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You Want a Solution? Try Not to Get Hurt When It Collapses, Then Start Over
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
Once the deadwood piles high enough, the random lightning strike ignites a fire so fast-moving and so hot that it cannot be suppressed, and the entire financial system burns to the ground.
In discussing our broken healthcare system with a 22-year college graduate, I opined that Obamacare hadn't fixed anything that was broken. She observed that real reform was impossible due to vested interests and the only real solution was to "start over."
Exactly.
People constantly ask me for solutions to our all-too visible ills. You want solutions? Here's the solution for every systemic, structural problem we face: Avoid getting hurt when it collapses, then start over.
Over the nine years I've been writing this blog, I've offered dozens of systemic solutions, and have reprinted dozens more submitted by readers. For example:
Boomers, Prepare to Fall on Your Swords (June 2005)
The "Impossible" Healthcare Solution: Go Back to Cash (July 29, 2009)
Want to Reduce Income/Wealth Inequality? Abolish the Engine of Inequality, the Federal Reserve (January 28, 2014)
Nobody likes these solutions because they disrupt everyone's place at the feeding trough. People get deeply offended when their place at the trough and their complicity in a corrupt, inefficient, wasteful, fraudulent and unsustainable system are challenged.
And furthermore, all these solutions are impossible.
As a result, my work draws untold numbers of negative and derogatory comments and commentaries, "Charles is f**king crazy" being one of the kinder ones.
A relative handful of insiders who refuse to drink their institution's KoolAid are courageous enough to call it like it is, and these few confirm that the key sectors and institutions of our society and economy are hopelessly corrupt, inefficient, wasteful, fraudulent and unsustainable.
Healthcare: broken. Medicare: broke and broken. Higher education: broken.Welfare: broken. Corporate subsidies/welfare: broken. Taxation: broken. War on drugs: broken. The legal system (tort, criminal justice, patents, etc. etc. etc.): broken. Defense procurement: broken. National security state (to anyone who's glanced at the U.S. Constitution): broken. The Imperial Presidency: broken. Congress (i.e. lobbyists and campaign contributions): broken. The financial system: broken.
Do I have to go on? Every major system is fundamentally broken, yet we persist in claiming it isn't broken and only needs a few policy tweaks because our self-interest is served by keeping our place at the feeding trough intact, never mind the consequences.
We're collectively horrified and frightened by the notion that the whole travesty of a mockery of a sham is precariously perched on a financial house of cards and so we desperately attempt to marginalize the informed critics, whistleblowers and truth-tellers.
So let me ask you one question: did silencing the informed critic ever solve any fundamental problem? The answer is no: the only possible way to avoid collapse is to listen to the informed critics and whistleblowers. This is a scale-invariant truth: it's the same for marriages, families, communities, enterprises, institutions, nations and empires.
I welcome informed criticism, because we learn from failure and fair criticism. I receive thousands of emails every year and do my best to read each one and respond to as many as my over-scheduled workload allows (alas, very few).
The critiques I've received fall into a few camps:
1. The Complexity Excuse: All large complex bureaucracies are inefficient, wasteful and corrupted by vested interests and powerful constituencies--it's the nature of the organization. As a result, there's nothing to be done; real reform is impossible. The rules will always be complex and therefore open to being gamed by insiders and monied Elites.
The implicit conclusion: we are powerless, so let go of all ideas of reform. Just enjoy your life and quit tilting at windmills.
Fine, but let's not forget that whatever is unsustainable will collapse and vanish from this Earth. To say that large centralized bureaucracies are intrinsically inefficient, wasteful and corrupt suggests an obvious solution: the only real solution is to get rid of all centralized bureaucracies entirely.
That is of course "impossible" until the financial firestorm burns down the forest loaded with deadwood, and suddenly all sorts of things that were "impossible" are not just possible but painfully obvious.
2. The Self-Serving Excuse: This is the best possible system, given the alternatives.Those toiling inside these institutions are naturally drawn to defend them as the "best possible system" because to question their role in a broken system is to question their identity, security, self-image as a good person and their role in perpetuating a broken system.
As immortalized by the insider's insider, Larry Summers: Insiders also understand one unbreakable rule: They don’t criticize other insiders.
Larry Summers to Elizabeth Warren in 2009: “Insiders Don’t Criticize Other Insiders”(Liberty Blitzkrieg)
What is so incredible about the quote above is that it essentially proves correct everything I and many others have been saying about how “things work” in America these days. The statements above describe a petty, childish oligarchy of arrogant fools. This small club of people call all the shots and do not listen to “outside” ideas whatsoever. This is why nothing changes. This is why the same people are recycled through positions of power over and over again no matter how badly they screw up and how many millions of lives they ruin. This is why there is a two-tiered justice system in which the rich and connected never go to jail, while the average citizen can have his home raided by police for a parody Twitter account. This is why the 0.01% have been able to loot all of the nation’s wealth while median inflation adjusted wages have been declining for 40 years.
The reason is because the “status quo” in America consists of a deranged, immoral, arrogant, selfish fraternity of inept children who protect each other at the expense of everyone and everything else. Until the status quo gets the boot, this nation will continue to decline. Forget reforms, the entire status quo needs to be tossed aside once and for all. The insiders must be turned into outsiders.
3. The same Elites have been running the country for X number of years. This is a variation on the Complexity Excuse and it leads to the same implicit conclusion: we are powerless, so let go of all ideas of reform. Just enjoy your life and quit tilting at windmills.
You want solutions, but you don't want anything to actually change? Sorry, you can't have it both ways. Let's jettison all the distracting complexity--the 2,000-page laws, the 40,000-page tax code (or is it 80,000 pages? Does it really matter beyond 1,000 pages?), the arcane financial games that keep the whole fraud afloat (Quantitative Easing, reverse repos, credit default swaps, shadow banking, rehypothecation, etc.)--and distill the choices down to their essence:
1. Embrace your place at the feeding trough of the Status Quo and put your faith in its sustainability, regardless of its inevitable warts. Denounce critics and defend the Status Quo with some variation of the three primary justifications/excuses.
2. Position yourself to avoid getting hurt when the unsustainable mess collapses in a heap of financial over-reach and fraud.
Interestingly, nobody actually believes a few policy tweaks will reform/fix what's broken. Virtually none of the thousands of emails I receive present a few policy tweaks as credible "fixes."
We all know the system is broken and the proposed policy tweaks aren't fixing anything, but human nature being what it is, we hope our place at the feeding trough will somehow survive unscathed as the financially unsustainable house of cards collapses around us.
In essence, we all know the system is broken and can't be reformed, but we play along with the illusion out of self-interest.
There is a peculiar self-referential quality to our predicament. The only way to enable meaningful reform is to listen closely to informed critics, whistleblowers and truth-tellers.
But we choose to crucify whistleblowers, mock and denigrate informed critics and marginalize/demonize truth-tellers as threats to our place at the feeding trough.
So meaningful reform is impossible--even if vested interests woke up to the fact that their favored place at the trough is precarious.
This entire dynamic has been articulately laid out by Thomas Homer-Dixon in his seminal book The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization: I highly recommend this work and another long-view book that illuminates the dynamics of our impending financial implosion, The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History by David Hackett Fischer.
You want solutions? Just do nothing, and the whole rotten financial contraption will collapse, very likely within the next decade. I prefer the analogy of the forest fire:The Yellowstone Analogy and The Crisis of Neoliberal Capitalism (May 18, 2009).
Vested interests are threatened by the losses generated by small financial fires, so these are systemically suppressed. As a result, the fallen deadwood piles ever higher, creating more fuel for the next random lightning strike to ignite.
Once the deadwood piles high enough, the random lightning strike ignites a fire so fast-moving and so hot that it cannot be suppressed, and the entire financial system burns to the ground.
So go ahead and keep defending the Status Quo as the best system possible, or believe Elites will keep suppressing fires forever because they're so powerful, or whatever excuse, rationalization or justification you prefer. It won't matter, because the firestorm won't respond to words, beliefs, ideological certainties, reassurances or official pronouncements. It will do what fires do, which is burn all available fuel until there's no fuel left to consume.
As I noted last week in A Reader Asks: How to Find Shelter from the Coming Storms?,Centralized systems such as governments and global corporations are either bankrupt and don't yet know it or are bankrupt and are well aware of it but loathe to let the rest of the world catch on.
If you want to believe this is the best possible system and it's sustainable, be my guest.
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In the sweet old country where I come from
Nobody ever works
Yeah nothing gets done
Welcome to the single payer communist solution.....don't tell anyone.....it's a secret.
Someone should right an article on how to exit 401k (or convert it to something minimizing crash risk) without getting fucked.
Pretty easy to exit a 401k, assuming you've already separated from the employer. You roll it over into a self directed IRA. Then you can either buy the paper that allows you to hedge accordingly, or roll that over into a gold IRA.
My opinion, just take the hit and get the money out of the system, and do whatever you want with it. Hide it under the bed, in metallic form.
Silver, gold and Bitcoin, Bitchez... with some lead just in case.
Oh, and good neighbors!
I did exactly that. rolled it into a self-dir IRA, then went to segregated vault storage, and finally the fuck it moment of take the hit and hold it in my hands.
I took the hit and closed all of my so-called retirement accounts about two years ago. Nothing left in the system for the sociopaths to steal. Sadly, I can't physically move my real estate, so I'm still a tax donkey in that respect. :-(
I have found that it's tough to convince retirement age people (even the smart ones with strong self-managed portfolios) that they should take the hit.
You can create an IRA LLC and roll over your paper into G or S Eagles at home for no penalty.
Go on.. moar details please.
I would also like to know
Or, invest in a crowbar, knowing that others have hidden their stash under the bed in metallic form.
Chaz should modify this diatribe and replace the word "broken" with the word "scam".
Makes more sense, and portrays which scam lasts longest.
Unfortunately, the line is gray between organized crime and organized government.
I think Charles tries very hard to be non-flamboyant.
But at some point, that becomes dull and even compliant.
Cash out. Tell the IRS that as soon as they recover Louis Lerner's emails, I'll pay the penalty.
Just get fucked, assuming it doesn't nuke matching funds.
Best decision I ever made was nuking my IRAs back in '08 and moving them to PMs. Covered the penalty in under a year.
Sometimes there is no perfect solution, I agree- cut the loss and ultimately self direct- 401-457's etc. were carefully laid out as a cynical trap, not as a benefit to the investor as they were sold.
Capital controls will decree all visible property becomes that of the collective.
They will be forced at some point to move on any fruit they can plunder; it's nothing personal, simple math dictates it and the next level of theft will be widely supported by the same folks who demanded freeeee health care.
Any asset on the radar will be taken, or taxed to death.
Bank accts,401k's are all fair game for them.After all,its their money,they
created it from nothing,and are merely letting you play with it until they want it back.
SoP for all bankrupt Govt's only interested in their own survival.
Get of the radar or get hurt.Its as simple as that.
Agreed.
I'm stuck with my 401-K, and I assume that other readers are in the same boat as me. My plan won't allow us to cash out the 401-K until termination of employment. I'm just trying to figure out how to allocate investments to minimize loss/maximize potential earnings, knowing full well that I'm participating in a sheep shearing excercise---the sheep being me. I get matching funds from my company up to 3% for the 401-K contribution, so I look at like a wash---for now.
My idea is this; Diversify out of the USD wherever possible. Focus of funds that don't invest in companies that have unrealistic P/E's that actually make something. Try to find something affiliated with Gazprom because they'll have Europe on a leash for decades to come. Try to find a fund in robotics that will replace low-skilled labor.
I know that the federal government will raid whatever speculative investment I have at some point in the future.
Caveat: I am buying physical silver on my own on the side, own a small acreage, have a year's worth of long term storage food, half a year of mortgage payments, plenty of weapons & ammo (and plenty of experience/training on how to use them), my own water well, a garden, small livestock, and pressure can produce.
yes, but the difficult part for most peole in the decision making process is deciding when that point of confiscation might come along. They ask themselves, do I take a 30%-50% hit on all my money right now in anticipation of a confiscation, or do I let it keep running up tax deferred and maybe try to get out later after it's built up some more (and as you point out, with free money from matching contributions).
Oh yes, continue to take the 'free' fiat. Yup. Stay in and time your escape.
How's that saying go?
"Pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered."
Best way to get out of a trap (401K) is to never get into one in the first place. Once you're inside though, it's a trap. The only way out: is by leaving a "pound of flesh" stuck to the barbed wire fence that you have to crawl through.
Freedom of any kind, always comes with a price.
Anywhere in Europe and most of the word actually you'll get hits for full tax on any withdrawals. It's a problem I face.
Hard part is finding a path where you can avoid danger. It is painfully clear that this thing is going to go boom at some point but when? Probably after the masses realize they are getting screwed by their own entitlements.
..People need to come to grips with the truth that for the bulk of society there is no safe passage from the coming storm, after all, this program like many other bureaucratic nightmares was designed on the popular corn field maze model.
.."All government, in its essence, is a conspiracy against the superior man: its one permanent object is to oppress him and cripple him. If it be aristocratic in organization, then it seeks to protect the man who is superior only in law against the man who is superior in fact; if it be democratic, then it seeks to protect the man who is inferior in every way against both.
One of its primary functions is to regiment men by force, to make them as much alike as possible and as dependent upon one another as possible, to search out and combat originality among them.
All it can see in an original idea is potential change, and hence an invasion of its prerogatives".. Henry Mencken.
I suffered the awakening late in life, once I started viewing the world in a new perspective I realized the "savings program" they were pushing based on a mirage of potential tax shifting into a later lower rate in an economy fueled by increasing endless debt was just another honey trap being assembled for a future harvest..(run on much?)
sorry.
My advise today is take the money and run while you can still claim part ownership.
...and, take the money if one believes the taxes and penalties will never be smaller in future. Because by design, they will be much larger.
My tactic has been, for many years, withdraw/convert to Roth in lean years, when the tax hit is minimal. Then, enjoy the subsidy of tax free accumulation by allocating the Roth to PM's, to be liquidated shortly after the lightening strike, but just before smoke is smelled.
Charles left out "the stock market" in his list of things that are broken.
WhoooHoo! All in!
Elysium world, baby!!!
Which country are you referring to?
Got my own way of praying, where everything gets done.
I see the smaller restaurants closing and the larger ones opening.
With food prices marching upwards it's getting tougher to justify eating out. Chipolte charges a lot for a burrito.
You can easily feed your self for a week at home for the price of a restaurant dinner (remember all the taxes and regulations your money has to pay for at a restaurant).
Depends. I live in the cheapest part of the country and have access to a lot of high quality food via farmer's markets, gardens, etc. Good quality food isn't cheap. Chicken is only $2/lb, so that's not going to break the bank. However, if you want to stray from there, then you're going to pay out the nose (fish, beef, and pork to a lesser extent). Brown rice, sweet potatoes, and oatmeal aren't too bad, but fruit is relatively expensive, as are dairy products. Hell, wally world wants $1.79/pop for a single non-green bell pepper ($.79 for green), ~$1.35/pop for avacados... Don't look at honeycrisp apples or you'll faint.
What I've found is that some restaurants have terrible pricing strategies and are in denial. Some of them are actually just eating all the margin compression (mexican/chinese food mostly). I can go to some restaurants and get a very decent meal on special for $5 flat + tax or $6.50 not on special. It just depends. But I think the vast majority have skimped on quality components and portions and/or have raised prices, but now the charade has gone on so long, many have no choice but to raise prices... there is no more cutting quality or quantity... At any rate, for $5 out the door for a meal someone else cooks, it's tough to beat that yourself on price alone... if you try, you can beat on quality/nourishment, but if you're inclined to research, there are probably plenty of local restaurants throwing out low cost leaders just to get folks through the door... then they hope you buy a soda they'll charge $2/pop for, but that's why you order water (aside from the fact you probably shouldn't be drinking that bullshit anyway). The larger chain restaurants are generally much better at pricing, so you're less likely to get a deal there.
However, there is no possible way I could feed myself for a week with $15 (avg. single meal @ restaurant) and get a wide array of high quality fats, proteins, and carbs...
You Want a Better Solution? Try Not to Get Hurt or Sick While It Collapses, Start Over Now
Food is only increasing in cost when measured in fiat currency. It still takes the same amount of time to butcher a chicken, plant a row of onions, or milk the cow.
I am finished eating at national chain restaurants. I like to give my capital at least some small chance of staying in my community.
Home grown beef, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and herbs, plus some store-bought pasta and a couple of glasses of cold raw milk from our family cow makes a cheap, easy, healthy, and nutritious meal.
Even more important is the time spent together as a family raising food, preparing meals, and serving one another at meal time, and taking the time to give thanks. It is another way we fight entitlement syndrome in our family.
Are you really concerned about healthcare being broken? Then let them eat cake. You eat well and go for a run 3-4 times per week.
I gave up on our so-called "leaders" or "representatives" when I finally realized that I don't want to go where any of them are "leading" us, and they don't "represent" any of my interests.
I believe that disintermediation is a good tactic, now, and going forward. Don't wait until, "...it collapses then start over." You may find yourself waiting for tomorrow all of your life. Start over today.
Last time I ate at McDonalds a family of beavers tried to chew my legs off and drag me to their lodge when I left.
Got home and was shaking termites out of my ears.
I could. I skimp on that only by trading off work-hours as wages into having some fast food so I have more time to myself.
By all means I can go with pasta & chicken every day to work & bring my week food cost to $15 including a healthy broccoli serving every day.
How do you block a punch from someone much stronger than you? You don't. You get out the way and let it happen.
Unstoppable force vs immovable object how did knights charging at each other stop lances? They didn't their armour was designed to deflect the point to the side.
The lesson is simple and clear. You don't stop large forces, you make sure you are not in their direct path.
You need only look at what happens to Tea Party candidates in order to know that 'fixing' anything in Congress is impossible. Prep now, keep your head down, and wait for the other side.
The termites long infesting 'Tha house of Representin' have eaten away the structure to the core....only way to fix such a structure is to tear it down and burn the rubble.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxBsv-ng7YU
NWO illuminati Insider IMF Christine Lagarde Reveals Cabal Event Date of July 20Is this conspiracy theory or could there really be a major 'reset' amongst currencies in July 2014? New currency? China appreciating and USD depreciating?.....
We know very well that all speeches are prepared in advance and are carefully vetted...so what the hell is she talking about?
She also has another World Economic Forum speech with Bloomberg reporter which is online talking a lot about a 'reset'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVsGzIYmquc
Can we expect a major adjustment among currency pricings on 20 July or even 27 July?
Could banks be shut down for an extended period? I doubt, because banks are nationalistic and onshore so how could ALL banks be closed globally?
I refuse to believe anything but at the same time, head of IMF cannot be talking gibberish? So, what is she talking about?
How will the collapse happen and what will be the implications?
Is she really passing a message because this speech is from Jan 2014 and she says G7 which indicates she knew about Russia's coming expulsion from the G-8 in May/June 2014 due to Ukraine crisis.....that is just too much to get your head around....
Any responses are appreciated to have a good debate/understanding amongst all of us.
post legard's farakan like numerological breakdown- i find it odd that "end the fed" eu chapter protests are scheduald for the 19th.
The end must really be near. In Egypt, the press there is actually cheering for the Israeli's as they hammer away at HAMAS/Muslim Brotherhood. If this is not a sign that something is going crazy, I am not sure what is.
http://tinyurl.com/kh4dbjm
Israelis them selves are setting up Viewing-Lounges on the hills overlooking Gaza to watch the "Fireworks" like it's 4th of July, cheering with every Flash.
And the Saudis are openly working with the Israelis against Iran.
Whoda thunk?
I don't think you can find a SINGLE example in the Entire History, that shows a successful Reform of a Dysfunctional System .. before a total collapse. All Reforms (if any) came after the Reset.
Some of the reformers are fine folks, but they utterly waste their efforts.
Better to forsake the system and start building better. But not later - NOW.
That's an impossible standard... I think virtually every system could be classified as dysfunctional. Systems are always being changed (reformed). It's easy to identify the ones after the reset, but more difficult to pinpoint the reforms that bought the system more time or helped it organically grow. Needless to say, I don't think it's just a straight line to the bottom once you start a civilization... there's an ebb and flow to it all. Aside from the fact that reforms are generally pinpoint type issues, not comprehensive/multi-faceted economy-wide endeavors.
The Roman Empire, disfunctional through the late 200's, successfully reformed under Constantine. It worked because Constantine abandoned fiat (in those times, silver plated denarii) and returned to the gold standard.
.. and the result of that was 1500 years of Dark Ages, thanks but no thanks
You're forgetting a lot that happened between the reforms and the dark ages. We don't have a choice if this thing goes down, we only have a choice about what replaces it. If you let TBTB design that system, you'll get some form of system designed from the beginning to bend you over. It took TBTB at least a hundred years to rework this system, so at least for a time some of mankind was actually free.
Dark Ages: 476-800AD or ~500-1500AD depending on who you ask. Either way, Constantine was Emperor 306-337AD. It is more accurate to say that he delayed the collapse for another ~139-163 years, than to say it immediately followed him.
To put that into perspective, since he ruled for 31, and a US president can rule for only 8, if we treat the effects linearly, all things being equal, it probably means that if someone like Ron Paul got in, except someone more pragmatic (less likely to accidentally trigger a shitalanche) and more willing to use executive powers, it would be unreasonable to expect them to delay the collapse for more than about 40 years, which ironically, is about 10 years longer than the amount of time between now and when Reagan tried to tear into the welfare state, though his influence had mostly faded by 1995.
The political framework for any rescue of our current system does not exist.
Keep up the good work CHS.
I had posted this on a thread yesterday so for the regular readers who read it, apologize for the redunancy but I believe it is worth a read for all others:
Coming cuts in pensions . There are going to be a lot of pissed off pensioners. Lot of unhappy people also receiving shrinking benefits in draconian fashion. First it mainly was by inflation and now during the deflation phase of the bust are and will see here decreased benefits, less medicine and procedures covered under Medicare and Medicaid and higher healthcare costs (Obamacare).
What is happening slowly but surely is rationing. $40 a week food stamps will keep you alive with basics like bread, milk, eggs, poultry but it isnt a picnic, people here that think they are eating lobster are not correct (That was the late 1990's). Better eats than the Soviet collapse I suppose. Anybody think of a new brand name for America yet? Like Soviets, we'll change it to 2.0 of some kind. I am weary of false flag to justify the final last killing of the social contract. I hope I am wrong.
China is new reserve currency and part of that job is global policeman. There role will increase (Chinese defense stocks smart buy and hold) as ours decreases like the previous reserve currency host - Great Britain. See the arguments in the early 1930's there about cuts in the navy for example.
I suspect cuts for government personell in these ranges:
Military: 40%
Intelligence: 15% (the NSA evil memo while true is more about the coming budget pruning CIA are top dogs only so much to go around).
Education: 20%
Pension and Benefit Reduction in General: 30% (we devalued 30% already in the last 8 years. That is draconian indeed but it has/had to happen to restructure our economy. Of course the politicians are not telling the people directly but that is what is shaking out in real terms.
Then the bust will be over. Do you think those DHS bullets are for bloggers? Please. Maybe one nutcase out of thousand.
A risk to serious journalist and owners is imprisonment during civil unrest to keep them silent and use them as forced labor to make widgets for a time until order is restored. Time will tell, hope I am wrong on this last part but history is replete with examples...
So ya truth telling in such times is truly a revolutionary act. Have the intent to care for ALL people and individually you'll benefit more and suffer less.
This is a reasonable scenario assuming a group of like-minded Americans do NOT declare independence. This scenario is inferior to a reformed, smaller America full of highly motivated, responsible individuals continuing to represent a 'shining city on the hill'.
All it takes to select a better alternative is to have the courage to work for something better, and to throw off the shackles of tyranny. Fewer folks would argue this government is increasingly criminal. Where we disagree is the notion of whether the corruption is reparable. I think not.
America needs to be broken up into a dozen or so smaller Republics, that would fix 99% of the problems
Not really... humans need to change the way we think and, thus, behave... our problems are more fundamental than geographical boundaries. While I certainly encourage localization and I strongly suspect that a system with more local control would be a dramatic improvement, it still wouldn't fix what ails us... it would only buy some more time.
ours is a problem of apathy, not capacity... and, unfortunately (or fortunately), our default state is apathy... this is in direct conflict with the diligence necessary to maintain virtually any system.
What you're asking for is replacement of the species itself with something that doesn't even exist.
The "problem" is insufficient resources to be "productive" with. Overshoot, that what this is all about. That would also explain why there's a high level of apathy.
"Maintaining" a system requires energy. And energy is a resource that is in clear decline...
Charles Hugh Smith, I don't think you're crazy. But as long as these control freaks given a patina of credibility can keep the illusions going without it collapsing, the longer it will go on. How long has the Bank of England been in existance? Long time.... We like to think that it won't continue, but maybe it will....
Charles, it can't happen soon enough
Everyone will get hurt whenever it is this one collapses, next week or 5 years off.....just try selling your gold to the assless chaps nomads from Mad Max, try not ending up tied to the front of one of their dune buggies as a hood ornament.
I agree, Skills > Durable Goods >= Network of People > Gold/Silver > Fiat
ie. get Gold/Silver only after you have exhausted all other options
Agree those of us who desire to live in a Republic governed by a Constitution need to hit the reset button. Disagree that this move needs to be preceded by the collapse of the status quo. Amerika is deeply and increasingly split along philosophical lines as like-minded people self-segregate geographically. There are the secular statists who embrace skin color and sex quotas, and those who continue to 'cling to their God and guns'. As soon as a group of >3 million like-minded Americans decide they have had enough tyranny and can do better independently, they will take the initiative and break away from the steaming shitpile that is Amerika. I have observed that fortune favors the bold, and tis better to take the initiative than to passively wait for the MRAPs to take your (fill in the amendment here) rights away. Think of what is possible for those brave Americans who cross this Rubicon. A new healthcare system, a 'hard' asset-based currency, Constitutionally-mandated annually balanced budgets, a restoration of Constitutional law, the end of unlawful search and seizure, the end of the EPA's absurd restrictions on NRG use, the end of a tax system that rewards manufacturing offshoring, and a return to a merit-based government contracting system. It would also be fun to watch the gormless remnants of Amerika devolve into 1 massive Detroit. Take courage, Americans, your liberation rests in your own hands. Throw off the shackles of tyranny!
Rome was a Republic with a constitution.... that was an amazing plan!
Fail.
How deep is the corruption?
TARGET fires security guard who turned in shoplifting cop...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/target-security-officer-fired-after-...
I hope this guy wins a multi million lawsuit from Target. It's this sort of crap that keeps the corrupt system alive.
The Titanic was unsinkable. Delusion and trust always end badly. There's no messiah who could save the system. Every grandiose scheme of thieves ends badly. The system is rotten at its core foundation. It will collapse and be replaced. A modern Jeremiah has spoken.
siblings and I are cleaning out the folks house as they have moved on to senior living facility. Baby sister was denied travel at Orlando airport to come help over the weekend because her only photo ID was Fla drivers license and it was cracked and they couldn't read one letter and one numeral of her license number. She has lived in Fla 17 years. We were livid. All 7 of us havent been together since 2005 since we live all over the country. TSA run amok. I don't know what it will take for a true flashpoint to occur but there is one coming. The airline did a full refund which surprised me
Green arrow for getting a refund. The TSA-the mall rent a cops of the skies who were once middle management.
That was her mistake, she should have said she was a illegal immigrant from Mexico and had no papers and was going to a processing station:
Upgraded to First Class!!!!
As I have said many times, there is an simple (although not easily implemented) solution to the problem. The elitist parasites must police themselves and live by the rule of law, no favorites... EVER! There can be no "too big to fail", government officials and insiders must be subject to the same rules and laws as everyone else, Corporate officers and directors must be legally and fully responsible for their actions and the actions of their companies. Crimes must be judged based on the number of people they effect and severity of that effect. The defrauding of the country or the raping of a company or investor class for personal gain is much, much, much more serious than any crime that harms no one. The reason that these common sense fixes will not be implemented is because the "children" of the ruler of this world are not good at self sacrifice, of making hard decisions that negatively affect them, they are full of ego and mortally afraid of what they would be of they did not lie and cheat. The best we can hope for at this point in time is for enough pressure to be put on the parasite class to make them war and feed on each other. Sure, the one rule of the parasite class is that they do not eat their own ... until they get hungry.
Thanks for persisting, Charles!! I think this essay is one of your finest -- direct, to the point, irrefutable in this layperson's opinion. Now to learn to doge them falling beams and sheet rock.
Dr. Rajan criticized Dr. Summers at a meeting of the 'world's bankers'
back in 2007 and Dr. Summers accused him of being a 'luddite' for warning the banksters of the world that the 'dark pool' derivatives market
was packed to the rafters with risk. Of course we all know that the luddite
was right and the status quo still does not get it. Brooksley Born also
criticized Professor Summers for his lax attitude towards dark pool derivatives and Professor Summers bitch slapped Dr. Born for being a
'luddite' and ganged up on her with his fellow crony corporatists in front of Congress. Dr. Summers never criticizes 'insiders' unless they decide to become 'outsiders' like Dr. Rajan or Dr. Born. The staus quo
is Larry Summers and the rest are mere 'outsiders' to his own personal delusional logic. This is what happens when you reinforce staus quo hubris with an appointment to the presidency of Harvard University.
Since the Harvard gig Professor Summers has been the most vocal supporter of the 'status quo' we have ever witnessed in contemporary
democracy aside from Dr. Greenspan. The 'Greenspan put' has been replaced by the 'Summers put' and the 'Summers put' is just the same old wine in a new bottle. The status quo will rule until the status quo
is defunct. Karl Marx gave us all the solution to this many years ago, my friends. And that solution is _REVOLUTION_ of the masses. Harvard is not amused and that is likely why they offed Aaron Swartz
when he started to demonstrate initiative.
OCCUPY LARRY SUMMERS - OCCUPY ALAN GREENSPAN - OCCUPY EVERYTHING except the STATUS QUO.
Pretty sure Marx can't take credit for inventing revolution any more than Al Gore can take credit for inventing the interwebz.
One time, long ago, a man wrote a document. It was called the Declaration of Independence. Its principles can be reclaimed for our nation. We can deliver ourselves from the throes of the soft socialist shadow totalitarianism. It's words DO give us the power to do what it says.
But that also means those who choose to act on its authority will be considered traitors of today's police state America....just as the forefathers were considered traitors to England. The time is ripe, the messengers, few. And as miserly as we can be here on ZH, for indeed there is much to be miserly about, I shall not give up hope. I shall not give up hope.
You can't fight the enemy you can't see.
There is no socialism at all.
So long as your mind is blind to what your eyes can see - Fascism - the enemy is invisible to you.
"the words of the Declaration of Independence DO give us power" ???? That's very funny!
WHAT power? Even the Founders who signed the Declaration knew that it was a mere piece of paper - and that it would require GUNS, BATTLES, KILLING and DESTRUCTION to achieve that independence.
FACT: The U.S. government is a totalitarian and fascist state. Right now! The government can do ANYTHING it wants to ANYBODY! Who is going to stop it? So, what are YOU personally going to do about it? Write more nonsense about "powers" and "rights"? If YOU personally are NOT prepared to FIGHT the current government with all the FORCE necessary to overthrow it, then you are simply "taking up space".on the planet
Chinese Chairman MAO was correct, "All political power comes from the barrel of a gun."-- It always has and always will.
oh noes, fire!
I wonder what we should do...
From a retired American physician:
The "fire has been raging" since the early 1960's. Unfortunately only those directly involved in medical care took notice. The rest of us were "too busy" to notice; and after all, the insurance companies and the government agencies were there to "help". Right????
My uncle was a general surgeon who established a private practice (with one partner surgeon) in the mid-1950's. At that time he and his partner had TWO employees: an office nurse and a receptionist/bookkeeper. His billing and payments for in-hospital work (i.e., surgery) were handled by the hospitals in which he performed surgery. His costs were very low, so his prices were low. However, insurance companies were gaining influence over medical practices - and it was a rare day when my uncle would not RANT about the interference and harm being done to medical practice by insurance companies and government bureaucrats!
Before I entered medical school in the early 1970's, I used to visit his office and watch him perform various surgeries at the hospital. He knew I intended to specialize in a surgical specialty, so he gave me an open invitation to watch him, along with armfuls to medical books to study. By this time he often grumbled about the insurance companies' interference in his practice, as well as the extravagant charges to patients by the hospitals. His response to the latter was to set up a "mini-operating room" in his office building, where he performed minor surgeries, thereby savings patients huge amounts of money. By this time (primarily due to insurance companies and federal regulations), he employed 2 surgical nurses, a receptionist and about 5 other people to deal with billing, insurance forms, state and federal regulations, etc. He absolutely LOVED performing surgery; and continued his medical practice until he was nearly 80 years old. He could have retired much earlier, since he had become incredibly wealthy through various investments (especially alnd and real estate).
I entered private medical practice (in a surgical sub-specialty) in the early 1980's and lasted 2 years. The bureaucratic nonsense (from the insurance companies and state and federal governments) was overwhelming - despite having a large in-office staff, I still spent more time with paperwork than I did treating patients. I took an academic position in a surgical department of a major medical center, with research and teaching. Gone were the 18 hour days and the bureaucratic nonsense. Years later a few colleagues and I started a medical software company re: medical diagnostic instrumentation. However, by about the mid-1990's I stopped all surgery, due to the extreme demands from the insurance companies and state and federal regulatory agencies. The surgery was still FUN, but the bureaucracy had become totally insane. In my uncle's day, he and his patient decided what treatments were needed. During my years in practice, the insurance companies and government agencies decided what treatments would be allowed and how much they would cost. I retired from clinical medicine completely by the late 1990's - it simply wasn't worth the hassle!!! With Obama's election in 2008 (and his campaign promises of "re-creating the medical care industry"), I was done with medicine in every respect and, despite my relatively young age, I retired for good.
To anyone thinking about medical practice as a career, I would advise spending a few weeks (minimum) full-time with a practicing physician in his office and in the hospital accompanying him in everything he does each day. Then spend a few days with his staff. Medical practice actually used to be FUN; it is NOT that way anymore! The insurance companies and the government regulatory agencies KILLED it, as they have every other profession they try to regulate.
-- Jack4952
Nice post.
One day we'll wake up and there will be what's called "a Bank Holiday".Could be a day,could be a week or more.You won't be able to use your debit or credit cards and you won't have access to your investments or your bank account.The Gov't. will announce that you have a certain time period to hand in your old currency for the new stuff.What happens at that point of "The Bail-In" is anybody's guess but those that have a stash of gold and silver should be a lot better off.One thing is for sure though,Uncle Sam is going to make a lot of taxpayers a lot more poorer.I can't predict the future but it will come.