From: bfrg9732@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Brian F. Redman)
Subject: Bankruptcy 1995 (part 5)
Summary: The approaching fiscal Armageddon
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 00:14:30 GMT
Keywords: treachery trickery deceit deception



Bankruptcy 1995: The Coming Collapse of America & How to Stop It.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

by Harry E. Figgie, Jr.
with Gerald J. Swanson, Ph.D.

About the authors:
-- Harry E. Figgie, Jr. is the CEO of Figgie International Inc., 
a diversified *Fortune 500* operating company. He was co-chairman 
of President Reagan's Private Sector Survey on Cost Control, also 
known as the Grace Commission.
-- Dr. Gerald J. Swanson is an Associate Professor of Economics 
at the University of Arizona.

"Any profits from this book have long since been assigned to 
charity. We make no profit whatsoever from it." (p. 25).

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
*                                                               *
* The United States has a problem that is easy to understand,   *
* but whose effects are difficult to comprehend. Its solution   *
* is simple to prescribe, but hard to implement. This problem   *
* is more insidious than drug addiction, more pressing than     *
* recession; it is crueler than poverty and illness and more    *
* hazardous than a hole in the ozone.                           *
*                                                               *
* This problem, which is of our own making, will precipitate    *
* an economic nightmare that will dwarf the Great Depression    *
* and turn the history of America into one of history's         *
* closed chapters. This problem has a name. It is *government   *
* debt.*                                                        *
*                                                               *
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

--------------------------- part 5 ------------------------------

Year          Debt                Interest on debt
====          ==============      ================
1964          $  316 billion      $ 10.7 billion
1988          $2,600 billion      $214.2 billion

"This year [1992]... interest charges on the debt are expected to 
total $293 billion. Paying that amount alone would eat up nearly 
52 percent of personal and corporate income taxes."


Here are some other ways to look at it:

*** In 1991, interest on the national debt cost us more than any 
other single budget item, including defense.

*** In 1991, interest on the national debt was more than the 
combined expenses of the departments of Agriculture, Education, 
Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, Labor, 
State, Transportation, and Veteran's Affairs.

*** In 1991, the combined costs of interest on the debt, national 
defense, and Social Security were more than the amount collected 
in individual income taxes.


The day will soon come when Germany, Saudi Arabia, Japan, 
etcetera, will come to demand their money back. "A government's 
ability to guarantee certain freedoms and liberties rests on that 
government's independence, which our government is close to 
giving totally away, if it hasn't already."

"We could be spending our public funds on projects that would 
help make our industry more competitive in world markets, our 
people healthier and better educated, and our environment safer 
and cleaner. But we're not. We can't, until and unless we get the 
federal budget deficit under control. We can't afford to throw 
more dollars at any program, no matter how worthy it sounds. We 
are in deep, deep fiscal trouble."

If the U.S. government were a corporation it would be forced, 
here and now, to either 1) take drastic action to save itself, or 
2) file for bankruptcy.

"If we wait much longer to fix our debt problem, the solutions 
that desperate politicians will propose and that creditors will 
impose will be so painful that we'll wish we could just close up 
shop and move somewhere else. But a whole country can't do that."

"Remember the once mighty Soviet Union and how quickly it 
disintegrated. The same can -- and will -- happen to us, unless 
we get our act together, and soon."


------------------------- end part 5 ----------------------------

You can do a lot of good by taking this article and posting it to 
other areas besides "alt.activism." You can also post this or 
upload it as a file to a local BBS. This would help give the 
people of this nation an alternative to the "fluff" and 
propaganda posturing as hard news which they are currently 
getting from the major networks.


Synopsis/Review by Brian Redman
"Ah yes, Armageddon. I remember it well."
End part 5