Simplicity and ‘Bluebacks’: Finding the Path Back to a Sustainable Money System

In “Working Girl,” that wonderful film about exploited “little guys” taking back their power, we hear an anecdote that’s relevant to our current financial fix. The story goes that a truck was stuck under an overpass, and none of the authorities called to the scene could figure out a way to get the truck through the tunnel. A little girl in a car that was stalled in line came up with the simple and perfect solution: let some of the air out of the truck’s tires.

Simplicity is usually the place to go for right answers. Our current manipulated financial crisis could actually be solved by a very simple solution. Let the excess air out of the financial system: the air that modern money is mostly made of. Loans that have been generated based on false money (numbers generated on paper checks by banks, money that doesn’t exist) should be considered false loans that need not be paid back.

With this simple new policy, every nation’s national debt would disappear. Personal debt would disappear. Home debt would disappear. We would all be left with what we have, own and use, and it would be legally recognized as ours, not as the property of a bank. National debts would be forgiven because the money given to nations for loans never really existed in the first place.

We would wipe the slate clean and start back at zero. The cash currently in the hands of the public would be the last that is printed. Lending would cease, unless it could be done in cash. Here’s an alternative solution: create bluebacks, a new currency, and make that the new medium of exchange, distributing $10,000 of it as “starter” to every American adult.

We’re told the economy will grind to a halt and a massive depression ensue if the government doesn’t bail out banks so they can keep on lending money. Why? That makes no sense. Why is the ability to lend considered the measure for a healthy economy? Our problem exists because of excess lending. Why is lending necessary to an economy, especially one that’s sick because it’s had way too much of it?

It’s a lie being told us to scare us into thinking we have to accept the scalping they have planned for us with the government bank bailout. Why is human productivity and the exchange of goods and service (the essence of “economy”) dependent on lending? Where is the harm if people produce and trade with the real products they have and can create, instead of trading with the fake “air” money the banks give in loans? The very nonexistent money that has caused our crisis?

How is lending more nonexistent money, or buying up debts of nonexistent money and charging taxpayers for them, going to solve the root of the problem, which is the nonexistent money itself? This “solution” is tantamount to a person who has their bank after them for failure to pay on a loan “solving” their problem by making the delinquent loan payment using a credit card. The banks won’t allow people to do that, because it’s clearly not a solution at all, just a forestalling of the problem. But now on the national level, we’re supposed to accept a similar solution as the panacea that will “save the economy.”

I say, let it fall. Let the false economy fall! Let the loans fall apart, let the big banks fail, let all the sick structure come to pieces. What we’ll be left with is the dollars in our purse or pocket, and the dollars we will earn next week at our jobs. People will pay for things in cash, or by trade or barter – perfectly good systems of exchange that were used for centuries by mankind but that the global elite have conditioned us to regard as impractical or obsolete.

Instead of making the cash in circulation the only official money, we could outdate the current cash and issue a new paper currency — blue dollars instead of green ones. Distribute $10,000 of bluebacks to every American adult ($1,500 for each child) and throw away the old currency, credit cards and debit cards – no longer recognized as money. Only checks and the new cash would be acceptable.

Why would this work? Let’s simplify it to the level of an example. Let’s say Person C needs some writing done and tells me she’ll give me $200 in bluebacks to do it for her. I write up her document, and she gives me her bluebacks. I then turn to you and say I need some hauling done – would you do it for the $200 bluebacks Person C just gave me? You say yes, you do the hauling, and I pay you. You then go to Person C, who knits sweaters, and ask if she will make you one for 200 bluebacks. She says yes, and you get a new sweater. Person C gets 200 bluebacks in exchange – the same 200 bluebacks she gave to me at the start of this example.

What has just transpired? Person C got some writing she needed, I got some hauling I needed, and you got the sweater you needed. We all were able to work, and we all got paid. Money passed around and wound up back where it started, but in the process, three new things were created that helped people: some writing, some hauling and some knitting. This little drama between the three people stimulated production and exchange.

That is the essence of the concept of “economy.” Healthy economy is not lending and creating false money. It’s people working to sustain themselves and to make their lives better, trading services and products they are skilled in for services and products other people are skilled in. That’s what money was all about when it started: it took the place of barter exchange, where I gave you my potatoes in exchange for your eggs.

Money happened because you didn’t need my potatoes but were happy to give me eggs. So instead of potatoes, I gave you a certificate for the equivalent value, and you used it to trade for something you actually needed – milk. The guy you gave my certificate (money) to could later on give it back to me in exchange for my potatoes, or he could give it to someone else in exchange for a different product or service. That’s how money was originally meant to work.

Money, in a sound and safe economy, is always tied to the value of a product or service. It is never created as numbers out of thin air. It is never fake. It always represents the tangible fruits of service and production.

Whether we use our current green cash or institute “bluebacks,” going back to a simple cash system would restore our economy to soundness and sanity. I prefer the idea of bluebacks for one reason: many people, who’ve been living on credit and debit cards, have no cash! How would they live, if cash becomes the only medium of exchange? By contrast, distributing bluebacks, evenly to all people, would be like starting a new Monopoly game: everyone begins equal, with the money they need to continue producing and trading.

In this simple new system, one thing must be outlawed: the creation of fake, fresh-air money. In other words, banks can’t can’t create false money by writing numbers on loan checks representing cash-on-hand that doesn’t exist. Banks, in fact, should not be permitted to write checks again, given the mess the banks and their checks have created. Only individuals should have this right. When a bank wishes to give a loan, they must give it in cold cash. It has the right to charge interest, but cannot lend money it only pretends to have. This will greatly reduce the power of banking institutions, returning them to the simple structures they were in the beginning.

The economy moves when people are moving and working. When they are producing, and sharing the good products of their labor. That’s a strong economy. It’s also called “living.” Creating and enjoying things, and supporting themselves, are spontaneous activities for humans. In our natural state, these things happen unimpeded. In our unimpeded state, “the economy” is strong.

Right now, bankers and governments threaten to impede the simple practice of economy to the point of stopping it. They have actually been impeding it for centuries, through outrageous taxation and in the past decades through outrageous mortgages. People work most of their lives just to pay two things: mortgage and taxes. In Amish societies, a home is a built in a day with the help of neighbors, and it’s yours. No mortgage, no big deal.

Everyone has the right to a home that is theirs, not the property of bankers. Why can the Amish find a way to own a home in a day, while the rest of us take 30 years of mortgage-paying to do it? Why do the bankers own us? Why have we let this situation develop? We are slaves to the moneyed aristocracy, tied to them by loans of fake money that never existed, numbers they wrote on a check to get ownership of our homes.

Bankers have impeded our economy and controlled us for a very long time, but now they threaten to stop our ability to trade entirely (i.e., crash our economy) if legislators don’t bend to their demands that the government swallow up their toxic debts and pass the sickness on to the American people, who already are taxed to the point of bare survival. The intent is to cause another depression, but before that happens, to give the government total control of the economy so the big bank moguls in bed with the government have no competition from smaller banks and credit unions that attempt to truly serve the people.

When the moguls/government leaders have accomplished both total financial control and another great depression, they will offer the solution to the suffering they have caused: their own new currency in the form of a national debit card. They will issue new money, but it won’t be bluebacks that you can exchange freely, that are tied to the tangibles of service and production. Their new money will be numbers on a computer, numbers they can alter to suit their purposes whenever and however they wish. Your money will be whatever it shows on the international computer as your holdings. If they don’t like your politics, they can delete your account. They will monitor everything you buy and spend through your national debit card.

And after you’ve used it a year or so, after they’ve saturated their mainstream media with PR about the wonderful security of having a beneath-the-skin microchip, they will tell you that all debit cards will be worn as microchips in that fashion, to stave off fraud, terrorism and identity thieves. You’ll be told you can store your medical records on the chip, your address (in case you get kidnapped) and other essential personal information.

Voila: we become cyber people, monitored and controlled by the global computer, which of course can send electrical impulses to the chip as easily as it can read one. With this final move by the power elite, we will be owned lock, stock and barrel, down to the level of our bodies. It’s tantamount to the chains they once put on slaves. Only our chains will be worn inside our flesh.

So what are we going to do, Americans? Sit back and let the government stick us with a trillion dollars in debt and tax us to starvation and homelessness? Let them create a depression, and the “solution” in the form of a national I.D./debit card, our only legal means of exchange? And if we allow all that, how will we resist their inserting those I.D.s into our arms whenever they want to? If you don’t permit it, they’ll simply cancel your money account and take your home.

Of course they’ll have all sorts of reasons why the I.D. under your skin is to help you. Just as this government takeover of the American economy is being touted as an act to protect the interests of the people on “Main Street.”

We have to look for the simple solution. We have to simplify, because in simplicity the essentials of anything exist and thrive. We need to ask what a healthy economy truly looks like, not let the moguls define that for us. Then we need to take simple actions to get ourselves back to that.

We will stop borrowing and stop spending beyond our means. Banks and corporations will fail that have been doing those things, and justly so. People who worked for those institutions will start over with enough bluebacks to carry them until they find sustainable jobs, jobs not dependent on the vultures. We’ll return to buying within our community. The toys we lived for that are propped up by the surveillance economy will drop away, and we’ll get back in touch with simple, important things.

Families will have time for each other instead of having to work two jobs and spending all their at-home time just trying to keep up with chores and child-chauffering. Marriages will start to prosper, freed from the stress of the modern insane lifestyle. Kids will start to find fun at home and play with their parents and neighbor kids. People will buy and trade locally, at small independent stores, from small independent farmers and tradespeople. We will learn new skills to replace our lives in the office cubicle/debacle.

Crafted products will return, and pride in a job well done. We’ll have homecooked food (with time to prepare it). Electronic products won’t break in a year and get tossed onto the ocean cesspools. Things will be made to last, and leisure time will develop, as mortgages and outrageous taxes, along with all the corporations that only served their own interests, bite the dust. We’ll have time to explore philosophy and think about higher things, explore potentials of being human we haven’t been able to think about in the exhaustive struggle just to survive. We will enter a new era for mankind.

It will not happen if we roll over and let the bankers and main government leaders (they’re actually the same, if you look at who’s standing in the shadows) bail out the banks at our expense and march us down the road to another depression, along with all its ensuing agenda. We will only see the dawn of a new age if we stand together against the insane, self-serving policies and demand a viable alternative. Bluebacks to save the economy? Why not? It only takes enough people calling for it to make it happen.

The 5% can’t rule the 95% if the 95% stop allowing it. If we get mad enough, and loud enough, and number enough, the insanity will stop and the insane will be ejected from positions of control. One way to start this is to tell our legislators to let the banks tumble, and to institute new money. Can you think of a more crucial or strategic time to take back our power?

Bronte Baxter

© Bronte Baxter 2008

Anyone may publish this article on another site as long as they include the copyright and a link back to this website at https://brontebaxter.wordpress.com/

30 Comments

  1. joe martinsen said,

    September 23, 2008 at 9:25 am

    What a GREAT idea, we are so caught up in this mess…..yet it is so simple to fix! Can i copy this and post it in every bank i know? How can we get this MAINSTREAM?!!!!!

    BRONTE’S RESPONSE: Copy away! And share the idea with your Congressional representatives. Tomorrow I will send a letter with this idea in it to the following good people, then call their offices and leave messages for them to make sure they see it: Congressmen Dennis Kuchineck, Marcy Kaptur and Ron Paul, as well as the senators and rep for my own state/area. If you haven’t seen the Marcy Kaptur video clip on this government-bailout matter, you’re missing something special. Watch it here: http://dotconnectoruk.blogspot.com/2008/09/wake-up-america.html

    Our Congressmen are being stuck with one idea by the president and they need to think outside that box for a better solution. This is an idea they can start with.

  2. Lhaull said,

    September 23, 2008 at 10:51 am

    NIce work. Love the idea, with you all the way, bypassing the bank.
    Keep up the good work.

  3. Martin said,

    September 23, 2008 at 12:11 pm

    Brilliant ideas, Bronte. Now if only our legislators had the guts to get behind this! Of course, I’ve been aware of all this for some time, but I simply didn’t see how it could be applied to the current situation. You’re a genius!

  4. Rufus said,

    September 23, 2008 at 9:15 pm

    Excellent idea and very well put. The banking system is a fraud which takes real wealth from the people in exchange for worthless paper. The sooner we ditch the current system the better.

  5. Brownhawk said,

    September 23, 2008 at 9:18 pm

    The beauty of these ideas to me in terms of how people can immediately relate it to their situations centers around the great potential to demand accountability from the banks and ourselves. One of my all-time favorite movies is ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’. It’s a perfect metaphor of us ‘little people’ who want simply to live a happy life and the looming Big Brother who want to cast their miserable pall over the whole of society. The Bailey Savings and Loan is supposed to be the prototype of how a bank is to function. Somebody needs a loan for ten-grand, the bank examiners are there to insure that the bank has the 10 g’s to lend. And given our present precarious situation, what a perfect time to wipe the slate clean and give PEOPLE that ten thousand to start with and let the banks, who would have NO money, as yet, compete for the business of those who DO. Imagine how low the interest rates might go. A scenario like this would go a long way towards money being just another way to do business with each other, not the all-encompassing, all-intrusive smothering entity it is today.

  6. someone smarter than this guy said,

    September 23, 2008 at 10:55 pm

    Brilliant idea genius…

    SO WHAT ABOUT ALL THE OLD RETIRED PEOPLE WITHOUT JOBS A-HOLE???
    How are they supposed to live out the rest of their days on their new $10,000 monopoly money? You had me… until you failed to mention how to deal with our aging and defenseless… what about the physically and mentally challenged? They only get $10,000 to have for their life? Not everybody can work genius, so your whole idea still lacks BIG TIME. You STILL haven’t addressed privatization… how since everything is being privatized, we’re still gonna get screwed. What about healthcare? There’s more to life than just money… we have other issues. So don’t act like your big idea is the end all and be all to solve all problems.

    BRONTE’S COMMENT:
    I normally edit out “hate mail” from the comments, but this one has value because it points out genuine considerations that need to be worked out. So what do you readers think? How can we tweak the idea to be fair to the old people and others who can’t work? How would healthcare be handled? One additional concern I have is the people who work for all the companies that are going to fold, as will happen as people’s buying values will change in a more sustainable culture. For instance, all the people who work for GM would be in trouble, as the trend would die out of people constantly buying new cars. In fact, in the news, GM appears to already be in trouble.

    Let’s put our heads together and come up with some ideas here today, those of you who like the original idea. Let’s work some of this out, and I’ll send the suggestion over to a few open-minded leaders in Congress, post a copy of my letter to them, and the Americans who read this site can send copies to their own Congressional leaders. But first let’s hammer out some answers to these legitimate questions.

  7. Fiona Graham said,

    September 24, 2008 at 1:34 am

    Thank you Bronte for writing so lucidly on this subject, especially as I’ve been trying to write something similar for the last few days. I’m also in the process of setting up a LETS scheme in the small town in Scotland where I live, having remained a member of the LETS in the north east of Scotland where I used to live.
    One way to answer the questions posted (albeit unpleasantly) above is the concept of Basic Income whereby every citizen receives an annual amount, eg the amount paid in the UK to those on Disability Living Allowance, which is enough for a very simple life. for more info see Richard C cook’s article http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/1232/81/
    Let all that lacks heart fall apart!
    best wishes
    Fiona

  8. Tom said,

    September 24, 2008 at 4:30 am

    Any fool or con-man can make things more complicated.

  9. brontebaxter said,

    September 24, 2008 at 5:29 am

    That’s true, Tom, but we have to think of how this simple plan could solve complex problems, and tweak it to the extent necessary to preserve human life and prevent human suffering. What do we do about the little old lady living in a tenement building, on social security, in poor health who has trouble just keeping her electricity on? Give her 10,000 bluebacks, and she will last a few months. What then? She has no means of earning more money, and is too sick to do so.

    What about the father who works for the automobile industry assembling parts. His job dies, and that of thousands of other people in his city who worked for the car manufacturer. He gets 10,000 bluebacks, as does his wife does, and that lasts them a few months while he looks for work. All he knows how to do is assemble car parts, he and thousands of other people in his community who are jobless. What is going to happen to them after those few months, when the bluebacks run out? Where will they get more money to survive? If he had some skill to fall back on, like welding or carpentry, it might be different. But if a town is full of thousands of people all out of a job, with skills that are no longer in demand, how does the blueback plan save them from intense suffering, even starvation?

    It’s not good enough. The plan needs tweaked. If we had a guaranteed basic yearly income, as Fiona suggests above, where would that money come from? We can’t just keep creating fresh-air money – it has to represent goods produced and services performed, or we’ll soon be right back in the same pickle we’re currently in. If we don’t tax the working people to support the indigent and unemployed, where will the money come from? Who and how should we tax? These are crucial considerations.

    Then there is the health care question. Many people would die in weeks if they couldn’t get their prescribed medications. We can’t let them die while the economy tries to stabilize into a new, more sensible system. Certainly we could limit the money drug producers can charge for medications, and the amount of money doctors and hospitals can charge, bringing those more within fairness and reason. But how do we ensure everyone has access to health care when they need it, without nationalizing health care? If we nationalize it, how do we pay for it? Where does that money come from, using this “blueback” system?

    Also, the more we nationalize, the more we centralize power. Centralized power is very hard to control.

    I think there is a simple solution. We just need to polish this more. Any brainstorm ideas really would be appreciated.

    Bronte

  10. Brownhawk said,

    September 24, 2008 at 6:24 am

    I would think that in general you’d be buying a lot of time with the arbitrary figure of 10,000 bluebacks that should last a whole lot longer than a few months because you’d be changing all the ratios in this new paradigm. This could mean, for example, that people out of work with a need to learn new skills for new jobs would have more time to get in position to be able to apply those skills. Having said that I wanted to add that these ideas represent the sort of thinking that got two U.S. Presidents killed(Lincoln and Kennedy) and prompted an attempted assassination of another( Jackson) Just remember that this is their trump card to the whole game and to be intrepid if you find yourself becoming particularly effective behind the delivery of its powerful message. All the more reason for hope in the strength in numbers to be overwhelming because the kind of complete overhaul of the banking system would mean the true ‘end-game’ (as in game, set, match-we win) for TPTB. Also, another intriguing aspect to this would be the ramifications for the U.S. Defense Industry. The naysayers would justify their opposition by claiming that there’s a ‘war on terror’ to be won and that to ‘change horses in mid-stream’ like this would prove to be disasterously advantageous to the ‘enemy’. The truth of 9/11 would finally and irrevocably have to come out.

  11. Brownhawk said,

    September 24, 2008 at 8:14 am

    Another possibility for picking up the slack for those no longer in the work force and for a comprehensive health care system would be a plan that always appealed to me . That would be a basic tax on all exchanges of goods and services that would be overseen at the state level instead of the federal so as to avoid that potential for too much centralized power. It isn’t that difficult to imagine a system like this being anything like the prohibitive one we have now. Combine this with watchdog agencies to maintain integrity and you’d end up with surpluses like you wouldn’t believe. Do the math and you’re on your way to utopia.

  12. September 24, 2008 at 10:37 am

    Dear Bronte Baxter, It has been perhaps six months since I have encountered your articles on Splinter in the Mind site. Initially I discovered your work when David Icke posted a link. I want to say, with respect and admiration, that your insights are deep, wise and clear. I love this BLUEBACK article. You definitely understand the problem and the solution. Previous articles you have written have similarly inspired me. I write for an Australian based e-zine (Second Creation- go to http://www.mhmart.org). In my last article THE SUN IS RADIATING GOOD VIBRATIONS & EARTH IS FEELING HARMONIC EXCITATIONS ( a piece drawing upon the energy of the 60’s) I have taken the liberty to quote you. (attributed). I am writing a new piece at the moment. We are a publication drawing inspiration from the Mayan Calendar, 2012 end date cosmology and, my take on the whole issue of planetary renewal, “the advent of the noosphere”. The piece will be entitled “Your NooKey Account and the KinCredit Registry: Connecting the Elite to the Empowered”. I really feel value in quoting your work yet again, particularly paragraphs 2 and 3. (again attributed and referenced with your URL). I wonder how you feel about that? SIncerely, Edward Brungardt

    BRONTE’S RESPONSE: No need for anyone to ask permission of me to quote or to copy. The whole point here is to share the information.

  13. brontebaxter said,

    September 24, 2008 at 12:00 pm

    Below is the e-mail letter I sent to my two U.S. senators and House representative today, as well as to Dennis Kuchinich, Marcy Kaptur and several other Congressmen who I have a hunch may be good people (maybe not, but no loss if they aren’t). At the end of the letter I included the “bluebacks” article.

    While the plan is not refined to the level of detail, it does contain a strong kernel idea for getting the economy back on track that is far superior to what our representatives are currently considering. Since time is of essence, I decided to mail the idea around as is.

    Feel free to copy this letter and send it to your own representatives if you are a U.S. citizen. It will be more effective if you put your name to the letter rather than mine, as Congressmen give more attention to mail coming directly from within their district.

    Here is the text of the e-mail I sent, with the slightly revised article that went with it. At the bottom of the article are two links for the Congressmen to read for further ideas and information:

    Dear Congressman So-and-So:

    The article below offers an alternative idea to the government bank bailout, which must not be allowed to pass because it would sacrifice the sovereignty of Americans to the protection of rich bankers, who are responsible for bringing the economy to its knees and therefore must bear the brunt of their past actions. American economy will not crash because the people can’t borrow money for a while. But economic freedom and the middle class will be gone forever if you pass this legislation.

    We the People are counting on you, the sincere among our senators and representatives, to save us from the return to serfdom that this government bail-out would ultimately entail. Please seriously consider the simplicity of the following idea. It would need tweaking for details, so vulnerable people like the sick and elderly aren’t left out in the rain, but the core remedy, while extreme, is a sound one. Desperate straights call for desperate measures.

    It is time to bail out the suffering citizens, not the rich elite and their investments. This plan is one way workable way to do it.

    Best regards,
    Bronte Baxter

    Simplicity and ‘Bluebacks’:
    Finding Our Way Back to a Sustainable Money System

    By Bronte Baxter

    In “Working Girl,” that wonderful film about exploited “little guys” taking back their power, we hear an anecdote that’s relevant to our current financial fix. The story goes that a truck was stuck under an overpass, and none of the authorities called to the scene could figure out a way to get the truck through the tunnel. A little girl in a car that was stalled in line came up with the simple and perfect solution: let some of the air out of the truck’s tires.

    Simplicity is usually the place to go for right answers. Our current manipulated financial crisis could actually be solved by very simple simple solution. Let the excess air out of the financial system: the air that modern money is mostly made of. Loans that have been generated based on false money (numbers generated on paper checks by banks, money that doesn’t exist) should be considered false loans that need not be paid back.

    With this simple new policy, every nation’s national debt would disappear. Personal debt would disappear. Home debt would disappear. We would all be left with what we have, own and use, and it would be legally recognized as ours, not as the property of a bank. National debts would be forgiven because the money given to nations for loans never really existed in the first place.

    We would wipe the slate clean and start back at zero. The cash currently in the hands of the public would be the last that is printed. Lending would cease, unless it could be done in cash. Here’s an alternative solution: create bluebacks, a new currency, and make that the new medium of exchange, distributing $10,000 of it as “starter” to every American adult (with $1500 additional per child).

    We’re told the economy will grind to a halt and a massive depression ensue if the government doesn’t bail out banks so they can keep on lending money. Why? That makes no sense. Why is the ability to lend considered the measure for a healthy economy? Our problem exists because of excess lending. Why is lending necessary to an economy, especially one that’s sick because it’s had way too much of it?

    It’s a lie being told us to scare us into thinking we have to accept the scalping they have planned for us with the government bank bailout. Why is human productivity and the exchange of goods and service (the essence of “economy”) dependent on lending? Where is the harm if people produce and trade with the real products they have and can create, instead of trading with the fake “air” money the banks give in loans? The very nonexistent money that has caused our crisis?

    How is lending more nonexistent money, or buying up debts of nonexistent money and charging taxpayers for them, going to solve the root of the problem, which is the nonexistent money itself? This “solution” is tantamount to a person who has their bank after them for failure to pay on a loan “solving” their problem by making the delinquent loan payment using a credit card. The banks won’t allow people to do that, because it’s clearly not a solution at all, just a forestalling of the problem. But now on the national level, we’re supposed to accept a similar solution as the panacea that will “save the economy.”

    I say, let it fall. Let the false economy fall! Let the loans fall apart, let the big banks fail, let all the sick structure come to pieces. What we’ll be left with is the dollars in our purse or pocket, and the dollars we will earn next week at our jobs. People will pay for things in cash, or by trade or barter – perfectly good systems of exchange that were used for centuries by mankind but that the global elite have conditioned us to regard as impractical or obsolete.

    Instead of making the cash in circulation the only official money, we could outdate the current cash and issue a new paper currency — blue dollars instead of green ones. Distribute $10,000 of bluebacks to every American adult and throw away the old currency, credit cards and debit cards – no longer recognized as money. Only checks and the new cash would be acceptable.

    Why would this work? Let’s simplify it to the level of an example. Let’s say Person C needs some writing done and tells me she’ll give me $200 in bluebacks to do it for her. I write up her document, and she gives me her bluebacks. I then turn to you and say I need some hauling done – would you do it for the $200 bluebacks Person C just gave me? You say yes, you do the hauling, and I pay you. You then go to Person C, who knits sweaters, and ask if she will make you one for 200 bluebacks. She says yes, and you get a new sweater. Person C gets 200 bluebacks in exchange – the same 200 bluebacks she gave to me at the start of this example.

    What has just transpired? Person C got some writing she needed, I got some hauling I needed, and you got the sweater you needed. We all were able to work, and we all got paid. Money passed around and wound up back where it started, but in the process, three new things were created that helped people: some writing, some hauling and some knitting. This little drama between the three people stimulated production and exchange.

    That is the essence of the concept of “economy.” Healthy economy is not lending and creating false money. It’s people working to sustain themselves and to make their lives better, trading services and products they are skilled in for services and products other people are skilled in. That’s what money was all about when it started: it took the place of barter exchange, where I gave you my potatoes in exchange for your eggs.

    Money happened because you didn’t need my potatoes but were happy to give me eggs. So instead of potatoes, I gave you a certificate for the equivalent value, and you used it to trade for something you actually needed – milk. The guy you gave my certificate (money) to could later on give it back to me in exchange for my potatoes, or he could give it to someone else in exchange for a different product or service. That’s how money was originally meant to work.

    Money, in a sound and safe economy, is always tied to the value of a product or service. It is never created as numbers out of thin air. It is never fake. It always represents the tangible fruits of service and production.

    Whether we use our current green cash or institute “bluebacks,” going back to a simple cash system would restore our economy to soundness and sanity. I prefer the idea of bluebacks for one reason: many people, who’ve been living on credit and debit cards, have no cash! How would they live, if cash becomes the only medium of exchange? By contrast, distributing bluebacks, evenly to all people, would be like starting a new Monopoly game: everyone begins equal, with the money they need to continue producing and trading.

    In this simple new system, one thing must be outlawed: the creation of fake, fresh-air money. In other words, banks can’t can’t create false money by writing numbers on loan checks representing cash-on-hand that doesn’t exist. Banks, in fact, should not be permitted to write checks again, given the mess the banks and their checks have created. Only individuals should have this right. When a bank wishes to give a loan, they must give it in cold cash. It has the right to charge interest, but cannot lend money it only pretends to have. This will greatly reduce the power of banking institutions, returning them to the simple structures they were in the beginning.

    The economy moves when people are moving and working. When they are producing, and sharing the good products of their labor. That’s a strong economy. It’s also called “living.” Creating and enjoying things, and supporting themselves, are spontaneous activities for humans. In our natural state, these things happen unimpeded. In our unimpeded state, “the economy” is strong.

    Right now, bankers and governments threaten to impede the simple practice of economy to the point of stopping it. They have actually been impeding it for centuries, through outrageous taxation and in the past decades through outrageous mortgages. People work most of their lives just to pay two things: mortgage and taxes. In Amish societies, a home is a built in a day with the help of neighbors, and it’s yours. No mortgage, no big deal.

    Everyone has the right to a home that is theirs, not the property of bankers. Why can the Amish find a way to own a home in a day, while the rest of us take 30 years of mortgage-paying to do it? Why do the bankers own us? Why have we let this situation develop? We are slaves to the moneyed aristocracy, tied to them by loans of fake money that never existed, numbers they wrote on a check to get ownership of our homes.

    Bankers have impeded our economy and controlled us for a very long time, but now they threaten to stop our ability to trade entirely (i.e., crash our economy) if legislators don’t bend to their demands that the government swallow up their toxic debts and pass the sickness on to the American people, who already are taxed to the point of bare survival.

    The intent is to cause another depression, but before that happens, to give the government total control of the economy so the big bank moguls in bed with the government have no competition from smaller banks and credit unions that attempt to truly serve the people.

    When the moguls/government leaders have accomplished both total financial control and another great depression, they will offer the solution to the suffering they have caused: their own new currency in the form of a national debit card. They will issue new money, but it won’t be bluebacks that you can exchange freely, that are tied to the tangibles of service and production. Their new money will be numbers on a computer, numbers they can alter to suit their purposes whenever and however they wish. Your money will be whatever it shows on the international computer as your holdings. If they don’t like your politics, they can delete your account. They will monitor everything you buy and spend through your national debit card.

    And after you’ve used it a year or so, after they’ve saturated their mainstream media with PR about the wonderful security of having a beneath-the-skin microchip, they will tell you that all debit cards will be worn as microchips in that fashion, to stave off fraud, terrorism and identity thieves. You’ll be told you can store your medical records on the chip, your address (in case you get kidnapped) and other essential personal information.

    Voila: we become cyber people, monitored and controlled by the global computer, which of course can send electrical impulses to the chip as easily as it can read one. With this final move by the power elite, we will be owned lock, stock and barrel, down to the level of our bodies. It’s tantamount to the chains they once put on slaves. Only our chains will be worn inside our flesh.

    So what are we going to do, Americans? Sit back and let the government stick us with a trillion dollars in debt and tax us to starvation and homelessness? Let them create a depression, and the “solution” in the form of a national I.D./debit card, our only legal means of exchange? And if we allow all that, how will we resist their inserting those I.D.s into our arms whenever they want to? If you don’t permit it, they’ll simply cancel your money account and take your home.

    Of course they’ll have all sorts of reasons why the I.D. under your skin is to help you. Just as this government takeover of the American economy is being touted as an act to protect the interests of the people on “Main Street.”

    We have to look for the simple solution. We have to simplify, because in simplicity the essentials of anything exist and thrive. We need to ask what a healthy economy truly looks like, not let the moguls define that for us. Then we need to take simple actions to get ourselves back to that.

    We will stop borrowing and stop spending beyond our means. Banks and corporations will fail that have been doing those things, and justly so. People who worked for those institutions will start over with enough bluebacks to carry them until they find sustainable jobs, jobs not dependent on the vultures. We’ll return to buying within our community. The toys we lived for that are propped up by the surveillance economy will drop away, and we’ll get back in touch with simple, important things.

    Families will have time for each other instead of having to work two jobs and spending all their at-home time just trying to keep up with chores and child-chauffering. Marriages will start to prosper, freed from the stress of the modern insane lifestyle. Kids will start to find fun at home and play with their parents and neighbor kids. People will buy and trade locally, at small independent stores, from small independent farmers and tradespeople. We will learn new skills to replace our lives in the office cubicle/debacle.

    Crafted products will return, and pride in a job well done. We’ll have homecooked food (with time to prepare it). Electronic products won’t break in a year and get tossed onto the ocean cesspools. Things will be made to last, and leisure time will develop, as mortgages and outrageous taxes, along with all the corporations that only served their own interests, bite the dust. We’ll have time to explore philosophy and think about higher things, explore potentials of being human we haven’t been able to think about in the exhaustive struggle just to survive. We will enter a new era for mankind.

    It will not happen if we roll over and let the bankers and main government leaders (they’re actually the same, if you look at who’s standing in the shadows) bail out the banks at our expense and march us down the road to another depression, along with all its ensuing agenda. We will only see the dawn of a new age if we stand together against the insane, self-serving policies and demand a viable alternative. Bluebacks to save the economy? Why not? It only takes enough people calling for it to make it happen.

    The 5% can’t rule the 95% if the 95% stop allowing it. If we get mad enough, and loud enough, and number enough, the insanity will stop and the insane will be ejected from positions of control. One way to start this is to tell our legislators to let the banks tumble, and to institute new money. Can you think of a more crucial or strategic time to take back our power?

    Bronte Baxter

    © Bronte Baxter 2008

    Anyone may re-publish or copy this article as they include the copyright and a link back to this website at https://brontebaxter.wordpress.com/

    Congressmen, please also see the following articles for more thought fodder on alternatives:

    http://www.newswithviews.com/Veon/joan157.htm
    http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/1232/81/

  14. DaveR said,

    September 24, 2008 at 12:17 pm

    Hey Bronte!

    WAIT A MINUTE!!!!!

    What about me? I have no debt, yet I have no holdings, in real estate or anything.

    Why wipe out the debt for all these people? Should I have gone into huge debt?

    By your thinking here, if I’d bought a huge house that I can’t afford, my debt on it would be wiped away! Do those people who got into big debt get to keep their houses?

    What about me who HAS lived within my means for my whole life?
    Where’s MY free house?

    Should the people who run up huge debt be REWARDED for doing so????

    OK. I just got a new idea. I’m going to open a bank and a corporation. I’ll loan myself about a billion dollars and then your “plan” will take effect. I won’t have to pay back a dime and in the interim I can use the capital to acquire a few thousand properties, and then we wipe the debt. Sounds great to me!!!!!

    BRONTE’S RESPONSE: Hey Dave! We are talking about emergency conditions here, coming up with a response to prevent the massive suffering caused by a major depression. Do you really mean to say you’d be keeping score in such a situation? Would you prefer a crash, or what Bush is proposing and the world fascism his scheme would help usher in, to a simple plan that lets everyone end the old Monopoly gave and start over?

    People who are debt-free sometimes smugly take full credit for the fact, thinking others are in debt simply because they’ve “refused to live within their means,” the words you echo here. But blame must be shared with the system that has lured them into overspending with promises of easy credit/ easy payback and that has taxed them to death and priced a home so out of reach that mortgages and other debt has seemed like the only option to most.

    That doesn’t excuse us entirely from the consequences, and there will certainly be challenging adjustments for everyone as people adapt to the blueblack plan or anything along that line. Enough to make the smugly self-rightous feel justified by comparing their own good luck with their brothers’ suffering, if that’s what gives them their feeling of self-worth.

  15. joe martinsen said,

    September 24, 2008 at 12:46 pm

    Ok if all my DEBTS are gone!
    Solution #1 If all my debts are gone and iam working, i fore- go my greenbacks. 250 million people in the USA say 1/4 fore- go thats alot of greenback for OLD people! yes i Know voluntary.
    Solution #2 People out of work, like GM, retraining and Placement in rebuilding our infrastructure, cleaning up our envorment, Dev. clean energy, clean autos…….the list is Endless!!!
    Solution #3 Bring back the Barter system full time. The Gov. could create a vast network on the Web for trading, HOOK UPS, with credits earned toward different services or products. This could run in very deep levels. I know, i know! Well, our thinking about Dollars to much! you have been TRAINED!!
    Solution #4 The woman not being able to pay her electioc bill. Again, a fund can be set up for these people that Americans could donate to, and americans are GENEROUS! thats a fact!!
    I told this idea to a friend today and he got up and started dancing and laughting like he won the the lottery. Thats what we are talking about! Happiness leads to generosity, dont be to quick to dismiss this….When all debts are released in this world a beautiful Spirit will be released in all humans. Lots of worry, Depression, Anger & Hate will dissolve! You have know idea how this will free people, our Slavery will have ended!! You will have a warm feeling inside, be light as a feather, while taking a deep full breath for the first time! Don’t get completely caught up in how its all going to work. Think of the feeling “I HAVE NO DEBT!” Gee, i think i’ll bake some cookies today! I know it sounds alittle fruity but think of the Feeling! When your in bondage its normal to be negitive. Lets get started and let the the Universe work out all the details. AND it WILL cuz our intent is TRUE!!!!

  16. Patrick Simpson said,

    September 24, 2008 at 3:46 pm

    Why don’t we stop working for money and start working for each other. If we take care of each other’s needs, everyone will have enough and we won’t need to keep score. The absence of a profit motive will straighten out a lot of thinking. Love instead of fear.

  17. Rob said,

    September 24, 2008 at 5:44 pm

    A comment for ‘someone smarter than this guy said’. When ‘Big Brother’ fails, those in need can turn to their brothers and sisters. That’s how Cambodian ‘peasants’ (ordinary people like you and me) have dealt with crises forever. As for the health care system: those doctors and nurses who really care will go on caring. Perhaps the meltdown will bring out the best in people instead of the worst for a change? It’s up to us, isn’t it?

  18. Brownhawk said,

    September 25, 2008 at 7:01 am

    I’m finding that the most difficult apect truthers face is the task of trying to get people to understand what a truly sound economy is supposed to look like. We’ve been so conditioned to equating paper ‘money’ with true value that when you tell them that the solution is to declare that the present paper is worthless by giving reasons that speak to its nature of unaccountability, and that subsequent to that it must be done away with before an issuance of any new paper, many respond that it would create an unmitigated disaster. They don’t see that we’ve all been virtual junkies our whole lives. The drug? Money. Or more precisely, the monetization of the national economy. Which is very ironic. When you say you’re being ‘economical’ about something or other, and make a reference to ‘the economy’, you’re speaking of opposites. It would be more accurate to call it ‘the splurgonomy’. After WW2 and through the 50’s this monetization felt good. We got a nice buzz on. But eventually we used the drug just to get straight so we wouldn’t feel sick. We’re at the point now where any further monetization is gonna kill us. Our country could become the new Soviet Union with a completely nationalized ‘economy’ if we allow the power brokers to have their way. And the damnable thing about it is that the ‘high’ of monetization was an artificial one from the outset. How do we convince our fellow citizens that we need to go through a withdrawal period that will be painful for awhile before we come through it to a restoration of true healthy living again? Anything less and we (our nation) will die.

  19. DaveR said,

    September 25, 2008 at 11:33 am

    Bronte!

    “People who are debt-free sometimes smugly take full credit for the fact, thinking others are in debt simply because they’ve “refused to live within their means,” the words you echo here.”

    I am not “smug”.

    By your simple antidote, all we have to do is proclaim all debt as non-valid.

    Where do I sign up?

    Should I go out and land myself about a billion dollars debt? All to be forgiven?

    You seem to miss this.

    Dave Reed

    BRONTE’S RESPONSE: I think it’s you who are missing the point. The idea is not for you to take advantage of the nation’s desperate situation and go out and land yourself a billion dollars debt (if you could even be lent that kind of money in this perilous economy). The point is for us to find a way out of the national peril together.

    If you have a neighbor who just fell off his roof and is lying in agony on the ground, do you stand there passively, thinking about how rude he was to you last summer over a noise complaint? Or do you forget petty differences in the urgency of the moment, and do what needs to be done?

    Your feeling you wouldn’t get a fair deal because you already own your house and wouldn’t get anything free with the blueback plan, when it’s a question of other people dying or starving or being homeless, is just that petty. We’re talking emergency conditions here. In emergencies, business-as-usual gets foregone in deference to danger or suffering caused by urgent need.

  20. Brownhawk said,

    September 25, 2008 at 9:25 pm

    Ron Paul has written a bill called ‘The Federal Reserve Abolition Act’. I refer to him as Ron Paul Revere because he is the one Congressman who has been sounding the alarm for years about what makes an economy sick and what will cure it. I strongly urge us all to inundate our congresspeople with our clamoring to support this bill. We must recognize once and for all that the Fed is THE toxin in the soup that has been slowly but surely poisoning us to death all these years. Credit-based money is the culprit. Savings-based money is the hallmark of a heal-thy and TRUE economy. Cut off the head of the viper and the body of the snake will die!

  21. Brownhawk said,

    September 26, 2008 at 6:42 am

    This is a sad day for America and for the world with this disgraceful Wall St. bailout and it’s getting very late in the game. We need to slay the beast that is the Federal Reserve before it rears its ugly head one last time and then is discarded into the dustbin of history, having fulfilled its abominable role of economic coercion. After that, any semblance of an existence will be irrelevant because the economy dictates will come from ‘on high’ in the form of whatever whim strikes the fancy of a dictator as the pathetic politburo, er, I mean congress looks passively on. No time to lose to try and save what little is left of the Republic. Sic semper tyrannis!

  22. Mikety D. said,

    September 26, 2008 at 9:14 am

    That is a challange, what to do about seniors and the elderly. I think that they should be able to go to these Rockefeller, Warburg and Rothchild establishments and get their money back FIRST or have the Republic Notes given to them first. That is why this mess is where it is now… fiat money is a scam and does no good to the people of this country. This may sound silly, but maybe these people have things that they don’t want… with this recycling thing going on, maybe they could trade in those things for Republic Notes. But first things first…. WE HAVE TO BREAK THE BOND OF INTERNATIONAL BANKS CONTROLLING THIS COUNTRY BY WAY OF A CENTRAL BANK. I am only 33 years old, but there was a time when our currency used to be able to be traded in to banks for gold or silver. 16 ounces of silver is good for 1 ounce of gold…. that is what the founding fathers came up with. It is in the book “Laws of Nations”… I really don’t like the idea of ‘Notes’ so maybe Republic coins is a better word. This paper stuff has gotten us in this mess. Seniors and the elderly must go first, I would be glad to wait until every person over the age of 60 is taken care of….hell, even the age of 55. I make decent money and I use a check book for one thing every month. Banks have got enough money… I don’t believe for 1 second that they are in trouble. All this ‘debt’ is is numbers on a screen… fiat money. Nothing is based on anything that has mass. Think about that… I could say right now that I have a million dollars in the bank, but God forbid what will happen if I try and take 1/8 of that out. We have to get back to what the Constitution says and enough of this Executive Order, Treaty bs that has hampered this nation for the last 40 years. GIVE CONGRESS POWER TO PRINT MONEY, LIKE IT SAYS IN THE CONSTITUTION. We don’t need any oversight committee to watch over the banks… PUTTING THE FEDERAL RESERVE IN CHARGE OF THE BANKS IS LIKE PUTTING AN ALCOHOLIC IN CHARGE OF THE STOCK BEHIND YOUR FAVORITE ESTABLISHMENT. Pretty soon, the assets will be gone and you will be left with emptiness.

  23. DaveR said,

    September 26, 2008 at 12:02 pm

    “Your feeling you wouldn’t get a fair deal because you already own your house and wouldn’t get anything free with the blueback plan, when it’s a question of other people dying or starving or being homeless, is just that petty. We’re talking emergency conditions here. In emergencies, business-as-usual gets foregone in deference to danger or suffering caused by urgent need.”

    You misunderstand me. I don’t own a house and I myself am about 1 measly paycheck from living in my 21 year old car. It’s just that, to me, your plan is unfair because all the people who got into debt get to keep their big houses and fancy cars for free, while all I get is 10 grand. And they get 10 grand too!

    This doesn’t level the playing field at all. It just rewards those with debt. The more debt, the more reward.

    I totally agree the current system isn’t working and needs a change. A really good start would be government issued interest-free money.

    BTW, I appreciate your responses.

    Dave Reed

  24. brontebaxter said,

    September 26, 2008 at 3:34 pm

    The following e-mail is making the rounds of the mainstream. It’s an idea for a taxpayer bailout, as an alternative to a bank bailout, and shares similarity with the bluebacks/cancellation of debt idea outlined in this article.

    The e-mail presents the idea in a half-joking way, as if something so simple has to have something wrong with it. But I find it highly encouraging that mainstream Americans are coming up with ideas like this, and passing them around. This shows how much people are waking up.

    Whatever the government does in the next few days, all that’s happening works toward a complete awakening. The closer they get with their snare, the more perceivable their plans and intentions. Whether or not America pushes through a simple, real solution at this moment, in time that’s what will rise, and the people will cry out for it to be implemented. And again, when the 95% wake up and stop supporting the Cystem, it will disintegrate.

    So here is this heartening “mainstreamer” e-mail making the rounds:

    Spread the word – if only!!
    I think we should get this idea to Move On to get it in wide circulation!
    Subject: The Birkenmeier Plan.

    I’m against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.

    Instead, I’m in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in
    a We Deserve It Dividend.

    To make the math simple, let’s assume there are 200,000,000
    bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+.

    Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman
    and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..

    So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billon that equals $425,000.00.

    My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a
    We Deserve It Dividend.

    Of course, it would NOT be tax free.
    So let’s assume a tax rate of 30%.

    Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes.
    That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.

    But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket.
    A husband and wife has $595,000.00.

    What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?
    Pay off your mortgage – housing crisis solved.
    Repay college loans – what a great boost to new grads
    Put away money for college – it’ll be there
    Save in a bank – create money to loan to entrepreneurs.
    Buy a new car – create jobs
    Invest in the market – capital drives growth
    Pay for your parent’s medical insurance – health care improves
    Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean – or else

    Remember this is for every adult U.S. Citizen 18+ including the folks
    who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company
    that is cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.

    If we’re going to re-distribute wealth let’s really do it…instead of trickling out
    a puny $1000.00 ( “vote buy” ) economic incentive that is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.

    If we’re going to do an $85 billion bailout, let’s bail out every adult U.S. Citizen 18+!

    As for AIG – liquidate it.
    Sell off its parts.
    Let American General go back to being American General.
    Sell off the real estate.
    Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.

    Here’s my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn’t.

    Sure it’s a crazy idea that can “never work.”

    But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!

    How do you spell Economic Boom?

    I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion
    We Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington DC .

    And remember, The Birk plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because $25.5 Billion is returned
    instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.

    Ahhh…I feel so much better getting that off my chest.
    Kindest personal regards,
    Birk
    T. J. Birkenmeier, A Creative Guy & Citizen of the Republic
    PS: Feel free to pass this along to your pals as it’s either good for a laugh
    or a tear or a very sobering thought on how to best use $85 Billion!!

  25. DaveR said,

    September 27, 2008 at 4:07 am

    The author of the above might want to check his math. He’s off by a factor of 1000.

    Dave Reed

  26. Andy said,

    September 27, 2008 at 7:43 am

    The system under which you live, has given the average American far more than it has taken from them.
    This system as a whole, operates worldwide with the aid of the IMF and the world bank to suck 25% of the world’s resources to sustain the 5% of the world’s population that is the USA. This has been going on for some 50 years and is policed by the American military and secret services.
    That’s why there are some 700 American military bases around the world and any third world leader who doesn’t let American interests control their country is deposed through economic destabilization, coups, revolutions, assassinations etc.
    That’s why there’s a war in Iraq and Afghanistan and soon in Iran; to ensure access to more of the world’s oil to feed the American beast. The rest of the world drives smaller more efficient cars whilst American’s continue to drive gas guzzlers fueled by the foreign oil.
    Vast swathes of the planet struggle to find sufficient calories to feed themselves whilst working 12 hours a day farming crops that are often exported to the U.S under vastly unfair rates of exchange, to feed the U.S, a country with the highest rates of obesity in the world.
    The whole system is an obscenity but an obscenity that has supported and been supported by the majority of American citizens for decades.
    It’s the beginning of the end just now. That is clear, but the come down for the average person will be like any drug addict going cold turkey and the withdrawal will be exceedingly painful however you slice it.

  27. joe martinsen said,

    September 27, 2008 at 8:33 am

    Hay there is a lot of talk from everybody about the evil banking system, the Elite, new world order………ect…..We put all these people in the system, we can take them OUT!! Its Called PEOPLE POWER, people! I have taken the first step, i am tired of being a WIMP! I stoped paying my two credit cards (one just went to 35% no JOKE) and there not getting a dime from me anymore! If we all get together and just do this simple thing of not paying our cards, you will see how fast things will shut down! Then thay will start to listen to US! What do you think Bronte,brownhawk,mikety or anyone else? Well going to watch the debates cuz i could’nt find any funny movies to watch, so it should make me laught my ass off! also it seems some news reporters are sliping and getting pissed about whats going on! is it fake? or are even they getting SCARED! peace

  28. Mick said,

    September 27, 2008 at 10:51 pm

    I know I’m not adding anything to this essential debate. Just wanted to say thanks to Bronte, especially the way she deals with crticism in a positive and constructive way. Bottom line, if/when the cystem goes people will have no alternative but to work together and support each other, or die.

  29. Jerry said,

    October 8, 2008 at 5:44 am

    I dunno. Over the past seven years I saw all my friends, married or single, step into the entitlement mentality that they all deserved to have a house….even though they didn’t have much money set aside for a downpayment and the home prices were exorbitant. All they were looking at was what the mortgage brokers were pushing. They just saw “I already pay $1500 per month for rent so paying $1500 per month for my mortgage will be exactly the same thing, only I’ll own a house.”

    I felt like the lone voice of reason, or perhaps a stranger stranded in a strange land, when I saw prices for homes that were barely worth $250,000 priced at “a steal” for just $500,000…..and my friends were all biting on these deals.

    The married couples I know with homes are doing slightly better than my single friends. When one of the spouses loses a job the other spouse can sometimes cover the monthly bills. My single friends are in deep doo-doo though because they could never really afford that home they bought and are still living paycheck to paycheck six years after buying that overpriced home…..so when they lose their jobs, they’re going back to live with their parents.

    People with multiple degrees and a high level of “intelligence” were all falling for the “buy an overly priced house” con game.

    Do I think these otherwise smart people should just automatically be forgiven the debt that they knowingly, rationally, incurred?

    No. I really don’t.

    Those of us who have been quietly renting, saving our pennies, living within our means, and striving for something better (perhaps to own a house ONE day) shouldn’t be bailing out people who were irresponsible.

    The problem I have with any “bailout” plan is that it makes those of us who question the idea of it sound heartless.

    Well, many of these folks who got themselves into trouble weren’t mentally handicapped or otherwise disabled – they made bad choices and should learn from their mistakes.

    Do we tell a child who beats up another child on the playground “That’s okay, there isn’t any consequence to your bad behavior?”

    Not usually. How can you learn that something is a bad life choice until you experience the consequences of your choice?

    People who got drunk on overspending on homes they couldn’t afford shouldn’t be bailed out. They can find a place to rent, whether it’s a one room boardinghouse arrangement or a dorm or moving in with roommates. They can sell their furniture at a garage sale or on Craigslist and scale down. The whole experience of living with the consequences of their bad choices will allow them to learn from their mistakes instead of being cushioned from them.

    I think we need to stop acting like all of these people losing their homes were just some helpless innocents. The people in my immediate circle who got into trouble knew exactly what they were doing but bet the farm that their bad spending habits wouldn’t catch up with them. Even though they knew the odds, and deep down they worried that things would catch up with them eventually.

    Jerry

    BRONTE’S RESPONSE: Jerry, I’m sure there are some young high-spenders, like your friends described, who are in deep debt because of wild and irresponsible spending practices. But there are hundreds of millions who are in debt through no real fault, or minimal fault, of their own. These include people who have to use their credit cards just to buy food and pay rent every month.

    I also happen to believe that every human being has a right to a home of their own, that the bankers taking over ownership of 90% of the homes in this country, through creation of false money and other tricks, does not supercede our right of home ownership. Yes, it is entitlement, like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness: the founding fathers should have added “and a roof over your head.”

    As far I’m concerned, we all have a right to ownership of the places we live in. Any economic system that says otherwise is built on tricks that only favor the rich and powerful. We have to do away with that system.

  30. Mikety D. said,

    November 17, 2008 at 1:03 pm

    The most important thing is to get rid of banks controlling our economy. These people that we ‘elect’ into office are not going to do it. Let’s face it, bankers run the economy of this country and they rely on Direct Deposits… We have to get back to the gold standard, where our currency is not based on paper. Warren Harding was intent on driving the thieves out of the temple (Read: The Federal Reserve) and he was poisoned on a trip to Alaska in the 1920s. It seems that ever since then, all the ‘candidates’ realize that and shut up and read from their scripts handed to them from Gergen, Kissinger, and Brzezinski. No taxes (unless it is ON GOODS COMING INTO THIS COUNTRY) or laws or treaties will end this unless WE RETURN TO A NON PAPER BASED FORM OF CURRENCY.


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