Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Politics of the Absurd
Satire of the day: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13048272/site/newsweek/
It's cute, but with some troubling truths between it. The premise is that China calls in all its loans to the US and asks for ownership of California in trade.
The troubling part is that our national debt is *going* to get us in trouble, possibly when some hostile foreign government decides to use the money we owe them as leverage, sort of a global "make them an offer they can't refuse" thing. This isn't a new concept; people have been talking about it since before Al Gore invented the Internet.
We got a national debt in the same way that you and I end up with personal debt: the country spends more money than it earns. Now you and I, we do that too much and some huge guy with one eyebrow (and I don't mean he shaves one) will politely stop by one day and ask for money we don't have, and offer freelance chiropractic treatment if we don't give it to him.
OTOH, I can see great opportunities in this. Being an Ecotopian secessionist, I figure it could only be easier to declare independence from China than from the US.
I'm not sure China would *want* California. We're too darned independent-minded, though some folks would feel that parts of California - like Santa Monica - are already well on their way to a "people's republic" form of government. I'm sure they'd *much* rather have a part of the country where people are already used to mindlessly following the government on faith.
Maybe someplace like Texas.
It's cute, but with some troubling truths between it. The premise is that China calls in all its loans to the US and asks for ownership of California in trade.
The troubling part is that our national debt is *going* to get us in trouble, possibly when some hostile foreign government decides to use the money we owe them as leverage, sort of a global "make them an offer they can't refuse" thing. This isn't a new concept; people have been talking about it since before Al Gore invented the Internet.
We got a national debt in the same way that you and I end up with personal debt: the country spends more money than it earns. Now you and I, we do that too much and some huge guy with one eyebrow (and I don't mean he shaves one) will politely stop by one day and ask for money we don't have, and offer freelance chiropractic treatment if we don't give it to him.
OTOH, I can see great opportunities in this. Being an Ecotopian secessionist, I figure it could only be easier to declare independence from China than from the US.
I'm not sure China would *want* California. We're too darned independent-minded, though some folks would feel that parts of California - like Santa Monica - are already well on their way to a "people's republic" form of government. I'm sure they'd *much* rather have a part of the country where people are already used to mindlessly following the government on faith.
Maybe someplace like Texas.
# posted by Loren Davidson @ 8:16 AM 
