No Going Back!
The Collapse of 2012
Dhammabucha Rocksprings Meditation
According to Bloomberg, the rate at which the 400 U.S. taxpayers with the highest adjusted gross income actually paid federal income taxes --their so-called effective tax rate -- fell to about 18 percent in 2008 from almost 30 percent in 1995, IRS data show. That’s the tip of the iceberg, since much of their wealth never converts into income on a tax return
“It’s still desirable to defer the tax (cheat) and wind up with an interest free loan from the government,” (a billionaire) said. “Chances are you don’t get audited and if it does get challenged the odds are good you’ll have a settlement for some fraction of the amount you saved. Who wouldn’t want that?”
This is Called playing the system, and society suffers. For example, while Billionaires taxes have gone down and corporate profits have increased 22%, Workers’ Health Premiums Rose 63% in 7 Years, and wages have gone down by 67%.
Do billionaires care about society? They should, but they don’t – it’s not in their DNA. Money to them is abstract, no more than a competitive game where they must win by keeping every nickel.
So how do we, as a society who understands that only so many people can be rich and the vast majority will be middle class, keep society from falling into a dog eat dog world where only the wealthy survive, considering that the wealthy have no compunction or incentive to help society? We do it by taxes to level the field so that common people will at least have food, shelter and medical care.
Many of the wealthy see this as stealing from them and will go to great lengths to not share a penny of their income. They forget the contribution that society makes to their good fortune – the labor and consumption that allow the wealthy to accumulate wealth.
And this, in a nutshell, is the liberal – conservative ideological divide that is polarizing America. The poor and middle class make up 80% of the population, however many in the middle class see themselves as upward mobile and identify with the wealthy. This upward mobility is a myth as far as reality is concerned, but the picture is painted in the middle class minds of fabulous life styles, vacations in Greece and never ending pleasure, by the media and corporate advertising.
The middle class is finally coming face to face with the reality that they are being victimized; little pawns in a chess game that they cannot win. A face to face that is beginning to take shape with movements such as Occupy Wall Street and just a general waking up of a sleepy society, lulled by a false monetization.
This waking up will create a new political force resulting in dramatic changes to our way of life, ie., no longer will political contributions be allowed by moneyed interests. Only relatively small, individual donations will be legal. Many things will change, the least perhaps being the barrage of dishonest ads in the media – and the greatest - no more bought out politicians.
But these big changes will be fought tooth and nail by the wealthy. They have a vested interest in the staus quo and lot to lose - money as well as power, including the police force and military to insure their status. Therefore, a sudden and severe revolution of the masses will probably be the only mechanism that will affect the changes. Or, a total collapse of an economic system that is now rigged to benefit the wealthy at the expense of the middle and poor classes.
I believe that an economic collapse will be the remedy, rather than a civil war. And the collapse is probably inevitable because of the power of greed. The wealthy will not willingly contribute any of their wealth to society which it views as substandard, lazy, uneducated, welfare queens.
It will be this ignorance of history and the incorrigible refusal to share their wealth with the rest of humanity that ushers in the depression that will finally change things.
We can see this developing in the European Union now, and America won’t be far behind.
The sovereign solvency crisis in Europe and the coming solvency crisis in America are results of the middle and poor classes being fed the lie that they are no different from the wealthy - and all the wealth will trickle down on them - eventually. With a lot of credit, the lower classes lived a lavish lifestyle, and this credit kept the lower classes satisfied for half a century while the rich got richer and the poor just thought they were getting richer. Bigger cars, bigger houses, bigger debt, and everyone in the family happily working 60 hours a week.
So the poor (poor and middle class) got poorer, but they never knew it. Because they were living in a credit bubble contrived by the weathy to keep them happy.
Now, the credit bubble has popped, and although there are attempts to reinstate it by printing more money, globalization has laid bare the illusion of American wealth – it isn’t there, at least for the poorer classes, and it never has been. We have been living in a fantasy world of credit cards and easy money.
So things are going to get dicey. And when things get dicey, the lowest on the food chain gets hit the hardest. We can see this unfolding in Europe now, an area that doesn’t have the luxury of America (so far) to be the safe haven of the financial world. When things get tough, money flows away from everyone else in the world and into U.S. government bonds and dollars. So we will be the last to fall, but fall we must.
In Europe now, the problem is both liquidity (the banks don’t have enough money to cover their depositors), and sovereign solvency (the government's central bank (sort of) - the ECB, is forced print money to make up for a shortfall of incoming funds to finance the lavish lifestyles of the past condoned by the use of easy credit).
This shortfall of funds occurs when bondholders, who in the past would not think twice about lending money to governments by buying their bonds for a nice return, no longer have faith that their bonds will be secure, and therefore ask for higher and higher interest rates.
Eventually, the government goes broke when it can no longer sell enough new bonds to pay the exorbitant interest rates, and pay the bills of their country as well.
So what is the situation in Europe now (a preview of what will happen in America in the near future)?
If the ECB prints money and gets the banks off the hook by injecting liquidity, attempts by governments of austerities for the people will evaporate as people won’t see the need to sacrifice. Lavish lifestyles again!
On the other hand, if the ECB doesn’t print money, forced austerities will cause a depression in Europe.
So, liquidity is easy – crank up the presses. But solvency, that is more difficult – more taxes, less spending, recession and pain. Therefore, when the ECB does print money (the alternative being a collapse of the EU), things will be great for a year, maybe less.
Then Bernanke will unleash Q3, and it will be a footrace to see if the world economy can grow enough to pay for all that printed money. If it can, we have another 4 years to live it up before a collapse that will have no solution.
If not, the collapse could take place as soon as 2012.
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E. Raymond Rock (anagarika eddie) is a meditation teacher at the DhammaRocksprings Theravada Buddhist Meditation Retreat Center: dhammarocksprings.org and author of “A Year to Enlightenment: http://www.amazon.com/Year-Enlightenment-Steps-Enriching-Living/dp/1564148912 His 33 years of meditation experience has taken him across four continents including two stopovers in Thailand where he practiced in the remote northeast forests as an ordained Theravada Buddhist monk.
He lived at Wat Pah Nanachat under Ajahn Chah, at Wat Pah Baan Taad under Ajahn Maha Boowa, and at Wat Pah Daan Wi Weg under Ajahn Tui. He had been a postulant at Shasta Abbey, a Zen Buddhist monastery in northern California under Roshi Kennett; and a Theravada Buddhist anagarika at both Amaravati Monastery in the UK and Bodhinyanarama Monastery in New Zealand, both under Ajahn Sumedho. The author has meditated with the Korean Master Sueng Sahn Sunim; with Bhante Gunaratana at the Bhavana Society in West Virginia; and with the Tibetan Master Trungpa Rinpoche in Boulder, Colorado. He has also practiced at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, and the Zen Center in San Francisco.
Article submitted Monday, November 21, 2011 & read 2044 times.
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» left by david from magnolia, texas (90 days 19 hours ago.)
Sooner the better, I guess. Or we could follow the lead of those that have been oppressed the longest, those in Monarchial societies whose spring and now summer of discontent have chosen to pitchfork those in power to the wall and shake every last cent out of their seemingly endless pockets, and if you happen to hit a major artery in the process, so be it!» left by e(4) (89 days 11 hours ago.)
Hey David! Thanks for reading and commenting. I'm afraid that's what it will take. Conservatives are controllers, like controlling husbands, loud, obnoxious, and they don't get that although Liberals are peaceful people and appear passive, they won't hesitate to stand up for what's right. And when Libs stand up, you better duck, ala the Civil War.
» left by CAROL FERNANDEZ from United Kingdom (90 days 18 hours ago.)
All of this has been engineered by the cabal and they will crash it themselves probably, and try and move in closer to increase their control. One of the new European leaders is one of the Bildeburgs, can't remember it is is Greece or Italy. They will not succeed ultimately for I believe humanity has reached critical mass for love. The NWO are in the minority and control is not the same as power. Those undergoing rapid spiritual progression will connect to their higher selves, the soul atman.They are more powerful. Great article, well written and articulate but I would urge you to me mindful of: energy flows where the attention goes,(Einstein), and thought plus belief plus emotion=reality. Quantum physics gives the clues. Thus, if enough of us focus on a better world and do not get pulled down too much by worry about disastrous happenings, then we are creating it.'We will have a better world, are are unstoppable, it is the beginning of the beginning...' Occupy wallstreet.» left by e(4) (89 days 11 hours ago.)
Amen Carol! You're fighting the good fight. Give me 1% more!!
» left by Terry Johnston from Canada (90 days 11 hours ago.)
Great article - well thought out!Billionaires need to understand it is the system that allowed them to earn their billions. A system devised by and kept going because of the middle class. It is a fact Billionaires don't need private armies to protect their wealth because the system with it's laws, law enforcement professionals, and and justice system are in place to protect the super wealthy from mobs who would simply take what they want. Doesn't a system like that--deserve some respect? Some payback from the super successful? Some allegiance to the people of the country who made it happen?If not--let have those billionaires start over in a place like North Korea or Zimbabwe and let's see how well those systems will allow them to do.» left by e(4) (89 days 11 hours ago.)
Wow, so well put Terry. Thank you so much. If we only had the sensitivity and intellegence of Canada as a society.