Denninger: An Address to Our Nation's Schoolchildren

From Karl Denninger:

My Fellow Americans.

Today you heard from our President, Barack Obama. Some of your parents voted for him, and most of the rest of the country voted for his opponent, John McCain.

What you heard from President Obama today was a plea for you to pay attention in school and finish your education.

What you did not hear from President Obama today was that your government, together with your school, has refused to provide you with the knowledge necessary for you to understand what has happened to this nation and its economy over the last 30 years.

This is not an accident.

In math class you are taught "the power function", which you think of as squares, cubes, and similar. It is written as 4^2, or, expanded, as 4 x 4.

But what you're not taught is how this applies to finance, even though every household and every American has their own financial challenges, and every person in America should understand how finance works.

Neither Republican or Democrat wants you to see this graph. This is how much each American, from 1970 to today, is in debt because of our government's policies:



2009's "fiscal year" (that is, the year for accounting purposes) doesn't close until the end of this month. But as of today, this graph is correct (and will only get worse in the next three weeks.)

Let me be clear:

In the last two years your mother, father, school teacher, grandma and grandpa have stuck each and every American with $10,000 in personal debt, and since 2000 the amount of debt you have had forced upon you has doubled.

This debt was forced upon you not because of the need to defend this country from a foreign invader such as occurred on December 7th 1941 or because of the War on Terrorism, but rather because a bunch of greedy men and women on Wall Street and Washington DC, both Democrat and Republican, lied, cheated and stole money from ordinary Americans for more than a decade.

You have undoubtedly been taught that stealing is wrong, and indeed, that if you steal you can go to jail. But you need to understand that the law applies only to "little people" like you. If you work on Wall Street, own a fancy suit and private airplane, and steal millions and millions of dollars from people worldwide, instead of going to jail you will be rewarded with a huge bonus and be able to buy a really big boat, while the cost of your stealing will be forced on the children - and unborn - throughout America.

That's you, by the way.

You need to understand that this is not a "Democrat" or "Republican" thing. Indeed, both Democrats and Republicans in Washington DC know about this and both are equally responsible for letting it happen. Both Democrats and Republicans voted for a law called "TARP" and allowed The Federal Reserve to take actions over the last two years that were responsible for you having to pay that extra $10,000. They voted for this law even though ordinary Americans just like you told them not to vote for it - in fact, for every person who called their offices or sent an email to tell them to vote "yes", 100 people called, faxed or emailed and told them to vote "no".

They voted "Yes" anyway and as a result you must pay that $10,000 in the future, whether you want to or not, so that those who robbed, cheated and stole can have their yacht and your parents can lose their house to foreclosure.

President Bush signed that law and President Obama refused to step in and stop it when he became President. President Bush is a Republican and President Obama is a Democrat. Do not be deceived - both major political parties are equally responsible for this outrage - and for forcing you to pay.

The worst part of the graph above is that this is not all of the debt you must pay. In fact your "share" of the debt is five times what's shown on that graph.

That's right my fellow Americans - you are in debt for more than $200,000 - each and every one of you, including every school child in America.

Why?

Because our government is lying about how much everyone owes. See, our government has promised everyone free medical care and free retirement money. But our government doesn't have the money to pay for that, since every penny that the government has must come from either borrowing or taxing, and the government isn't forced to follow the law when it comes to honest accounting - that is, honest math.

When you cheat on your math test in school you get an "F".

But when the government cheats on its math they get re-elected, because our schools refuse to teach students just like you how math applies to finance, and as a result 95% of Americans don't understand that they're being screwed to the tune of $200,000 each.

That's because the schools are run by the government, and for that reason the government controls what you learn - and what you don't.

Our debt is supposedly $11 trillion dollars. But the money the government must have in the future to pay for those free benefits, Social Security and Medicare, doesn't exist. The former Comptroller of the Currency of America (that's a fancy word for the chief guy who keeps track of the books), David Walker, has said that the real debt is more than $53 trillion dollars, or almost five times what you see in the graph above.

Why was this allowed to happen?

It really is quite simple:

They're big, and you're small. They're right, and you're wrong.

Just because they said so.

While you were out playing in the back yards and playgrounds of America both Democrats and Republicans were making promises they could not keep. Instead of raising taxes right now for whatever they wanted to promise they instead decided to send you the bill, and your parents went along with it.

So when you come home from school this afternoon say "Thanks" to your Mom, Dad, Grandpa and Grandma for selling you into slavery.

For obligating you to pay for the stealing that has gone on for nearly ten years on Wall Street and in Washington DC.

For allowing those very same lies to cost your family (or that of someone you know and love) their house, their job, and their future.

And finally, make sure you thank your Teachers and Principal for not teaching you the math you need to be able to understand what is really going on with your government, so you don't get mad enough to put a stop to it - or demand that your parents do so.

After all, they're right and you're wrong.

They're big and you're small.

They, including your school teachers, principals and school boards, won't teach you about how math applies to all of this, because if they did, they couldn't lie to you any more and you might revolt (quite literally) - either now or later.

So sit back and enjoy your childhood; your time to become a slave, when you leave school and start having to pay that $200,000 by having it taken from you in the form of taxes will be here soon enough.

Wall Street and the politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, thank you for quietly accepting your role as a slave to pay for their yachts, along with the lies, cheating and stealing that have been going on literally every day for more than ten years.

Now sit down at your desk, shut up and behave while your teachers show you only what the government wants you to know.

Wall Street and Washington DC are relying on you, our nation's youth, refusing to demand the truth.

They're sure you won't disappoint them.

Please pass the link, the essay, and the graph far and wide.

It explains fully what's coming -- in several senses.

To quote Frank Zappa:

"If your children ever find out how lame you really are, they're gonna murder you in your sleep."