Pablo Richards .com

When you look at our dismal economy, it's easy to just blame the banks 100% for its ruination. Anyone who understands how the Federal Reserve banking system works, knows that banks get their money out of thin air, always at zero risk. Nice work if you can get it. So we have the banks sitting already at the pinnacle of our whole system.

But, of course, that just wasn't enough for our banksters.  To add fuel to their toasty little fire, they repeal Glass-Steagle in the 80's and allow the banks to take their "free money" and get involved in risky speculation. If the banks win, they make a bundle for Christmas bonus time, but if they lose big, they can always count on being bailed out by the taxpayers. This should be an area we ALL (left, right and nutjob right) agree on, yet the GOP congress continues to block any meaningful bankster reform.

But, with all the DISMAL failures of the banks, that isn't what REALLY tanked this economy. When we had a livable minimum wage and all the money in large corporations didn't just go to the execs, even inept banksters couldn't  slow our perpetually-booming economy down. Sure, we have a lot more lower-wage jobs now, and it will be a while before we get back where we were, but people need to realize that raising the minimum wage to a livable wage isn't just a nice thing to do, IT'S THE KEY TO GETTING OUR ECONOMY GOING AGAIN.

Listen up, TeaBaggers. This is what you missed out on when you were ditching your economics classes. RAISING the minimum wage won't noticeably change the prices you PAY, it will cause the economy to start humming again because LOTS of people will have money in their pockets and be BUYING THINGS. These are good things since we have a consumer-based economy. Personally, I would prefer a Star Trek-Based economy, which is based on unlimited food and goods courtesy of replicator technology. But, since we're stuck with a consumer-based economy, I'm calling on the TeaBaggery to put down their calculators, stop dissing our president for a FULL HOUR, and ponder the possibilities of an economy where people are BUYING THINGS AGAIN. You just can't hang an entire economy on a handful of rich guys, but we might want to consider hanging a handful of rich guys.