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"The Real Economy Is Somewhere Between The Toilet & A Rat Hole"

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by James H Kunstler of Kunstler.com,

With lakes, swimming holes, rivers, and pools beckoning, I went to a sporting goods chain store at the mall — where else? — seeking a new bathing suit (pardon the quaint locution). The store was curiously named Dick’s. All they had were clown trunks. By this I mean a garment designed to hang somewhere around mid-calf, instantly transforming a normally-proportioned adult male into a stock slapstick character: the oafish man-child.

This being a commodious warehouse-style store, there was rack upon rack of different brands of bathing suits, all cut in the same clown style. I chanced by one of the sparsely-deployed employees and inquired if they had any swimming togs in a shorter cut.

“What you see is alls we got,” he said.

Even the Speedo brand had gone clown — except for the bikini brief, which I wore back during 30 years of lap-swimming, but which I deemed not quite okay for an elderly gentleman on the casual summer swim scene. So I left Dick’s without a new suit, but not before having a completely unsatisfying conversation with one of the managers.

“In the old days,” I explained, “bathing suits were designed to minimize the amount of cloth one dragged around in the water. These clown trunks you sell not only make a person look ridiculous, but they must be an awful drag in the water.”

“That’s what they send us,” he said. “It’s alls we got.”

The Fourth of July rolled in just in time to celebrate the disintegration of Iraq following our eight-year, three trillion dollar campaign to turn it into a suburb of Las Vegas. Me and my girl went over to the local fireworks show, held on the ballfield of a fraternal order lodge on the edge of town. The fire department had hung up a gigantic American Flag — like, fifty feet long! — off the erect ladder of their biggest truck, in case anybody forgot what country they were in. Personally, I was wondering what planet I was on. It was a big crowd, and every male in it was dressed in a clown rig.

The complete outfit, which has (oddly) not changed in quite a few years (suggesting the tragic trajectory we’re on), includes the ambiguous long-short pants, giant droopy T- shirt (four-year-olds have proportionately short legs and long torsos), “Sluggo” style stubble hair, sideways hat (or worn “cholo” style to the front ), and boat-like shoes, garments preferably all black, decorated with death-metal band logos. You can see, perhaps, how it works against everything that might suggest the phrase: “competent adult here.” Add a riot of aggressive-looking tattoos in ninja blade and screaming skull motifs and you get an additional message: “sociopathic menace, at your service.” Finally, there is the question: just how much self-medication is this individual on at the moment? I give you: America’s young manhood.

Does it seem crotchety to dwell on appearances? Sorry. The public is definitely sending itself a message disporting itself as it does in the raiment of clowning. Here in one of the “fly-over” zones of America — 200 miles north of New York City — the financial economy is mythical realm like Shangri-La and the real economy is somewhere between the toilet and a rat hole. Under the tyranny of chain stores, there really is no true local commercial economy. The few jobs here are menial and nearly superfluous to the automatic workings of the giant companies.

I don’t have the statistics but I suspect a lot of the males around here are on federal disability payments, and probably in the psychological categories including “depression,” “learning disabilities,” “ADHD, and so on.” In such a situation, wouldn’t a person benefit from presenting himself as child-like, with a dash of menace? And wouldn’t it be advantageous to look that way all of the time, in case one was unexpectedly visited by a government employee?

Down in Brooklyn, a world away, the young men go about in their hipster uniforms: Pee Wee Herman cut casuals. They’re still role-playing “the smart kid in the class” even though they’ve been out of class for a decade. Their computer dreams of IPO glory are formulated with the tunnel-vision of science fair projects. Left out are the realities of the greater unraveling.

Women are not at the center of this story. Theirs is another story. Let some woman tell it before I get to it.

Never has a society entered an epochal transition with such unpreparedness.

Never has a society appeared so childishly decadent.

 

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Mon, 07/07/2014 - 18:49 | 4933452 Squid Viscous
Squid Viscous's picture

but i thought the 90s were great thanks to Clinton and his traveling band of Zio-geniuses like Greedspan, Rubin, Sperling, etc. etc. etc....?

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:49 | 4932163 i_call_you_my_base
i_call_you_my_base's picture

The real economy sucked in 2005 too. The same bubble arguments made now were easily made then. I usually ask re-inflators what year we're re-inflating to? In other words, what are we priming to get back to? Name me a year.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:56 | 4932190 Greenskeeper_Carl
Greenskeeper_Carl's picture

john williams says 2005, which is even worse, and i tend to believe him. Using the proper 'GDP deflator', which merely means calculation inflation the way it was calculated in 1980, even in some cases 1990, the last year we had true, positive growth with proper inflation adjustments was almost a decade ago. And now, even with their totally bogus inflation and GDP numbers, they still couldnt manage a tiny bit of growth this past quarter. ANd plenty have the 'balls' to announce it, its just no TV network or major news publication has the balls to show their work

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 15:07 | 4932593 SurlysonofaBitch
SurlysonofaBitch's picture

john williams says 2005, which is even worse, and i tend to believe him. Using the proper 'GDP deflator', which merely means calculation inflation the way it was calculated in 1980, even in some cases 1990, the last year we had true, positive growth with proper inflation adjustments was almost a decade ago.


Who cares? According to JW, we went into hyperinlfation 3 years ago and are now dumpster diving, and melting down tooth fiings to trade, in order to survive. 

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:19 | 4932339 ejmoosa
ejmoosa's picture

I am gping to go back even further, to the fourth quarter of 2006.  That was the last of 21 quarters of quarterly year over year profit growth rates of 8% or higher.

 

Those 21 quarters were a bonanza for small and medium sized businesses.  

 

But the Fed wanted more and kept pumping the housing markets to un manageable levels, rather than letting the US digest the growth we had experienced.

 

By compareison, we had 12 quarters of year over year quarterly profit growth of 8% or higher.  That was fueled by easy money to all market sectors, courtesy of the Fed.  No business should fail if they could help it.

 

 

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:45 | 4932495 Panafrican Funk...
Panafrican Funktron Robot's picture

"But the Fed wanted more and kept pumping the housing markets to un manageable levels, rather than letting the US digest the growth we had experienced."

 

Incorrect assessment.  The Fed engineered the crash starting in July of 2004 via a rapid ramp up in rates.  It was a classic pump and dump.  

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/FEDFUNDS/

 

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 18:50 | 4933461 i_call_you_my_base
i_call_you_my_base's picture

But the benefits were the byproduct of the housing bubble and financialization of the economy. In other words, fake. It was an unnatural state. That's the problem with the inflator / primer argument, you are inflating to a bubble. How do you expect that to end?

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 15:04 | 4932348 ejmoosa
ejmoosa's picture

Double post...the first must have been routed through the NSA...

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:22 | 4932356 BandGap
BandGap's picture

Is it me or are more and more people starting to write like Hunter S. Thompson?

Tue, 07/08/2014 - 00:05 | 4934373 Rusty Shorts
Rusty Shorts's picture

"We can't stop here!!! this is Bat country!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8gAtTxWhUY

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 18:55 | 4933483 Cattender
Cattender's picture

LOL! i live in Michigan and my Area has a Few Lumps Floating around in our bowl...

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 19:47 | 4933633 tempo
tempo's picture

The $ and FED is the only thing that matters.  It seems we are living the the roaring 20's before the crash.  I cant believe it will end with a Obama Presidency, so we are safe until 2016.   dow 35000

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 21:15 | 4933805 booboo
booboo's picture

Nutslur is your typical ageing libtard, standing at the cross roads of "There is no God" and "God help me" but  I bet the motherfucker bought a gun in the last year, good on you Jim but us cornpo hicks hope them ward of the state eat you.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 20:44 | 4933825 post turtle saver
post turtle saver's picture

anecdotal evidence is anecdotal

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 21:10 | 4933944 Buck Johnson
Buck Johnson's picture

Bingo, and do you know why?  It's because once it's announced then the blame game starts and the public would want that person or group on the altar for sacrifice.

 

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 22:44 | 4934194 Bangin7GramRocks
Bangin7GramRocks's picture

Nobody got the memo here in Stone Harbor NJ!

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:37 | 4932095 papaswamp
papaswamp's picture

....and in other news..Israel news reporting massive barrage of rockets fired from gaza.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:50 | 4932167 silverserfer
silverserfer's picture

bottle rockets with report or without?

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:16 | 4932322 pods
pods's picture

The dreaded whistling bottle rocket.

pods

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:38 | 4932097 A Lunatic
A Lunatic's picture

Between a toilet and a rat hole is commonly known as a Shathole.........

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:52 | 4932176 dontgoforit
dontgoforit's picture

Taint.  Taint the asshole, taint the pussy.  Taint the city, taint the country.  Taint.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:39 | 4932103 bagehot99
bagehot99's picture

It's probably nothing.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:53 | 4932171 daveO
daveO's picture

I'd call it corporate 'thought control'. Several years ago, I walked into a fast food joint wearing my 1980's shorts(mid-thigh, not too long or short). Two teenage boys immediately began looking and laughing. I looked straight at them and asked 'You got a problem with me dressing like a white man(they were white, too)?' Their reaction was telling. They went from eyeballing me to looking at their 'smart'-ass phones w/o a single word. There is no way the current 'prison' fashion could have lasted 20+ years w/o a monopolistic control of the media and clothing suppliers. I occasionally see a man wearing 'white man' shorts and know he probably had to shop the internet, for Euro suppliers, to find them.    

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:55 | 4932189 Grande Tetons
Grande Tetons's picture

Real Man Shorts. 

You may have given yourself a good business idea. Fuck, I would buy a pair. 

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:19 | 4932335 pods
pods's picture

I'm gonna bring back Nutters. Magnum wore them and that guy got more ass than a toilet seat.  Of course, he was named "Magnum."
pods 

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 18:50 | 4933460 Grande Tetons
Grande Tetons's picture

I think Magnum named his nuts Zeus and Apollo.  

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:31 | 4932412 Freddie
Freddie's picture

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GguoRr0lbOk

You remind me of this Vietnam Vet who kicked some ass.  Good for you.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:39 | 4932104 Space Animatoltipap
Space Animatoltipap's picture

The decay of an empire. Nothing new here.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:44 | 4932136 Jumbotron
Jumbotron's picture

Whaddaya mean ???

The economy is SO great that we have to import half of Mexico and Central America just to fill the jobs that we are producing !

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:02 | 4932219 max2205
max2205's picture

EBT isn't a job....

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:29 | 4932398 thamnosma
thamnosma's picture

an army of leafblowers

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 20:25 | 4932949 Supernova Born
Supernova Born's picture

The leaf blower yard crews seem to charge by the decibel.

Makes the old folks hiring them think work must be occurring.

If a jet airliner produced the same noise to work ratio as a leaf blower the noise of an airliner would blast down buildings like a hydrogen bomb.

Tue, 07/08/2014 - 04:46 | 4934616 NidStyles
NidStyles's picture

That would be one hell of a jet engine though. Definitely enough thrust to reach orbit.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:36 | 4932442 astroloungers
astroloungers's picture

EBT isn't a job....

 

it is for the processors

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:42 | 4932479 Freddie
Freddie's picture

Amerika used to play metal (almost as good as this but not really)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxroiTRg7Tg

Amerika

We're all living in America,
America is wunderbar.
We're all living in America,
Amerika, Amerika.

Wenn getanzt wird, will ich führen,
auch wenn ihr euch alleine dreht,
lasst euch ein wenig kontrollieren,
Ich zeige euch wie's richtig geht.
Wir bilden einen lieben Reigen,
die Freiheit spielt auf allen Geigen,
Musik kommt aus dem Weißen Haus,
Und vor Paris steht Mickey Maus.

We're all living in America...

Ich kenne Schritte, die sehr nützen,
und werde euch vor Fehltritt schützen,
und wer nicht tanzen will am Schluss,
weiß noch nicht, dass er tanzen muss!
Wir bilden einen lieben Reigen,
ich werde Euch die Richtung zeigen,
nach Afrika kommt Santa Claus,
und vor Paris steht Mickey Maus.

Refrain:
We're all living in America,
America is wunderbar.
We're all living in America,
Amerika, Amerika.
We're all living in America,
Coca-Cola, Wonderbra,
We're all living in America,
Amerika, Amerika.

This is not a love song,
this is not a love song.
I don't sing my mother tongue,
No, this is not a love song.

We're all living in America,
Amerika is wunderbar.
We're all living in America,
Amerika, Amerika.
We're all living in America,
Coca-Cola, sometimes WAR,
We're all living in America,
Amerika, Amerika.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 19:35 | 4933606 sleigher
Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:40 | 4932113 Ocean22
Ocean22's picture

"""""Never has a society entered an epochal transition with such unpreparedness.

Never has a society appeared so childishly decadent.""""""

Never will a society fall so hard.

Scary picture.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:45 | 4932135 p00k1e
p00k1e's picture

Get a sniper rifle and perch on your roof when it all goes down.

Ping the neighbors for fun.  

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:17 | 4932324 Ms. Erable
Ms. Erable's picture

You first; my neighbors ping back.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 15:11 | 4932611 p00k1e
p00k1e's picture

‘Viva La Raza!’

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 15:37 | 4932748 Ms. Erable
Ms. Erable's picture

Fuck La Raza. Bunch of dipshits that don't know the difference between a race and a cultural group.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:53 | 4932529 graneros
graneros's picture

Come on Tyler, did you put up an assholes wanted post somewhere? We seem to be getting an awful lot of really strange newbs around here lately.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:42 | 4932122 p00k1e
p00k1e's picture

Leo Wanta will be around any day now to save us. 

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:52 | 4932172 Dublinmick
Dublinmick's picture

He is ready with the gold .... LOL

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:22 | 4932336 NotApplicable
NotApplicable's picture

I find it amusing that even if the Wanta story is true, what difference could it possibly make?

Those bonds/cash (and all of the alleged actions associated with them) are still but words on paper.

Reminds me of a conversation I had over the weekend with my uncle, who thinks the world's collapse is being engineered, but by aliens (even though he has a decent understanding of the fraud of central banking).

My takeaway from the conversation was the old quote "If you can get someone to ask the wrong questions, then the answers don't matter." Instead of focusing on the most likely reasons, he had detailed explanations of how it would be possible for aliens to overcome our space/time boundaries.

Thanks, History Channel!

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:32 | 4932420 p00k1e
p00k1e's picture

I had a discussion with an uncle a few weeks ago.  He’s around 75. 

His question, “What happens to all the money a person contributes to social security, but never collects because of an early death.”

What do you say to that other than the watermelon is tasty this year. 

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:32 | 4932422 p00k1e
p00k1e's picture

I had a discussion with an uncle a few weeks ago.  He’s around 75. 

His question, “What happens to all the money a person contributes to social security, but never collects because of an early death.”

What do you say to that other than the watermelon is tasty this year. 

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 15:01 | 4932555 deflator
deflator's picture

His eyes would instantly glaze over if you told him it wasn't money, it was debt. It was money when it went in and debt when it didn't come out. The government didn't enact the new deal out of benevolence to the elderly, it enacted SSI so the government could collect SSI taxes and grow beyond what it otherwise would have been able. When SSI was enacted government growth was somewhat limited in peacetime by having to redeem it's debts in gold if markets thought they were growing beyond their means. By the time the government had to pay out more than what it was stealing, the ties to gold were severed completely.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 23:22 | 4934300 Tapeworm
Tapeworm's picture

I tell the colored folks to look up how their favored goomint treats their race on an actuarial basis The few black folks that work in the private sector at productive jobs heavily subsidise those with higher life expectancies.

 That's racis.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 19:00 | 4933506 Crawdaddy
Crawdaddy's picture

I have friends/family that think the same way. They know something is wrong but cannot be persuaded to see outside of a thought planted in their head by TV. Most people, even smart people, are contaminated with ideological subversion. It doesn't matter if you showed them plain, irrefutable proof, they will stick to their programmed beliefs.

The antidote is to get them to ditch the TV. Once they do that then they quickly figure it out for themselves.

Tue, 07/08/2014 - 08:31 | 4934867 Lanka
Lanka's picture

Aliens do not need a collapse to engineer a takeover.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:42 | 4932124 JustObserving
JustObserving's picture

But Yellen and Goldman say that economy is recovering.  How can you not trust them?

The corruption in present-day America is total. Psychologists and anthropologists serve war and torture. Economists serve globalism and US financial hegemony. Physicists and chemists serve the war industries. Physicists and computer geeks serve NSA. The media serves the government and the corporations. The political parties serve the six powerful private interest groups that rule the country.

No one serves truth and liberty.

I predict that within ten years truth and liberty will be forbidden words uttered only by “domestic extremists” who are a threat that must be exterminated without due process of law.

America has left us. We now have the tyranny of the Orwellian state that rules, not by the ballot box and Constitution, but by force and propaganda.

http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/07/07/virtual-economys-phantom-job-...

Tue, 07/08/2014 - 01:06 | 4934467 Tall Tom
Tall Tom's picture

The corruption in present-day America is total. Psychologists and anthropologists serve war and torture. Economists serve globalism and US financial hegemony. Physicists and chemists serve the war industries. Physicists and computer geeks serve NSA. The media serves the government and the corporations. The political parties serve the six powerful private interest groups that rule the country.

Some of us do not. Some of us are right here, fighting, against the forces of Fraud and Tyranny.

 

Our ranks are growing in numbers and they have need to be concerned. The Brains are leaving the Government en masse as the Government is so myopic to believe that we are no longer needed, that we have served our purpose.

 

We did not envision that the psychopaths would take what we had to offer and corrupt it to the detriment of all.

 

But we see it now and we are angered. And there is nobody more dangerous to that establishment than a Mad Scientist.

 

Since we put it together we certainly know the weaknesses and how to disintegrate it all.

 

Fuck the NSA.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:42 | 4932125 ebworthen
ebworthen's picture

Clownish unprepared juvenile narcissists.

The behavior and thought processes are as bad or worse than the outfits.

What's that flushing sound?

Oh yeah, Amurika.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:58 | 4932203 Berspankme
Berspankme's picture

Apt description of the current white house resident

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:05 | 4932253 dogfish
dogfish's picture

Do you think these people will buy stocks and bonds in the future?

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:44 | 4932129 QE49er
QE49er's picture

More other news...6.9 Earthquake in Guatamala/Mexico has discplaced thousands more, they will need new homes, where will they go I wonder?

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:46 | 4932144 Jumbotron
Jumbotron's picture

Krugman just jizzed his pants again.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:51 | 4932169 i_call_you_my_base
i_call_you_my_base's picture

These comments are funny, but it's pretty obvious that Krugman could not possibly get an erection.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:59 | 4932207 CrimsonAvenger
CrimsonAvenger's picture

Or give anybody one.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 16:25 | 4932946 MsCreant
MsCreant's picture

I need this comment explained to me.

He is not attractive to men?

He is not good at sucking dick or giving hand jobs??

Edit: I am not defending Krugman, I think the insult went past me however...

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 18:53 | 4933465 cougar_w
cougar_w's picture

It means Krugman is not attractive to gay men.

Only a gay man would care of course, but we probably have some of those around here and can expect to hear from them once in a while concerning their tastes in men.

 

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 20:26 | 4933759 MsCreant
MsCreant's picture

Thanks Kitty! Leave it to a biologist to set my head on my shoulders straight!

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:50 | 4932159 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

Why they will come to the Obamanation where they can get their Obamacare, their Obamaphone, their Obamacollegeedumacation, their ObamaSNAP, and now their Obamahomes.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 15:27 | 4932698 Handful of Dust
Handful of Dust's picture

You may not want Obamacare, but Obamacare wants you!

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:45 | 4932132 Seize Mars
Seize Mars's picture

I see a lot of overweight tattooed slobs.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:56 | 4932191 Seasmoke
Seasmoke's picture

Are you at DisneyWorld today ?

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:07 | 4932263 i_call_you_my_base
i_call_you_my_base's picture

Or anywhere else in Florida.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:54 | 4932533 Freddie
Freddie's picture

Or almost any Wal Mart.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 15:51 | 4932815 cro_maat
cro_maat's picture

Or the 5 borroughs of NYC?

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 16:28 | 4932956 MsCreant
MsCreant's picture

We can narrow it down to America, that is all I know for sure.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:45 | 4932139 Jack Burton
Jack Burton's picture

This is so true. My inlaws run a private small business that tends to do well in hard economic times and to suffer when the middle class is full up with well paid jobs. In short, when people are hard up for money or can't afford new items, they frequent his online and store front operations. Business is so good that three new store fronts have opened and he is still hiring, finding it hard to get reliable people, so he has upped his pay scale to attract more reliable people. This is how free markets do and should work. Yet, America is just one giant manipulated Federal Reserve Crony Capitalist failure. Oh, and business started it's uppward swing in 2008 and has gone steady upwards since then.

No, the mainstreet economy sucks. The middle class survives only due to government jobs, which have high pay, full time work and big benefits. I see this in my small town. The public employees have new big homes in the countryside, the others have run down shacks or rent crap apartments in town. I swear the only difference is the Government employee versus the Private Sector employee.

 

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:50 | 4932162 Big Corked Boots
Big Corked Boots's picture

Pawn shop? Used furniture? Check cashing? Inquiring minds want to know...

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:55 | 4932185 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

Slightly used hookers.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:58 | 4932204 Grande Tetons
Grande Tetons's picture

Is there such a thing as a new hooker? 

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:04 | 4932236 Big Corked Boots
Big Corked Boots's picture

They're only new once. Although some could be described as 'inexperienced.'

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:05 | 4932252 max2205
max2205's picture

I quit hanging out with public sector people

 

Makes me sick I can't even hide it anymore

 

The new class warfare/divide

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:09 | 4932276 Agent P
Agent P's picture

I believe you'll find what you're looking for at Hooters, only you'll be a couple of months and a bad break up early. 

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 15:11 | 4932614 deflator
deflator's picture

 You know you have a noob when she agrees to let you pay her later :-)

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 15:34 | 4932734 Handful of Dust
Handful of Dust's picture

Sections of the 'public sector' irritatye me. Forexample, the post office. They should be licking customers' asses the rates they charge. Instead, I sometimes get a letter or package returned for some trivial reason, most likely the carrier did not want to get off their duff for a signature confirmation or leave one of those pink slips. For a 'median salary' of $75,000 a year they should shine peoples' shoes as they walk in the door!

In the prviate secotr about 10% of these people would be fired on Day 2.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:03 | 4932229 doctor10
doctor10's picture

.Gov employees make dure the deficit spending continues. They know their lifestyle depends upon it.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:07 | 4932260 _disengage_
_disengage_'s picture

Isn't the private sector also propped by the printing? Jamie's lifestyle is just as dependant as any gov employee no?

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:59 | 4932559 Panafrican Funk...
Panafrican Funktron Robot's picture

You are completely correct.  Fed policy + governmental rules/regs/enforcement actions are very, very beneficial to private firms that have invested in politicians.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:05 | 4932239 _disengage_
_disengage_'s picture

I also see little real difference between the public and private sectors. The difference is people with jobs and people that work. In both sectors we have (the majority of?) people shuffling numbers at a desk and expecting resources for no production.

What was the old saying... 'we are all just folding each other's laundry and pretending we are working.' Something like that. Or "we pretended to work, they pretended to pay us."

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:25 | 4932372 CheapBastard
CheapBastard's picture

What's left of the so-called 'private sector' is getting annihilated.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 15:26 | 4932687 kurt
kurt's picture

We frequent the "Amvets" thrift stores in our area and can attest to your observations. They are the only stores full of people. It's like people are exercising a hard to break, vestigal, shopping habit. If you go often, you are likely to find what you need at these stores for pennies on the dollar. Problem is the quality of goods is declining as the tsunami of housing collapse goods, as families barfed up their belongings, is getting more and more downscale. It's like the stuff has been donated before by some prior Amvets shopper.

What a pain in the ass are the savvy Ebay resellers. Their picking, and way of haunting the aisles and chasing the "fresh crap cart," as stuff is put on racks, is nausiating. Some aholes even run interference and gang circle picking stuff off the cart as it rolls. There are guys who stay there all day and have worked out ways of gaining the complicity of the staff. Now days the stuff is pre-picked and the good stuff gets put on their own Amvets Auction, which is good. Goodwill Industries is doing the same thing. 

Slowly, surely silver, turqoise, gold, gemstones disappear from these stores. The recyclers send the metal to China chasing the machines we sent earlier. Valuable goods vanish. Cheap chrome plated plastic crap remains.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 21:05 | 4933907 Tall Tom
Tall Tom's picture

Slowly, surely silver, turqoise, gold, gemstones disappear from these stores. The recyclers send the metal to China chasing the machines we sent earlier. Valuable goods vanish. Cheap chrome plated plastic crap remains.

 

I am not in China. I am in the USA...in Lakeside, CA.

 

I take delivery of my refined Gold and Silver.

 

As for the eBayers...Good for them. That is the Free Market at work.

 

Instead of whining why don't you compete? You want wealth handed to you on a Silver Platter and fed to you with a Gold Spoon?

 

Shit. Why am I even bothering?

 

"It...it...it is just so unfair!!!"

 

Save it for later.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:45 | 4932142 Ying-Yang
Ying-Yang's picture

Does it seem crotchety to dwell on appearances?

Yeah pretty much

I'm guessing your parents and mine said the same about us back in day...

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:05 | 4932240 chunga
chunga's picture

bell bottoms?

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:12 | 4932297 TuPhat
TuPhat's picture

No, Ying-Yang.  Back in the day my parents said the same thing about the dress of teenagers that they thought were thugs, not Adults.  It is much worse now.  Is it just an appearance?  People dress a certain way because of the impression they want to make.  If they dress like clownish thugs its because they want to give the impression that they are clownish thugs.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:49 | 4932146 SgtSchultz
SgtSchultz's picture

Frightening "man on the street" interviews by the likes of Jesse Watter's or Jay Leno only solidfy the case that too many have checked out of the task of participating in their own society.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:46 | 4932147 q99x2
q99x2's picture

Time for Kerry's dime bags to be reduced to a nickel.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:46 | 4932148 QQQBall
QQQBall's picture

 

hence the surge in calf tats. Only par tof the leg visible with those weird long chorts.

 

Why go fat ugly women get tatoos that draw attention to tiier fat sloppy shoulder blades and sloshy boobs? Time would be better spent at the gym or just walking.

 

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:58 | 4932201 Postal
Postal's picture

Haven't you heard? We're just suppose to "accept her the way she is."

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:12 | 4932295 dogbreath
dogbreath's picture

but they make her "Fabulous"

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 21:31 | 4934008 Tall Tom
Tall Tom's picture

Women who get tattoos are just clownish freaks whom are only suitable for the circus.

 

It is becoming a freak parade. Tattoos do not enhance any inherent beauty but exacerbate the ugliness inside as an outward manifestation.

 

Tattoos on a woman are not attractive in the least. They are repulsive to most men. That is the "Red Light District" garbage walking through the Wal Marts of America.

 

(Now some "men" will fuck whores. But those that do are actually boys, the Adult Children to whom the author of this article refers. But most men will not and stay away from those beasts.)

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:47 | 4932152 Ignorance is bliss
Ignorance is bliss's picture

Who cares about the real economy, when you can get free porn on your smart phone. /sarc off

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:47 | 4932154 Big Corked Boots
Big Corked Boots's picture

I see Kunstler's wiggers everywhere. (Yes, I said that.) I think it has become part of the Cloward-Piven plan:

1. Make everyone look unemployable.

2. Uneducate them so they really are unemployable.

3. Export all jobs or automate the ones that remain.

4. Make 'em join the FSA.

5. Affirmation of the plan on Election Day.

 

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 21:51 | 4934074 Yes_Questions
Yes_Questions's picture

 

 

Wiggers?!!??

 

What about Wonkys?!!?

 

We've had just about enough of those fucking people parading around as white-uptight assholes!!  

 

Jeez, if ever there was a group not to emulate.

 

 

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:48 | 4932157 Son of Loki
Son of Loki's picture

The "real economy" is peeples forced to get a second job to pay for increased property taxes, food prices, insurance of all sorts [including the Unaffordable Careless Act], gas prices, etc ... as wages stagnant and competition from foreigners at the blue collar level [Hispanics] and the higher IT levels [Inn-Dee-anns] force wages even lower.

 

Globalization is in Full Bloom and getting Bloomier!

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:49 | 4932165 NoWayJose
NoWayJose's picture

Just hang on until the Barbarians come and end the fraud.  Then wait 10 centuries and things will be back to normal.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:51 | 4932168 drink or die
drink or die's picture

I like to make fun of modern "styles" of trashy people as much as anyone, but this article is 90% an old guy being bitter.  He shoulda just said "kids these days" or "get off my lawn", and then moved on to an actual point.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:59 | 4932197 Quus Ant
Quus Ant's picture

I dunno, I find articles like this fascinating.  Not as fascinating as obtuse financial articles with charts charts charts, but still. Fascinating. Is society careening off the rails or are we getting old and bitter?  Society has always been melting down.  Or melting up.

I appreciate the humor- need more of it.  The spectacle isn't just terrifying. It's hilarious and should be sent up on every occasion.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:51 | 4932520 Liquid Courage
Liquid Courage's picture

For yourself and Ying Yang above, here are six phrases from the article that indicate that he is NOT talking about "kids" or "teenagers":

instantly transforming a normally-proportioned adult male into a stock slapstick character: the oafish man-child.

It was a big crowd, and every male in it was dressed in a clown rig.

You can see, perhaps, how it works against everything that might suggest the phrase: “competent adult here.”

I give you: America’s young manhood.

In such a situation, wouldn’t a person benefit from presenting himself as child-like,

Down in Brooklyn, a world away, the young men go about in their hipster uniforms: Pee Wee Herman cut casuals. They’re still role-playing “the smart kid in the class” even though they’ve been out of class for a decade.

And still, somehow you and YY managed to totally miss his "actual point".

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 16:04 | 4932869 drink or die
drink or die's picture

I think you missed the point, he is talking about the generation previous to his.  Every generation always bitches about the generation that follows them (even though said generation is a direct result of the older generation).  This amounts to an old crochety man bitching about young people, hence "get off my lawn".

 

I dislike hipsters and people that sag their pants as much as the next guy, but I don't equate it with the downfall of society or the terrible economy.

 

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 19:00 | 4933512 cougar_w
cougar_w's picture

Go ahead and equate.

That -- or be taken by surprise.

You don't get many warnings but when you do the warnings will look like something stupid just happened. If you were expecting four actual horsemen to ride out of the East on pillars of fire then I politely suggest you modify your search image a bit.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:51 | 4932170 DOT
DOT's picture

Less is more!

http://finance.yahoo.com/video/return-retail-investor-165200852.html

 

 

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:52 | 4932178 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

"Never has a society entered an epochal transition with such unpreparedness."

That is the maddest and saddest part: The American people have no idea the shit storm that is about to envelope them and are completely unprepared, financially, physically and mentally, for it—like a rowboat on the open sea.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:00 | 4932212 Scoobywan
Scoobywan's picture

I don't have to be faster than the Lion, just faster than you...

Thats what I think of in regards to 80 percent of the people I have met.

 

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 15:01 | 4932569 kurt
kurt's picture

Saggen' and Baggin' holding their 64 oz. Slurpie, they'll be easy to catch and fed to your guillotine! I wonder if they'll use "gang sign" sign language to scream, "Please, no! Don't kill me an shit."

 

CHOP GOES THE WEASEL!

Tue, 07/08/2014 - 01:08 | 4934244 Tall Tom
Tall Tom's picture

Now where did I put my guillotine, damn it?

 

Oh shit. I just have too much crap in this clutter box of a Human Storage unit.

 

Ahhhh...There it is. I feel much better now.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 19:07 | 4933526 Crawdaddy
Crawdaddy's picture

Agreed kc. Be mentally prepared if the tornadic shitstorm we see is percieved as a simple cloudy day by most everyone else because that is the unfortunate but likely outcome.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:55 | 4932184 blindman
blindman's picture

someone told me the message in the droopy pants
fashion is 'the pants come down easy', apparently a
street and prison
meme. similar to the suit and tie
meme of business and the media which states 'if you have
a decent grip you can choke me to death in a minute'.
.
fashion. don't even mention the high heel and what
that says. I have had enough of it ......

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:18 | 4932334 blindman
blindman's picture

speaking of rat holes, toilets, economics and such ....
The Century of the Self
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-century-of-the-self/

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:55 | 4932186 Scoobywan
Scoobywan's picture

200 miles north of NYC is fly-over country?

I'm no geography major.....

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:03 | 4932193 undercover brother
undercover brother's picture

dear writer, you need to chill out.  in the new epoch you write about they will all be drafted and likely killed in action. To wit, no worries, all good, end of story.   And sadly, when there are no more americans to wear the clown shorts, they will simply be shipped to 3rd world countries in aide packages, so you will never truly escape them.  

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:57 | 4932194 blindman
blindman's picture

Century of Enslavement: The History of The Federal Reserve
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IJeemTQ7Vk

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 13:57 | 4932196 novictim
novictim's picture

OMG...that was hilarious.  This truthy spiel works in the way only something both TRUE and HORRIBLE can.

 

 

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:01 | 4932216 Dublinmick
Dublinmick's picture

Pants these days look like somebody is expecting a flood.

This is more than a fad, it is fluoride, GMO, vaccines, teflon and aluminum cookware etc etc. destroying the human brain.

Aspartame destroys the pancreas which in turn leads to massive weight gain. How many 400 pounders have you seen walking out of grocery store with a case of aspartame coke under their arms?

I am pretty sure Jack Flash is right also about increased methane in the atmosphere and oxygen starvation helping out with zombie nation.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:02 | 4932220 starman
starman's picture

Dont be so negative! 

30 year mortgage 84 month auto finance 24.99%

"USA is Great" t Mastercard and zee life is  beautiful!

If you can afford it.

 

 

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:02 | 4932222 silverserfer
silverserfer's picture

the flip side of this article is that baggy "board shorts" that have been popular by surfers has spared many people from having to look at hairy middle aged men wearing speedos and short shorts. Move to Spain it you want to walk around and show off your junk on the beach. You'll fit right in.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 19:03 | 4933517 robertocarlos
robertocarlos's picture

Mine have to have a 10 inch inseam.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:03 | 4932224 youngman
youngman's picture

I dont know if its just a generational thing..but as I look at youth today....I think they are screwed up bigtime...life on a cellphone is no life to me...

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:05 | 4932242 SmittyinLA
SmittyinLA's picture

Socialist criminal invasion is a real economy with real debt, real growth and real ethnic cleansing.

 

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:04 | 4932245 konputa
konputa's picture

I saw one of these tools walking through a Home Depot parking lot this week with his pants waistband around his knees.  I laugh at the thought of these degenerate self loathing meat bags attempting to run from danger.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:34 | 4932436 buzzsaw99
buzzsaw99's picture

...I laugh at the thought of these degenerate self loathing meat bags attempting to run from danger.

or the cops. so, so, funny

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:40 | 4932469 konputa
konputa's picture

Bingo.

 

I notice facial tats are becoming more common as well. It seems we have a growing group that don't plan to work. Ever.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 20:24 | 4933753 samsara
samsara's picture

Ultra good for scanners, they can catch just about any body part on a couple frames and the have a solid hit.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:08 | 4932268 Dublinmick
Dublinmick's picture

I have never owned a cellphone. By the time parents and kids find out just what they do to the brain and changes in DNA, it is already too late they are brain damaged. The younger they start the worse the consequences.

I have never had a call so important it couldn't wait until I got back to the house.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:12 | 4932285 ThroxxOfVron
ThroxxOfVron's picture

Did You just admit to wasting his time arguing with the manager at Dick's about the swim suit inventory instead of going to a reputable clothing merchant?  WTF?

You are at a Mall -and You go shopping for clothes -clothes of any kind ...at Dick's?  

WHY would You do that?  That shit is designed for tail-gating and bbqs: it's meant to be destroyed by drunken louts; -grass stains, spilled beer and dribbled ketchup/bbq sause, etc...are what You don't want on your izod and dockers.

I'm not even gonna touch the hangin' out in a public park checking tattoo'd young men admission...

-You're on your own Jimbo...

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 16:18 | 4932912 Urban Redneck
Urban Redneck's picture

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gbv=2&tbs=itp:photo,ic:color,isz:m&t...

The fattest heffers looks like Oprah- a dumb 'murkin bitch who doesn't understand that if you want service in an upscale establishment, you should DRESS APPROPRIATELY to go shopping (and ask your MAN to escort you if you're a woman in Switzerland).

BTW - the water in Switzerland SUCKS, so one can't blame the difference on something in the water... and 20% of the population are first-generation immigrants... so the "People of Walmart" look is probably not the wetbacks' fault either.

Tue, 07/08/2014 - 02:32 | 4934541 tumblemore
tumblemore's picture

"BTW - the water in Switzerland SUCKS, so one can't blame the difference on something in the water... and 20% of the population are first-generation immigrants... so the "People of Walmart" look is probably not the wetbacks' fault either."

 

1) It's not the water, it's fructose in everything.

 

2) People lose weight at high altitude: Colorado Walmart == Switzerland Wallmart.

Tue, 07/08/2014 - 03:26 | 4934579 Urban Redneck
Urban Redneck's picture

1) Switzerland has too much HFCS and other artificial sweeteners, just like everywhere else. https://secure.coca-cola.ch/content/ch/corporate/de/medienmitteilungen.a...

2) Most of Switzerland is not high altitude. My house in Zurich is actually at the same elevation (+/-100m) as my house in SW Virginia, yet it is only the surrounding land in Virginia that is plagued by an infestation of land whales.

3) There are no Walmarts in Switzerland.

Tue, 07/08/2014 - 06:57 | 4934701 Tall Tom
Tall Tom's picture

 

 

 

 

People lose weight at high altitude: Colorado Walmart == Switzerland Wallmart.

 

 

 

You are so full of shit...

 

Not in my experience.

 

Northern AZ University is at 7000 feet. Back in the late Seventies and Early Eighties those coeds looked mighty fine and trim...those snowbunnies...at the beginning of the School Year.

 

But by the end of their first semester they gained at least 15 Pounds underneath their clothing.

 

You eat to stay warm. You find out that fat is a damn good insulator.  

 

And they used their Meal Tickets and pigged out at the Campus Cafeterias.

 

Most transformed into fat hefers alrighty...fuckin' fat hefers.

 

You are dreaming, pal. You have not EVER lived in Cold Country. Look at those Russian women.

 

Now at Arizona Stae University...in the Desert...where it was WARM...those coeds stayed nice and trim.

 

So you make up bullshit and publish it???

 

LMAO.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 16:25 | 4932947 lakecity55
lakecity55's picture

fatblackchicks.com

 

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 16:33 | 4932958 deflator
deflator's picture

Apparently, "why I don't know" fatblackchicks.com isn't getting any bidders--whowouldathunkit? https://www.google.com/#q=fatblackchicks.com 

 

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:12 | 4932294 novictim
novictim's picture

And the most "funny" part is our plight  as a nation is that we don't truthfully talk about how we got to this sorry state of affairs or what ideology authored this decline and abjection and degradation.  

We got here by deliberate steps that enriched a number of sociopaths all of whom were wearing clean suits and sported the appearance of "Family Values". 

Yep, it's gut wrenching funny!

Like that experiment with rats where the vermin were kept in dark cramped, miserable conditions and then were offered either food or morphine.

Turns out that morphine was never the choice when the rats were given clean and enjoyable living conditions.

  We never hear about that part.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:15 | 4932315 antidisestablis...
antidisestablishmentarianismishness's picture

Dude hit a raw nerve with the ZH plumber's crack crowd.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 19:02 | 4933516 cougar_w
cougar_w's picture

LOL!

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:17 | 4932325 Dublinmick
Dublinmick's picture

I really don't understand the new fad of having your pants so low the crack of your ass and the pimple rash is showing.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:20 | 4932328 joego1
joego1's picture

I always wanted to slap one of these guys with the clown pants  and then dance around them and see them fall on their face trying to get to me.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 23:23 | 4934296 Tall Tom
Tall Tom's picture

I think that is why they travel in packs and are armed with guns.

 

Hopefully you will have your Concealed with you so that when they pull theirs then you can shoot them.

 

Otherwise, pal, you have a death wish.

 

Suicide by Gangbanger???

 

Not a good option. Why involve others in your self destruction?

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:20 | 4932345 yogibear
yogibear's picture

Point the criminals in the direction of the shining beacons of Wall Street. Like the Hamptons and Manhattan. Plenty of money there. 

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:22 | 4932352 astoriajoe
astoriajoe's picture

I defense of my hipstery neighbors in Brooklyn, many are trying to reinvigorate their economic standing by embracing certain craft trades of old. welding, woodworking, brewing and textile manufacturing is helping to employ people to a degree. Sure the prices of their products mean that those in the bankster class are the ones that can really afford the goods... but its something, and in the right direction. 

 

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 23:33 | 4934326 Tall Tom
Tall Tom's picture

Elon Musk is building his Falcon 9 Rockets much cheaper than Lockheed or Boeing.

 

They are the state of the art. They are so damned cheap that Russia and China are envious because they cannot do it.

 

He is using American Labor and American Factories to do it.

 

If only the Bankster class can afford the products then either the materials costs are too expensive (which means that they need to shut down as the business model is flawed and unsustainable) or your friends are greedy bastards and charge too much.

 

Do not bullshit me about the "Labor Costs".

 

BTW...THIS IS NOT ABOUT THE PIECE OF SHIT TESLA. The Falcon 9 actually works.

 

You cannot be successful at everything.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 14:21 | 4932354 Zog the Bastiat
Zog the Bastiat's picture

I've read and loved ZH for years, but this article is somewhere in between the toilet and a rat hole.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 20:18 | 4933001 deflator
deflator's picture

The "information" in the article should be flushed down the toilet or is telling the truth like throwing information down a rat hole?

 

 When I read the title of the article, 

"The Real Economy Is Somewhere Between The Toilet & A Rat Hole"

 I immediately thought of money either being flushed down a toilet or being thrown down a rat hole.

 We can't decide--either way, what is the difference?

 

 Meh? I decide to sleep on the side of the bed that is on the drafty exterior wall away from both the annoying rats and smelly plumbing. I like fresh air, I can deal with being, "out in the cold".

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 19:08 | 4933529 cougar_w
cougar_w's picture

Tyler trots out JHK every Monday just for the lulz.

To be fair, it's hard to write every week like that. You run out of ideas and sometimes you just run out of energy and time. But JHK has to come up with something every Monday, so you get whatever was easy.

Now myself of course I always rock hard. Try some of this:

http://fedtoatiger.blogspot.com/

Or if you are into the classics, something more olde skool:

http://madscienceunlimited.com/fiction/

I've nothing new lately; new job and other projects eating into my time. For new you have JHK.

For excessive violence, gratuitous nudity, and a lethal dose of insanity -- I got your back.

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 22:40 | 4934179 MsCreant
MsCreant's picture

Kunstler is a flawed human. Whatever. He is on the money with The Long Emergency. We are in it, and it ain't to win it. Like an annoying friend who you have known for years, I don't need to agree with some of his more closed minded stuff to see that he, generally, has good observations. The energy problem is real. The clusterfuck is real. I stumbled on him by accident (End of Suburbia) and it changed everything for me. I probably would have never made it over here to bitch and moan, because I would have never known to question the economy in the ways that I do now. I did question the housing bubble, but it was this deep dark secret I was harboring, everyone was telling me it could only go up, but that did not seem logical. Meanwhile I was right, my instincts were good. I got out of the market because of folks like Kunstler. I did not take the 40% haircut everyone else did when it crashed in 2007/8. I got out in 2006. I was worried because of this guy in 2004-5. We were just early, that's all.

We are grinding right into it.  There is no redemption. 

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!