Comments on: Illinois Bankrupt?

By: Khy

Khy — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:14:43 +0000

As someone who lives in Illinois, I can tell you that all our problems lie in the greater chicago area. Downstate, we try very hard to get by and work but watch as everything gets poured into Chicago. We know that the views of the majority of the state (landmass wise, IE: South of I-80) are going to be marginalized by the desires of the Chicagoland area. We know the taxes we are painfully paying each check are going there and that our leaders come for there… our votes ultimately can not counter the desires of what is a very tiny portion of the state. This state is going to die because of one city’s desires. It really is like going to a whole different state or country to be honest. Too bad too because I really do enjoy living here.

By: Captain Obvious

Captain Obvious — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 20:55:40 +0000

Unfortunately, I live in Illinois, and am employed by the state. I have watched helplessly while all the morons and racicsts in Chicago have been electing the criminals that run the entire state and cater to their own selfish personal whims.

We are overrun by third and fourth generation welfare cheats, unwed mothers with multiple children with their hands out for food stamps and wic cards, massive amounts of illegal immigrants from every country bogging down the system.

Not to mention ALL the greedy self serving politicians who treat their positions like a neverending slush fund account to live lavishly off of OUR backs and hard work!

In the last forty years, I have seen two Governors sent to prison, and am soon awaiting the third, and possibly the fourth! This is ridiculous! If we could get rid of ALL the Chicago politicians and their death grip on this state, we might have a slim chance of survival, but I doubt it.

By: Mr Carpenter

Mr Carpenter — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 13:05:41 +0000

Elise, it’s not easy to save gold & silver, and very few people do it. Just make a budget, and put it in as a line item (then take the cash out of your credit union or bank every payday and go down to a coin store). At this poitn in time, it’ll probably be silver that is bought.

But if you buy a little every payday – and put it in a safe bolted down in your home (and speak not of it to anyone you wouldn’t trust with your life) then you should be okay eventually.

There is well under 1% of the population who’ve been willing to do this in America – but guess which nations’ citizens do this regularly?

The two nations most likely to do well in the next century – India and China.

Gold and silver are real money; paper money is bound to go to its intrinsic value – zero. Eventually.

By: John

John — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 05:16:00 +0000

Well, you can always pass a CCW law allowing to carry in the Great state of ILLinois…Charge 100.00 for a 2 year permit and start to generate some revenew.But the Great state of Illinois wont let that happen, there will be too many shootings..LOL….Yeh, will just let the state go BK…

By: Elise

Elise — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 19:37:48 +0000

Mr Carpenter:
Saving money is always easier on paper than in reality. My own parents have very little left on the side, simply because they had to take their savings out once too often. Public workers and large company workers make less, but these guys once retired are technically getting a large piece of pie. Two of my relatives who are teachers, retired at 60 after 35 years of work and now basically rake in 80% of what they used to make just in pensions. Not that they don’t deserve it, but how is the system gonna pay them both their almost full salaries for nothing in return for the next 30 years? People die well into their 80-90′s these days when they’re healthy, so how does that make any sense? Maybe the situation is a bit different in different areas, but this is just ridiculous.

By: Mr Carpenter

Mr Carpenter — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:28:22 +0000

Well, Elise, while I’m a baby boomer, it took until I was nearly 40 before I could really start saving on my own for retirement due to the fact that greedy employers refused to pay me a living wage sufficient to raise a family on AND save for my own retirement – so I was STUCK with “Social (in)Security”. My parents weren’t wealthy, I allowed myself to be a slave for 4 years in the military in order to get a degree which helped me some… but recession after recession plus the natural desire to have children (two, not six or eight) impinged on my abilities to save. I’ve made up for that sufficiently over the past decade and a half, miraculously (and with good planning) but now Obama and company could simpy take my 401k (AND yours) away, just as happened in Argentina….. think on that. I do have savings put up in physical gold and silver – do you? But then again, Roosevelt illegally and unconstitutionally demanded Americans hand in their gold in 1933…. I guess my true reliance on Jesus Christ is pretty well all I’ve got since the people younger than me certainly have no intention of continuing to allow the Social Security and retirement promises kept to me and my generation, eh?

On the other hand, the people in control right now (my generation, the one older than mine and the one younger) are busy spending not only our children’s money, but our grandchildren’s money and great-grandchildren’s money.

Perhaps we should simply wipe the slate clean, go back to real gold as real money and start from scratch – nobody owes anything to anybody, everything wiped clean. Might this be the only way out? Of course those minute number of people such as myself who’ve saved physical metals – real money – will be the new wealthy.

That’d make a change. The responsible and non-greedy few being the wealthy, wealthy because of NOT p*ssing away their money, but putting it up into gold & silver as savings…. Gee that almost sounds like what the Founding Fathers advocated….

And what would the new wealthy do with their money? They’d put Americans to work with it, of course. Because Gold Bugs are generally NOT the grasping, ultra greedy types you see in government, in corporate HQs and in banks.

By: Greg

Greg — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 06:05:52 +0000

Elise:
America was destined to come down before we were built up and no president can keep it from coming down because our presidents are directed to make it come down. We bloggers are not the only ones smart enough to understand basic economic realities like spending $5 billion more per day than taxes bring in will cause debt collapse, generating regulatory compliance burdens that cost thousands to millions per year will drive businesses under, removing reasonable trade barriers so $1 per day wages compete against American wages will devastate our industry, etc.

So why do we continue to talk about the demise of this nation as though there will actually be a solution? Does anyone really think that the people powerful enough to intentionally cause the destruction of our nation are now going to learn from us brilliant bloggers and make things wonderfully different? I don’t.

By: Elise

Elise — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 17:56:55 +0000

I’m afraid that is just the beginning of the domino effect; one state defaults, and then surely one by one, municipalities and states will start to fail as well. This is going to hurt everyone in a big way; our system can no longer work this way. There are PLENTY of reasons why this is happening, but one of them I believe in my very own personal opinion is all those huge pension plans weighing on the system. Large companies like GM have such gigantic plans that they just can no longer support all those who retired or are about to. The baby boomers that helped propel our society after the war are now going to take it down with them. Governments should allow people to deal with their RSPs the 0way they see fit, and not lay a hand in it. They tried to cover everyone’s a$$es for this long, the balance no longer work: there’s too many retirees compared to workers. Maybe I’m selfish, but I already have my own retirement to plan (and perhaps even my parents’s), I shouldn’t have to deal with the ones from the rest of the country who weren’t careful enough.

In a way, all of this was to be expected. When we look back at history, how many different systems have we gone through? None are perfect, and some are more adapted then others. Capitalism has been pushed to its boundaries and beyond; where it helped shape our world in an healthy manner is now slowly destroying us. It may sound ominous, but I think the world in just 20 years will be nothing like the one we have right now. But changes are coming our way, and you can blame Obama, Bush, or any other scapegoat, but the system has been rotten at its core for a while, and no president is powerful enough to keep an entire house of rotten wood from coming down.

By: Mr Carpenter

Mr Carpenter — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 16:37:34 +0000

I would find it the height of irony to have the present day Federal Government, which is TRILLIONS in debt and has untold TRILLIONS of unfunded liabililties, and which totally IGNORES the foundational law of the land (i.e. the United States Constitution), walk in and declare a bankrupt state a “US Territory” nominally for NOT being able to keep to their state Constitution and keeping straight financial and budgetary control!

Of course if that happens, I can see how the Feds would at least have New York State, Massachusetts, Illinois and California (as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and US territories) if the other 46 states nullified and seced from the Union. (I know this didn’t work out so well for the south 150 years ago, but if 46 of 50 states did it, what could the feds do?)

Naturally, it could get even messier than that; whole counties could secede from seceded states (and please, Washington DC, DO keep the Detroit metro area – the rest of Michigan doesn’t want it!)

By: Chelsea cleaners

Chelsea cleaners — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 14:49:14 +0000

yes but taxes can be the better solution. I mean – politicians are problem everywhere. In a world ruled by politicians the truth will be always hidden