gladhanding the hoosier state

the president came to indiana to tell us all that things will be okay if we only believe ...magical thinking and cash for clunkers will re-inflate the ruptured housing/credit bubble and things will be back to normal...the elite will stay the elite because the system that made them so will still be intact...more debt is what's needed...that's what makes the economy grow...the feds are leading the way on that...racking up impressive spending deficits., and encouraging new car sales to bring the private sector on board... as california gets set to furlough its prison population there may be new thinking among jurists about reaganite manditory sentencing and a push to decregulate some controlled substances to stimulate the economy, broaden the tax base, and purge the number of cases on court dockets...bankruptcy, both public and private ( both economic and ethical) aknowledged or unaknowledged are piling up...millitary planners want more money and troops for afghanistan...what's a few more billion in a sea of trillions? at what point do we begin to realize that these ruptures in the consumerist utopia will continue to mount? when will the fundamental unsoundness of having social parameters set by greed become obvious to even politicians? if the elite cannot begin to think outside the box of the profit imperative and the need for continued growth and come to terms with a smaller economy geared more toward need than the production of that wealth they won't be elite much longer...they will be sealed off in their walled compounds hiding from some of the more brutish realities the rest of us will be facing..if they're lucky...or at least for as long as they can afford to pay their mercinaries...the rust-belt went through a major economic contraction in the 1970s...there are still a few of us dinosaurs working in industrial manufacturing...but nothing like it was...what used to be the middle class here went through some painful adjustments (everyone's moms and wives went to work and daycare was born...among other things)and the smart ones stayed as far out of debt as they could...creditworthiness may have been a virtue in the bubble but its an albatross now...utterly useless...when economists and policy wonks try to convince themselves (and me) that slowed economic contraction equates to the onset of recovery the illusion becomes delusion...smoke and mirrors...wishful thinking.