A. The serf is never free of debt, i.e. he/she is programmed to being indebted for life.
B. Most of the serf's income is devoted to servicing debt.
C. Most of the debt is unproductive: marginal-utility college education, needless auto loan, leveraged McMansion that loses value in the inevitable speculative bust, and so on.
There are many ways to state these fundamentals and shelfloads of books have been written to describe the many mechanisms of financialization and serfdom, but we can summarize the dynamics in a few additional points:
4. Financialization requires a corruptible, highly centralized State that enables the extreme concentration of financial assets and power. Recall that debt is the banks' primary asset; every loan a debt-serf takes adds to the banks' wealth and power:
5. This creates a feedback loop: the more concentrated the financial wealth and power, the more readily it can corrupt/influence the Central State to grant it quasi-monopolies and the privileges needed to gather even more concentrated power. This additional power makes it even easier to buy control of the State machinery. Democracy is reduced to a PR facade.
6. The Financial Powers need the Central State to encourage debt, which is the lifeblood of financialization. Without the State enabling and pushing debt (student loans, subsidized mortgages, mortgage interest deductions, Federal deficit spending funded by Treasury debt, etc.), the Financial Powers (i.e. the Dark Side) would be unable to continue concentrating wealth and power via metastasizing financialization, i.e. the dependence on ever-greater debt and leverage to generate profits, growth and taxes.
7. The Federal Reserve is the "ultimate power" in this financial universe. Hiding behind its PR "dual mandate" of "stabilizing inflation and employment," the Fed's real raison d'etre is to stabilize the economy so the Financial Powers' parasitic pillaging and plundering won't be disrupted by a financial crisis or depression.
The same can be said of the parasitic State, which lives off the taxes skimmed from the expansion of debt-based growth.
8. Not that the Fed cares about the "little people" hurt in a depression; what the Fed worries about is the result of depression, which is debt-serfs defaulting on their debts and refusing to take on more debt.
This leads to an inescapable conclusion: the only way to kill the metastasizing cancer of financialization is to "starve the Beast" of debt. This is akin to starving a tumor by cutting off its blood supply--in the case of financialization, that means reducing debt to a trickle.
With democracy crippled by an ever-rising tide of dirty money, the only way to destroy the Death Star (the Fed and the Too Big to Fail/Prosecute/Control banks) is to stop borrowing.
Pleading with the President or Congress is like asking a cancer to please stop growing. Don't waste your breath. Talking isn't going to fix anything.
Debt is the mechanism of the Financial Powers' dominance and the chains of our serfdom. Eliminate debt and you eliminate the foundation of banks' power and the financial bondage of serfdom. This mechanism of neofeudal dominance is not unique to the U.S.: 500 Million Debt-Serfs: The European Union Is a Neo-Feudal Kleptocracy (July 22, 2011)
The only way to restore democracy is to cut off the blood flow of the financializing cancer, i.e. cut off debt. We have been programmed to view debt as necessary as air--it is impossible to go to college, start a business, own a vehicle or buy a house without massive debt.
It is not ordained that any of these requires a lifetime of debt. Our acceptance of debt is a programmed but still voluntary acceptance of serfdom.
It is possible to earn a university degree without going into debt, but it requires embracing an entirely unconventional approach based on sustained, goal-oriented frugality, thrift and outside-the-box thinking. The Nearly-Free University (November 15, 2012)
If an entrepreneur absolutely needs $20,000 to start his/her enterprise, then raise the money via crowdsourcing. If you must borrow money, only do so if you have a credible plan to pay it all off in the first year. If you cannot expect to do so, then your proposed enterprise simply isn't profitable enough to invest in.
If you must borrow money to buy a used vehicle, then put down $5,000 in cash and pay off the $5,000 balance within a year. Get a loan from a local credit union rather than from a TBTF bank.
If you must buy a house, then go in with others and buy a multi-unit building or a McMansion that can be shared, and only buy if you can pay off the entire mortgage with your current income in 3-5 years.
We cannot expect to control the vast derivatives trade in credit default swaps and synthetic collateral, but we can remove the real-world collateral of debt from the leveraging machine. With few mortgages, auto loans, student loans, etc. to securitize and leverage, the Financialization cancer will slowly die of starvation. Once its ability to spread is halted and its profits plummet, its political clout will decline in equal measure.
Though it would dearly love to, the State cannot force anyone to take on debt except as taxpayers. We do not have to remain debt-serfs, nor accept our servitude as unavoidable or fated.
Debt = serfdom. There is another way to live, frugally, with only short-term debts that are paid off in a few short years. We either accept the consumerist-narcissist debt-serf programming or reject it. We are neither victims nor bystanders. The choice is ours.
A MARKET CLEARING EVENT: The Global End Game - Part II: CHS and Gordon T. Long discuss the cycle of deflation and the endgame of leverage, credit and phantom collateral:
Unfortunately, it is not just debt. It is debt, inflation and taxes. By the time you pay income and all the other taxes, give a big percentage to the Banks in interest payments and have what little is left inflated away, you have nothing. Just ask the 90% of Americans who die with less than $10,000 of net worth.
One side of the ledger you have a debt... the other side has a credit. The financial system is a credit system, you can starve the beast all you want, eventually the system will fail either by willfully or by laws of big numbers (ie laws of the universe or God). Eventually, the unfunded walking liabilities will have to be liquidated, my guess 1-2 billion. Nothing the top or the federal reserve can do about it.
I have a suggestion, learn to swim... someone is going to have to go down the hole. Its way too late to be complaining.
[Vogon Captain] People of Earth, attention, please! People of Earth, your attention please! This is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council. As you are probably aware, the plans for the development of the outlying regions of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy require the building of a hyperspace express route through your star system, and, regrettably, your planet is one of those scheduled for demolition. The process will take slightly less than two of your Earth minutes. Thank you very much.
(ANGRY, CONFUSED SHOUTING)
[Man] Get out of it!
[Woman] No! No! No! Go away! Go away!
[Vogon Captain] All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display in your local planning department in Alpha Centauri for 50 of your Earth years, and so you've had plenty of time to lodge any complaints and it's far too late to make a fuss about it now!
(ANGRY SHOUTING)
[Vogon Captain] What do you mean you've never been to Alpha Centauri? Oh, for heaven's sake, mankind! It's only four light years away, you know! I'm sorry, but if you can't be bothered to take an interest in local affairs, that's your own lookout! Energize the demolition beam! God, I don't know! Apathetic bloody planet, I've no sympathy at all!
...And another wonderful headline story of truth, that will prove the more you ignore the wealthier you become - Ask anyone with a forgiven mortgage, ask anyone who has owned stocks in the last 5 years. Noone gets out alive unless you do exactly the opposite of truth, reason and responsibility!
You pursue and find truth at the expense of your existence. Ask anyone who owns precious metals - Dead men hoping (cuz the paper price doesn't matter LOL!!)
Stocks (lies and manipulation) = +120% return
Home prices (lies and manipulation) = + 18% return
Gold & Silver (truth/reason) = PERPETUAL CRUSH
Bonds & Savings accts (truth/reason/safety) = zero return & confiscation
No honor, no integrity, no amount of truth or reason needed - Just an irrational desire for more at the expense of someone else (our children).
Ben is giving birth to the anti-Christ - and we are it!
which is debt-serfs defaulting on their debts and refusing to take on more debt.
I think this is the trend, especially amongst riskaverse Millennials.
It still doesn't mean we take on debt (especially student loan debt). But consumer debt (housing, credit cards, cars) will continue to decline (the increase will come from families as the inflationary pressures start to rise; the next generation as a result will have less kids, get married less).
Kinda like ur obsession with the fiat-based bitcoin? Bitcoin was conceived in someone's mind, just like debt-based fiat money (rothschilds)........unlike gold/silver which come from the earth.
I keep telling all the 20-somethings in my office to not get married, have kids or buy a house.
Wives and kids cost too much money, and a house is long term debt. Besides, who would want to try to take care of family in the coming collapse. It is best to be free of all bonds, that way you can move to where the work is and not be bound to a house or a town or a school system.
"(the increase will come from families as the inflationary pressures start to rise; the next generation as a result will have less kids, get married less)."
Hence the reversal of DOMA. Enticing serfs to new levels of embracing the American Dream...
The moment the shiftless masses catch nary a whiff of "recovery" and some return to normalcy, i.e. profligate spending on iGadgets, cars and LEDs, they will willingly take on more debt as the debt-fueled recovery (ironic, I know) will, at least in their minds, repudiate the theory that one cannot spend his way out of financial malaise. Don't think for a minute that Americans can change their stripes that easily. You see, to spend frivolously is to live, and to live well in the drug-addled minds of your average status seeking American nincompoop is to value form over substance which ultimately manifests in being wealthy for that is truly the only measure of a man's worth in this day and age. There was a time when thrift was virtue; no longer. Americans aspire to ostentatious displays of wealth, real or faked. Sorry, but I wholeheartedly disagree with your assessment. The trend, fully espoused by the mainstream media RomCom complex, will be one of greater consumption based on the affordability of cheap debt. Amass an array of toys because the next bailout is just around the corner.
The Ponzi is not even close to having run its course. We have a whole other cycle of debt-infused mania ahead of us before the final preparations are made to cope with the tens if not hundreds of milllions of Americans who lived irresponsibly in "good times" and now require the assistance of the beneficent state (FEMA camp Bravo).
'Pleading with the president and Clowngress is like asking caner to stop growing.'
Exactly right, any effort put into 'grassroots movements' to 'change the gubmint' is a complete waste of time. Stop borrowing, stop paying interest on anything.
"Business activity in the New York City area slowed sharply last month, although employment picked up, according to data released Tuesday.
The Institute for Supply Management-New York's Current Business Conditions index fell to 51.2 in March from 58.8 in February, which had been the highest reading since March 2012. "
NY ISM fell sharply, guess what? Market Rally.. Who cares about anything.
Can't say that I fully understand who is feeding on debt other than my one hour online payday loan lender. He surely does that. He is a part of a bigger system, this is how I should except it I guess. Shizzmoney is so right saying that the next generation is going to have less kids as first of all we cannot repay our debts, which does not allow us to obtain mortgae loans for instance as we also feel insecure about borrowing funds in a first place. Looks like debt is going to be inseparable part of our existance for the next God knows how many decades.
The incremental nature of the debt enslavement (totalitarian control) of US citizens since the founding of the FED and the (coincidental?) implementation of the progressive income tax, has ramped up in recent years to a full assault on the Bill of Rights and the Rule of Law.
Something wicked this way comes
The question, obviously, is when, or.......
How long can "they" keep the extend and pretend game going?
Not much further, I expect. My guess is the 2014 elections with Obama seeking full control of Congress. If that happens, it will be the beginning of the end.
Even if one is debt-free and has toiled to save for 'the future,' the Banksters will simply Bail-in those hard-earned dollars. Remember...there are no laws anymore. Robbery by the rich of the Former Middle Class is A-OK....isn't it?
Is a Credit Union safe? I don't know. I certainly have no funds in a TBTF. I guess the best investment is Food and Water.
Few seem to realize how insideous "obama care" is in terms of enslavement of the people. Even if you are able to live without consumer debt you will be firmly tethered to the state one way or the other. And then there are property taxes.....
Great topic. This is the rabbit hole that concerns most Americans (there are others.....).
Homeownership is the core of the malady known as the American Dream. The development of the consumer culture and the mass middle class depends entirely on debt-financed single family housing.
The question on the table is....is that a bad thing? Even if it was once a good thing, or can still be a good thing under certain circumstances, i.e. divorced of the context in which it enables the destruction of the Republic?
You are telling American families to not buy homes under the current rules of the game.
Meanwhile, of course get as far away as possible from the DC/NY/TBTF complex. Use credit unions, etc. As Bourne says, "Get low and stay low."
Another thought-provoking question: what happens to interest rates if Americans delever and live within their means? All else being equal it should lower the demand for credit and lower rates, that is be 'good for the economy', so win-win etc.
Frugality can be great for the mind, values, wallet and national security all at the same time!
Hmmm " the State cannot force anyone to take on debt" well that little Obama care ruling kind of says the .gov can force us to 'buy' anything or be taxed if we don't.
I fucked up the bank so they can't foreclose on me...I am living in my home for free but it is not my fault. No other debt. Great to be off the system....sort of.
The fake market will continue as "they" contol the volume, they control the vertical, they control the horizontal....
"the State cannot force anyone to take on debt except as taxpayers"
No, but that "except as taxpayers" part is rather important and it can, in addition, steal money from bank accounts if the financial parasite isn't fed.
Not even for 1 year, 1 month, 1 week, 1 day. Debt == disease. Debt == slavery. You do not need to borrow. Period. So don't. Get yourself into the mind-set of borrowing, even short term, and you will slide down the slippery slope into the dark side of the farse, and slavery will forever be your destiny.
It's all about self control and discipline. I don't agree with the puritans on issues of abstaining from things that tempt my senses, for fear of "sliding down the slippery slope" of addiction to drugs, sex, etc.
Debt is a tool that wielded carelessly can take off a limb, used skillfully it can be productive. All or nothing is not a healthy mindset... that's how you end up stuck in the "dark side".
I think many smart people have walked away from personal debt, or are at least in the process of getting debt free. However, recognizing the threat to their existence, the financial industry is now bypassing them entirely and focusing on getting their government to borrow for them. You can’t win when those in power don’t have to represent your interests.
Government debt is now almost $60k per citizen, which for the average family exceeds their net worth. For the record, I’m planning to default on my share.
Too big to fail, too big to jail and too big to bail out. So eventually they will have to bail you in. Cyprus is not unique. It is the start of the end game.
More than a decade ago, consumers started banding together on the internet to discuss credit and debt ... first on relatively "straight" boards like creditboards.com and later on more "artful dodger" type boards like the late artofcredit.com and now on "credit terrorist" boards like debtorboards.com.
If there's one thing more damaging to the Death Star than a refusal to take on debt, it's a sudden decision to stop paying all debts and to fight using procedural tricks (statute of limitations, quibbles over documentation of the debt, FDCPA suits and even demanding arbitration now that the two main creditors' arbitration forums are out of the picture).
If you don't want to wade through the apparent chaos of those boards asking newbie questions, there are even books like "Debt Hope: Down and Dirty Survival Strategies" that are a sort of boot camp for getting into the credit wars ... the boards can put a finer point on specific questions you might have.
Starving the beast takes time, and it's not very humane. Poison it quickly.
Debt is only a burden to the debtor who doesn't default. People who are judgment proof can do just about anything short of a crime and get away with it.
Exactly right. Fuck those bastards. Default. A trillion in defaulting student loans can't be wrong.
The thing I kept thinking about with CHS's piece is "Ya, right. Now how are you going to get these sheep to embrace that?" But your point is the path. We need a cultural shift. The more that folks default, the more the sheep will see that the "consequences" are in reality beneficial. Once that takes hold, TPTB will have no method of trying to instill some CONfidence in their regime other than ...
stop paying taxes; just like in 1773 when Americans resisted the tea tax. the entire system needs to come down, reduce the parasidic government by at least 90%, & get rid of the criminal private FEDERAL RESERVE BANK. (i would rest easy if the criminals were gone.)
How do people think things like "70 year old with a new 30 year mortgage" make sense?
I see all kinds of people driving new Fiats [Chrysler] and GMs that cannot possibly afford it. ZIRP strikes again.
Saw a new Chevy silverado 4x4 four door in front of the credit union, Assembled in MEXICO [where the fuck are the United Auto Workers? Bought off?]. Marked down from 43K to 32K. WTF?
Me, I pay cash and don't buy new cars or houses for that matter. Look out below, is all I can say.
I agree, pay with cash. What I fear is the gubmint is going to take this option away. Have you heard that in France they have forbidden cash transactions above 2000 euros? All in the name of fight with corruption, of course. I only wonder how is the French bureaucrat going to get his bribes now?
Don't have any debt. My problem is where is one to protect wealth. Fiat basically has a "good until date" . House is no good as municipal tax and maintainance rising by about 8% a year. Bank interest at approx -5% real rates. PM's capped by trillions of paper certificates. Got to be a way to win, just can't seem find my way.
The powers have destroyed the value of productive labor to the point that it is virtually impossible to live free of debt. Unless you are born into wealth, a life free of debt for a young person today is a pipe dream.
Do you think a common man will walk right into a $100k+ a year job so he can purchase everything he needs without a single loan?
Say you start at 16 making minimum wage and save every penny you can. If you need to pay for gas to get to work, that takes a huge percentage of your pay. If you need to eat, it costs almost an hours wage to eat a single meal. You aren't going to get 40 hours,you'll get 12 a week if you are lucky. That will also take 12 hours out of your social life. If you have a girlfriend, she's going to eat up most of the extra cash you have.
Maybe if you are really frugal, you've saved about eight grand by the time you are twenty. In order to save yourself from debt, you can't go to college. So you stay at Best Buy and work your way up. You need reliable transportation, and that costs at least $8k today. So you use your entire savings to buy a car. Now you are back to square one.
You have the goal of buying a home. Right now you live with mom and dad, and you make about $18k a year. Your health insurance plan sucks, so you better not get sick. Life takes at least $10k a year, so at best you can save $8k or so. With starter homes in decent neighborhoods in flyover states going for $125k minimum, you're going to be saving for a long time.
In fact if Ben gets his way and reinflates the housing market, you'll never be able to save more than the yearly price appreciation of the home, putting the dream of the home permanently out of reach.
But for the sake of argument, you do save $120k in twelve years. You're 32 living with mom and dad. You have worked your way up to an assistant floor manager making $28k a year. You decide to buy that house. YOU'VE GOT CASH!!! You finanly win a bid after being outbid on twelve homes by property speculators. The home you bought needs some work, a new furnace. But hey you're a young guy and you can wear two sweaters for now.
You are back to zero savings, but have that great $28k a year job at Best Buy. All your extra cash for the year goes to fixing up the home. You also ned to spend about three grand a year fixing your twenty year old car with 700k miles, but the good news is the car is almost new again, with how much you've had to replace. You find it is really hard to save anywhere near what you used to save. But you are debt free, own a car, and a home.
You're 38 now, work at Best Buy, have no social life, or a girlfriend. You just got news that your store is closing, and you have been let go. You do have about five grand in savings, and can get about $1000 a month in unemployment. Shit, the head gasket just went on your car. You don't have the money to fix it. But you own your home at least. FUCK, the tax payment is due and you need $1800. You can't pay it.
Now in a panic you go to a bank to get a loan, a credit card, anything you can get to pay your tax bill. But you are unemployed with no credit history. The accounts manager laughs you out of the building.
You don't pay the property tax, and the city seizes your property. You are now a 40 year old virgin living in mom's basement because you tried to live a debt free life.
The problem started with this 16 year old's parents who did not compel him to do well in school nor sacrificed (aka saved, aka did not spend on themselves) and underwrote his living expenses from age 16-21 so he could attend the local state college while living at home - and maybe working a part time job. Dating someone who shares these values might be a good idea - vs someone who wants to consume finances.
No doubt getting off to a crappy start puts you behind the eight ball. It is one of my biggest fears for my children. Parents and parenting (or lack thereof) are at the core of many problems. But many parents don't want to be fully responsible for their children during ages 0-18 or even 21. They don't want to challenge, confront or set expectations and consequences in key areas. And this starts at age 0 -- not at age 12 or 15. Still some kids may flee the guidance and protection of their parents -- which may have a life long consequence. Sadly, that's life.
Living debt free means not having all the things that those burdened with debt have -- particularly in the early years (to say age 40). But then the tide generally turns and assets start to compound without the drag of compounding liabilities which is a trap.
I would like to think that I owed nothing to anyone... Sadly, I still pay simi annual rent to the government (property taxes) and am forever reminded that I live on the lord's estate...
One aspect that does not get enough attention has to do with FICO Scores and the consumer rating agencies. They have everyone tied in knots.
Unless you have a good credit score, most avenues of upward mobility are closed, you will pay more for everything else from the gas company, to your insurance. It is a wild mess that was part and parcel of their plan to keep people in line, using their system, and not questioning it. If you don't pay back the fictitious debt created by them from nothing, along with the interest or pay your utility bill without question, you risk having your credit score taken down and access to all the finer things in life cut-off. With a low credit score, even the everyday essentials cost you more.
If you don't use debt, and pay in cash, you to suffer by opting out of their system. No credit score? Everything gets more expensive, jobs are unavailable, schools off limits, promotions put on hold, access to certain products and services become un available.
These entities must go NOW. It's one of their essential tools for control.
It's not democracy that is the answer, it is Political Liberty, the highest political model attainable by man. We all know the problem, but few understand the solution. If you'd like to learn more about Political Liberty and its catalystic effect, try www.electanewcongress.com. It is the Liberty Movement and comprises the irresistable force. Serfs Up Muthrfuckers!
I just bought a car with a 1% loan from a credit union. Why would I want to pay cash (even though I could) when I can invest that cash and earn more than 1%? As for buying a home, you have to live somewhere. Owning a house is certainly not an investment, as some idiots would have you believe. My calculations indicate that in the long run it's pretty much a wash vs. renting.
Personal residences and automobiles are liabilities, plain and simple. The "middle class" is brainwashed to believe these things are assets. These things not only depreciate in value, but you end up paying for them 2 or 3 times, with principal, interest, taxes, fuel, and maintenance.
Not to mention, when you "buy a house," you are buying exactly that--the house. You do not own the land it sits on. Try not paying property taxes for a few years, and see what happens.
Alternatively, you can go to Craigslist or a similar site, and find someone renting out a room in their home. I've done this many times, rather than go the apartment route. Cheaper in the long-run and, less noise.
Its not only that. Has anyone here tried living as a renter lately? Were you reminded of why you decided to 'buy' a house in the first place? We bought our first house because living with the renter trash was intolerable. In fact, the trash in the 'starter home' neighborhood was nearly as bad, and we traded up 2 years after moving in. Hell, the upper middle class area we live in now is just barely tolerable. My next door neighbor owns 6 vehicles, none of which has a muffler. The guy a few doors down has a racecar. The people across the street have 3 large dogs that bark 24/7, and another neighbor and his wife are wannabe bikers. This is in an area where the house start at $250,000.
Sure, we could go back to living in an apartment. And it in less than a year one of us would snap.
Fellas, the cancer won. The U.S. as an social-political-productive organism, is finished.
Just walk away. You are not a cell of the dying beast, so walk. And by 'walk away' I mean cease to expect anything but further descent ... because that is all you are going to get, if you keep gazing in detail at the beast.
"Fallen, fallen fallen is Babylon the great
She who has made all of the nations
drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Come out of her, my people, says the Lord,
That you may not participate in her sins, and that you may not receive of her plagues."
IMHO, the fundamental question is: did the so-called '2008 crisis' happen
a) on its own, outside the control of TPTB, and they are frantically trying to reflate and stabilize the system or
b) it was artificially created by TPTB in order to grab yet more power (socialize losses, put whole nations, towns, commercial entities and individuals in hopeless level of debt)
I used to think a), but recently I am leaning b). Looks like we are witnessing a process where TPTB move whatever power remains away from elected governments towards faceless corporations and shady organizations like the IMF. From now on the governments will always have to listen to some international organizations, big finance at al - in short, 'we the people' will not even know who makes the decisions. Elections and democracy will only be a facade (it is largely this way already - don't you have the feeling the whomever you vote for, things always stay the same?)
Are you not a DEBT SLAVE? If you are fortunate enough to work a 5 day week, do you not work at least one entire day to feed the federal beast of massive debt? Is it not true that at least one day a week (if not more), you work the entire day and get NOTHING for it, whereby it is taken from you and used to feed countless unproductive parasites and pay for wars and the defense of foreign entities who despise us?
Sure give me a negative vote if you will. But it is only because you know I am right and have not the courage to admit it.
It takes a lot of delayed gratification and risk tolerance to create a business to not be a debt slave.
No debt will allow you to tailor your "income" to the limit of taxable, and the rest...well, creative accounting is not the sole purvue of banksters.
Wage slaves won't do this investment of time,risk and money to create a free lifestyle. They get jobs and big mortgages then whine about how "they" abuse their lazy ass.
The real problem is that slaves think like slaves and free men think otherwise.
I don't buy bombers and tanks and I haven't for almost 20 years. I do pay my ridiculously low rural property taxes because my turds disappear with my trash and my water is clean and regular so in all, it's a bargain. S&W is my police and a DIY sprinkler system protects my house from wildfires.
The only drawback is I had to learn to cook Chinese because the town has no Chinese restaurant. That, and plugging gophers and jacks from the back porch that want to tax my garden in season.
Cities and suburbia have costs that I'm simply not willing or inclined to pay for.
If you must buy a McMansion? WTF? Are there no other choices than that? When we bought our first house we approached it with the requirement that our mortgage could be no more that 1/4 of our gross income. Believe me no McMansion in San Diego ever would have met that requirement. So we bought a fixer upper 40 miles east. Our friends were shocked we picked such a dump(they had gorgeous 700,000+ homes mortgaged to the hilt). They all teased us about the "money pit" that it would collapse on us. Well, it almost did several times. But we learned how to restore a home slowly as we got the money. My husband apprenticed with a contractor to learn electrical, plumbing and dry wall. I learned tiling and helped with construction. We never took out any loans but it was hard work done on weekends and after work. We fortunately sold the place for a profit and gained valuable lessons. My one friend complained the other day they were charged $1200 to replace a hot water heater... laughed our heads off at that. Several of our other friends have lost their homes to foreclosure. They aren't snickering at us anymore. Sometimes it's better just to take a risk and ride the roller coaster than placidly sit on the merry-go-round.
Chaaaaaarles, you fool. Without lending, there is no capitalist economy of any sort whatsoever. Go back 400-1500 years in European history to see what a nearly creditless economy looks like.
The problem is when idiots allow a single lender to exempt itself from virtually all risk by granting it unlimited state-power backing and a system of fiat legal-tender currency, creating a cartel with a captive "audience", a creditor which can create credit from nothing, which by government fiat must be accepted as money by million or billions of people, and which can charge interest and control the supply and creation and destruction of this fake money.
Without lending there is only a subsistence economy with basically no ability to support entrepreneurs. The real issue is counterparty risk. If the creditor has none, something is very, very wrong.
PS: None of this matters if the conditions are in fact wrong for risk-taking, loan origination, entrepreneurship, etc. and if the social system prevents effective capitalism through such means as unions, guilds, primogeniture, caste systems, serfdom, etc. You need social mobility, individualism, surplus wealth, and surplus energy, which "subsidizes" productive capacity every step of the way. Contingent on that, you need risk-takers, both as creditors and debtors, and a system of bankruptcy.
In a perfect, competitive economy you would have a valid point. Look at total debt vs real GDP over the past 30 years. "Assets" are inflated by endless money and credit creation. Incomes are stagnant or falling. Debt is death.
Money intermediation is a textbook concept. Savers and borrowers finding a price clearing interest rate was murdered by the Fed.
I'm for a more radical permanent solution. Strike the root. Eliminate the Monster of Jekyll Island by any means possible. Public Banks... Greenbacks. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. Don't let the morons tell you it can't be done, it's a simple changeover. Just like the slumlords who try to say..leaving the euro is impossible...I call bullshit.
Sell us your children.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvZgwtpPmLY
Sell us your children.
Sadly, they were all sold a long time ago.
What remains is to see if anyone has the stones to DO anything about it.
So far, they sit around and bitch, but DO nothing.
Unfortunately, it is not just debt. It is debt, inflation and taxes. By the time you pay income and all the other taxes, give a big percentage to the Banks in interest payments and have what little is left inflated away, you have nothing. Just ask the 90% of Americans who die with less than $10,000 of net worth.
Wow ... sad statistic ... do you have a reference for it?
Actually, it's 50%. I exaggerated a bit. Still sucks.
http://connecticut.cbslocal.com/2012/08/08/study-almost-half-of-american...
One side of the ledger you have a debt... the other side has a credit. The financial system is a credit system, you can starve the beast all you want, eventually the system will fail either by willfully or by laws of big numbers (ie laws of the universe or God). Eventually, the unfunded walking liabilities will have to be liquidated, my guess 1-2 billion. Nothing the top or the federal reserve can do about it.
I have a suggestion, learn to swim... someone is going to have to go down the hole. Its way too late to be complaining.
[Vogon Captain] People of Earth, attention, please! People of Earth, your attention please! This is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council. As you are probably aware, the plans for the development of the outlying regions of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy require the building of a hyperspace express route through your star system, and, regrettably, your planet is one of those scheduled for demolition. The process will take slightly less than two of your Earth minutes. Thank you very much.
(ANGRY, CONFUSED SHOUTING)
[Man] Get out of it!
[Woman] No! No! No! Go away! Go away!
[Vogon Captain] All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display in your local planning department in Alpha Centauri for 50 of your Earth years, and so you've had plenty of time to lodge any complaints and it's far too late to make a fuss about it now!
(ANGRY SHOUTING)
[Vogon Captain] What do you mean you've never been to Alpha Centauri? Oh, for heaven's sake, mankind! It's only four light years away, you know! I'm sorry, but if you can't be bothered to take an interest in local affairs, that's your own lookout! Energize the demolition beam! God, I don't know! Apathetic bloody planet, I've no sympathy at all!
may be closer to 46% but that is just as depressing.
study done at Cornel I think titled Were they prepared for retirement, or something close.
Please tell us why you say "they" and not "we"?
What have you done?
The borrower is slave to the lender. Always has been, always will be.
That's "younglings."
Debt is a trap so we need to go long precious metals now. Silver looks like a screaming buy at the moment.
I'm guessing you won't. It's just a guess.
what!?!
Forget it.....he's rolling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8lT1o0sDwI
...And another wonderful headline story of truth, that will prove the more you ignore the wealthier you become - Ask anyone with a forgiven mortgage, ask anyone who has owned stocks in the last 5 years. Noone gets out alive unless you do exactly the opposite of truth, reason and responsibility!
You pursue and find truth at the expense of your existence. Ask anyone who owns precious metals - Dead men hoping (cuz the paper price doesn't matter LOL!!)
Stocks (lies and manipulation) = +120% return
Home prices (lies and manipulation) = + 18% return
Gold & Silver (truth/reason) = PERPETUAL CRUSH
Bonds & Savings accts (truth/reason/safety) = zero return & confiscation
No honor, no integrity, no amount of truth or reason needed - Just an irrational desire for more at the expense of someone else (our children).
Ben is giving birth to the anti-Christ - and we are it!
RE:
I think this is the trend, especially amongst riskaverse Millennials.
It still doesn't mean we take on debt (especially student loan debt). But consumer debt (housing, credit cards, cars) will continue to decline (the increase will come from families as the inflationary pressures start to rise; the next generation as a result will have less kids, get married less).
I think this is the trend, especially amongst riskaverse Millennials.
I truly hope that your generation does better than mine.
Debt is a Jew word for growth.................
Obsession runs deep.
Kinda like ur obsession with the fiat-based bitcoin? Bitcoin was conceived in someone's mind, just like debt-based fiat money (rothschilds)........unlike gold/silver which come from the earth.
Kinda like ur obsession with the fiat-based bitcoin?
Nope. I just think Bitcoin is a good tool. You want to hurt whole races of people.
There's rather a large difference between the two... or are they all the same in your mind?
I keep telling all the 20-somethings in my office to not get married, have kids or buy a house.
Wives and kids cost too much money, and a house is long term debt. Besides, who would want to try to take care of family in the coming collapse. It is best to be free of all bonds, that way you can move to where the work is and not be bound to a house or a town or a school system.
Wives and kids cost too much money, and a house is long term debt. Besides, who would want to try to take care of family in the coming collapse.
Fuck the state. Fuck the banksters. I give up my family for no one.
"(the increase will come from families as the inflationary pressures start to rise; the next generation as a result will have less kids, get married less)."
Hence the reversal of DOMA. Enticing serfs to new levels of embracing the American Dream...
The moment the shiftless masses catch nary a whiff of "recovery" and some return to normalcy, i.e. profligate spending on iGadgets, cars and LEDs, they will willingly take on more debt as the debt-fueled recovery (ironic, I know) will, at least in their minds, repudiate the theory that one cannot spend his way out of financial malaise. Don't think for a minute that Americans can change their stripes that easily. You see, to spend frivolously is to live, and to live well in the drug-addled minds of your average status seeking American nincompoop is to value form over substance which ultimately manifests in being wealthy for that is truly the only measure of a man's worth in this day and age. There was a time when thrift was virtue; no longer. Americans aspire to ostentatious displays of wealth, real or faked. Sorry, but I wholeheartedly disagree with your assessment. The trend, fully espoused by the mainstream media RomCom complex, will be one of greater consumption based on the affordability of cheap debt. Amass an array of toys because the next bailout is just around the corner.
The Ponzi is not even close to having run its course. We have a whole other cycle of debt-infused mania ahead of us before the final preparations are made to cope with the tens if not hundreds of milllions of Americans who lived irresponsibly in "good times" and now require the assistance of the beneficent state (FEMA camp Bravo).
:P
'Pleading with the president and Clowngress is like asking caner to stop growing.'
Exactly right, any effort put into 'grassroots movements' to 'change the gubmint' is a complete waste of time. Stop borrowing, stop paying interest on anything.
Ben Bernanke's Bedtime Prayer:
http://wallstreetfool.com/2013/04/02/ben-bernankes-bedtime-prayer/
"Debt = Serfdom" Men have known this from ancient times; however, the average American doesn't even know that the Greco-Roman world existed. #Morons
the average American doesn't even know that the Greco-Roman world existed.
True, but they were carefully conditioned by professionals to obtain that result.
The best "education" that debt money can buy.
pods
Intelligent people educate themselves. They always have. They don't rely on teachers once they can read and write.
Don't worry about the dull-witted. They don't care that they are not capable until they go hungry.
"Business activity in the New York City area slowed sharply last month, although employment picked up, according to data released Tuesday.
The Institute for Supply Management-New York's Current Business Conditions index fell to 51.2 in March from 58.8 in February, which had been the highest reading since March 2012. "
NY ISM fell sharply, guess what? Market Rally.. Who cares about anything.
no debt=no taxes or insurance.
That is the answer.
Avoid debt and collapse this sucker. You kids will thank you.
pods
LEVER UP! GET RICH QUICK!
Don't feed your destroyer.
Can't say that I fully understand who is feeding on debt other than my one hour online payday loan lender. He surely does that. He is a part of a bigger system, this is how I should except it I guess. Shizzmoney is so right saying that the next generation is going to have less kids as first of all we cannot repay our debts, which does not allow us to obtain mortgae loans for instance as we also feel insecure about borrowing funds in a first place. Looks like debt is going to be inseparable part of our existance for the next God knows how many decades.
The incremental nature of the debt enslavement (totalitarian control) of US citizens since the founding of the FED and the (coincidental?) implementation of the progressive income tax, has ramped up in recent years to a full assault on the Bill of Rights and the Rule of Law.
Something wicked this way comes
The question, obviously, is when, or.......
How long can "they" keep the extend and pretend game going?
Not much further, I expect. My guess is the 2014 elections with Obama seeking full control of Congress. If that happens, it will be the beginning of the end.
"It's a trap!"
debt, that is..
Even if one is debt-free and has toiled to save for 'the future,' the Banksters will simply Bail-in those hard-earned dollars. Remember...there are no laws anymore. Robbery by the rich of the Former Middle Class is A-OK....isn't it?
Is a Credit Union safe? I don't know. I certainly have no funds in a TBTF. I guess the best investment is Food and Water.
taxpayer's question - how can i refuse my government to take loans (sell bonds) in my name ?
Declare independence.
Unfortunately the "sovereign citizen" doesn't seem to work in practice, but boy would it be great if it did!
There should be a way to convert your citizenship status to "undocumented". In-state tuition and no stinkin' income tax!
without citizenship you would have to pay a "non-citizen resident allowance to live in the land" tax
Few seem to realize how insideous "obama care" is in terms of enslavement of the people. Even if you are able to live without consumer debt you will be firmly tethered to the state one way or the other. And then there are property taxes.....
It's not called 'Land of the Free' for nothing!
I believe that one of the unread provisions in a recent 80,000-page 'law' changed that.....
....'Land of the Fee and the Home of the Slave' or else ya gotta pay another fine.
Wasn't that the purpose?
Great topic. This is the rabbit hole that concerns most Americans (there are others.....).
Homeownership is the core of the malady known as the American Dream. The development of the consumer culture and the mass middle class depends entirely on debt-financed single family housing.
The question on the table is....is that a bad thing? Even if it was once a good thing, or can still be a good thing under certain circumstances, i.e. divorced of the context in which it enables the destruction of the Republic?
You are telling American families to not buy homes under the current rules of the game.
Meanwhile, of course get as far away as possible from the DC/NY/TBTF complex. Use credit unions, etc. As Bourne says, "Get low and stay low."
Another thought-provoking question: what happens to interest rates if Americans delever and live within their means? All else being equal it should lower the demand for credit and lower rates, that is be 'good for the economy', so win-win etc.
Frugality can be great for the mind, values, wallet and national security all at the same time!
'The 'American Dream'...they call it that because you have to be asleep to believe in it!'
-George Carlin-
Home ownership might be a good thing if we had a form of money that was not devalued year over year over year over year............
Home ownership has always been a liability.
You do have to live somewhere though.But US prices have to fall another 50% to
make it a viable liability.Was talking to someone yeasterday(a realtor),hasn't paid her
$2.5 m mortgage in three years, and the bank is not even tring to foreclose.
Will be doing some work for her, strictly CWO.
Lower rates than ZIRP? Lower than NIRP? It's not working...
Hmmm " the State cannot force anyone to take on debt" well that little Obama care ruling kind of says the .gov can force us to 'buy' anything or be taxed if we don't.
I fucked up the bank so they can't foreclose on me...I am living in my home for free but it is not my fault. No other debt. Great to be off the system....sort of.
The fake market will continue as "they" contol the volume, they control the vertical, they control the horizontal....
Bum
That would make you a thief, no better than those you fucked over. You should leave the bank's home if you can't or won't pay for it.
Because you used italics I can't put -1 to you.
He "paid the fine and admitted no wrongdoing", right?
A trick question - which type of company does this regularly, while running pure fraud schemes?
"the State cannot force anyone to take on debt except as taxpayers"
No, but that "except as taxpayers" part is rather important and it can, in addition, steal money from bank accounts if the financial parasite isn't fed.
DO NOT BORROW
Not even for 1 year, 1 month, 1 week, 1 day. Debt == disease. Debt == slavery. You do not need to borrow. Period. So don't. Get yourself into the mind-set of borrowing, even short term, and you will slide down the slippery slope into the dark side of the farse, and slavery will forever be your destiny.
It's all about self control and discipline. I don't agree with the puritans on issues of abstaining from things that tempt my senses, for fear of "sliding down the slippery slope" of addiction to drugs, sex, etc.
Debt is a tool that wielded carelessly can take off a limb, used skillfully it can be productive. All or nothing is not a healthy mindset... that's how you end up stuck in the "dark side".
I think many smart people have walked away from personal debt, or are at least in the process of getting debt free. However, recognizing the threat to their existence, the financial industry is now bypassing them entirely and focusing on getting their government to borrow for them. You can’t win when those in power don’t have to represent your interests.
Government debt is now almost $60k per citizen, which for the average family exceeds their net worth. For the record, I’m planning to default on my share.
1. Too Big to Fail financialization has crippled democracy
--> The so-called democracy is a representative regime, tailored for corruption !
Every five years or so we elect people and let them decide everything in between...
Too big to fail, too big to jail and too big to bail out. So eventually they will have to bail you in. Cyprus is not unique. It is the start of the end game.
More than a decade ago, consumers started banding together on the internet to discuss credit and debt ... first on relatively "straight" boards like creditboards.com and later on more "artful dodger" type boards like the late artofcredit.com and now on "credit terrorist" boards like debtorboards.com.
If there's one thing more damaging to the Death Star than a refusal to take on debt, it's a sudden decision to stop paying all debts and to fight using procedural tricks (statute of limitations, quibbles over documentation of the debt, FDCPA suits and even demanding arbitration now that the two main creditors' arbitration forums are out of the picture).
If you don't want to wade through the apparent chaos of those boards asking newbie questions, there are even books like "Debt Hope: Down and Dirty Survival Strategies" that are a sort of boot camp for getting into the credit wars ... the boards can put a finer point on specific questions you might have.
Starving the beast takes time, and it's not very humane. Poison it quickly.
Debt is only a burden to the debtor who doesn't default. People who are judgment proof can do just about anything short of a crime and get away with it.
Exactly right. Fuck those bastards. Default. A trillion in defaulting student loans can't be wrong.
The thing I kept thinking about with CHS's piece is "Ya, right. Now how are you going to get these sheep to embrace that?" But your point is the path. We need a cultural shift. The more that folks default, the more the sheep will see that the "consequences" are in reality beneficial. Once that takes hold, TPTB will have no method of trying to instill some CONfidence in their regime other than ...
JUBILEE BITCHEZ!
stop paying taxes; just like in 1773 when Americans resisted the tea tax. the entire system needs to come down, reduce the parasidic government by at least 90%, & get rid of the criminal private FEDERAL RESERVE BANK. (i would rest easy if the criminals were gone.)
How do people think things like "70 year old with a new 30 year mortgage" make sense?
I see all kinds of people driving new Fiats [Chrysler] and GMs that cannot possibly afford it. ZIRP strikes again.
Saw a new Chevy silverado 4x4 four door in front of the credit union, Assembled in MEXICO [where the fuck are the United Auto Workers? Bought off?]. Marked down from 43K to 32K. WTF?
Me, I pay cash and don't buy new cars or houses for that matter. Look out below, is all I can say.
I agree, pay with cash. What I fear is the gubmint is going to take this option away. Have you heard that in France they have forbidden cash transactions above 2000 euros? All in the name of fight with corruption, of course. I only wonder how is the French bureaucrat going to get his bribes now?
Installment plan?
There was a time when Countries were taken over with Standing Armys. Now it is with Debt.
Don't have any debt. My problem is where is one to protect wealth. Fiat basically has a "good until date" . House is no good as municipal tax and maintainance rising by about 8% a year. Bank interest at approx -5% real rates. PM's capped by trillions of paper certificates. Got to be a way to win, just can't seem find my way.
the only thing my grandpa left worth anything was russian czar gold coins. Everything else was taxed or confiscated (real estate, farmland etc)
The powers have destroyed the value of productive labor to the point that it is virtually impossible to live free of debt. Unless you are born into wealth, a life free of debt for a young person today is a pipe dream.
Do you think a common man will walk right into a $100k+ a year job so he can purchase everything he needs without a single loan?
Say you start at 16 making minimum wage and save every penny you can. If you need to pay for gas to get to work, that takes a huge percentage of your pay. If you need to eat, it costs almost an hours wage to eat a single meal. You aren't going to get 40 hours,you'll get 12 a week if you are lucky. That will also take 12 hours out of your social life. If you have a girlfriend, she's going to eat up most of the extra cash you have.
Maybe if you are really frugal, you've saved about eight grand by the time you are twenty. In order to save yourself from debt, you can't go to college. So you stay at Best Buy and work your way up. You need reliable transportation, and that costs at least $8k today. So you use your entire savings to buy a car. Now you are back to square one.
You have the goal of buying a home. Right now you live with mom and dad, and you make about $18k a year. Your health insurance plan sucks, so you better not get sick. Life takes at least $10k a year, so at best you can save $8k or so. With starter homes in decent neighborhoods in flyover states going for $125k minimum, you're going to be saving for a long time.
In fact if Ben gets his way and reinflates the housing market, you'll never be able to save more than the yearly price appreciation of the home, putting the dream of the home permanently out of reach.
But for the sake of argument, you do save $120k in twelve years. You're 32 living with mom and dad. You have worked your way up to an assistant floor manager making $28k a year. You decide to buy that house. YOU'VE GOT CASH!!! You finanly win a bid after being outbid on twelve homes by property speculators. The home you bought needs some work, a new furnace. But hey you're a young guy and you can wear two sweaters for now.
You are back to zero savings, but have that great $28k a year job at Best Buy. All your extra cash for the year goes to fixing up the home. You also ned to spend about three grand a year fixing your twenty year old car with 700k miles, but the good news is the car is almost new again, with how much you've had to replace. You find it is really hard to save anywhere near what you used to save. But you are debt free, own a car, and a home.
You're 38 now, work at Best Buy, have no social life, or a girlfriend. You just got news that your store is closing, and you have been let go. You do have about five grand in savings, and can get about $1000 a month in unemployment. Shit, the head gasket just went on your car. You don't have the money to fix it. But you own your home at least. FUCK, the tax payment is due and you need $1800. You can't pay it.
Now in a panic you go to a bank to get a loan, a credit card, anything you can get to pay your tax bill. But you are unemployed with no credit history. The accounts manager laughs you out of the building.
You don't pay the property tax, and the city seizes your property. You are now a 40 year old virgin living in mom's basement because you tried to live a debt free life.
in a 3rd world country you would own no car but instead rent a flat room next to your workplace
If living a frugal life starves 1 banker, you have won.
The problem started with this 16 year old's parents who did not compel him to do well in school nor sacrificed (aka saved, aka did not spend on themselves) and underwrote his living expenses from age 16-21 so he could attend the local state college while living at home - and maybe working a part time job. Dating someone who shares these values might be a good idea - vs someone who wants to consume finances.
No doubt getting off to a crappy start puts you behind the eight ball. It is one of my biggest fears for my children. Parents and parenting (or lack thereof) are at the core of many problems. But many parents don't want to be fully responsible for their children during ages 0-18 or even 21. They don't want to challenge, confront or set expectations and consequences in key areas. And this starts at age 0 -- not at age 12 or 15. Still some kids may flee the guidance and protection of their parents -- which may have a life long consequence. Sadly, that's life.
Living debt free means not having all the things that those burdened with debt have -- particularly in the early years (to say age 40). But then the tide generally turns and assets start to compound without the drag of compounding liabilities which is a trap.
Lol.
If you're 38 and working at Best Buy ...
You're fucked to begin with.
I would like to think that I owed nothing to anyone... Sadly, I still pay simi annual rent to the government (property taxes) and am forever reminded that I live on the lord's estate...
One aspect that does not get enough attention has to do with FICO Scores and the consumer rating agencies. They have everyone tied in knots.
Unless you have a good credit score, most avenues of upward mobility are closed, you will pay more for everything else from the gas company, to your insurance. It is a wild mess that was part and parcel of their plan to keep people in line, using their system, and not questioning it. If you don't pay back the fictitious debt created by them from nothing, along with the interest or pay your utility bill without question, you risk having your credit score taken down and access to all the finer things in life cut-off. With a low credit score, even the everyday essentials cost you more.
If you don't use debt, and pay in cash, you to suffer by opting out of their system. No credit score? Everything gets more expensive, jobs are unavailable, schools off limits, promotions put on hold, access to certain products and services become un available.
These entities must go NOW. It's one of their essential tools for control.
It's not democracy that is the answer, it is Political Liberty, the highest political model attainable by man. We all know the problem, but few understand the solution. If you'd like to learn more about Political Liberty and its catalystic effect, try www.electanewcongress.com. It is the Liberty Movement and comprises the irresistable force. Serfs Up Muthrfuckers!
I just bought a car with a 1% loan from a credit union. Why would I want to pay cash (even though I could) when I can invest that cash and earn more than 1%? As for buying a home, you have to live somewhere. Owning a house is certainly not an investment, as some idiots would have you believe. My calculations indicate that in the long run it's pretty much a wash vs. renting.
Personal residences and automobiles are liabilities, plain and simple. The "middle class" is brainwashed to believe these things are assets. These things not only depreciate in value, but you end up paying for them 2 or 3 times, with principal, interest, taxes, fuel, and maintenance.
Not to mention, when you "buy a house," you are buying exactly that--the house. You do not own the land it sits on. Try not paying property taxes for a few years, and see what happens.
You're right. It's so much better to listen to Enrique and his extended family having a party upstairs at 3 am 4 or 5 nights out of 7.
Alternatively, you can go to Craigslist or a similar site, and find someone renting out a room in their home. I've done this many times, rather than go the apartment route. Cheaper in the long-run and, less noise.
Its not only that. Has anyone here tried living as a renter lately? Were you reminded of why you decided to 'buy' a house in the first place? We bought our first house because living with the renter trash was intolerable. In fact, the trash in the 'starter home' neighborhood was nearly as bad, and we traded up 2 years after moving in. Hell, the upper middle class area we live in now is just barely tolerable. My next door neighbor owns 6 vehicles, none of which has a muffler. The guy a few doors down has a racecar. The people across the street have 3 large dogs that bark 24/7, and another neighbor and his wife are wannabe bikers. This is in an area where the house start at $250,000.
Sure, we could go back to living in an apartment. And it in less than a year one of us would snap.
Fellas, the cancer won. The U.S. as an social-political-productive organism, is finished.
Just walk away. You are not a cell of the dying beast, so walk. And by 'walk away' I mean cease to expect anything but further descent ... because that is all you are going to get, if you keep gazing in detail at the beast.
"Fallen, fallen fallen is Babylon the great
She who has made all of the nations
drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Come out of her, my people, says the Lord,
That you may not participate in her sins, and that you may not receive of her plagues."
IMHO, the fundamental question is: did the so-called '2008 crisis' happen
a) on its own, outside the control of TPTB, and they are frantically trying to reflate and stabilize the system or
b) it was artificially created by TPTB in order to grab yet more power (socialize losses, put whole nations, towns, commercial entities and individuals in hopeless level of debt)
I used to think a), but recently I am leaning b). Looks like we are witnessing a process where TPTB move whatever power remains away from elected governments towards faceless corporations and shady organizations like the IMF. From now on the governments will always have to listen to some international organizations, big finance at al - in short, 'we the people' will not even know who makes the decisions. Elections and democracy will only be a facade (it is largely this way already - don't you have the feeling the whomever you vote for, things always stay the same?)
My fellow countrymen, how many among us have the courage and conviction to gaze into the mirror and say out loud: I ... am a DEBT SLAVE.
Are you not a DEBT SLAVE? If you are fortunate enough to work a 5 day week, do you not work at least one entire day to feed the federal beast of massive debt? Is it not true that at least one day a week (if not more), you work the entire day and get NOTHING for it, whereby it is taken from you and used to feed countless unproductive parasites and pay for wars and the defense of foreign entities who despise us?
Sure give me a negative vote if you will. But it is only because you know I am right and have not the courage to admit it.
It takes a lot of delayed gratification and risk tolerance to create a business to not be a debt slave.
No debt will allow you to tailor your "income" to the limit of taxable, and the rest...well, creative accounting is not the sole purvue of banksters.
Wage slaves won't do this investment of time,risk and money to create a free lifestyle. They get jobs and big mortgages then whine about how "they" abuse their lazy ass.
The real problem is that slaves think like slaves and free men think otherwise.
I don't buy bombers and tanks and I haven't for almost 20 years. I do pay my ridiculously low rural property taxes because my turds disappear with my trash and my water is clean and regular so in all, it's a bargain. S&W is my police and a DIY sprinkler system protects my house from wildfires.
The only drawback is I had to learn to cook Chinese because the town has no Chinese restaurant. That, and plugging gophers and jacks from the back porch that want to tax my garden in season.
Cities and suburbia have costs that I'm simply not willing or inclined to pay for.
Being lazy and dumb is too expensive for me.
If you must buy a McMansion? WTF? Are there no other choices than that? When we bought our first house we approached it with the requirement that our mortgage could be no more that 1/4 of our gross income. Believe me no McMansion in San Diego ever would have met that requirement. So we bought a fixer upper 40 miles east. Our friends were shocked we picked such a dump(they had gorgeous 700,000+ homes mortgaged to the hilt). They all teased us about the "money pit" that it would collapse on us. Well, it almost did several times. But we learned how to restore a home slowly as we got the money. My husband apprenticed with a contractor to learn electrical, plumbing and dry wall. I learned tiling and helped with construction. We never took out any loans but it was hard work done on weekends and after work. We fortunately sold the place for a profit and gained valuable lessons. My one friend complained the other day they were charged $1200 to replace a hot water heater... laughed our heads off at that. Several of our other friends have lost their homes to foreclosure. They aren't snickering at us anymore. Sometimes it's better just to take a risk and ride the roller coaster than placidly sit on the merry-go-round.
Miffed:-)
Chaaaaaarles, you fool. Without lending, there is no capitalist economy of any sort whatsoever. Go back 400-1500 years in European history to see what a nearly creditless economy looks like.
The problem is when idiots allow a single lender to exempt itself from virtually all risk by granting it unlimited state-power backing and a system of fiat legal-tender currency, creating a cartel with a captive "audience", a creditor which can create credit from nothing, which by government fiat must be accepted as money by million or billions of people, and which can charge interest and control the supply and creation and destruction of this fake money.
Without lending there is only a subsistence economy with basically no ability to support entrepreneurs. The real issue is counterparty risk. If the creditor has none, something is very, very wrong.
PS: None of this matters if the conditions are in fact wrong for risk-taking, loan origination, entrepreneurship, etc. and if the social system prevents effective capitalism through such means as unions, guilds, primogeniture, caste systems, serfdom, etc. You need social mobility, individualism, surplus wealth, and surplus energy, which "subsidizes" productive capacity every step of the way. Contingent on that, you need risk-takers, both as creditors and debtors, and a system of bankruptcy.
Totentänzerlied
In a perfect, competitive economy you would have a valid point. Look at total debt vs real GDP over the past 30 years. "Assets" are inflated by endless money and credit creation. Incomes are stagnant or falling. Debt is death.
Money intermediation is a textbook concept. Savers and borrowers finding a price clearing interest rate was murdered by the Fed.
I'm for a more radical permanent solution. Strike the root. Eliminate the Monster of Jekyll Island by any means possible. Public Banks... Greenbacks. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. Don't let the morons tell you it can't be done, it's a simple changeover. Just like the slumlords who try to say..leaving the euro is impossible...I call bullshit.