of the two major parties, I simply laugh. Why should your children's children be the ones paying for your current government and your current lifestyle?? Well, if you have a government in the USA right now, today, they're the ones that are going to be paying the bill for you. It's fucking disgusting. And if China, or Japan were to liquidate their bonds, then your grandchildren would have a lifetime of total financial depression to look forward to.

So think twice next time you assume that the "debt ceiling" should be raised.

Here’s a course of action the USA desperately needs to take: 1. raise federal government taxes, 2. reduce spending, 3. Lower the debt ceiling annually, 4. repeat indefinitely until federal government debt repaid.