And I just can't keep living this way
So starting today, I'm breaking out of this cage
I'm standing up, Imma face my demons
I'm manning up, Imma hold my ground
I've had enough, now I'm so fed up
Time to put my life back together right now
From “Not Afraid,” lyrics by Eminem
An upbeat article in Time Magazine reports
on “what may be one of the few growth industries, in Michigan,
home of the nation’s highest unemployment rate: 14%” (“Higher Learning,” Steven
Gray, Time Magazine, June 28, 2010).
What is Michigan’s exciting
growth industry? Medical marijuana. And you can learn everything you ever wanted
to know at Michigan’s Med
Grow Cannabis College
in Southfield.
No, that’s
not a typo and this is not a 2010 version of the old movie, Reefer Madness. According to Gray,
medical marijuana at almost $500 an ounce can allow entrepreneurs the chance to
provide “it to a mere five patients” and “generate $10,000 a month in sales.”
Wow! It’s just what we need in this state to get excited, lucrative drug profits
not going to drug dealers (I mean, “illegal” drug dealers.)
And the
prospects are even more exciting in California,
if their voters agree on a measure on the November ballot to legalize marijuana
for “recreational” use and allow it to be taxed. Tom Ammiano, a Democrat from San
Francisco, estimates that those new taxes “could
generate up to $2 billion in annual revenue for California.”
Hey, how much more can we keep taxing all those poor nicotine addicts and hopeless
alcoholics and addicted gamblers? The cities and states have to raise huge
amounts of money to pay for their massive debts now, accumulated for years
collecting once-lucrative housing property taxes and estate taxes and the
hundreds of other taxes to pay for all of their early retirees’ ultra-generous
pension plans and A+ health care plans.
In the same
issue of Time, David Von Drehle writes “Governments that were lavish in the
good times, building their budgets on optimism and best-case scenarios, now
risk being wrecked like a shantytown in an earthquake” (The Broken States of
America: The Other Financial Crisis,” David Von Drehle, Time Magazine, June 28,
2010). 14 states are expected to have less than 1% reserves, “living hand to
mouth.” Federal government stimulus dollars (all borrowed, piling up the United
States debt to perilous levels) have mostly
been spent, most dollars already given to states to keep them from imploding.
And how did
the states get so bad, with at least $1 trillion short of their promises to
retirees, according to the Pew Center?
Well, the New York Times reported that some 3,700 retired New
York State public
employees earn more than $100,000 a year in pension payments. A California
fire chief from the Bay Area, according to Time, at age 51, was “collecting
more than $241,000 a year in retirement pay.” In San Diego,
the once-prosperous city now on the verge of bankruptcy, a grand jury found “a
recurring practice of skipping required payments to the city’s pension fund
while simultaneously awarding ever more generous pensions to public employees.”
And what does California’s
public-employee unions want to do about it? They are “lobbying for a bill to
ban government bankruptcies entirely.”
How do you
keep the states and cities and country from falling into deeper and deeper debt?
Well, you borrow more “stimulus” dollars from China
and other countries that have some cash on hand. You raise taxes on the people
and corporations left who can afford to pay. And you find new avenues to fund
the plight of addicted spending.
You may
ask, why not legalize other forms of drugs, to go along with all the chemicals
leaching into our bodies from chemical companies and all the billions of
dollars of prescription drugs fed to us from our drug pushers, i.e. doctors? Why
not allow the free market to supply all of the cocaine, heroin, and
methamphetamines, putting profits into the ordinary citizens’ hands and giving
governments a huge chunk of new taxes?
Legalizing
all drugs might help end the flood of Mexican meth warriors moving north across
our porous borders. La Familia Michoacana, “a bizarre gang of
Christian-fundamentalist narcotraffickers” (“Mexico’s Meth Warriors,” Tim
Padgett and Ioan Grillo/Apatzingan, Time Magazine, June 28, 2010), led by
Mexican Narario Moreno—a.k.a. El Mas Loco (The Craziest One) is one of the fastest-rising
drug cartels, specializing in the production and trafficking of
methamphetamine. The Craziest One and his drug “family” produce half of the $20
billion of meth flowing into U.S.
streets. La Familia has written its own bible and holds prayer meetings before
decapitating the heads of their enemies as they infiltrate the Mexican government,
making the American mafia seem quaint and old-fashioned.
In TV and movies, making and selling meth seems
to be the quickest way to wealth. Who needs the stock market, working day jobs,
or education? In TV’s best drama, Breaking
Bad, Walter White is a simple school teacher who turns to making meth to
help him finance his medical costs after his bout with lung cancer. In its 3rd
season, White and his partner, former student, Jesse Pinkman, have descended
into a hellish storm of betrayals, violent cartel murders, tragic losses, and
heart-pounding, near-death experiences, and yet they can’t seem to give up the thrill
of making millions by feeding the horrific habits of young American addicts.
Even in the highly-praised movie, Winter’s
Bone, 17-year-old Ree Dolly has to deal with her vanished father, locally
renowned for his skill at cooking methamphetamine as well as the violent drug
dealers he was involved with.
What’s with all this media
preoccupation with drug addiction? You can’t help wondering what would happen
if illegal drugs were made legal to reduce the billions in drug trafficking
profits and the horrific violence that results. Wonder why these drugs are
illegal while all the legal addictions keep feeding our economy? Cigarettes,
alcohol, and gambling are joined by the addictions of over-eating huge amounts
of fast foods, sugary, salt-loaded and fat-filled food in restaurants and homes
that feed eating addictions, contributing to massive amounts of obesity,
diabetes, cancer, and heart disease.
Think about it: the American
economy has been growing for years, fed by the flow of addictions to bigger and
bigger houses and TVs, paid for with the addictive accumulation and usage of
credit cards. We still get addicted to our latest electronic gadgets, Kindles,
iPods, iPhones, WIs, iPads,
Droids, and addictions to instant electronic satisfaction on the Internet. Our
new 20-year-old part-timer in the warehouse of IDN-Hardware
Sales just showed me his new iPhone 4, which he picked up at Wal Mart after
standing there from 5:30 a.m., desperate
to replace his iPhone which he only bought two months ago. Like an electronic
addict, he had to get the “sweet” device which allows him to spend hours
scanning the Internet and playing games. Meanwhile, millions are addicted to
shopping of all kinds, from clothes to jewelry to other disposable products.
And municipal governments, cities, counties, and the entire U.S. Federal
Government are so coked-up on borrowing and debt that they can’t relinquish
their astronomical spending habits.
“The situation today is vastly
worse than a couple of years ago,” Nassim Taleb told CNBC.
Author of The Black Swan, a book that
deals with the impact of highly improbable events like housing bubbles bursting
and investment banks falling apart, Taleb is deeply pessimistic about our debt
levels. “Today,” he said, “we have more risk in the system and a lower tax
base.” When asked how to deal with a country that has the highest liabilities
in the world, he replies, “Don’t give a junkie more drugs; don’t give a debt
junkie more debt.”
All of this is enough to make the
average person feel like jumping off a roof or stopping at Coldstone Creamery
or buying a six-pack. I can’t help but think about Breaking Bad’s Jesse Pinkman
at the end of the second season, which I addictively watched (all 12 episodes)
after succumbing to the last episode of Season 3. After Jesse’s girl friend
vomited to death after getting high on heroin, Jesse fell into a
psychologically drug-ridden, comatose state, not wanting to wake up again.
Eventually, Jesse returned to life,
just like Michigan’s rapper-songwriter
Eminem, after being close to death from drug addiction. When all seems hopeless, we can learn something
from Eminem on his latest CD, Recovery,
which grapples with his years of drug addictions and the realization that
“You’re slowly dying. You’re crying out for help.” In the song, “Not Afraid,”
he shared how he was able to rise again after a triumphant 12-step
breakthrough.
Even if the United
States addiction to dept increases to almost
$14 trillion this year and close to $20 trillion by 2015, making our future far
more treacherous than Greece,
we can take a little heart from the plight of Eminem. We can wake up one day
and realize that selling or using drugs, buying iPhones, constantly using
credit cards, and feeding our addictions are all virtually empty and
meaningless.
It’s scary to think how much of our
economy is built on the addictions of millions of Americans. And addictions are
not going to get any better by legalizing them. Think how much schools depend on the gambling
addictions to lotteries and casinos. Think what would happen to the tax base if
the usage of cigarettes and alcohol was cut in half. And then think what the
government might do to raise taxes and fees on all of the new “legal marijuana”
endeavors.
Don’t give junkies more of what
they crave. Don’t give alcoholics an open bar. And don’t give government debt
junkies more debt.
We must not be afraid to honestly
realize the nature of our addictions before finally conquering them. “I'm not afraid
to take a stand,” Eminem raps in “Not Afraid” from his CD, Recovery. “Everybody come
take my hand / We'll walk this road together, through the storm /Whatever
weather, cold or warm /Just let you know that, you're not alone /Holla if you
feel that you've been down the same road.”
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