“Can democracy survive when its financial roots have been cut?” asked the economist James Galbraith back in 2006. “The American citizenry has lost its pride of place as creditor of the American state. The proportion of U.S. debt owned directly by Americans has fallen to below 10%; in 1945 (when the debt was more than twice as large in relation to GDP as now), citizen-creditors just about held it all.”
Combined, financial institutions and foreign nations now own over 70% of U.S. debt.
“The scale of public debt is not the issue,” contends Galbraith, “but its ownership is. Can a country -- whether the United States or any other -- be truly democratic if it is in hock to banks and foreigners?”
“We no longer ‘owe it to ourselves,’ as FDR used to say,” opines our Byron King. “The banks and overseas creditors have hijacked the bond process. The citizens have little direct stake in the U.S. government, certainly not as bondholders. And more than half of all citizens pay no taxes at all. Over 50% of all taxes are paid by the wealthiest 3% of households; 90% of all taxes are paid by the wealthiest 10%. “I guess the amounts of money were just too large for the citizenry to continue to buy bonds and keep a financial stake in the health of the government. So with no financial stake in their own government, it's all about ‘I get mine.’ From pork at the congressional level to ‘what benefits can I get?’ at the personal. Heck, everyone wants their check from the government. Hey, where's mine?
“We're doomed.”
Combined, financial institutions and foreign nations now own over 70% of U.S. debt.
“The scale of public debt is not the issue,” contends Galbraith, “but its ownership is. Can a country -- whether the United States or any other -- be truly democratic if it is in hock to banks and foreigners?”
“We no longer ‘owe it to ourselves,’ as FDR used to say,” opines our Byron King. “The banks and overseas creditors have hijacked the bond process. The citizens have little direct stake in the U.S. government, certainly not as bondholders. And more than half of all citizens pay no taxes at all. Over 50% of all taxes are paid by the wealthiest 3% of households; 90% of all taxes are paid by the wealthiest 10%. “I guess the amounts of money were just too large for the citizenry to continue to buy bonds and keep a financial stake in the health of the government. So with no financial stake in their own government, it's all about ‘I get mine.’ From pork at the congressional level to ‘what benefits can I get?’ at the personal. Heck, everyone wants their check from the government. Hey, where's mine?
“We're doomed.”
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