It is a long video but you will get the idea after about the first 10 minutes.
In a nutshell, he states that ALL governments, from local municipalties to the US Government have literally BILLIONS if not TRILLIONS of liquid investments that really belong in private hands, and that if dispersed to the citizens, the real owners of government, could solve all the budget problems and could possibly rid us of most taxes.
This really is a shocking video if it is true. According to this guy, government operates 2 sets of books. (although all of the government investments are contained in a comprehensive statement which is available to all)
Can anyone who is more knowledgeable about this sort of thing than I am comment on this?
First of all, which investments are these? Second, if they really belong in private hands, then wouldn’t the equitable solution be for the governments to just give them to the citizens? But if they did so, where would they get the revenue that’s supposed to be replacing taxes? Third, for how long is this sale supposed to replace taxes? Taxes give the government income every year, but sale of these assets would presumably be a lump sum, which means that the money would eventually run out and they’d have to go back to taxes again.
Oh, and fourth, if citizens are the real owners of government, then these assets are already dispersed to the citizens, by virtue of the citizens being shareholders in the government.
you would think so but they are not being dispersed.
Watch the video (or part of it) All we hear is how we are broke, the government needs more money, and vital services are being cut. But according to this guy, this is simply not the case.
I have to assume that neither you nor video guy understand the definition of liquid investment.
Governments can’t sell anything they own without a long, drawn-out legal process. Almost nothing in government hands is liquid, other than the money used to fund current operations. Which can hardly be dispersed to the public and still keep government functioning.
As someone who worked in government for over a decade, I assure you that there was nothing that properly belonged to the public that my government was sitting on.
If you want us to refute any specifics it’s your job to lay them out for us. Give us the actual examples of what this is about. Don’t ask me to waste my time.
My real-world experience says that this guy is the typical nutjob that screams about government without understanding the first thing about it.
Chronos made the same point I was going to make. If we own the government then we already own all the property in question - you can’t give something to somebody if they already own it. The only way a transfer of ownership would be possible would be if the government is a seperate entity from the national population - in which case, the government, not the individual citizens of this country, owns all the property in question
OK, as an example, let’s look at land owned by the government (that’s probably a big chunk of the assets this guy is talking about). If I owned all that land, I could do things like going camping there, or fishing, or hiking. Well, guess what? I can in fact do all those things on federally-owned land. In fact, most of the good hiking, fishing, etc. around here is on government-owned land. And I can go enjoy it because I have a part ownership in it.
The second set of books is for the lizard people that control the govt. They’re the ones that killed Kennedy, faked the moon landing, and invented disco.
Did you watch any of the video? He does seem to understand all about liquid investment and many other things financial.
Please watch at least 15 minutes of this guy’s ideas before ridiculing him.
I wouldn’t have believed any of this a few years ago either, but after seeing what Wall Street is capable of and after watching most of our talking head financial “experts” ridicule a guy like Peter Schiff, who 3 years ago predicted the financial mess we are in now, I am not sure of anything the government (or experts) tell us.
I don’t want to watch his two hour long video, and frankly, if you’re not able to effectively make any of his points, there isn’t going to be much of a debate. “Go watch this and respond” isn’t much of a debate.
Clearly, he is off his rocker. Just because he can use lots of jargon and confusing terms doesn’t mean he has any kind of valid point other than that he needs to be on medication. The idea that the government owns Microsoft lock, stock and barrel is nuts.
This is just conspiracy theory nonsense. The idea that the government is hiding great piles of money and that every President, Secretary of Treasury, member of Congress, and ALL of corporate America know about it, but won’t talk, is ludicrous on its face.
There are a million videos out there promising a new form of technology that will make oil obsolete and cure all our energy problems. There are a million videos out there promising miracle cures that will rid us of every disease.
Nobody with any sense pays any attention to them. Not once in the history of mankind have these wonders discovered by individuals outside the worlds of science and medicines ever come true. They are either deliberate frauds or self-delusion.
Now you tell us that in a world in which government is at the lowest point since the Great Depression, in which millions of real people are being hurt, in which nobody, not a single politician or academic or economist or think tank, has been able to come up with any solution, there’s a guy with a video who has solved all our problems with something nobody else in the world has thought of.
Do the math.
Again, if there is anything to this, why don’t you tell us what the secret is. Why don’t you give a summary of what can be done. You’ve already watched. Give us the specifics. You’re making the claim. Give us something to work with.
Something better than the “second set of books” which is a classic conspiracy theory too silly to bother to refute.
They apparently are being hidden IN PLAIN SIGHT on these “Comprehensive Financial Reports” so they are not ACTUALLY hidden.
And there is not a second set of books. I didn’t mean that literally. He clearly explains this in the video and stresses that the government, through these comprehensive reports, admits its ownership of these assets and the income that is generated from them.
And originally, I put this in general questions, and asked if this could be this simple that governments, while crying that they are poor, are really sitting on stocks and bonds etc that are worth trillions.
It seems amazing to me too and I am (was) asking for explanations to all this wealth that is not returned to the people. Is there a reason that government
acts as if this wealth doesnt exist as they raise taxes and fees and tell us social security is going broke.
from wikipedia (I understand that WIKI sometimes has erroneous information)
"The various levels of government each began producing a CAFR in 1946 to early 1950s, to catalog an accurate picture of: institutional funds, enterprise, or financial holdings, assets and total investment incomes, for those government and nongovernmental entities using the report, (which is above and beyond the budget process and replaced what was regularly an “off-the-books” practice called the “general fixed asset account group”). General Purpose government “Budget” reports did not reflect accounting of this financial data and in effect with the cooperation or silence of any media reports, hid these assets and investments from the public by only reporting on the budget or “rainy day” funds or pension fund investments."
I am not arguing with you. Maybe you are right. I am a dumbass when it comes to money. But it looks to me as if government is in the investment business and is not sharing the returns with it’s citizens in the form of tax cuts etc.
Remember Orange County, CA and that derivative fiasco? They claimed the OC was bankrupt, but someone who looked into the “books” of OC stated that they could have operated for approximately 11 years with the assets that they still owned AFTER losing the billions in derivatives.
Like I said earlier, I put this in general questions to see if there was an explanation for all this wealth that is there but not really there.
This isnt the Pit, so please keep your response civil, so Maybe I can learn something from you.
You watched the video (my god, you have the patience of Job), so I would think that you would have some knowledge of what this guy is referring to. If he didn’t even point out where these assets are reflected on the government balance sheets after two hours plus of speechifying, then clearly he hasn’t imparted very much useful information.
Just looking at his website, it appears that he uses the same old conspiracy theory tactic of throwing up so much minutiae or irrelevant lingo as chaff to make outrageous allegations appear less stupid. It isn’t unlike someone arguing that the moon landing couldn’t possibly have happened because the tensile strength of aluminum is such and such and Neil Armstrong is only so tall and the dollar’s exchange rate was this, so WE CAN’T VISIT THE MOON!
Seriously, and I mean this as a factual response, the guy is nuts.
