It's Not Just Stocks; Americans Are Rising Again

If one were to look just the US stock markets, the assumption would likely be that all is well and good with the US economy.

The major averages are at multi-year highs, with the Dow less than 600 points from its all-time high (Oct. 9, 2007: 14,164.53 close) and the S&P 500 a mere 100 points away from its all-time closing high set on October 9, 2007, at 1565.15.

A peek under the hood, so to speak, would reveal a different reality, with unemployment above eight percent for nearly four years running, massive stimulus programs by the government and the Federal Reserve boosting stock prices but sparking inflation and leaving middle class America and small business seething through high gas prices, slack demand, virtually no job creation, a shrinking work force and record numbers of Americans receiving government assistance through food stamps, welfare and a variety of other programs.

The impression that all is apparently just fine is touted by the media to a largely unsuspecting public, though that aspect of life in America is changing. More and more people distrust government at all levels, actually understanding that the Federal Reserve is willfully destroying the value of the US dollar, engaging in all manner of underground economics, from backyard gardens to unreported side job incomes, leaving the "system" to fend for itself without public support.

Government, especially at the federal level, continues to parade about their so-called "expertise," knowing what's "good for the American people" while doing little to nothing to remedy the conditions which plague middle-to-low income families. The rapidity by which independent thinkers are withdrawing the consent to be governed is startling when one examines Americans up close.

While the economists and analysts look at largely massaged, incorrect and inconclusive numbers on jobs, spending, inflation, productivity and income, they entirely miss the now massive, unreported, burgeoning economics taking place in small towns and large cites across the expanse of the continent. Certainly, there are minions still without knowledge or understanding of the extent of the financial crisis - now nearly four years old and running - still willing to rely on government help, but a growing number of people have come to the realization that government today exists only to self-perpetuate and serve the needs of a greedy, cumbersome system of enormous public corporations and government regulations designed to stifle competition, crush creativity and retard personal growth.

Such people are increasingly taking matters into their own hands, purposely defaulting on fraudulent mortgage loans, making do with less, and living more off the land than having to depend on the corporate food chain of genetically-modified foods, products stuffed with hormones, sugars and high fructose corn syrup that are unhealthy but still promoted by government officials.

These people are eating better, more nutritious, healthier foods, avoiding government regulations in quiet protest and operating in a largely cash economy that will continue to grow and flourish because it is too big, too diverse and too pervasive for regulators and prosecutors to effectively control.

From the government's perspective, such actions by individuals and families in the private sector are viewed as counter-productive to their aim of the perfect welfare state. In the minds of the actual practitioners of this "new economy" it is a necessity of survival. They are finding like-minded individuals in their friends and neighbors, spreading the word to others who seek to escape the all-seeing eyes and ears of a tyrannical elite, and prospering while the government stumbles, bumbles and eventually will self-destruct.

When the invisible secondary economy becomes so large that it mirrors the "official "GDP," as occurred during the oppressive days of prohibition, radical change will certainly follow, as it did then. The people shall rise, not all as one, but in various pockets of defiance, from urban strongholds to rural outliers. For many, especially those which have not seen the light, chaos will prevail. For those who have been silently proactive in the management of their livelihoods and self-sufficiency, it shall be a time of prosperity and freedom.

America has been and will be a country based upon principles of personal liberty and economic freedom. If the government is ill-equipped to support these values or even to go so far as to attempt to deprive citizens of their rights under the constitution and other prevailing, fair, tested laws, then the people will withdraw their consent and forge a new era irrespective of government policy and procedure.

The process of reformation and recovery from a top-down, repressive, centrally-planned society and economy to one from which the nation was formed: individual, self-sustaining, resourceful and fiercely independent, will take years, even decades to come to fruition, but come it will, come it must.

American people of good conscience and knowledge have had nearly enough from a government that refuses to protect and promote the interests of its citizens. While a day of reckoning may never be realized, small steps forward by individuals and like-minded groups are already well underway and will continue until the jackals, thieves and miscreants who call themselves our "leaders" are swept away by a tidal wave of public discontent.

America - at least its spirit - will forever live in the hearts and minds of true patriots who will always choose to fight rather than to take flight.

Those who wish to limit freedoms and curtail the liberties which made the nation the greatest in the history of mankind will find their tenure short-lived and their efforts fruitless.

This post was inspired by a true American.

Dow 13,593.37, +53.51 (0.40%)
NASDAQ 3,183.95. +28.12 (0.89%)
S&P 500 1,465.77, +5.78 (0.40%)
NYSE Composite 8,458.88, +51.85 (0.62%)
NASDAQ Volume 2,028,686,500
NYSE Volume 5,067,050,000
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 3749-1817
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 749-31 (absurd)
WTI crude oil: 99.00, +3.78
Gold: 1,772.70, +31.50
Silver: 34.66, -0.12