California Doing a Rendition of the Housing Industry on the Budget – $20 Billion Budget Deficit and Massive Amount of Distress Inventory. How Banks Raided the U.S. Treasury with the aid of the Federal Reserve and have Damaged Housing Further.
The banking system has captured our government and frustration is boiling over. Yet those in the housing and banking industry seem complacent and even self congratulatory that we “have avoided Great Depression 2.0.â€Â Really? Now we’re taking advice from the same group of cronies that led the economy off the financial cliff. And the most troubling thing is we are at the height of unemployment even though the headline rate seems to have steadied out. California’s unemployment rate still continues to move upward hitting 12.5 percent. Yet all is well in delusional banking world since their idea of a solution is simply not foreclosing. What is even worse, these banking crooks are now offering fire sale deals to other banks and hedge fund investors! I’ve contacted a few banks about short sales and in many cases, preference is being given to “all cash†investors. Glad those bailouts are supporting the crony banking system.
One of the most troubling trends is the belief that all is well because banks aren’t foreclosing on homes or the fact that there is no second wave. Really? Let us look at nationwide foreclosure filings shall we?
Who needs a second wave when the first wave is still in place? Some in the housing industry seem to be patting their back that there won’t be a second wave of foreclosures (even though it is still high) and base this on the mounting distress inventory with Alt-A and option ARMs but no actual foreclosure filing. The wave is hitting as people stop paying their mortgage. Take for example option ARMs. Nearly 50 percent of all outstanding option ARMs are at least 30 days late. In other words, the borrower isn’t paying the mortgage! Yet in some form of twisted abracadabra housing logic, this is avoiding the wave because banks are ignoring the problem. The wave was the distress. Foreclosures are still on the market. The bank balance sheet is still loaded with mortgage junk. But just because banks are putting their hands over their eyes doesn’t mean the issue was avoided. In fact, it is corrupt to the core and the way they acknowledge this is absolutely stunning. The fact that we have no solid financial reform after 2 years of major crisis is incredible. Banks simply ignoring missed payments while taking trillions demonstrates what has become of our financial system and their idea of dealing with the problem.
Take for example HAMP:
“(Huffington Post) As of the end of January there were over 116,000 permanent modifications and over 67,000 permanent modifications pending final approval,” Geithner wrote in his letter, which the panel received last week. “This group of approximately 180,000 permanent and pending permanent modifications represents about a third of the population of total modifications who have completed the trial modification and are at a point in the process where they are able to convert to permanent.”
HAMP has been an absolute failure. Yet HAMP is symptomatic of the bigger issue. Banks were able to raid the entire U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve for $13 trillion in backstops and bailouts, with no questions asked but then start talking about moral hazard when it comes to HAMP:
“Kucinich was pessimistic about the ability of any program that doesn’t involve principal reductions to help floundering homeowners. “Instead, we’re going to stay on this slow path to default, foreclosure and personal bankruptcy,” Kucinich said. “And our economy is going to continue to suffer.”
He added: “It’s funny that moral hazard is a concept when it comes to Main Street but not to Wall Street,” a reference to the massive bank bailouts.
More than 2.8 million homes were lost to foreclosure last year, according to data provider RealtyTrac. The firm expects a record three million foreclosures this year.â€
I’ve talked with colleagues who are Republicans and Democrats and both are absolutely appalled by what is going on with Wall Street and the housing industry. They have transformed our economy into one giant casino and houses are now life sized Monopoly tokens that are traded on the New York Stock Exchange with no regard to local economies. Moral hazard applies to the masses yet those rules don’t apply to the plutocracy that sits on Wall Street. While the stock market soars from the March low by a stunning 68%, job creation is nowhere to be found:
Where are the jobs? Last month they blamed the snow and now next month, we can expect a big boost because of Census hiring. That is great that we have thousands working at $16 or $17 an hour with no benefits but then what? Are we going to do the Census every month? Most Americans realize that things aren’t as rosy as Wall Street is leading on. And California is certainly not doing any better:
California Doing a Housing Industry on the Budget
“SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday that he vetoed the largest piece of legislation in a package of budget bills because it did not take immediate steps to cut spending.
Democratic lawmakers said the bill would have shaved $2.1 billion from the $20 billion shortfall projected for California’s budget through June 2011. So far, the Legislature and governor have agreed to just $200 million in spending cuts.
“It’s extremely important that we immediately jump into action and make midyear cuts,” Schwarzenegger told reporters on Tuesday. “We’re spending, right now, $600 million a month more than we’re taking in. It’s irresponsible.”
This came out on Tuesday by the way. We still have a $20 billion shortfall and are spending $600 million a month more than what is being brought in. So what does that mean? It means more cuts or higher taxes. How is this good for housing? More importantly, how is this good for the state economy? If we look at the unadjusted unemployment rate California is up to 13.2 percent unemployment (headline). We are seeing 23 percent underemployment. This is something none of us have seen in the modern era. Yet those in the banking and housing industry are claiming mission accomplished just because banks aren’t moving on foreclosures. This is their ultimate solution. Because that is all they have. This suspension of belief is their idea of avoiding the second wave. Humor them and take this out to the logical conclusion.
Many Californians are underemployed as we have highlighted. Those that are employed, can expect tighter wages and higher taxes thus cutting into their disposable income. So how does this create higher home prices? Even if banks “trickle†out inventory once that inventory hits the market it confronts the economic realities people have to live by. That is why when we show examples of short sales they are selling at deep cuts. Home prices have to reflect local area incomes and what people can afford. Unless we plan on bringing back toxic waste mortgage sludge like Alt-A and option ARMs, people can only buy what their income can support.
If things are so fantastic in the housing market for California, I’m sure builders are out there in mass right?
Not exactly. Because there is a glut of housing on the market. And more importantly, that second wave of housing is sitting on the banks balance sheet. So they won’t be making construction loans when they realize just how much inventory is really out there. Just look at the above chart. Building permits and construction jobs are at the trough. No visible turn around. And take a look at notice of defaults and foreclosures:
The only reason the foreclosure number has fallen was because of HAMP (which as we now know is a failure meaning more short sales or foreclosures will hit the market soon because many on trial mods will not make it to permanent modification status). Whether it is a flood or just a steady trickle, this will happen. And these homes sell for lower prices thus pushing area prices lower. This is the next round for mid to upper tier markets. They have bought some time but it is running out. Eventually there will have to be some realization of local economic factors.
I was curious to see what industries were adding jobs:
Who will be buying the homes in 2010? More importantly, why would people be overpaying for homes? The above chart shows no real improvement in the real economy. In fact, all the banking industry is doing is stalling the inevitable but at the same time sucking the taxpayer dry. With the $13 trillion in bailouts and backstops we could have had enough to pay off every single residential mortgage in the United States and taken everyone to Disneyland. Instead, we are financing the crony banking system full throttle robbery of the American people.
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31 Responses to “California Doing a Rendition of the Housing Industry on the Budget – $20 Billion Budget Deficit and Massive Amount of Distress Inventory. How Banks Raided the U.S. Treasury with the aid of the Federal Reserve and have Damaged Housing Further.”
California citizens would change Prop 13 if anyone bothered to explain it to them:
1. This is not a homestead exemption, so it does nothing to favor homeowners over landlords (who already have strong incentives through. This is landlord welfare.
2. Commercial properties are not exempted (they have a fixed base as well). This is fundamentally flawed, since it favors property-owning companies who lease as their primary business. This is corporate welfare.
3. There is no means test. Millionaires have the same exemptions as indigent elderly. This is welfare for the rich.
Unfortunately, taxpayers were sold that little old ladies were getting kicked out of their homes. While this is true, we could avoid the landlord, corporate, and rich welfare by instituting some changes to the original proposition.
Instead, we have serious imbalances because cities favor not building homes unless they have significant Mello-Roos attached to them, allow corporate transfer of assets to perpetually avoid reassesment, and allows non-citizens and non-tax payers of California to receive the benefits of everyone else’s pain. How do you feel about prop 13?
This confirms how corupt the banking cronies are. View the video and get informed.
http://www.thinkbigworksmall.com/mypage/archive/1/32275
Swiller- Prop 13 may have its flaws, but NO ONE should have their taxes raised to pay for this gov’t. I don’t care what type of business they’re in, what income bracket their in, how much wealth they have, or don’t have, its just wrong.
Additionally, property taxes are flat out disgusting. I hate the idea of even after paying off a home , you never really own it. You simply live at the whim of the next generation of politicians and how much money they want to take from you.
This slow motion train wreck is still unfolding. Don’t hold your breath. I expect prices to be 20% lower in 18 months.
@ Bill
Saw that a while ago. That just got my blood boiling
Swiller’s comments sound familiar:
http://www.socalbubble.com/2010/02/prop-13-and-californias-budget.html
Everything he said is right, and Prop 13 favors rich more than anyone else. It was sold to the people differently than it was enacted. The basic premise is solid, but the application is a travesty to the people of California.
@Joe Average… the ideology of hating to pay property taxes is no better than the crony bankers who believe they DESERVE to make millions/billions. It’s a sense of entitlement. As a home owner, I should no longer have to pay the government anything ever again. No one wants to pay taxes, but you do expect sewer systems to work, roads to be drivable, the fire/police to respond when you call them. And I’m sure you didn’t mind taking your tax deduction for interest paid all those years. We live in a community, that community requires funding to work properly. Yes there is waste, but the amount of waste is more than justified by the good it delivers. Schools for our children so they don’t grow up uneducated and a burden to society, welfare for poor people who don’t can’t find better paying jobs. Go to a foreign country where there are no property taxes and see what it is like to live there. It is horrible. I agree Prop 13 should be re-worked so that it is fairer, but abolishing property taxes is suicidal for our society. Better to vote out any politician who takes corporate donations and special interests backed funding (any special interests) and has a common sense approach to governing. Maybe you should run. I would vote for you. You read the good Dr. Housing bubble, so I know that at least you are informed.
Brian T.- I hate to break it to you, but California is already a third world country and the nation is following suit. People are tired of paying high taxes (CA), not only due to the waste, but the informed public at large is tired of being burned by the uber rich that have screwed this state over for the last, say, 30 years. Your either rich or part of the working poor. Middle Class is gone. Did you watch Bill’s video link listed above? If so, that about sums it up. Bill’s video link also sums up why housing prices are still way out of whack. Untill real reform and prison time enter into the equation, this game is just going to keep on repeating itself. A revolution is what will stop it dead in it’s tracks. Just my two cents, Another good article Doc, keep up the good work.
Media makes me sick…elite makes me sick….I know you people worship Satanic
The media are all over the fact that today is the one-year anniversary of the 12-year low in the stock market reached on March 9, 2009, when the S&P sagged to that diabolical 666 level.
See no Evil, hear no evil think no evil…….. I hope banksters and Wall St dies…….
@Brian T- Thanks for the encouragement, but I can tell by your post you wouldn’t vote for me. Unlike most Californians, I expect basic services, nothing else. The amount of taxes we pay is infinitely more than what’s needed for those services.
–
I admit I question having to pay the gov’t in perpetuity for being “allowed†to own property, but I’m more than willing to cover “basic†services. However I’m confused, I thought I was paying for those through utility taxes, telephone taxes, water taxes, gas taxes, income taxes, business taxes, social security taxes, disability taxes, sales taxes, capital gains taxes, etc. Not to mention fees for permits, construction, vehicle licenses, garbage hauling, etc. Heck, my neighbor just had to pay a fee to cut down a tree in his backyard, right before he had to pay a fee to go fishing that afternoon.
–
And to respond to your prodding, yes, I do mind the tax deduction for interest paid on home loans. It’s the perfect example of a special interest group having laws changed in their favor.
–
BTW, keep up the good work Doc, your articles are great.
@JC: That is an overstatement. CA is not, by any stretch of the imagination similar to living in a third world nation.
Excuse me for butting in, but can anyone explain how the CA politicians can’t see that their pet project – state government – requires people to produce and pay the taxes? Can they not see the statistics the good Doctor presents that, as he indicates, more of the population is reducing its tax payments by the simple fact of un- and under-employment and, which he fails to point out, the number of people fleeing CA (net out-migration) is swelling, thus taking their tax payments with them. I suspect many of the top 1% (aka “the eeeeeevil Rich”) on which CA almost wholly depends for income tax revenue have at least begun to crunch the numbers on whether to stay or flee. If they have the slightest smidgen of gray matter they must realize that state spending machine – largely a function of do-gooder projects, ever proliferating boards and commissions, anti-business rules and regulations, vast swamps of administrators administering other administrators and, worst of all, the criminal salary and pension extortion of taxpayers by the public sector unions – must be not just halted, but thrown into reverse. Frankly, the only politician I’ve heard that seems to actually get the fact that the 50 state governments must undergo a root and branch structural transformation keyed to the de-certification of public sector unionization is Gov. Chris Chrisie of NJ. It still seems amazing that no CA politician recognizes that if they were to promise such a transformation, people and businesses would come flooding back in and CA could become the take off point for new job creation in the U.S. (whenever the national government stops screwing up). With that and all the other natural advantages of CA you’d have to beat off the flood of new productive arrivals with a stick. And, finally, the housing market would actually find it’s bottom and prepare for some sustainable growth.
Like Chuck and Swiller, I agree that Prop 13 should be re-engineered to protect the vulnerable (as it was sold). That this is a place to start. But those who have benefitted from Prop 13 (for instance speculating on commercial properties) would rather screw grandma than give up their pile.
~
Economic predators are worshipped as gods and reviled as demons, but rarely reined in with the proper thick leather of intelligent policy…. And when they are, they organize to cut the bridle. At least till THEY want something, and then these rampaging mustang stallions go all femmey all of a sudden, and want everyone else to pay for their whims.
~
I agree with Brian T that a progressive tax system is instrumental in creating an evolved, reliable, well functioning social infrastructure. This is the hard, grown-up nut of the matter: things take time, and cost money, and require work. We have been a spritzhead society for so long now (I date it to Nancy Reagan in that godawful inaug gown) that people seem to have forgotten how to consider these matters like grownups. I.e., that free lunch is going to cost you something, like it or no, and no matter how you cling to your illusions.
~
You think the roads are bad now? The water infrastructure? Community safety? Imagine them with a 50 percent cut in tax base. The private sector likes to honk about efficiency, but mostly I see a small cadre automating their mega-wealth very efficiently, and screwing everyone else equally efficiently.
~
So the challenge with taxation is how to make it more representative and progressive. Not how to live in some adolescent-libertarian-boy fantasy that one can go through life saying GIMME. When and as it suits.
~
I listen to my Tea Party acquaintances with respect, then ask them whether they are willing to pay $12 to $25 a gallon for gas (referring to studies of the actual cost of a gallon of gas, most of which is externalized in all sorts of ways). The sad thing? They simply don’t get it. They have no idea how the world works. They just want…stuff. I feel like our national symbol is no longer the senex Uncle Sam or Lady Liberty, but the puer aeternis.
~
I’ve been watching that Nationwide Forclosure Filings chart of Doc’s since, what, DHB, late 2006? Early 2007? When you first published it? In those years I visualized what you were saying as what this chart now shows. But it sure does send chills up my spine, to see those four layers of horrible stacked one atop the other. Pelion upon Ossa upon Olympus upon Santorini.
~
rose
One thing that should be obvious by now. New York is an independent financial soveriegnty that uses the rest of the United States as a blood bank, as well as the rest of the world. They see the rest of us as sub-human and milk us like so many cows. Washington is just their interface to the Treasury and a conduit to bleed all of us to death and use our corpses as manure.
Jump into this suspension of disbelief and by an RHG, trash cans and all, and they got you right where they want you. But you want to grill steaks and put balsamic vinegar on your romaine and explain why your leased BMW is better than her Mercedes, so dive back in. Is there some kind of renter’s stigma? Don’t they let you go to a block party if you rent? What is this really?
They used to have a rent-to-own method that really beat up the buyer but at least you had an idea if they could make the payments every month and had some skin in the game. This FIASCO score method, gov backed loans, how’d that work out? There has to be a better way.
Well, if the stock of foreclosed houses is reserved for the friends of TPTB,
they may be able to stick it to the unconnected prole who needs to buy a house for his family. The proles are restricted to the MLS houses. Friends of TPTB get access to the shadow inventory for a song, and get to resell it on the MLS at the artificially higher price. I haven’t seen thick real estate publications with thousands of vacant houses at fire sale prices yet. Fannie and Freddie get unlimited access to government funds to take the pressure to clear the decks off the housing market. Looks like the “fix” is in again.
“…little old ladies were getting kicked out of their homes. While this is true..”
Really, this was true? What about a reverse mortgage? No, this was greed on the part of the future heirs.
I am starting to believe 2010 will be remake of 2008 and don’t think it is time for pink glasses yet. Will it ever be? Government propaganda is still going strong about the fake manufactured recovery but nobody believes it. (I was amazed of the comments today on yahoo under the news of “improvement†in the job market, which is actually dead flat line. Nobody believes the recovery! No single comment that indeed it is getting better!) Next is probably when everybody discovers that everybody else is running for the exit.
California will be bailed out. Have no fear. And that bailout will come at the expense of Nevadans, Oregonians and Arizonians as well as all the other states too.
Why? Because Obama & Dems can’t afford to piss off CA. They have half a trillion in TARP money still in the bank and all that is needed to spend it for ANY REASON is Tim Geithner’s signature. So, CA will get bailed out.
They might hide it by bailing out the pensions of the CA teacher’s & prison guard unions directly, instead of giving it to Sacramento. But they’ll do it.
As for prop 13, I love it simply because it Starves the Beast. Not so much because of the prop tax provisions but because Prop 13 also snuck in a state constitutional amendment requiring 2/3 votes in both chambers of the legislature to enact and/or raise ANY taxes (although they try by renaming them ‘fees’).
@da-di
Agree there are no employment green-shoots as far as I can see, and I travel a lot and work with a lot of businesses and government customers. I have to go wherever because there is not enough work in my six county area, or larger region.
What is really telling is that, like the used-car concept, instead of buying a new one every couple of years, businesses and gov’t are doing the very minimum to keep their old systems working. I have never seen it like this. Green shoots? Give me a break. Still, cheerleading has it’s value–ignorance is bliss. If it makes folks happy, there’s some value in that. If it helps people to make foolish choices though, that is counter-productive, at best.
Da-d–da, your exactly right…… 2007 is mirror of 2010 and 2008 is mirror of 2011…… Implosion of alt & arms coming and nothing looking good for coming decade…… Media is brain washing people, MK-Ultra ….Its not just about the housing anymore…..It is about us against the United States of Soviet America……2012 will be man made biggest event will happen just the the 911…..When the Venus rise, exactly the 12 years cycle from 2001……Another blood sacrifice of human kind to Luciferian Agenda…..
DHB nailed it solid when he referred to the fact that Cal is spending 600 million more per month than it takes in. 600 million. Per month. When you’re already so damned deep in the hole it will take a bathyscape to go far enough down to reach you. That’s absolutely insane–unless your leaders are people who are TRYING to destroy your state. I’ve watched as Cal’s politicians have seen the proverbial wall coming closer and closer–and flat out ignored it. You’re on the ragged edge of bankruptcy now, the footing is damned slippery, and with every month you get 600 million dollars closer. When your collapse comes, it’s going to come in a big hurry. In all honesty, I think the ones who have been smart enough to see the tsunami coming and have already left Cal are going to be the only people to benefit in the end from this impending, now all-but-certain disaster.
One more thing: don’t count on the rest of the country coming to your assistance. Even if you people in Cal can’t see that your leftist government is insane and completely out of control, the rest of the nation does. Californians would undoubtedly be amazed at the level of contempt their state inspires in most of the rest of the country, particularly what it known as “flyover country.” Those “flyover” folks, who, stupid as they are, have generally been smart enough to remain within hailing distance of fiscal sanity (that doesn’t include Illville, Bama’s hellhole) both loathe and fear what they’re seeing in California. Many of them see it as some dreadful disease and are hoping desperately it’s not contagious, although they see a similar outbreak in Washington, D.C.
I hope you eventually regain good government, but I’m afraid you’re going to have to go through Hell to get there again.
I am so sick of all the cheerleading of this horrible economy by the media. People that have good jobs are doing just fine. The rest of us are suffering like no other suffering we have ever had in our lives. Half of my frineds & family are unemployed. Why isn’t it showing up in the stats?
Privatization does NOT make sense. Privatizing anything makes it more expensive. For example: health insurance, Chicago parking meters, war in Iraq, CEO pay, etc. Jobs will come back if you change trade laws and bring back tariffs.
Kid right no green shoots on the job market even worse I think unemployment will go up some more ( even if looks leveled right now) with the government/state/municipality workers layoffs running in exactly this moment. Itis just reflection of the budget holes everywhere, that simple. In my son’s school there are 6 teachers laid off, yesterday heard in the news Pasadena city lay offs … how this will work out? Villaragosa said “there is no solution which does not involve layoffsâ€. And he is dead on. Scale down, think small. Post 2000 USA economy was unsustainable and we should acknowledge it. Those coming layoffs are all well paid jobs even if they get replaced in mid term it is with low paid service jobs. ( comes to mind TV report of a guy with 6 figure salary getting 70% pay cut!) It is ugly and I don’t think there is any meaningful recovery, which is coming in next few years. Actually I am afraid this is the end of a era, the era of the post WWII prosperity. Brand new world is coming.
Total non-sequiter Brian. The fact that government requires *some* money to operate does not mean we should pay a tax on property to support anything the government does. We can have basic services and even more paid for by not taking the immoral and unethical step of actually taxing property.
Joe Average’s point was that particular type of taxation is completely unjust, and I agree with him — regardless of other types and rates of taxation or whatever the government does or does not pay for.
Taxing property is unjust and would make our founders roll over in their graves.
Brian T. where does one start to “school” you? “The government taxes only for vital services and there is little waste.” You can just look at Nancy Pelosi using our military as her private jet to realize how stupid your argument is. The last time I visited California I was in a state park that was unable to get a light bulb changed so they closed the bathroom. You know you have to have the “right” light bulb and the the “right” light bulb installer. Talk about WASTE. And it’s not enough that you pay your state workers well for little productivity as well as give them expensive health benefits for them and their families, plus huge unsustainable retirement packages….ah, no it’s not fair …we need to include their homosexual lovers as well.
How much a year does it cost to send a child to a California public school? $15,000? I think you could get a much better private education for half of that.And private schools fire their child molesters not give them tenure.
re: moral hazard, principle reduction, debt forgiveness blah blah blah. I have a friend that took out a 2nd for $70k to buy a new vehicle, anyway we can get that forgiven and she gets to keep the new Land Rover?
All the libertarians rail on and on about highly paid government workers, but, a lot of the state funded jobs I know about only pay around $10 to $15 an hour, and a good number of workers have BAs. Even teaching pays poorly for the first few years – the veterans are very well paid, but, the new blood isn’t.
They should pass a pension claw-back law, and tax the pension income about some “middle class” amount at a high rate. Tax 50% of everything over $60k, for example. Maybe add a tax to even lower incomes.
Yes, it sucks, but it sucks more to have a pension paying you $20k a year, and that’s what a lot of retirees have! A claw back tax helps keep the system solvent.
Also, the way to curb waste is to force politicians, CEOs, board members of corporations with revenues of over a couple million dollars, and people with incomes over $200,000 to open their books. Document and publish all transactions of stocks and bonds. Put it on a website and discuss. Peer into how your rich neighbors spend their money. 🙂
Is a HAFA article in the works? I think it will help push shadow inventory out into the market. If it is “successful” for the people who do the paperwork, it could work for buyers.
I don’t have a problem with paying my taxes but I disagree with property taxes. I know that I would have to pay the same amount in taxes, just in a different way but there is a philosophical argument against property tax. When you have to pay property tax, basically you are not allowed to own any property. It is rented from the state – if you stop paying your tax, your property is taken away so you never really own it. Property tax reduces us to medieval peasants who aren’t allowed to own property – only rent it from the lord of the manor.
BrianT – “Schools for our children so they don’t grow up uneducated and a burden to society” – CA schools are a pathetic joke, as are most schools in the US. US children have become and will continue to be nothing more than indoctrinated sheep, and hence will remain uneducated.
“the amount of waste is more than justified by the good it delivers” – of course, you mean good like this:
tinyurl.com/ygtzo4n
and this:
tinyurl.com/yzw33ec
The modern-day US federal govt., as well as most state govts., amount to nothing more than thinly disguised crime syndicates run by those whose fundamental skillset is successfully getting elected, i.e., those who are the best at deceiving voters. Political campaigns are largely an exercise directed to proving which candidate is the better liar. May the “best” candidate win.
CompassRose – “Economic predators are worshipped as gods and reviled as demons, but rarely reined in with the proper thick leather of intelligent policy” – in case you hadn’t looked into the matter, those who make policy these days are themselves economic predators, who are completely in bed with higher level economic predators. No “thick leather of intelligent policy” can therefore exist unless the present paradigm of so-called “left” versus so-called “right” is shattered, because politicians on the “left” and the “right” consistently exhibit the same types of behavioral patterns when it comes to screwing ordinary citizens.
“This is the hard, grown-up nut of the matter: things take time, and cost money, and require work” – true, but this is also the hard, grown-up nut of the matter: politicians play honest hard working people for suckers, because politicians don’t give a rat’s ass about actually solving problems (let alone preventing easily forseeable problems in the first place), and they know the voters are easily manipulated. In a scamocracy such as the system existing in the US today, politicians will always spend others’ honestly earned money with reckless abandon, ratcheting up such spending regardless of circumstances in order to solidify their political positions and line their own pockets. Your taxes will be going up – tremendously – and it will have very little to do with taxation becoming more truly “progressive.” The middle class will be relegated to the upper ranks of the lower class as a result of what the politicians will claim is “progressive fairness,” yet the elites and their public serpent tools will already have figured out how to continue their plunder of the system regardless.
Like the song says, “California, rest in peace.”
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