It seems that many confuse greed with capitalism.

Capitalism works in theory, but human greed always trumps ideology.

I'm a right-winger by nature. Does that make me want to screw someone over for cash? I live within my means, have NO debt, and I am saving for retirement at a good pace. I don't even believe in credit and debt yet I am a capitalist. Does that make me want to go out and start a company so I can fire people at will? How about the modern version of pillaging? No, and there are probably a whole lot more of us like this in the USA than you'd think by reading online articles and such. Just as the US media distorts things, you can bet your ass that other countries do the same thing with their media. I've been around and I've seen it first hand. It's just how things are. People want to hear that they are the best and others are shit. The news media wants to sell shit so they just go and tell people they are the best while complaining about the worst in everybody else.. The greedy news media distorting facts to sell the news.. Go figure.

I watch folks binge and rack up huge debts through greedily wanting things they otherwise couldn't pay for. I watch greedy companies who raise credit card debt limits and then weeks later increase the interest rates after people consolidate their debts onto that card or into that account. I watch folks who cash out their retirement investments to buy stuff, or invest all their money into the stock market because they think they can make a lot of money quickly and then lose it all when rogues manipulate the market to serve themselves. I watch when people of the world complain about what should/could/would have been done to prevent all this, but they are all clearly blaming the wrong things.

I understand all the USA bashing going on around the world where people who feel like underdogs are going to complain about everything the USA does but Ideology isn't a thing that can be blamed. You can't blame a concept. People can be blamed. People SHOULD be blamed. People have distorted every single social ideology in history. Kingdoms, Marxism, Leninism, Communism, Capitalism, Republics, Democracies, Castes, etc, etc. The truth is that everyone is to blame because greed is natural and it's instinctual.

http://www.ted.com/talks/laurie_santos.html

I'm not going to be one to say that anyone's opinions are wrong. Everybody has their viewpoint and should be heard equally. Yes, the US economy is fucked. Yes, the basis of the whole collapse is greed. Yes, the citizens of the US are to blame for letting this happen through ignorance and greed. Yes, this will happen again and again and again because our inept government is too worried about getting re-elected and cashing in and not about actually fixing anything, which would considerably cut their incomes. Some of us are actually trying to fix this stuff. The problem is just like everywhere else in the world, the nostalgia and resulting lament for what the government was and *should* have been is greater than what the government actually is and nobody wants to admit that it's broken but can be fixed, albeit at great expense in both time and money, not to mention that pretty much everybody in the government would lose their jobs.

Our government has long since ceased serving the people and now the people serve it. Now go look at your governments and you'll see the exact same thing.

@svart

right on man, just buy silver...hate to say it, but thats the ticket.

All take away and divide :-)

«—Да не согласен я.
— С кем? Энгельсом или Каутским?
— С обоими, — ответил Шариков.
— Это замечательно, клянусь Богом. Всех, кто скажет, что другая... А что бы вы со своей стороны могли предложить?
— Да что тут предлагать?.. А то пишут, пишут... конгресс, немцы какие-то... Голова пухнет. Взять всё, да и поделить...
— Так я и думал, — воскликнул Филипп Филиппович, шлепнув ладонью по скатерти, — именно так и полагал».

"one bailout at a time."

one day the debt will kill the States. one day dollar will lose its stand. that's correct... but the question is when. it might take a freaking long time. "the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent."

Quite a touching human moment in amongst the deal-making http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14367754

A reminder that right wing extremists can shoot a politician in the head, and try to ruin the economy, but they will both bounce back eventually.

@EOSHD: There's a difference between a nutcase and a right-wing extremist. That guy wasn't right-wing; he was a mentally-ill man with a gun. Likewise, the Obama-created chart at the top of the page deliberately skews the spending towards his predecessor, so as to hide the fact that President Obama has spent more. The current economy has more to do with poor-decision making (e.g. forcing Fannie Mae and banks to give housing loans to people who couldn't afford them) than political ideology. Ideology is just an easy way to hide years of bad decisions by both parties, inside deals, and sweetheart programs for big companies and unions. The solution isn't breaking things into smaller pieces; the solution is holding people accountable for their actions, not their ideology, easier now through the Internet. Never before in history has so much information been so easily available to so many people.

@sdbest

It is real, 98% are still in denial. Thats the sad part. But the sooner you realize it is, then you can start preparing yourself and family.

@brianluce

How about more effective at getting out products! Where the $%%$@**! is the Scarlet!
:-(
And what about the roadmap - you know the one with the 25k sensor... (or was it more?)

"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled is convincing people that he didn't exist."
You have a Scarlet?! Awesome!

Crazy world- to think that the us Debt Crisis has lowered the price of the Scarlet to that... unbelievable!
Now- if only it was 45k and 700 fps- then I would buy 2!

Since 1962, debt ceiling has been increased 72 times -- most recently by GW Bush. Interesting how the right wing never had a problem with it until we got ourselves a Black President.

As for diminishing returns there are more recent data here along with the 2005 chart posted.
http://alanmccrindle.wordpress.com/2010/03/23/new-treasury-data-suggests-that-the-usa-collapse-has-started/

As you may see the point of no return was 2009. Since then creating new debt only devours economy. In layman terms it means that US economy considered as an aggregate business of smaller enterprises it consists of is insolvent. There will be still profitable enterprises but the number of bankruptcies will grow inevitably. US will undergo very hard times in the next few years. Along with the whole world. There is no nation that will benefit on a large scale from collapse of the dollar, they're all in the same sinking boat.