Are we broke?  As a nation, I mean, are we broke?  Not yet?  OK, phew!  Good to hear.  

Oh, well, as long as the credit card can hold the cost of these crazy wars for oil, hey, listen, if we had only focused on killing Bin Laden.  But if looks like the Bush-Cheney combo did sell the American people their war.  Yes, in this case, we DID start the fire.  So, sure, we want jobs, and better healthcare, and more of this and more of that.  Honestly, not to confused with a whiner, but I have no idea how we’re going to get more of this or more of that, if the country’s finances are in shambles.  

And that only mirrors the horrific financial nightmare that the average American family is forced to live month after month, scrambling a check here and there just to make ends meet.  All this on pretty much, tens of millions of people who previously full time employees, now surviving on part-time jobs.   Where are we going?

And the savings of the American family?  Is this a joke?  No, really, are you joking?

Check out this illuminating set of charts.  I haven’t taken the time to fact-check every single number mentioned in this presentation.  But if they happen to be all true, oh, boy, then it only confirms what you and I have known for a long, long time: we are not in good shape, my friend.  We are broke!

Well, maybe not broke as bankrupt, but there is a pretty substantial gap in the income levels of the strata and social classes of Americans in the 21st century.   If you were wondering what extreme Capitalism meant, then try to digest this.

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One last conclusion:  I didn’t really want to break it to you this way, but it looks like we’re going to have to be working our butts off until we get to be 128 years old.  Sure, the big pharmaceutical conglomerates are already working on that.  I’m not sure they’re actually looking at the human joy and progress associated with this, but rather at the profitability side of the new age of Slavery.

Did I say ‘slavery’?  Oh, no, no, I mean, progress, yes, that what I meant.   Oh, this big mouth is getting me in trouble again.

I mean, if we can cure so many diseases and ailments today, and we can even get little blue pills to drive our elderly crazily horny, why not invent a pill to extend human lifespan to 150?   No, seriously, we can put those big banker CEOs and pharmaceutical companies CEOs in charge, and that’s it, we can fix everything, right?  Sure they can fix everything in Wall Street these days.  Oh, no, wait, you mean they can’t?   What?  No! C’mon, don’t scare me now, please…

No, seriously, I’m sure some son-of-the-bitch with an expensive suit up there in an influential Manhattan CEO’s office is already thinking and planning how to squeeze more money out of those “active” 85-year-old “kids” bagging groceries at the supermarket checkouts.   Those warmongering sons-of-bitches, I tell ya…

Ricardo Trelles