Henri Reynard Speaks Out

Let the Good Time Roll

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"Come on baby, let the good times roll" seems to be a strange theme song for this administration, but then, the Prez. was quite a party animal in his early years. Of course the issue of good times is one every President must be sensitive to if they are to be reelected. We are the first generation that ever thought life would go on happily forever aren't we? Eternally young, brash, with a sudden grin and storm clouds that rise out of nowhere to vanish in the sun of the next moment. Why are so many members of my generation losing that verve for life that that song exemplifies? Maybe it is harder to see the Midnight Hour from the melatonin-induced sleep we are using to refresh ourselves these days. Whatever drugs the economic advisors to this President are using, I want a lifetime supply. If they can sleep at night after proposing this budget, or really believe the hokum they are selling, they are on something a lot more potent than melatonin!

Now far be it from me to spoil somebody else's good trip. If they think all is right with this economy then more power to them. I am kind of a "glass half full" guy myself. I like the fact that this economy allows us to creatively approach the problems of old age with less money. It will keep us on our toes and test our balance daily. The secret to aging gracefully is obviously not to age at all. The new programs of tax cuts has eliminated all pretense that Social Security can be funded beyond the year 2025. That will prevent some of us from retiring any time soon, if we expect to keep eating, that is! Since retirement ages a lot of people that would be good wouldn't it? Of course even if we try to fund Social Security, the dollar will be so inflated by the huge deficits created by this budget plan and the tax cuts enacted last year, that the cash value of any stipend will be small.

This stealth attack on the wealth of the middle class and below is proceeding faster than any war against our enemies abroad. We are squandering the Social Security Surpluses that are generated today, in tax cuts for the wealthy. Social Security should be segregated from the general funds because the tax is drawn from the income of even the poorest workers. That tax is entirely based on the promise that there will be sufficient funds to pay a minimal retirement when they reach the age of reasons. The reasons I am talking about here are the reasons to retire. Like, it is a lot harder to read the computer monitor without squinting, and that gives me a headache. Or more seriously, my legs ache constantly when I stand in the same place all day at the McDonalds counter. Or any of a large number of other reasons that plague us as we age. Social Security was not intended to stand alone as a retirement plan. It will apparently be all a lot of people have when the Baby Boomers reach retirement, if they ever do.

Now why would any set of economic advisors want to be involved in the stripping of the middle class of their retirement support system? Why would this administration be so intent on changing the rules of the retirement game by destroying the basis for Social Security? Because they are closet Darwinians! Because they do not believe in Social Security, they think it has to go the way of the tooth fairy. They will not admit that survival of the fittest describes how nature works, that might offend some of their true believers. Yet their retirement plan for the elderly middle class and lower classes of this nation is adding up to work or starve in the long run. How much more Darwinian could a social and economic philosophy get?

Our economy is in a nosedive even if it is growing slightly. The practical fact of life is the good times are gone for a while. Maybe a long while, maybe a short while, but certainly they are gone for a while. Our currency is shrinking in value against the other currencies in the world. This effect alone will offset any weak real growth in GDP we are experiencing this year. The increases in the price of oil appear to be temporary. The clear direction of oil prices over the last ten years has been up by almost fifty percent, even if you discount the seven or eight dollars war premium we are paying now. This is a constant drag on our economy.

Where are the answers to this problem? They lie in not lying to the public about the gravity of the current situation. They lie in not running out the string of good times for our wealthiest citizens further than honesty and integrity would allow an honest human being to do. They lie in owning up to the fact that real problems exist with our current economic model; that it tends too far toward social Darwinism. They lie in the people recognizing when they are being lied to by a bunch of rich men raping our government for their own classes benefit, at the expense of the rest of the people in this great nation. They lie not in class warfare! But in the simple recognition that class interests often drive our society and our government in directions that always benefit one economic class against the interests of another. They lie finally in the recognition that we are all in this mess together, rich and poor alike, and if we want a wealthy economy we all need to work to get it!