Maybe we should sue the government....

Read an interesting quote from one of my Facebook friends' statuses. I've pasted it below, edited slightly.

Maybe we should sue the [government] for theft of our money. They keep raising taxes and going further in debt. What are they doing with what they have? Furthermore, the people on government assistance that can work and are receiving money from our tax dollars should be sued for receiving stole property. 

He was just venting, he said, but it's something to think about. I'm not big on suing anybody just for the sake of suing, it does seem there is a phenomenal lack of accountability in our government today. And I think that's the main point my friend was making. 

So, what do you think?

Comments

[Lx]

The problem is that this statement smells too much like someone who aligns himself with the Republican party. It's too simple and follows party talking points. Nor should the other side (the Liberals, the Democrats) prevail in this argument. You know the argument from that side: tax the people to pay for programs--social and/or otherwise.

The truth is that 2 wars now reaching the 10-year mark, have bankrupted this country. This government (whether controlled by Reps or Dems) sells gov. issued bonds in order to function. China, Russia, Japan, the UK, and Norway hold most of our debt...more clearly China owns us. Without them we can't function. So, yes...taxing now means absolutely nothing. We're broke, so the gov't taxes us to just meet (sub?) standard requirements. We need money to shore up our Education systems, our infrastructure, our basic services like municipalities picking up garbage, police and fire departments operations, etc. But we don't have it. We had a surplus at the end of the 90s. I'm not crediting Clinton for that; it was actually a bi-partisan Congress that passed those budgets. But bi-partisanship is a long forgotten practice nowadays. Wars in Iraq and the ongoing Afghanistan debacle have brought us here. Our country does not manufacture anything anymore. All our jobs are sent to Asia/South Asia. So yes, taxing us now is infuriating, because we don't see anything from that. So I do understand. Where's my money going? 'Cause it sure ain't landing in MY pocket.

I think systemically we're doomed. Any time you have a government that is run by a central bank (The Federal Reserve--which by the way, ain't nothing Federal about it; it's a private bank), and there is massive abuse by a financial system that--never mind that it's not tightly regulated, it's not even regulated at all--you are bound to land in the trouble that we're now in. The markets don't correct themselves. As it's been now shown, Greenspan and his boys (Summers, Geithner, etc.) were dead wrong. And most of these boys are still kickin' it around this administration--so you see, it's definitely political, but it's not party dependent. These guys couldn't care less WHO is in charge of the White House, as long as they're let to run free. Mark my words, you can call this a double-dip recession or a triple-dip; we're not getting out of the mud for YEARS to come.

I shake my head at the unemployment figures (9.6 the latest) they report to us; it's at least 2 percentage points over that...they don't take into consideration people that have stopped looking (in frustration), that have given up. There won't be any jobs created in our country any time soon to keep up w/the downturn. There can't be; we export everything overseas. The day you ban outsourcing is the day we'll have a start.

We need to win back our manufacturing jobs here. We have hundreds of thousands of skilled workers whose jobs have gone to Indonesia/etc. These people have lost, and continue to lose their homes, their dreams. It's not a Democrat or Republican thing. It's a Wall Street thing. I don't understand why people here shy away from regulation.

And true, governments are INHERENTLY corrupt and there is almost Pork by default, but OUR government is one we can scrutinize via watchdog organizations, and our gov't is one that is probably one of the less corrupt entities in the world. Let's not talk about some of those countries in Europe or Africa where systemic corruption is so prevalent, it's laughable. How's about going over to Zimbabwe and finding out a slice of cheese actually costs 3 or 4 million Zimbabwen dollars. I think to date, Zimbabwe has a Billion-dollar banknote. How's that for inflation and a central bank printing money.

We're in deep you know what; I don't have the answer...if I did, I'd be a world-famous economist. And if I was that, I'd be an anti-Freedman-is. Because this is where his theory of "free markets" has brought us.

Regular working people will always lose.

[Brandon]

Thanks for chiming in, Lx. Thought I'd have a little more discussion on this post, but oh well.

Without going point-by-point through what you said, because that would take more time than I have available right now, I will say that for the most part, I agree. Especially with the part about not knowing the answers. I don't feel like any of us do.

As for me, I just try to avoid falling into, or at least staying in, the hopelessness and fear that comes with thinking too much about how corrupt, or at least inept, our leaders seem sometimes. I want to believe they have our best interests at heart. I really do. But the less naive I get, the less I believe in that. I just don't think they know at all what it's really like to be middle-class. And that, I think, is one of the greatest problems we face. We have leaders who have no clue who we really are.