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Government Confiscation And Lifting The Veil On "The 401(k) Scheme"
From Presidential edicts of 'MyRA' being for your own good and "will never go down in value" to Poland's 'precedent-setting' confiscation of public pensions funds for the good of the nation's debt load; and from the IMF's "one-off" wealth tax 'idea' to Europe's recent consideration of 'wholesale savings confiscations and enforced redistribution', it appears Marc Faber's warning that "from now onwards, the bailouts will also be at the expense of the asset holders, the well-to-do people. So if you have money I am sure the governments will one day take away 20-30% of my wealth," is becoming more likely every day. As the following mini-documentary explains, confirming Ron Paul's warning that "there is more chaos to come," Jim Rogers' fear that "they won’t take our bank accounts...they will take our retirement accounts," is coming true.
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Molon labe ;-)
trivial to take if it is held on the record. that's why mine is all in the blockchain, safe from confiscation
I prefer real blocks and chains myself. ;-)
Me too, a bird in the hand is worth a blockchain of birds in the virtual bush.
Governments have a lot of experience stealing Gold... Bitcoins not so much.
That's like saying a car thief doesn't know how to steal motorcycles.
They don't call it MyRA for nothing.
If you have it, you own it. period.
If you like your 401K Obozo can keep it
"NOTABLE TWITTER INVESTOR AND VENTURE CAPITALIST GEORGE ZACHARY just went on Bloomberg West—not exactly home turf for market skepticism—and said he thinks we're in a TECH BUBBLE (but..but...BTFATH, no? The FedYellen "put" will save all "investors," no?), as AS EVIDENCED BY BALLOONING COMPANY VALUATIONS AND ACQUISITIONS."
#NoShitSherlock
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/wearable-watch-space-is-growing-quickly-z...
Actually , it's more like saying a car theif does not know how to dock a space shuttle.
You know a Soyuz can dock itself automatically, right?
Nope, still there.
(Underwater cameras, in alligator/moccasin/shark infested lakes & oceans)
But seriously, where did BitCoin come from exactly and how can you access it when government (any government) decides to shut down communications because of terrorist or national security "for our own good"?
I've got a paddle, I wouldn't be up Shit's Creek without one ;-)
When that happens, it will take more than money to save us.
We got more than enough of that too ;-)
Gaius Frakkin' ... When that happens, it will take more than money to save us.
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If you expect money to save you, you are already lost.
You can use a shitgum in an emergency. :)
Bitcoin is a protocol. If the government shut down the internet , nothing would work including online banking , all communications, ATM machines and retail terminals. At that point I think money , in any form would be the last thing you would be worrying about.
At that point, you will find you can barter with a pile of old US silver coins, hard liquor, Marlboro cigarettes, or bullets. But we are so deep into the twilight zone now, who knows if that point ever arrives.
If that point ever comes , the power grid would also be down. How many spent fuel rods would catch fire once the diesel runs out at the nuclear power plants again ? Extinction Level Event within 90 days ..... People who think the power grid / internet (which are now intrinsically connected by the way) will be taken down to stop bitcoin need to see a doctor. The power grid and the internet need to be hardened , not softened. Obummer and his 'internet kill switch' is a hoax designed to scare the sheep into staying scared , stupid and poor and from reading some of the comments on this board that is working out just perfectly.
How would the power plants run out of power exactly? The power plants in your scenario are still fully functioning. Also, the 'kill switch' isn't a hoax as one just turns off the backbone, additionally, not very many lines feed out of the US to other countries, so turning those off is quite simple.
Bitcoin is fool's gold plain and simple. You truly believe the US Government (which has backdoors into computers through the Intel/AMD chips themselves), doesn't know anything about how many Bitcoins you have and where you've spent them? If you answer yes to these, I’ve got a bridge to sell you (no I don’t accept Bitcoins as payment).
Well basically if the grid goes down power plants have to shut down because they have no load connected and there is nowhere for the generated power to go. So at this point they start diesel backup generators which run the cooling systems on both the core and spent fuel rod containment. Once this diesel supply runs out there would then be no cooling systems in operation and this would trigger radiological fires. You are an idiot if you think they would shut down the entire internet to stop just one of it's protocols operating , it would be nothing short of a man made catastrophe. The cost of shutting down the system would far outweigh the benefits of stopping the bitcoin protocol. ie a shutown of air traffic control systems , radar systems , navigation systems , radio , telephone . railway signalling systems , traffic light control systems , security systems , banking , ATM , I could go on and on , these systems are all now operated over the internet they cannot just switch off the backbone you moron.
Not exactly. Power plants, particularly nuclear power plants, use up *lots* of electricity - nukes need to keep the primary coolant pumps going, and these things use a massive amount of electricity.
They would need to come off of full power down to a minimal level, but they wouldn't have to shutdown.
Well considering it is impossible to fully shut these plants down because they always remain hot , there is no such thing as a full shutdown. However in a scenario where the plant is disconnected from the grid it's backup generators would automatically start up because it would have no synchronisation feed from the grid which it uses as a secondary power supply.
Its not impossible to shut the plants down. It has been done many times before.
What you are talking about is a de-commission. Entirely different from a shutdown.
"particularly nuclear power plants, use up *lots* of electricity"
Oh yeah they do. The RCPS for a unit can suck down nearly a megawatt on their own. Once you add in the Circ Water and Service Water Pumps, pressurizer heaters, and all other hotel loads, you can keep a single unit self-sufficient through the unit transformers. The main generators really do like to run at nearly full load though, so you may be manually watching your own (closed in) switchyard voltage/frequency/amps as you run in isochronous mode (not load sharing) you have to really watch voltage as loads start and stop. Being cognizant of your VARS will keep a set of eyes very busy.
Oh, and all power distribution systems have blackstart corridors and procedures.
VARs power factor correction would be irrelevant if the unit was running solo ..... Where is the reactive load ? A couple of water pumps and some battery chargers , some flourescent lights maybe ? I thought you were an engineer ? FFS ....
Never heard of station power? You really need to brush up on how the grid and power plants truly work, cause using your knowledge, we should have all died in the 2003 blackout. Also a protocol doesn't mean what you think it means.
Obviously station power would be a seperate supply for the plant - provided by gas or oil. Stored in tanks , with a finite supply of say 90 or 180 days ? Regarding protocol , I think I have enough knowledge considering I was writing TCP/IP stacks in C for VAX/VMS when I was 19 years old you muppet , ask me again dickwad.
"Obviously station power would be a seperate supply for the plant "
Semantics, maybe - but station power refers to hotel loads powered from either offsite or onsite normal sources. Such would be usually powered by a Unit Auxiliary Transformer, connected directly to the output from the main generator and powering either Normal or Vital AC buses.
The EDG's (Emergency Diesel Generators) are backup power. What's really cool is that Limerick has a river and hydro generators for their emergency backup power. That could be why they are the primary source for the blackstart corridor in their area. Anyway, I agree. Once that 90 day supply of diesel oil is gone, there certainly won't be any more to be had anywhere in the world. That stuff just evaporates. And the gas used for the CT's will certainly have zero pressure since the stuff has to be vacuumed out of the hole in the ground....
Do I need my sarc font tag for the last two sentences? Just keep writing TCP/IP stacks and dreaming about power plant operations. I have been training/operating nuclear power plants since I was 17 (1980).
"I have been training/operating nuclear power plants since I was 17 (1980)." So you would in that case be fully aware of how the AC grid dropping out would affect these plants over an extended period of time. And note I am fully aware , as you are also perhaps aware of how transformer sub-station load data , control centers , primary switchgear and grid load distribution data are all routed over TCP/IP ? Which apparently is a protocol - that has no value. So please tell me Einstein if the AC grid or the internet backbone is shut down deliberately by TSA fools (to stop bitcoin ?) how long these plants would last exactly ? The AC grid and internet need to be hardened and kept as far away as possible from these idiots or any other political points of failure and I re-iterate my statement that Obummers 'internet kill switch" is a fucking hoax.
incorrect. The grid will be shut down in a normal manner or using missiles to hit the same subnets. Everyone receiving power that doesn't return it normally for the cooling systems will be removed. The same way losing a city to an ice storm doesn't endanger the power station, losing the city's power to the use of an OFF SWITCH or a missile won't endanger it either. Those subnets are parasitic and can be removed with zero harm to the grid. The actual top-level grid that is actually critical to the use of the power stations: you've never been connected to that grid & it won't be shut down. You will be.
"these systems are all now operated over the internet they cannot just switch off the backbone you moron"
Incorrect.
These systems are all controlled on-site locally and can be shut down 100% to lock out all external control. They'll pull ethernet wires out of the walls if need be but the controls will be working on-site.
You dont have a fucking clue what you are talking about do you .
I do, very much. Apparently you have no education whatsoever in any science much less hard sciences.
There's plenty of power sources that aren't nuclear & there's plenty of areas people live NOT near those fuel rods, and the only ELE fuel rod explosion to worry about is Fukushima because of it's very specific location sending material into the jetstream and the ocean in an unstoppable manner.
Most of the other ones would be local problems.
The killswitch is called a hellfire missile. You hit a hub that feeds Internet to 1/4 of a country, do it 4 more times and it's done.
Your life is a hoax.
I'm not talking about fuel rod explosion. I am talking about spent fuel rod containment drying out and then burning in a radiological fire. Many of these plants hold thousands of spent fuel rods , some of them contain large amounts of MOX plutonium , just a small amount of that shit burning in our atmosphere could end life as we know it.
And yeah their really going to blow up the fucking internet to stop bitcoin - destroy their largest source of Intel at the same time , Gee you really are dumb as fuck arent you.
Same situation as I described. The outer-cladding is in fact explosive and will do that once it's hot enough, and again the problem will be localized as I described. It's only Fukushima's special location that makes it so hard to approach & to bury. Just about any of the other sites can be encased & probably easier than Chernobyl.
I could see a special challenge mobilizing to do them all the same time, however, as normally you wouldn't have them all simultaneously be a problem exactly at the same time.
adtechnician Bitcoin is a protocol.
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Bingo
And the definition of protocol is? And once you understand that, you see it can be changed, manipulated or shut down.
That is about as simple minded a statement as saying
Gold is a metal.
Bingo
And the definition of metal is? And once you understand that, you see it can be changed, manipulated or stolen.
except it can't because fusion power is the only way to do so & Earth can't produce that much fusion power, ever. Even exploding our entire sun wouldn't produce enough to manipulate the physical gold.
Seems you don't understand, again, electrons are easily changed while atoms are the hardest to change in the universe. Silver, gold, require exploding suns to manufacture them in the amounts we have.
Then you'd be wrong. Money operated far before all those things existed & society was stable. It will be stable again with no electricity, internet, tv, phones. You just have no idea because you're too young. It's not as hard as you think but you do need to learn in advance living life from a computer is a mistake. Tangible goods are the only goods.
If it is valuable, and they want it, they are going to get it. Period.
And you will give it to them. How? The old fashion way. They will force you. Administratively, physically. If it comes down to them or you, everything you love or own, any license they control for you to work, do buisness or travel, you in prison or death they will. Taking and buying the assistance of others is what they exist for.
And what happens when there is nothing left to take ?
Then they shoot you in the face.
The logistics of taking people's gold/silver/guns etc. would be a mega-hassle-nightmare for any government.
Taking their bitcoins would be uber-convenient.... could be handled and processed by a handful of people in an office.
LOL - You really don't know what the fuck you are talking about do you .
It is harder for them to confiscate physical assets than it is for them to suck all your Bitcoins out of your virtual wallet.
What you have said is a direct contradiction. An asset , being physical that is , is far EASIER to take than a virtual asset which exists on a globally distrubuted encrypted ledger which is immune to modification without it's private key.
madtechnician What you have said is a direct contradiction. An asset , being physical that is , is far EASIER to take than a virtual asset which exists on a globally distrubuted encrypted ledger which is immune to modification without it's private key.
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And you have contradicted yourself. You already stated that Bitcoin is nothing more then a protocol. And by definition of protocol, it can be changed manipulated or shutdown.
I don't need to a private key if you keep your bitcoins offline in some wallet. It has already been documented that the NSA has backdoors on chips. They can shut down your wallet making your bitcoins useless. Try turning on your TV without electricity.
Anyway, I'm hearing the most likely event to occur is an EMP, which means no internet, no bitcoins to electricity. Complete chaos and marshall law.
I think you need to crawl back down into your tinfoil lined shelter and fondle your silver coins for a while , that super long life canned food you have been eating has done no good for your sanity.
MMmmmm the butthurt is strong with this one!
LOL yeah 3000% return so far is really painful , how is that silver investment going again by the way ?
I'm not about to believe that most people, or you in particular, got a 3000% return.
If you didn't convert to cash you got 0% return, for that matter. Bitcoin isn't money so if you hold only bits you have zero.
My silver's not measured in fiat $ and there is no % return. Shouldn't be one. To even chase that is idiotic.
The point of silver is what the atoms can do. They are not dollars. Silver is medicine, silver is tools, silver is value. Value is not price. Price is never value.
For fiat I have AGQ calls & USLV shares and the return will easily stomp bitcoin into the ground, in addition to bitcon being probably around 0.50 USD by the time silver hits 50 and USLV hits 1550/share and AGQ hits 410/share putting my calls (pre-split) at more than 67 in the money.
This is the future of bitcoin http://flic.kr/p/kyKgtF just like the past: $5/each and then zero.
But they can get 99% of the keys from pure snooping & at least 20% of the rest of the keys using optical VLSI key-crackers.
That's enough to rob most bitcoin wealth within say, 3 months, if so desired, with the first 50% of global bitcoin holdings gone in 24 hours.
No actually you don't know what the fuck you are talking about.
The gov't doesn't need to take all your BitCoins, it suffices to make them worthless to you.
But besides things which can also be done to Gold, such as
- tax transactions at 100% or
- declare a felony to own or trade with them
(which don't really have much teeth in a SHTF scenario, as it only needs two people to complete a transaction),
in addition BitCoin and similar have the "tiny" problem that the protocol needs a lot more to function and as an inevitable result of it also becomes visible to the outside beyond those two people doing a transaction (so the next user of the BitCoin can do the same check) to ensure you are not getting dealt a fake, duplicate BitCoin - and that is still or even more true in a SHTF scenario.
Suppose -- just suppose-- that they outright ban gold holdings at the retail level (other than for industrial and jewelry purposes).
Where are you gonna sell your bullions (bricks, coins) then? Pawnshops, the black marke -- and take a huge hit? Just saying it COULD happen. And only a real fool or simpleton has a one-trick-pony strategy. IOW, taking a more flexible approach and holding a combination of real assets (that includes gold but isn't overweighted with it) makes more sense. Gold shops and shills will disagree of course, for obvious reasons.
And before someone gets overly excited/defensive and proclaims that they would not ban or over-tax it, keep in mind that they might very well decided to re-anchor the USD fiat to real US assets. Assets other than gold, since most of it has gone to China and overseas anyway. Something to think about, so that none of us get too much of a rude awakening when the Reset happens.
At that point Au goes black market for a while.
I've never seen a black market that didn't take Au.
I understand what you're saying; buy platinum and palladium.
I've repeated this point many times, and have yet to hear a compelling rebuttal.
What you, and many others, fail to take into account, is that the vast bulk of the gold owned by American individuals is owned by precisely the same people who run the show, i.e. the 1%. Given that, how likely is it that *they* will decide to ban, or even place extremely high taxes on the sale of the very asset that they themselves own which will likely appreciate the most when the paper market collapses?
Furthermore, when the real action begins, gold, which is already out of reach of most Americans in terms of price, will not be a safe haven investment for any but those with serious money. And again, those who will be able to buy at a much higher price during the inevitable run-up will, in aggregate, have disproportionate influence over policy.
A delightful theory. But here's the reality.
Those with the cash to buy during the run up and those who already own it are, by your own admission:
"...vast bulk of the gold owned by American individuals is owned by precisely the same people who run the show, i.e. the 1%."
As the 1% are already beyond the law what will happen is they simply are ignored despite have millions of dollars of gold while Tommy Two Ounce gets his door kicked in and is gut-shot by a 3 AM SWAT raid.
See my longer response below, but in any case, there will be no physical confiscation. It would be utterly ridiculous for the Government to steal privately held gold in that manner. Should they go down that road, they would simply raise taxes to extreme levels.
Physical confiscation would be hellishly difficult, highly dangerous, and a P.R. nightmare. In every one of those respects, taxation would be the smarter, and far easier solution.
This is no longer your founder's country, where the average man held his savings in bullion. There is not enough to be gained to be worth it, as well as what exists is held mostly by the people you describe.
It may be a whole lot easier to confiscate gold if you villify its holders as unpatriotic(this doesn't include the CB's of course). Hell, they may even get the 99% that don't hold phyzz to agree with them.
Incorrect. Bankrupt entire communities, seize all property using SWAT teams & let the banks decide what to throw in the trash (e.g. the robosigning mortgage fraud home seizures) and then visit the mid-level collectors (banks) to take the best goods (because full co-operation at that level is guaranteed).
You seem to be under the false impression they will go house to house looking for ONE thing.
They'll go city to city emptying entire BUILDINGS of people and TAKE EVERYTHING inside.
"that *they* will decide to ban, or even place extremely high taxes on the sale of the very asset that they themselves own which will likely appreciate the most when the paper market collapses?"
Different rules apply for the "too big to jail" group. The reason why they ban it, is that the common folks turn over their PMs to them. That said, I don't see too many Gang bangers turning in thier now banned Guns.
Tinky, your explanation assumes a "Justice for All" system, rather than the "Just Us" system of a two-tiered financial an justice system.
While I hope that you are right, I suspect that the scenario that RafterManFMJ paints above, is closer to the truth. For that reason, I'm hedging with other PMs in the overall mix. That way, there is virtually no down-side, but plenty of upside potential. It's but one way of several to hedge against or front-run the... vermin.
While I fully endorse your adherence to the not-all-eggs-in-one-basket approach, I do not find the rebuttal to be compelling. The closest that I could come to the scenario that you suggest is that *they* would be tipped off prior to any extreme measure, and would liquidate their gold ahead of time. Were that to happen, though, I imagine that the market would throw off clear hints that something of the sort was up, and observant PM owners could follow suit before the SHTF.
I do not envision the possibility that *they* would be able to keep/trade/sell gold while the rest of the population was banned from doing so. Nor do I envision how they could avoid an extreme hike in tax liabilities relating to the ownership or sale of gold.
I would add that I find it very difficult to imagine that the Government could even successfully apply such extreme measures when, in all likelihood, gold would be seen at the time to be the most valuable and trusted collateral left in the wake of the collapse of the paper system. How on earth could the Government keep the population compliant when all confidence had just been lost in paper markets? Sorry about your dollars and retirement accounts, and oh, by the way, you are banned from owning the one asset that is widely considered to be the best (if not only) remaining good collateral. Or...Sorry about the collapse of the dollar, but we've reset the system and the new currency is tied to gold so that the system will be sound. However, you're not allowed to own that good collateral.
When the paper ponzi collapses, even the least educated and aware will quickly gain a visceral understanding of the importance and superiority of hard assets. Under those circumstances, how could the broad population remain compliant were the Government to add insult to injury by banning gold ownership?
Now, if you want to argue that there will be something between martial law and a Mad Max scenario, that would be a different story. But even if something so extreme were to occur, I believe that there would be opportunities to turn PMs into other hard assets before such events were to unfold.
When the paper ponzi truly collapses, the bureaucrats will be thinking of nothing more than how they will get paid. The answers will keep their minds off work.
Surely , they will just all go on strike as a protest.
It depends on where the gold is being held. If most of the controllers already parked their gold outside the reach of the US government i.e, in some private vaults outside the US, they have nothing to lose by the US government outlawing private possession of gold bullion and coins within the US. Same goes for increasing the capital gains tax on gold to insanely high percentages. The 1% is not a homogenous body coordinating its actions to benefit itself. Many of them are there by accident. They are as expendable as the 99%.
Why does this need a rebuttal? This doesn't stop me from using my gold & silver. Being illegal is not a barrier.
That is why gold, guns and guillotines go so well together.
Government prohibition will send the cash and carry price soaring. Just like everything else the government touches in any way.
That is why you don't keep gold in the USA.
Learn to make fucking jewelry? How hard can it be? Girls with freaky short bangs do it on Etsy all the time.
I don't see how this is different than existing black-market barter & that goes on without interruption.
"that's why mine is all in the blockchain, safe from confiscation"
ALL?? Seriously? Brilliant strategy.
Change your screen name. Sophomorerex is still available and - might I add - appropriate.
Perhaps "BitBucket" is available? I prefer relatively low tech Plan B's that don't require electricity. Mind you, I'm a big fan of electricity, running water and creature comforts, but if things went sideways, you can't really count on anything except what's in your possession or reachable in short order.
I think it was apparent that he was being ironic with a dash of sarc.
except that it is pure confiscation ponzi. You lose real wealth for bits & later those bits are worth nothing: http://flic.kr/p/kyKgtF a presage to the zero-event.
One way to take a penalty-free early and 100% disribution is via divorce court.
For those of you who find the few other avenues to be less than palatable, this option is viable. It would probably strain the IRS's credulity for two single folks to so convenienty get married and then divorced and swap 401K's in their divorce settlement, but seems to mne that a good contract lawyer could get what was once the parties' 401K's returned to them after the divorce settlement.
Long faux marriage real divorce!
Only the lawyers would come out ahead with that scheme.
If it's not in physical, they already have it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJeFrqBJF6E
"They want your fucking retirement money.....they want it back."
George Carlin
Who was George Carlin? a prophet!!!
Reason #9,999,999 to own physical gold and silver.
Think of draining your bank account to purchase gold and silver as an investment in the U.S. economy. Obama wants us to spend, spend, spend to boost the economy so spend on PMs. Do your duty.
And that's why you don't save......at least in the ponzi system.
That is the whole idea of this. Scare the people to go out and spend their savings. Sink themselves into debt. The Keneysian way.
But it's for the country. What are you, anti-USA?
Desperate (wo)men will do desperate things.........under whatever cover or pretext they can come up with including the manufactured variety.
Ill be the guy selling Heirloom tomatoes on the off ramp. Worth their weight in Silver (almost)
You got a license kid? Didn't think so. You have the right to remain silent....
I think at that point, a license will say things like "Springfield Armory" on it.
Do you think they'll accept one written in Cyrillic?
Not when they expect it in Mandarin.
Chinese commerce will be the next world order.
Stack On
"Chinese commerce will be the next world order."
I would not make that bet. China is headed for a serious fall. Way too much debt and mal-investments to be a super-power. There is also a good chance of regional war in Asia with China making a grab for Oil/NatGas resources.
Who has way too much debt?
Anglo-American empire is headed for a serious fall. Way too much debt and mal-investments to be a super-power. There is also a good chance of regional war in Asia with empire making a grab for Oil/NatGas resources.
Fixitferyer
Debt default is a problem only when one section of the population holds as assets (CDOs and MBSs in retirement accounts) others' debts. However, where the debt is held by an entity like a bank, the entity can be bankrupted without causing a systemic failure. If the debt burden of the Chinese people is too large to service, the people will lose the assets they pledged as collateral for the debt, the creditors will be bankrupted, if necessary, and the assets transferred to another viable entity. Since most of these collaterals are housing property in ghost neighbourhoods and towns, few will become homeless or jobless because of that restructuring.
+1 FOR THE Wahoo moniker too. That is one amazing fish when they feed. I think that they get attitude out of getting altitude.
"A sailfish will jump, a kingfish will dive, and a wahoo will strip your line."
Don't tomaser me, bro!
duplicate
Your wretched little lives have all been cursed, because of all the witches working I'm the worst...
Ah, say, it's a buy, alpha baby, up and die!
Ah, say, it's a buy, alpha baby, up and die!
[Witch Winifred Yellen in Hocus Pocus]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDidHzwYu3E
This video starts out as the best commercial ever for SPY and ends with a sales pitch. Lame.
Beat me to it fonz. I was going to say "Fine infomercial there, Tyler."
Keep the wheat, throw away the chaff...
NFW!
They will steal whatever assets necessary to keep the Ponzi going.
The 1% is about to do to the 19% what they've been doing to the 80%. The 19% threw the 80% under the bus thinking they were in the same club as the 1%. They aren't...
Newsflash - the 19% is pretty tapped out already. And it's not the top 1% pulling strings - it's the top 1/100 of 1%. That 0.01% is safe and secure with hidden assets, hiding behind castle walls and guarded by private security forces. Gov ain't gonna touch them because they OWN gov (legally now thanks to the recent Supreme Court decision).
So gov is going after the bottom 99% in the top 1%. They still have some assets though the amount held by the bottom 99% of the top 1% is 1/10th of what the top 0.01% hold. Most of the 'top 1%' are FAR closer to the absolute bottom than they are to those at the very top of the 0.01%. The smart ones realize that. Those with delusional aspirations think they're part of the ruling class when they're simply 'better off' serfs.
BTW - a good number of those in the 0.01% are batshit crazy. They don't feel 'secure' unless they have 'at least' one BILLION dollars..... are preoccupied with people finding out how 'rich' they really are and trying to kidnap them.... are really really phobic about 'germs' and any form of contact with 'common' people.....they think they're brilliant even though EVERYTHING they have was inherited......... But don't underestimate them - the few really talented sociopaths make up for the inbred idiocy.
You're spot on.
I'm surprised anyone is even discussing the 19% or even the 1%. The 0.01% really is where all this is going on.
I got some snarky responses in a prior thread pointing that out -- that even as a member of the 1% I'm not seeing this wealth firehose that's discussed so frequenty. Since then, I stumbled across this fellow and his analysis and it confirms what I said and what many people here know -- that virtually all of the increase in wealth isn't going to the 19%, or even the 1%, but to the 0.01%, the people with net worths in the hundreds of millions to billions.
CNBC (I know, gag) pulled the best slides from the presenation and put them into this article
I'm a bit surprised Tyler hasn't picked this one up, or maybe I missed it, but it seems pretty recent.
The top 0.01% is raking it in...... hell, the 7 Walton family heirs (Walmart) are worth more than the WHOLE BOTTOM 40% of the US population combined.
Gotta love Alice - wanting to 'give back' she's opened an art museum in the wilds of Arkansas. I wonder how many people withing 100 miles of the place care and how many actually will go?
If she REALLY wanted to 'give back' she might let Walmart employees work 40 hours a week at more than the minimum wage and actually get some benefits worth having. But the 'museum/foundation' routine is a common ploy for the wealthy. Lets you write off the costs of your little hobby as a charitable endeavor.
The 19% always knew they weren't the 1% (and never strived to be) but thought the 80% knew the 1% were stealing more than just wealth from the 99%.
The 19% never realized the 80% placed such a low value on their own liberty as to trade it for their own security.
We will never make that mistake again.
You give them more credit than I do. I know way to many stuck up SOBs who earn 60K who think those lazy 30k guys should just "work harder". Total confirmation bias. Thonk they could be 1%ers if they bothered though they just lucked into solid jobs and would be up shit creek tomorrow if laid off.
I know 170k people who I wouldn't piss on if they were on fire, writhing in agony in front of me. Its not that I can't do their job, its that I don't want it.
There are a lot of things entailed "at the next level" that some people will never do for "sport".
Let me put it this way, in my "current function" I came across something that was a complete lack of craftmanship on a persons part and was a public safety hazard. It was within my ability to end this mans career. Period. End of story.
Those "above me" would have had a ball with it if I had...I didn't.
I told his supervisor I never wanted to discover this again and I wanted it corrected immediately and never expected to see it again and that he knew better when the attempt was made to conceal it.
He didn't lose his job, though he probably should have.
Never think that position equals disdain, not all of us are assholes but not all of us will look the other way forever and cover for incompetence or theft or putting peoples lives at risk either.
+1 buddy. To few people today know when to do the right thing.
Just know, there are still a lot us out here ;-)
I saw that and did a personal step-back ten years ago. Took a 66% pay reduction and found work eight miles from home instead of 150.
In my ten years here, I've fired four people. All within nine months of starting as corporate controller and fill-in CFO. I haven't had a reason to fire anyone since.
Had free time that was turned into volunteerism with the Boy Scouts, Salvation Army, and a few other things. Grown men still come up to me unexpectedly to shake my hand and hug my wife (recently ran into one of our Eagle Scouts 3/10/14 after the birth of our first grandchild down in the Los Angeles area.)
There's a lot more satisfaction in having a LIFE than in making money at any cost.
U.S. Government subsidizing Wall Street.
Yup. If that wasn't clear after the bailouts and 5 years of QE, it never will be.
I.R.S. got their pound of flesh out of me when I had to cash out 401K to survive after getting laid off.
A sweet deal for .gov and Wall Street; a raw deal for households.
Welcome to the New Rome.
Fucking thieves.
What retirement account. I thought they only paid for college. You mean I have a retirement account too.
I have Bitcoin and Maxcoin. and .... all kind a coins coming out the ying yang. I don't no freaking retirement account.
Nikkei ((((((thud)))))))))
LOL. Mt. Gox fools still looking for their blocks and chains.
A new twist your investment "advisor" won't tell you about. Break the cardinal rule and take out the maximum loan amount out of your 401K your plan will allow and immediately start to buy phyz gold and silver with the loan dollars. This gives your avg Joe a bit of a hedge against confiscation, at least there will be less of the govt bastards to take from, and you get to take your shiny new phyz out on the lake fishing with you.
"take out the maximum loan amount out of your 401K your plan will allow and immediately start to buy phyz gold and silver with the loan dollars"
Are you suggesting that the basis of your 401K does not remain the same at the time of whatever confiscatory action is taken? The account's assets include the investment + the loan that you owe to yourself...and now to the IRS.
Something does not add up with that plan.
These days its next to impossible to get a loan from your 401-k. And it has to be approved by your company.
I did exactly this a while back, and have almost paid back the loan now. Couldn't be happier, felt like I actually got something useful for my retirement. Recommended if you can swing it.
What a total piece of shit 'video. The other guys are evil, but here get our report because we are not. The 'documentary' was a fucking infomercial.
and if you sign up now, you get a free subscription to KWN and those incredible interviews !!!
It pissee off when somebody tries to test my intelligence by passing off a commercial as news. As if there aren't enough ads popping up all over the place as it is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtK_YsVInw8
You have to love the late great George Carlin.
Although I'm up to my eyeballs in the 401k and 403b world, I'm just too tired to point out the inconsistencies of this piece. Advertisement... yeah. Misinformation, almost certainly.
The biggest of the bunch is that Wall St. is just going to lay down while .gov (that largely answers to Wall St.) slaughters their biggest, most reliable cash cow.
It's easy, a default on unfunded liabilities is the same as taking your retirement accounts. Did you fatten your savings in case this occurs quickly?
No adjustment necessary if your baseline assumption has always been a radical reduction in "promised" benefits, as my assumption has always been.
They will steal the retirement accounts, but not outright. It will be through simply devaluing them by inflation taxation.
True that, I mean after all....if they outright stole it there would be hell to pay with all the folks holding pitchforks and torches, kicking the little rascal scooters into hyperdrive. Oh the humanity.
My personal theory is devaluation through strong inflation, and means testing.
I'm sure they'll come up with a real nice formula taking into account your age, bank balance, stock holdings, retirement accounts, and 401K type plans and simply crunch the numbers.
Result: Your scheduled SSI payment of 2000 per month has been reduced to 800 per month. Oooo sorry! SUCKER!
I also expect them to pander by means testing for others 'less fortunate' as well...
...you didn't work much, were on welfare, etc? Well that's not fair you have nothing so YOUR SSI payment increases from 600 to 1200 per month.
Count on this. One way or another you WILL be stolen from-because they need it and you have it.
Reporter: Why do you rob banks?
Willie Sutton: Because that's where the money is!
They'll take retirement accounts and bank accounts.
When you have a fiat fractional reserve scheme imploding there will never, ever be enough money to fix it but they'll take everyone with them that they can when it goes.
after listening to Jim Willie today, they'll need to and are preparing accordingly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3M5FWZxDXg&list=TLtbcdaG7dXvA8QzJNj9xLQ...
They're prepared, not preparing -- it's already a done deal. The language to do both was placed in Dodd-Frank; the tip off was there for anyone to read who cared to bother.
its a pity that Aussies and Kiwis can't see the same writing on the wall, its in our "news" everyday but somehow everyone is more interested in debating how to progress their demise and scoff those with experience of personal property and personal wealth rights being extinguished by 'legalised' theft in other nations. I watch the US as an indicator of how fast to move; the indicator is at deafening volumes.
No worries mate, the resources boom will save us and anyhow its different this time.
Can you put physical gold in a 401K?
There are many places you can put phyz in a custodial account, email me for more info and I will be glad to hold yours if you have any, for a nominal fee.....but I will have it, honestly I will.
Yes, but it's a bad move -- it's held by a custodian. Far better to pay the taxes and/or penalties and hold it yourself.
During the last minute of the video, I was expecting to hear a voice claiming:
"...And we've discovered a Weird Trick"...
Seeing a magic marker start scribbling on whiteboard in my dreams now. Really they need a new wierd trick.
So why do I click on them anyway??!!
I've been slimed and I feel ashamed.