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The Government "Apologizes"
Excerpted from Sean Corrigan on Money, Macro, and Markets,
“Dear Grandma and Grandad, thank you for making the valiant effort over these past decades to achieve a measure of self-reliance in your dotage and for allowing us jacks-in-office full use of your savings in the meanwhile as both a means to fulfill our political ambitions and as a way to act out our own economically-illiterate and usually illiberal prejudices at the expense of you and yours.”
“Sadly, it transpires that we have not only wasted a goodly part of your savings, but we have greatly added to the host of irredeemable promises which we made to you, in the form of a mountain of even more pressing pledges issued to the Biggest of Big Fish in the financial markets. So that we do not entirely dissuade these latter sophisticates from again indulging our follies at the earliest opportunity, we shall now have to ask you to share – and thereby greatly to reduce – their pain.”
“Be assured, however, that the loss for which you have my heartfelt sympathy will patriotically ensure that we can continue to live well beyond our means. In this way your sacrifice will see to it that the least possible harm will come to any of us in the political classes (a.k.a. the agents of your misfortune), to our army of placemen, patronage-seekers, and dole-gatherers, or to our plutocratic enablers for – as the IMF puts it – ‘…resources that would otherwise have been paid out to creditors will have been retained [to] reduce [our] overall financing needs.’ Nor will we have to suffer the indignity of modifying our existing approach overmuch by actually only spending money on the things for which you, in true democratic fashion, have openly voted the taxes since – here let me cite those marvellous chaps in Washington, once again – ‘resources could be efficiently employed to allow for a less constraining adjustment path.’, i.e., to allow one demanding as little fundamental ‘adjustment’ as possible.”
“I feel confident you will join me in looking forward with some enthusiasm to the next, inevitable ‘reprofiling’, just as soon as we can arrange to overspend enough to make one necessary once again. Should I have already laid down the heavy burden of selfless public service by the time this comes about and gone instead to my just reward as a highly-paid ‘consultant’ to a global investment bank, I would urge you to give your full support to my successor, of whatever political stripe he or she may be. In such an event, there will, of course, be precious little different in the treatment you receive at the hands of any of the mainstream parties as currently constituted”
Yours Insincerely, The Minister of Finance.
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No way!
Way!
Maybe if people learned to take care of themselves, and save for themselves we wouldn't have this problem. Instead they BEG for programs like Social Security, Medicare and Obamacare. Social Security is the biggest joke ever wrought upon the American public. If you stuffed your hard earned money in a mattress, you would probably have more to show for it than the people who are 50 and younger ever will see. You would think the young people in this country would be mad as hell that they have to give their money to Social Security that they will never see. As soon as they earn a buck though, they need to run out and buy the newest I-gadget or new car. Heaven forbid anyone ever saves up to buy something. They all run right to the bank and take out a loan, or worse yet use their credit card. As long as they can afford the minimum payment, they think the world is golden, never realizing that the bank is fucking them in the ass with 20% or higher interest.
Baby Boomers Already Spent Their Social Security
The Federal Debt is Illegitimate
Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme
How To Fix Social Security
This article has it backwards. Seniors not only voted for the poliicians who borrowed their SS, but they also voted for the politicians before that who created the policies that led to the borrowing. Seniors now want to stick young people with the bill.
Fuck you....govt did it
Go get a job
Nice response, typical boomer.
Yep.
Government did what the boomers wanted them to. They wanted lots of spending with little tax, so the retirement coffer got raided.
Actions have consequences.
At this point I have gotten one up vote, and 12 downvotes. That means that the Free Shit Army is on this thread 12 to 1.
I'm guessing many ZHers didn't know they were part of the FSA until now.
The free shit army? You mean the boomers, right? Other than the boomers, no free shit army on ZH dumbass.
I'll upvote that because it is true. I've been railing against this BS since I got my first paycheck from my father when I was. well, let's call it anti-child labor case eligible. It didn't take long or any promptig actually for me to identify who the invisible hand picking my pocket, aka enemy was. The masses were too stupid to do anything about it, they loved it. I circulated petitiions for non-2-party establishment candidates in the 80's door-to-door and had those doors slammed in my face. Lacking all else, I wrote my representatives asking for a paper to sign a legally binding exemption for social security, et al, you don't take from me, and I'll ask nothing from you, and those went nowhere obviously.
I'll fight tooth and nail to get WTF those bastards owe me now, not because I want any of it, more because they stole it from me and my children and I'll never be able to recoup it in kind. Trust me, they took more than I'll ever be able to get back, without any inflation adjustment considerations.
So we 18 year olds, fighting and dying in Vietnam voted in Johnson so we could not only stay in Vietnam but also pay for it with our future SS? Asshole. Just keep paying in so I can get some of my money back before it all goes to hell.
So the generations before you did it to you, but you're not doing it to the generations after you!? You always voted libertarian? Really!? You are in denial.
Also, seniors include those generations before you boomers too. Why pretend I am only talking about boomers? You are committing the strawman fallacy.
Like you confessed, you want the Democrats and Republicans to take the fruits of my labor from my kids and give it to you before it all goes to hell. Is that what you taught you kids? I teach my kids that one of America's founding principles is that no man has a right to the fruits of antoher man's labor. You are unethical and unAmerican. Ameria is circling the drain and you voted for the people in charge.
You have lost your way, but I know that you sincerely want the future to have been a better than if you had never existed, so I sincerely hope you find your way again.
Ponzi schemes require two participants. The con man and the suckers.
I'm 50+ years old. I was forced to pay for this ponzi scheme at gunpoint. I also got to watch the rest of the stupid fucking boomers tell the government to spend the fucking money. I expect the whole damned thing to collapse before I draw a dime.
Don't expect the folks under 40 to vote to spend a dime to rectify this massive fail and fraud. I know I wouldn't, if I could help it.
I'm more like 60- but have to agree.
I've made my way on my own. I've known for a long time that the people who worked and saved are the ones that will be screwed, but I've had no choice but to pay into the systematic theft that is government - gunpoint and all that.
In terms of age, I'm definitely a 'boomer'
In terms of running with the herd, I'm not.
I was lucky - mum was an anarchist, dad was what would be called a libertarian these days (the term hadn't been coined when I was a kid)
They left me with few illusions, thankfully.
I'm 54. Back in the 80's goobermint realized that the ponzie was going to unravel right about now. There was a bit of interest in 'fixing' social security and some talk in connedgrease. In the end, nothing was solved. I knew then that I would only pay in to support my parents and grandparents, but would never see a penny back.
At 50 I resigned myself to the fact that I will never retire. I will die at work.
Fuck you mooch. You are a burden. Die already, PLEASE!
2-4 years of service in the hell of vietnam doesn't entitle you to neverending privelege to stick your hand in my pocket and every other persons who didn't go to Vietnam to fund your big screen TV when you got home. You were fighting for the privelege of freedom in theory - to work and to be independent and to make something of YOURSELF above and beyond killing a bunch of Gooks sitting on a rice patty.
I would have gone to war to fight for the privelege and freedom if and when it is necessary. I'm thinking it may be some day soon. After I'm discharged, whatever, I don't expect to rape my neighbors paycheck and good fortune for the rest of our natural born lives.
Curious what the fuck Louie the Dog you think you were fighting for, exactly?
"As soon as they earn a buck though, they need to run out and buy the newest I-gadget or new car. Heaven forbid anyone ever saves up to buy something"
so by your own words people younger than 50 are not saving for their retirement nor for anything else
so when they hit 65 are they just going to die or commit suicide
sounds like you have not thought it thru..........which makes sense
How can they? No jobs, and the ones out there pay $0.27 an hour, in real 1964 silver money.
I suggest buying ammo, since the only way they will be able to eat when they retire is to kill and smoke really old fart meat.
I'd be too stringy.
An interesting thought experiment........
Real money (can't be printed)
No fractional reserve banking.
No income tax - excise tax (the only reasonable tax) but not on food, clothing or housing.
No inflation.
Start working at 20
Work 40 years & save 50% of what you make, which won't be stolen by government or eaten by inflation.
Retire at 60 knowing you have enough behind you to last to 100.
Anything left, the kids get.
illusions are dangerous, coz they have zero defaults...
what kind of infrastructures remain 2 decades without any one to maintain it ?
to Beam Me Up Scotty
I didn't beg for SS. It was taken from my pay when I went to work in a foctory during my college summer vacations. When I graduated I bought an insurance plan from a previous graduate who told me that if I took my SS deductions and gave it tohim to invest I would have far more at 66 than I am getting now. I didn't see any party or opportunity to join a minority party who would change the course of SS. I saved and got out of a house upon the death of my late wife just in the nick of time. I have two coins to rub together because I never bought a GM or Ipad. I moved overseas and don't have a CC. Go FY
The combined take by SS and Medicare alone is over 15%. It is impossible for people to set money aside at this point.
Of the people I know, seniors are buying new cars. Everybody else driving around in shit cars.
Let's put some numbers to that:
US debt and unfunded liabilities are $1,260,000 per taxpayer and rising at $70,000 per year. Good luck, collecting all that was promised to you by your friendly government that has been buying billions of bullets for homeland security. Kotlikoff has US debt and unfunded liabilities at more than $2,000,000 per taxpayer and rising at $100,000 per year.
But at least the Nobel Prize Winner is protecting your freedoms with NDAA and the power to drone American citizens without trial. GMO foods are so good for you that never is there a need to label them even though 93% of you want labels. 1984 was such a long time ago.
Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup®, is the most popular herbicide used worldwide. The industry asserts it is minimally toxic to humans, but here we argue otherwise. Residues are found in the main foods of the Western diet, comprised primarily of sugar, corn, soy and wheat. Glyphosate's inhibition of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes is an over.looked component of its toxicity to mammals. CYP enzymes play crucial roles in biology, one of which is to detoxify xenobiotics. Thus, glyphosate enhances the damaging effects of other food borne chemical residues and environmental toxins. Negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body. Here, we show how interference with CYP enzymes acts synergistically with disruption of the biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids by gut bacteria, as well as impairment in serum sulfate transport. Consequences are most of the diseases and conditions associated with a Western diet, which include gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. We explain the documented effects of glyphosate and its ability to induce disease, and we show that glyphosate is the “textbook example” of exogenous semiotic entropy: the disruption of homeostasis by environmental toxins
http://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/15/4/1416
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_AHLDXF5aw
JustObserving,
Did you bother checking private debt?
Would you know it by chance?
Personal debt per citizen is about $52,000 per USdebtclock.org
NO! It's not.
$42 trillion / 316 million Americans = $133 thousand each man, women, and child
Here is an article from Zeo Hedge which confirms the lower nummber
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-04/debt-nations
Thanks. However, it’s not complete.
Check Z-1 second line: Domestic nonfinancial sectors; credit market instruments; liability
http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/Current/accessible/l1.htm
If you already knew, why did you ask? Did you WANT to come off as a dickhead?
Of course not! I just want to highlight the ‘Crux’ of the problem: Erroneous/not complete/some deceiving information regurgitated endless.
Example: Many here call, erroneously, US Government as socialists. And some even go as far to call US a free-market.
Both statements are totally wrong.
So if you can’t get history and facts right, what make you believe that you’ll be able to know the future better?
Or able to judge anyone else here?
so·cial·ism
http://www.merriam-webster.com/styles/default/images/reference/audio-pro...); background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat;" title="Listen to the pronunciation of socialism" type="button" /> noun \?s?-sh?-?li-z?m\
: a way of organizing a society in which major industries are owned and controlled by the government rather than by individual people and companies
http://media.easybib.com/citethis/citethis.png); background-position: 0px 0px;"> http://www.merriam-webster.com/styles/default/images/reference/hardrule-...) 0% 50% repeat-x;">Full Definition of SOCIALISM 1 : any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods 2 a : a system of society or group living in which there is no private propertyb : a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state 3 : a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional betweencapitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done _______________________________________________________________________________ Totally wrong would be incorrect. Assuming one set of statistics is correct over another is equally problematic. Attempting to color the conversation when the acknowledgement of figures is in general agreement with your own is just being divisive.Sean, some of the links are broken. But it doesn't matter.
It’s obvious that you’re researching for answers. And that’s great. Unfortunately, lots are propaganda do deceive. We, in the US, are pretty good at that.
Even Goebbels, Ministry of Propaganda for Hitler, copied US in how to misinform a nation, Germany, into war.
Anyway, there are mainly four forms of capitalism:
Penny capitalism: Farmers selling their goods
Local capitalism: Small business. Such as your hardware store. Owners that would be serving on their boarder schools and so on in their communities.
Social capitalism: Such as the Amish’s. Where the labors/manufactures owns their production. Then, they hire business managers to assist them.
And Multinationals: America largest corporations/banks
My advice to you: Stop listening to these so call “Experts”. Get out of this mind set of Socialism and Communism. And that either the ‘Left’ or ‘Right’ capitalism will save us… if we only did this and that.
It’s almost over. And it’s going to be hell. That is the problem with the financialization of an economy/nation. It ends in wars.
You must be pretty new here. Any idea how long it has been "going to hell"? At least 1789, but we could go further and further back. We have had financial wars (the entire twentieth century), but it still keeps pluggin' along. Slavery has been the dominant feature of human society for over five thousand years.
You haven't even touched on the drug trades, British aristocracy or Zionism (which goes all the way back to Canaan).
So, before you sink any farther into ignorance, check your ego at the door.
I guess you made your point. Now, let's move on.
You may in your lifetime get to see why we call them socialists. But, pray that does not happen because it aint gonna be pretty.
"US debt and unfunded liabilities are $1,260,000 per taxpayer and rising at $70,000 per year."
Am thinking that it is not linear; am guessing that it is increasing exponentially. Interest on interest and all that.
>> Good luck, collecting all that was promised to you
Kick the can baby !!!!! 30 years max and I'm outa here. 10 to 15 is more probable. After that I think they really need to camp down on things.
Oh, they'll have no problem making good on those promises. But by the time you get your 'entitlement' payments, they'll look something like this:
http://www.providentmetals.com/zimbabwe-100-trillion-dollar-note-uncirculated.html
>> they'll look something like this:
I've got a golden retirement policy that should get me through the tight times if that happens.
"Good luck, collecting all that was promised to you by your friendly government that has been buying billions of bullets for homeland security."
The debt is actually created via theft and counterfeiting by the banksters and then loaned to their victims so as to enable the banksters' harvesting of their victims’ labor and product—they steal from their depositors AND their debtors both.
I.e. the debt is not so much collected, but harvested.
Very cool use of the Third Law of Thermodynamics and Biological Behaviourism IMHO. I was unaware of 'exogenous semiotic entropy', thanks for the education. Keep up the good work!
Baghdad looks on the verge of exploding too.
"All diplomatic options are being pursued."
(Set phasers to maximum.)
AKA, "we are trying to pay off the parties involved as quickly as possible."
Dear Grandchildren,
I thought you would have learned after all that soap I washed your mouth out with for telling all those lies not to mention the innumerable trips behind the woodshed. So far you have wrecked all my cars, stolen from my businesses and friends to support your habits, and I have spent the remainder of my money bailing you out and for other legal fees. I thought you would have learned your lessons a long time ago but alas, you have not.
I have written you out of my will and you are now cut off...
Sincerely, Grandpa.
Dear Grandpa,
What about the next two generations haven't even yet born?
Sadly, I won't be around to offer them guidance or assistance. I have given the kids chances every 4 and 6 years to redeem themselves and instead they made it worse for us and inevitably their offspring. Their arrogance, empty promises and compulsive habits were ultimately their undoing. It will be VERY difficult for them in the near and long term future.
Nobody ever said it was supposed to be easy.
We call it 'building character'.
So gen xyz pays you to sit around and do nothing AND we have to act like we like you to get our money back. Yep, that is building character, lol...
You will soon find out about what character really is. Not sitting on my ass and paying for all of your welfare. " work harder, millions on welfare are depending on it" . Maybe I should sit on my ass too.
dear grandpa,
everything you told me all my life was a lie. enjoy the stinky bedsore nursing home with crappy food and beatings twice daily.
sincerely,
sonny boy
No it wasn't. YOU didn't listen. You and your friends were too busy playing video games in your parents basement while they were watching america's got talent.
Dear Grandpa, today in school I learned that you were RAYCISS. So now I'm going to bury my head back in this smartphone.
I see that your spelling teacher must really appreciate that Masters degree she got on that no money down bad credit student loan (which she will be paying back for 40 more years). Back in the day we could spell correctly and do calculus without an iphone app.
Ask her if she would be willing to take this test without any aids. I did and passed. I know you would fail.
http://www.salina.com/www/1895test/test_1895.pdf
And your're still cut off.
You burned too many bridges (everyone is pissed) and now find that there is no way back to mend fences.
I'm so glad we still get along with our kids and aren't cutting each other off. It's pretty rare I think. There is a lot to be angry about everywhere you look.
Chunga, you are right about the rarity of it. The family unit has been nearly destroyed by those psychopaths. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods!
@lumberjack : +10000000000000
actual generation is lost in nothing. ipad, flat tv, facebook. unable to use a pencil, lazy as fuck.
and no futur once adult, as ungrowth reduce employment, how the fuck they gonna do...
All I know is I wrote my will in cursive, at least the little fuckers will be forced to learn it now. As for who is a more worthless generation, if you have time to rage about it may be a good indicator of why you can't find a job. Get the fuck over it already, your parents must have done something right.
Lol!
Die already you are a burden to society.
Nice try Rahm, you and your family have advised the president about this in the obamacare farce. I will keep working out so that I can live long enough without assistance to watch your misery.
Most of us never bothered to vote as we knew it to be a sham years ago. Wasn't it you kids that were mobilized to vote even though you had no idea who you were campaigning for? were all those free cigarettes and booze worth it?
And what about those sleep overs?
http://www.onearth.org/articles/2014/06/obama-climate-wish-gmo-dominos-s...
Truth or Dare with the Pres: Journalist Thomas Friedman and President Obama recently had a sleepover. At some point late in the night, after they did each other’s hair and told ghost stories, Friedman rolled over in his sleeping bag and asked Obama, “What is the one thing you would still like to see us do to address climate change?” Obama stopped chewing on his Twizzler and said, “Put a price on carbon.” Then he dared Friedman to prank call Joe Biden and the night devolved into giggles.
With all of the taxes on cigs and booze they are hardly free.
Dear Grandpa Shithead,
Had you not indebted all future generations you would have no inheritance to give. Are you a dumb fuck, stupid, or did you just not care about anyone other than yourself?
Fuck you! My only hope is that the government confiscates your bank accounts and all other assets to pay down your share of the debts before your piece of shit ass dies. Then we won't need your inheritance.
Gen xyz
I didn't do it. Bill Clinton did. Remember that lockbox? That also includes the repeal of Glass Steagall.
Maybe if you ask him or Hillary for a refund from the Clinton Global Initiative they might send you a check.
Like I said before, you didn't listen. Neither did this young lady, but she finally just realized that I was right.
MSNBC Anchor Resigns; Admits to Spreading “Lies on Behalf of Obama”http://nationalreport.net/msnbc-anchor-resigns-admits-spreading-lies-beh...
Thank you Alex!
Furthermore, there are a bunch of old geezers who are responsible too. They belong to a country club (where we are not invited) somewhere between Virginia and Delaware. They come from all over and they seem to be having a mid-life crisis and are having two parties at the same time at the same place, (with which we too again are not invited), but we are paying the tab anyway. Please don't blame us and we know that most of you youngsters have good intentions. Maybe we all can have a big party for ourselves sometime :)
The funniest part is the notion that the assholes would even bother to apologize to begin with.
No remorse, no fault, no apology. It's always the previous office-holder or the other party that is at fault. Of course they'll say that while fucking us over in the exact same manner. With very few exceptions, one doesn't make it to a position of power without being a sociopath.
uncle has the become the employer of first and last resorit. how many people can you name who don't work for the government, or in the private sector filling government orders for goods or services? (and of that group how many are financially independent?) ralph nader has suggested that professional sports teams be owned publically. this handing back and forth control of the wealth and the tax base (or control of monetary policy if you will, and the private sector creates [credit] money as well) between investment bankers and politicians is really just a laurel and hardy skit. the machevellian idea of private debt equals public good comes to mind. the bankers are the middle man in the equation. there is no public debt any longer, just as there are no employees, just independent contractors.
(Hold Your Breath Until) Government "Apologizes"
Moldy shit sandwich, 7 years old, take another bite. There's a lot left to eat.
The Great Neo Con experiment starts to unravel at a faster and faster rate in the Middle East and elsewhere. At home in the USA and Europe the socialist utopia’s created with borrowed money teeter on the brink of collapse, and we are assured that everyone will sing happy songs and hold hands (perhaps teach the world to sing)
Well folks as most here know, it’s a total crock of shit. The firestorm is coming, and blood and death will be the main event. Hopefully there will be beer.
If the firestorm came tonight, most young whipper snappers would be rebooting their computers, hitting ctrl, alt, and delete, and banging their heads against the wall or keyboard because they can't see anymore internet porn.
Boomers rejoiced as home prices appreicated and took the profits to enjoy life without thinking and kept saying it is all for the kids and grandkids.
Sorry Grandpa,
I remember this was an issue in the election of '80. And I recall that you voted for the guy who said he could fix it by doubling the taxes. It was an obvious lie. But you bought it.
And I remember it came to light again in 1992, that it was still broken. And a funny little guy, who was running for office, did infomercials explaining the problem in great detail. But HEY! The stockmarket was booming, and the other guy said we were rich, we owed it to ourselves, and we should decide to giver ourselves more free stuff. And as I recall, you voted for the "free stuff" guy rather than the "there's a crisis we barely have time to fix" guy.
And in '96 the funny guy with the charts came and tried again to make you listen. But if the stock market was booming before, it was exploding in '96. So you voted for the 'free stuff' guy again.
Whose fault were you saying this all was again? Did you take your meds today? I don't think I can understand what you are trying to say.
If voting mattered they wouldn't allow you to do it.
Confiscate Granpa's shit before he dies and pay down all this fucking debt already.
I wonder if the "government" ever heard of democide? They should apologize...
https://www.youtube.com/embed/0sujnvIV4g4
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE1.HTM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgraVpwiM6Y
The older generations are supporting the younger generations by letting them live in their homes and/or cashing out retirement and doing reverse mortgages or equity loans.
We are in for a generational crash, a Kondratiev Winter, when the savings and assets of the dying middle class are tapped out.
Lol, I don't think so. The older generations have been robbing future generations blind for decades. These kids have no future because they have been sold out by their own parents and governments. Disgusting pigs....
Steal your money
Neglect and kill your Veterans
Open your Borders
Murder you without trial
Torture you with impunity
Poison your own food and also feed it to the world
Spray your air with toxins
Silence your free speech
Control your free press
... ad infinitum
OK USA when the f*ck will you have had enough?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqWzJziarhE
Distribute widely and often.
Imagine the pols getting hudreds of these per day without end.
And a significant cross section of the populace having an inkling or more of where the shit came from, and then there should be no hiding place.
It's possible, it's possible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPIVI0CbCmg
I'm sorry I can't understand what you are trying to say.
I was too busy watching this facinating infomercial showing how you've known for 40 years EXACTLY what you were getting in to.
Whose fault were you saying it was again?
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "That's our President and Congress trying to buy our vote with what used to be our money. We're not that dumb." It comes at 1:42.
Except a lot of us were exactly that stupid.
22 years since Ross Perot did that, but a great flashback, thanks.
I love the Cicero quote at the very beginning.
Welcome to the New Rome plebes!
Yes. I know. I voted for him.
But what about this one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QWAjSw9XoQ
Go To 1:39.
Reagan wanted to return the USA to honest money...Gold.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjpT1qMC7Pk
Then this happened...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6CNRlQG0mg
Then this happens...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZRLCn50TFE
It was not allowed.
Alas...Presidents are not supposed to be Kings.
With 0.01% "High Yield savings" for the Seniors and poor access to health care as more doctors drop off the Medicare provider roles.....how can Seniors not be Happy? They help these Congressmen/women get elected.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPIVI0CbCmg
YOU WERE WONDERING WHY THE FED WANTS TO PUSH EVERYONE INTO LONGER TERM DEBT?
NEXT QUOTE: (Discussing the Federal Budget) "We have $1 Trillion coming in, but we're spending a Trillion Five. Most of that goes to Social Security, Medicare and other entitlements. Next to that is National Defense, well over $300 Billion Dollars. Next to that is interest on the debt. That is unusually low this year. Because the interest rates are so low. But don't count on that continuing! Every time the interest rates go up one percent the 70% of the national debt that is five years or less goes up $28 Billion Dollars"
AND ANOTHER: "What used to be a Dollar in 1950 is now 18 cents".
THIS WAS RECORDED IN 1992.
(In 2014 it is 2 cents).
DON'T LET PEOPLE TELL YOU THIS IS AN UNPRECEDENTED AND UNFORESEEN PROBLEM. THEY JUST WANT YOU TO BAIL THEM OUT. THEY KNEW EXACTLY WHAT THEY WERE DOING.
For the most part, the majority of people are more concerned with lunch, office politics, the girl in the next cubicle, whether they can pick up their kids on time, when the soccer match is and what to bring for treats, etc.
When you are conditioned to to trust the State with a particular set of problems and responsibilities. you turn your attentions to more pressing problems.
People which want to apportion blame are ultimately hypocrites. NO ONE EVER SAYS NO. They pay their taxes, they grovel to the sheriff, they wave flags at the parade and glorify the celebrities. Why? because the cost is greater than the possibility of a payoff- one that would require personal responsibility and hard work.
We are born and bred to be colony ants. No one leaves the hill and strikes out on their own. We just want different and smaller ant colonies that better represent our values. However, weare afraid to pay the cost. Gutless whiners, one and all.
Nope.
No, the education system put in place is designed to do this. Google "The Prussian Education System".
So, where were you born and bred? Mars?
Some of us did in the past. That is how we got here.
Where is the undiscovered country where we can 'strike out on our own' now?
I am not conditioned to trust the state. All problems are pressing - or they aren't problems.
We pay our taxes and grovel to the sherriff because they point guns at our heads. But so long as we too have guns, that can change.
Be an ant if you want.
I will not grovel to my equals or inferiors or be crushed under foot. I will be a human being - or fertilizer. I don't care which.
I think crushed under foot = fertilizer. Big talk has a way of exposing the inconsistencies in our rants.
It is a sad day when speaking ones mind and deciding for oneself is "Big talk".
You'll end up in the same ground as I. So will we all, in time.
We'll both be buried as men.
The difference is I want to live like one.
It's unfortunate you are uncomfortable with your rationalizations. A real man understands his limitations and responsibilites and faces them. There is no shame in recognizing we are a single human doing the best we can with what we have.
Dying like a "man" is just an attempt at glory, which is just the ego run wild. Do you have a family? What are your responsibilities to them? Does no one care if you live or die?
I imagine you love liberty as much as I or any other and I salute your desire to be free. I've read your comments, you appear well informed and intentioned. However, bravado serves no one well. Liberty needs warm bodies, not cold, dead martyrs.
I have no responsibilities to anyone.
I have no family.
No one will care if I shall live or if I shall die. What difference does it make if they do?
There is no greater love then that of where a man will lay down his life for another.
If that be my destiny then so be it.
I refuse to live under a Jackboot.
So I will die if I must so that you may have Liberty.
It seems that you may not be worthy of the sacrifice.
Perhaps your children are worthy of a sacrifice which you are not willing to make.
The price of Freedom and Liberty is paid by bloodshed.
It is people like you whom have not valued that price paid by the contemporaries of the Great Founders.
Ah, the long suffering martyr, hopeful he will be included in some fantasy line of martyrs. The sacrifice, the ultimate price, the ridiculous ramblings of a jihadist or any other whack job who attempts to justify violence and war.
You cannot give me liberty. The destruction of every fascist government on Earth will not give us liberty. Liberty is the soul and the soul is a temporary resident here. Chains cannot bind the mind.
So caught up in a struggle that is ultimately meaningless. Because in a single moment, this will all fade away.
All men enslave themselves. They agree to conform or not. Therefore, to be free requires only the willingness to make a single decision and stand by it. Different people face different costs. However, our fear of the cost or unwillingness to pay, causes us to choose slavery.
Don't kid yourselves by the fantasies of wealth, power and luxury, the carnal fruits, we are all slaves to a world rich in delusion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPIVI0CbCmg
Go to the 2:53 mark
"The Rich Get Richer"
"From 1976 to 1992...The Richest Fifth of the population was the only place that went up. Now go to the top 5% and the top 1%. The top 5% improved their incomes by 60% and the top 1% by 138%. Trickle down economics didn't trickle. And this isn't fake."
1992!!!!!
Social Security was supposed to be a a safety net - something to keep you out of utter poverty NOT a complete retirement system. BOTH parties have been bribing seniors with better medical and more for decades (though the real money is going to big pharma and others - 'Want a FREE Rascal Scooter'... 'Free diabetes supplies'..... and the list goes on...) Of course corporate welfare is FAR worse and more expensive... OF COURSE we'll buy more tanks, fighter planes, aircraft carriers.
Representative Democracies all fail when people realize they can get their representatives to give them more than they are willing to pay for - and representatives realize they can buy re-election. People are all too willing to play the game until things collapse.
Geezers March on Washington!
They're armed and have nothing to lose, and, they've killed before.
No....Don't tell me you think the Baby Boomers are the Fix......Tell me It ain't so.....:0)
Move to Australia, HZ, or Europe.... the barbarians are shitting in the Rubicon as we speak.
And wouldn't you know that the black hearted men who will tear down the Republic will *also* be the ones, best positioned (and armed) to rebuild a State in their image?
I expect that a familiar minority will be heavily over-represented as we are led into this new, red dawn, and that it just may be a capital crime to note their bloody power.
Just as it was under the Bolsheviks, whose true history will be all but lost in another 50 years.
I'll be in Odin's Halls by then, big pimpin'.
It would be rude to bring our problems to someone else's doorstep. Only the reformed can travel in clear conscience, and most of us are not reformed. Most of us just want a new and richer sugar-daddy to make all the problems disappear, and give us goodies every day, like Santa Claus.
This is the problem with the Latin countries. They seek prosperity abroad in the world without first reforming the part of themselves that caused it to be lacking at home.
The result is that they recreate their former home wherever they go.
gcj--Excellent observations. I came to the same cnclusion after a stay in our neighbors country for 6 months. Milestones
Arrest them. Don't let them get away.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
History, then, is the process of defining insanity so that we have the opportunity to do something different.
Responsibility is the process of trying to understand how not to be insane.
Every deficit dollar spent degrades and inflates the currency. When it the value of the dollar goes to zero it won't matter if you are earning $20,000, $200,000, or 2 million - zilch is zilch. Back to a barter existence?
Dear Grandpa,
Yes I’m sorry that your parents screwed you with greatest generation bullshit commie promise and that somehow we forgot a little thing called self- reliance as in when fuckers had balls to brave injuns and animals that wanted to eat them. I blame the fucking Beatles and all the hippy fucking free love shit, and yes some of you poor bastard went to fight the yellow people in “ the NAM” at least you cocksuckers got to come home after 365. Then you came home the pussies that did not serve become teachers and bull shit gumbermint entitled workers the other become corporate raiders and tried to peruse the American dream but the elite did what elite have done since the dawn of time and fuck the “every man “ in the ass. Amerika was supposed to be different.
I don’t blame you for wanting to get yours as you put into it but it’s out right generational theft so let’s call it what it is. Now, as the shit falls apart I will point out to you old viagra using, hip replacement, over weight in poor health fuckers (note I’m sure there a few of you that this does not apply to and mostly not on ZH as you are awake!) that the dumb fuck millennials are about as big in numbers as you and they have been hoped up on anti-depressants, ultra-violent video games and gangster rap. They will wake up some day a figure out how truly fucked they are and as you know this will not be pretty, remember a good many of them have been fighting “ brown people “ for the last 12 years. (Thank you baby boomer politicians and not for just 365)
Now Grandpa , as part of the disenfranchised GEN X I can say there was a time when I bought into the Amerikan dream, I got my ass handed to me as I was too small to succeed as opposed to big to fail. Troy has been getting into shape, staying low and looking on the horizon for the shit storm coming. Good luck with being an old fart with inflated fiat and declining heath when this shit show comes to town. Karma is a BITCH perhaps the youngsters will enjoy making you into tasty Soylent Green.
Love Troy
P.S. Some of you are OK but the heard in general is very sick and needs some thinning. Get right with God or what every divinity you see fit “Winter is Coming”
The muzzies weren't a war, they were a duck shoot.
You should respect your elders, for without their service, you would be typing in German right now.
If it wasn't for our elders (I will at least blame politicians and elite a-holes. Not the entire generation) we could have avoided WWI and thus WWII. We would have been much, much, much more wealthy than we are now. We are broke now.
Does it matter that we'd be typing in German?
The result of WW-II was that the Nazi just relocated to the USA and seized power here.
We are under the tyranny of the Jackbooted Police State Thug just the same.
They fought for our enslavement. What a noble cause.
Right. When a regime change comes around ,the only one who loses evrything is the regime. For us lot down below , it doesn't make much difference who is screwing us from the top. In reality the US has never been under an existential threat from anyone but itself.
Props to the truth. From one Gen X to another, thanks for the comment.
I am 53, rather tall large and strong.
I can, today, still hold my own in a fight should one occur. I would tire easily and more quickly, but both of us would be messed up. You would heal in days, I would heal in years.
That won't last.
In 5 or 10 years I won't be able to do that.
So when one is an 80 yo grandmother, or a 60 or 65+ year old man, and a few 18 year olds bring the beatdown, there is not the option to retreat. We are too slow and not fast and not strong enough. We don't have a choice but to stand our ground.
That's why guns are legal, son. Because old men can't beat the living shit out of you as you fucking deserve if you decide to exact inter-generational revenge.
When you millenials hopped up on anti-depressants, ultra-violent video games and gangster rap, wearing clothes more appropriate for a small child, come knocking we shall be ready.
It won't matter that I agree with you, or that I am actually an early Gen X or Generation Jones (infrequently used term, Google it). You will look at me, conclude that "he is OLD and caused this" and that will be all of the last thinking you ever will do.
My friend’s aging mother is one the most quiet and docile woman you would ever have the pleasure of meeting. Her gentle replies remind one of the gentile grandmothers of old. However, in recent months my friend said he saw the first perplexed looks on her face in years as she found out more about how her medical coverage was changing and costing her.
Then he could hardly hold his laughter as he told me the rest when he asked her “…mom what would she do to straighten those Washington boys out who handle medical coverage … She shook her head and said after a few moments in her gentle tone “…well in the old days we would give those mixed up boys a few enemas because they are obviously not eating right…” When I heard this I roared and when I thought about it later I realized just how right she was…