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Summing Up The American Dream (In One Cartoon)
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OK Bear, I almost, kinda, sorta get the hedonic index,
but I've been to Hedonism II and there is no similarity. Trust me on this;)
And new Gmo food does so much more than last years Gmo food.
What inflation?
"deflation means default." PERIOD.
move a bong, move a bong...
Yea i'm about to lose my mind too, any moment now.
Taxation is the reason. When governments take 50% of my income, I have nothing left to save.
Sounds like someone needs a second job. Maybe a third.
Where are your bootstraps?
Rotten Apple - Alice In Chains
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEeFNvvR-ng (6:56)
Alice In Chains - Down In A Hole
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8hT3oDDf6c (5:36)
Alice In Chains - Rooster
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAE6Il6OTcs (7:00)
What's wrong with the River of Deceit ????
Billy Joel - The River of Dreams
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSq4B_zHqPM (4:09)
I used to love AIC, but they dont stand the test of time. RATT and Motley Crue are better in that regard.
Can you bank your EBT for retirement ?????
How many EBT cards will I need to retire?
Follow our leader, and get at least four social security numbers.
Extra credit for illegal alien credentials.
"Little incentive to save (for retirement)" seems like an obvious culprit. But equally obvious is the fact that most don't understand what's happening to their currency. And equally obvious again is the fact that beggars are still acting like choosers and the credit is still flowing so most everyone is still acting like the good times are right around the corner.
What about good old fashioned ignorance, naivete, and stupidity (of the "social security will pay for my 30[!!!] year retirement, I'm all set! variety)?
Lose the idiotphone and dataplan, there's ~$100 a month. Ditch cable TV and sell your TV, there's ~$30-$40 per month. Quit buying single-use junk you don't need. Buy everything in bulk. Cook and freeze your own meals, etc., etc., etc. blah blah blah, all has been said 1000 times. But so long as people believe (despite zero justification) that the good times of the period from the 50s to 90s is (perpetually) just around the corner again, they will continue behave accordingly within the ever shrinking confines of bare economic possibility. So good luck with that.
Erudite
+100
look it up
Most people concerned about retirement right now are those nearing retirement age IE baby boomers. The demographic that has possibly had the greatest economic opportunity of any people in human history. If you lived through a period of inflated wages and benefits, bankrolled by your children and grandchildren, a period where you could buy double digit gov't backed treasuries, and were not able to prepare for your retirement, nothing is going to help you. You sank your own retirement every day of your life over the last 50-65 years.
But those of us that DID the 'right thing' have GOTTEN SCREWED. We worked hard in school, went to college, worked hard during school and after (often with more than one job). We saved for our kids college long before we had kids, kept our debt down, lived within our means and saved for retirement. We bought a house at the LOW point in the housing market and dumped thousands of hours of sweat equity (which do NOT count against 'capital gains') into the place.
Our pensions got taken away and the 'surplus funds' stolen by company execs, our 401K's and IRA's paid excessive fees to Wall Street and lost a big part of their value - they're still at risk in the casino called Wall Street. Our 'savings' kept in banks or 'safe' fixed income instruments LOSE money - collecting less than 1% interest in an era of ADMITTED 2-3% (but really 8+%) inflation.
I've worked my ass off all my life while others below me and above me gamed the system. I played by the rules and got screwed for doing so.
same here, been a hard working educated good citizen for 30 years. living a frugal life. caring for parents that did not plan, then education for children, now my savings that my wife and i had to dig out of the ground with our bear hands isn't worth .1 percent apr. wtf.
i'm pissed off and need to beat the shit out of something, i'm just waiting for a target
Look for a Bear
and just beat it to death with your bare hands.
Good exercise, pissedoff -
wtf
I know some real good places to loot when the time comes....... Steve Forbes still has all of Malcom's motorcycles at the 'farm' in Jersey and you wouldn't believe all the collector cars owned by the hedge fund guys in Greenwich......
Problem is that these guys seem to be getting ready for 'something'. All the nice low Colonial era stone walls in the pricier parts of Ct. have been replaced with 6 foot high ones - with iron gates.
sorry if I offended anyone....Of course I meant to say..vertically challenged.
6' fences won't even keep the midgets out.
stormsailor YOU are the target. They already have those who didn't / couldn't /wouldn't plan, save and and act responsibly caught tightly by their short hairs.
Consider your home and country invaded and act accordingly.
I'm in my mid 60's and I'll admit it. I was not disciplined enough to save like I should have...and in the back of my mind--I knew better. I knew the time would come when reality would rear its ugly head. And guess what?
No /sarc either 'cause I'm serious as a heart attack. I'll be working until my next move--which will be into the ground.
I'm 40 and trying to figure out how to get what loot I have out of my retirement account without getting severely Corzined so I can buy more seeds and phyzz.....I'm thinking 6 mos is too optimistic for the coming of the petroruble so might just have to take the hit this summer.....
Best way to drain IRA assets is to do a long/short trade involving your IRA and a non IRA. If you think the dollar is ready to collapse, buy a leveraged bond etf in your IRA and short it in your non- IRA. if it works you will save the 10% withdrawal penalty ( but of course you will have a taxable gain in your non IRA).
Edit
You might be better off, assuming that you aren't doing hard physical labor. My parents retired early a few years ago and have been quickly rotting away. They both own their properties (divorced, thank God) and have low overhead and decent savings, although far from rich. They could each afford to do a little traveling (although I wouldn't wish that on the world) or have some hobbies, but instead are content to watch TV all day and bitch about their health.
There's something to be said for keeping one's mind and body active. Work demands schedule and discipline, things that can disappear rapidly in retirement if not careful. If the body isn't active, the mind goes quickly. My parents are both late 60s and have metamorphosed into large lazy children, and I'm not looking forward to changing diapers.
Or you could always say 'fuck it' and pack up to a cheaper country overseas. That is my plan, someday, before other countries wise up and close their borders to shithead Americans.
Actively prepare now, go on a trip, borders are tightening - just been through the whole exercise. Rules change over night and will do so more this year. We're a global community now (what a fkg nightmare).
The cartoon is funny but what is not is that it is so very true. The post below looks at how the young will be burdened as a massive cross-generational transfer of wealth is forced upon them.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-young-will-be-burdened.html
You gotta be asleep to experience the american dream.
or seriously drugged. Hence the current heroin epidemic.......
self administered SOMA..... get everyone hooked on prescription opiates (think OXY) and then get them transferred over to heroin after a reliable supply is guaranteed (there's a reason the US went into Afghanistan - besides pipelines). Think of it as population control and 'enhanced off the book profit opportunities'
In America we need a new pill to make debt slaves feel happy go lucky!
In China they need a new drug for debt slaves to make them feel happy go lucky and quite committing suicide!
We need more drugs! Ha. Ha.
But I did save for retirement however the FED's policies are making that savings worthless.
myra.barack.gov
Back in the dusty stacks of various enginerring schools that had or have an ROTC program. You can find leads to all kinds of inexpensive materials to stock up on and various bath tub ways to process and apply them to the Oppressors. Steel, lead, swiming pool supplies, and seamless 4130 tubing can sometimes get you things gold can't.
Paying attention in Chemistry has a certain amount of payback..... lol. So does a knowledge of history - esp. military history.
There is no future. The banks already stole it so don't worry about it. Its gone.
The picture would be really awesome if the upper management guy also had bubbles showing his car allowance, luxury box seats, and expense account. Then the worker saying something about needing some more pens and the upper management ahole saying something about how the employees need to pay for some of their own office supplies.
Savings? What for? All of my neighbors are still happily enjoying their debt fueled psychosis.
Get yourself a handgun.
When you can no longer look after yourself, walk into the nearest bank, threaten a teller and shoot into the ceiling.
Nobody gets hurt, everyone there has a hell of a story to tell.
You get 3 squares and a bed for a few years.
Repeat, if you live that long.
Just a thought.
When the economy gets so bad that large numbers of people do that then they will lower the incentive of going to prison.
It will be a third world hell hole (like North Korea).
Not 3 hots and a cot but 1 bowl of mouldy gruel (with the maggots providing you with protein) and sleeping in turn in a 20'X30' cell holding 200 prisoners.
If you want 2 meals a day then you have to work 12-14 hours/day doing hazardous work (how about relining nuclear plants that come back on line).
A million people starved to death in North Korea, but they still had it better than those in the prison system.
"When you can no longer look after yourself, walk into the nearest bank, threaten a teller and shoot into the ceiling.
Nobody gets hurt, everyone there has a hell of a story to tell."
I am not so sure your plan would work out quite like that here in Texas. There sure are a lot of CHL (Concealed Handgun Licensed) folks in this area. Some are like me and have some really hot handloads and we have always wondered about performance (as related to penetration and expansion).
Food up 19% since December!
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2...
Don't come knocking on my door looking for a handout! Better trade your 80 inch flatscreen for a few cases of canned salmon and beans while you still have the time.
Especially if you can still find some of the prized pre-fukushima canned Alaskan red salmon. I have a couple slabs of halibut I caught back in 2011 that I was planning to use as crab bait this summer but now I'm thinking pre-fukuppy seafood may be some kind of delicacy freezer burn and all.....
in my city, there is a long line of mercedes,bmws all pulling out at the traffic light that leads down to the section 8 apartments. not 230's or 300 beamers but the really high priced ones. do they have car stamps now?
Yes. I know a guy who's on 100% federal and state assistance, mental, etc., whatever.
He lives in a very nice 2 br + 2 bath condo type living area for those of lesser means, eats very well, etc., absolutely living better than sales people at Macys or Apple, etc..
He does not work.
Owns a Jag and a Mini. And he's single. Both a Jag and a Mini.
On our Federal and CA state monies, aka the taxpayer.
I am strongly of the opinion that nobody in this country need go hungry. Back when I remember when if you needed food, you got a bag of beans, a bag of rice, a block of cheese, loaves of bread and milk.
Then it became below people's dignity to have to line up for stuff like that. So they made food stamps. And now you get tobacco, liquor, cash, tattoos, some travel places take the fucking things for trips, etc.
It's like cash.
It ain't a safety net anymore, it's a way of very comfortable life, gaming a broken syatem.
Some call them 'safety nets'.
Others call them 'hammocks'.
You 100% sure he doesn't have a little "business" on the side?
Don't worry, retirement and getting old both don't last too long.
I arrived in New Orleans this evening. Never have been to the city before. My first impression, a liberal lion den. Ventured out for a stroll starting at my hotel on St. Louis. This place doesn't impress me. A bum approached me asking for a dollar. Multiple people near Bourbon street where homeless and sleeping on the street. Someone on Royal street had a sign stating, help us and receive good karma back.
Sorry to affend anyone living here, but this place is the pits. Lastly, the foul smell of piss is beyond belief.
FYI
They had a bad storm back in 2005 I believe. I was there a few years before and 8 months after Katrina. Was a little nicer before IMO.
Katrina was the storm. I remember quite well. Ivan took out my father's yacht in the intercoastal canal. The house received no damages. Funny how mother nature works in mysterious ways. ;)
I'm in the French quarters of New Orleans. The government carpet baggers think this is the closest to EU socialist lifestyle they'll receive by living off of other people's money.
Off to bed :p
Off to bed? Before midnight in the French Quarter?
I don't think New Orleans is the place for you, I suggest a nice gated community with an unreasonable HOA. Then your judgmental ass will actually have something real to bitch about.
Try Toulouse Street....strip clubs. Get a grenade and some Luzianna tits scrubbing your face.
Uh, hey
judge.. didn't you just do what you accused him of doing ?
MEGADETH LYRICS
"Endgame"
Attention! Attention!
All citizens are ordered to report to their District detention centers!
Do not return to your homes;
Do not contact anyone!
Do not use any cellular or GPS devices!
Surrender all weapons at once!
Attention! This way to the camps!
I woke up in a black FEMA box
Darkness was all around me, in my coffin
My dreams are all nightmares anymore
And this is what I dream every night
The Leader of the New World Order, the President of the United States
Has declared anyone now residing inside the US of A
Without the RFID chip, you're just an illegal alien
An enemy combatant of America, welcome to the New World Order
This is the end of the road; this is the end of the line
This is the end of your life; this is the...
A society in a society, inside the fence life as you know it stops
They got their rules of conduct and we got ours
Be quick or be dead, you crumble up and die, the clock is
Ticking so slowly and so much can happen in an hour
I learned my lessons the hard way, every scar I earned
I had to bleed, inside the day yard
A system of controlled movement, like a giant ant farm
Any time is long time, now you're not in charge of your time anymore
The Ex-President signed a secret bill that can
Land a legal US Citizen in jail and the
Patriot act stripped away our constitutional rights
They say a Concentration camp just popped up, yeah, right!
Refuse the chip? Ha! Get persecute and beat by the
Tyranny of Mind control, for the mark of the beast
All rights removed, you're punished captured, and enslaved
Believe me when I say, "This IS the Endgame!"
Should have been something along the lines of: "I saved so the banksters could retire rich. Or at least the ones tht don't have 'accidents' with nail-guns."
"Why aren't Americans like you saving more for retirement?"
ZIRP.
That is all.
Meanwhile, in China, Alibaba has been paying as high as 7% on your savings account, updated daily. I know, my coworkers take advantage of it. The government is displeased, forcing Alibaba to reduce the interest rate, since everyone was moving out of the state owned banks. See March 2 NYT article if you do not believe me.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/03/business/international/web-banks-offering-high-interest-rates-rise-in-china.html?_r=0
— Last June, an affiliate of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba made an offer to its hundreds of millions of users: Give us your cash, and we will pay more than Chinese banks will.
Savers swamped the company seeking interest rates that were significantly higher than the low rates fixed by the government. By early February, 81 million people had signed up for the company’s money market product called Yu’e Bao, which translates as “leftover treasure.”
The fund, which was established by Alipay, a unit of Alibaba, now has $40 billion in assets under management, making it the country’s biggest money market fund.
Jack Ma, Alibaba’s flamboyant and sharp-tongued chairman, insists China’s financial regulations are suffocating smaller investors and average consumers. He has vowed to shake up the country’s banking and financial services sector. “The financial industry needs spoilers to make a revolution,” he said during a speech last June.
The big winners so far are Chinese savers, who now earn up to 7 percent annually on cash deposits. Traditional banks have rarely been so generous. They now pay 3.3 percent.
Soon after, Yu’e Bao took flight. Analysts say Yu’e Bao’s appeal is its simplicity and convenience. Alipay account holders can transfer as little as one renminbi, or about 16 cents, into Yu’e Bao and withdraw the money at any time, without being penalized. They can also get daily earnings updates on their mobile phones.
Could Paypal not offer a "money market product"?
And curiously missing from the cartoon is the biggest expense of all for most families: Federal Income Taxes. If you think shit is bad now, just wait until April 15th when Uncle Sugar comes for any remaining savings you have. It will be like "bad weather" on steroids.
Carousel: There Is No Sanctuary.
Saving for retirement was a scheme perpetrated to fund stock markets from the earnings of ordinary folks. Prior to that scheme, people depended on their children in retirement and expected to do so. So they either invested in their children or physical assets during their working years.
However, with generational ties so badly damaged, it is next to impossible to expect the current working age people to take as dependents their parents, especially if the parents have no assets they can leave them.
Directly or indirectly it is the productive population who take care of the not-yet-productive (children), past-productive-years (retirees) and not-productive (idle rich, unemployed etc). The only difference is what kind of claims, if any, they hold on the productivity of the others and what obligations the society imposes.
If Willie Sutton were alive, he would buy a boat, a depth finder, a metal detector and forget about banks.
Nobody can save fiat, it costs too much to save any of it.
McD sundaes that were a dollar for years, just shrunken to offset higher costs, apprently couldn't be shrunk anymore.
Sometime this past year the price was jacked up to $1.39.
Jumped the shark on one of the last excuses to walk in that place Fairly easy math for the sheepie and another mighty big elephant in the same CB's "lowflation" room our faithful leaders love to decorate with flowers and puppy portraits.
Buncha whiners - just put all your money into SPY or DIA or QQQ and you'll be rich. Bennie, Bamy, and Janet have your back. Just let it ride and you too will enjoy the wealth effect. Market crashes are so 2008.
" just put all your money into SPY or DIA or QQQ and you'll be rich."
Yeah, but I'm averse to risk. My financial adviser (one of the highest, goodest ones around) has advised me to invest in a totally risk-free vehicle he created. So, I'm off to start a MyRA!
The issue here is that a very small percentage of the population is padding its own cushy retirement through exactly the same policies and actions which are depriving the rest of the same. This is why those of you who continue to drive the lame, "grandma had no retirement, why do you expect one?" argument are either stupid or insincere. Although there cannot and should not be "equality," it is another thing to have so-called government working the "inverse robin-hood" on the masses and retiring every connected individual and government shill at your direct expense, while you work until you drop. Anyone with less than $2M net worth who is not opposing this confluence of events with every waking breath is manifestly retarded.
Bank savings is an oxymoron. I've got money saved but it's losing ground because interest rates are lower than inflation.
"Why aren't Americans like you getting out of the banking system and putting your fiat into phyzz silver, gold, food & water storage, supplies, ammo, and guns?"
There...fixed your little cartoon for ya.
How about rising booze prices?
Keeping your money in a Bank is savings????
One is just loaning money to the bank to keep it going and possibly appropriated by bail ins. If you ask me it's kissing your money goodbye. Also soon banks will be charging you for keeping your money with them, let alone the fact that you receive hadrly any interest on it.
Investing in stocks?
Sure go ahead. With the SEC's past performance on Madoff you must have have guts to keep your money there. Prayer wont help as this is the Devil's territory and controlled by it's henchmen.
Investing in real estate?
Sure do so and face the housing busts and the fact that you have no liquidity.
My advise would be pull out your money and keep it in precious metals , in your possesion and hide it away. Burglars are less risky than the thieves in the government and the financial institutions.
Have to serve a larger and larger government.
The government tells you what you can and cannot do. If you act differently they'll diagnose you and drug you until you conform.
A newer version of the Soviet state.
If you want to save anything you shouldn't tell the government about it. Physical bullion if you are serious about saving. 401k/equities if you like paying taxes every time you sneeze, fart, and blink.
on top of these reasons, gentiles' savings get NIRPed by People of the Zion
hahaha! Bow to your Real Masters