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A Generational Storm Is Coming
Submitted by Bill Bonner via Bonner & Partners,
Yesterday, we began our high-minded graduation speech to the Class of 2015.
We explained how the young graduates were not only the most heavily indebted in history, but also the least likely to be able to pay their debts. Median wages have been going down since these graduates were about five years old … So have economic growth rates.
Today, we continue the speech no one wants us to give …
You are heirs to claptrap, nonsense, bogus theories, and trillions of dollars in debt. The systems, programs, and institutions your parents set up are mostly worthless scams. Worse, they produce outcomes contrary to their stated goals.
Welfare programs do not help people escape poverty; they keep them mired in it. Health care programs do not make them healthy; they make them dependent on the drug industry.
Defense industry spending doesn’t make us safer; it funds drones, bumbling interventions, and assassinations… and it creates more foreign enemies. We end up not only poorer, but also less secure.
All of those assertions take more time to explain and prove than we have time for now. But here’s a little example that you will appreciate…
25 Years of Poverty
Under President Johnson, the government set up the Federal Direct Student Loan Program to provide “low-interest loans” (back then, “low” meant 8%) to students.
Private lenders make the loans, but they receive the full backing of the feds.
The idea was to help you afford higher education… and earn larger salaries as a result. And with your increased earnings you were supposed to be able to pay off the loan. But at over 11% of outstanding debt, the Student Loan Program now has the highest delinquency rate of all forms of household debt (mortgage loans, auto loans, credit cards).
And it will probably go much higher… as students take on more debt. Total outstanding student debt is expected to bubble up to $3.3 trillion by 2025. What do you do if you can’t pay? Well, the feds have a solution for you. The trouble is, it turns you into the very thing the program was meant to avoid. Here’s how it works…
As long as your income is low, you are allowed to make small token payments every month. Keep this up for 300 payments and your debt is considered satisfied, no matter how little you paid. In other words, the Student Loan Program encourages you to live in poverty for a quarter of a century to get rid of your student debt. Most likely, this will be easy for you to do anyway.
Ideal living arrangements to avoid liability for one’s student debt. You only need 25 years of this …
First, because most college degrees do little to make you more valuable to employers. Second, because your parents’ rigging of the economy will make it difficult to make any financial progress anyway. The median household income – after you account for inflation – has been falling since the late 1990s. And good jobs are hard to get. There are fewer “breadwinner” jobs today in America than there were in 1999.
And you can forget about starting your own business. The rate of new start-ups is collapsing. (Remember from last week that the U.S. ranks 46th on the World Bank’s list of the easiest countries in which to start a business.) You can thank your parents for that, too. The system is designed to protect them, their Social Security benefits, their health care, their stock market portfolios, and their businesses. Protect them against what? Against you!
You are the future. You are the competition. You are the ones who should want to shake things up and tear down the walls of bureaucracy, taxes, paperwork, and regulation that make it so difficult for you to start new businesses, get good jobs and build real wealth.
You should be talking revolution – overthrowing your parents’ multitrillion-dollar debts and pulling out of their wars on poverty, illiteracy, Iraqis, Afghans… you name it. You need to stop these silly, pointless, and expensive programs so you can have the resources to pay for your own programs and launch your own stupid wars.
You need to get rid of your parents’ zombies – the millions of unproductive people who get money from the government – so you can afford your own families … your own pet projects … and zombies of your own.
A Suicidal System of Credit
You need to stop your parents’ suicidal credit-based money system, too. You don’t know about this, do you? Your professors of government, politics, economics, and finance didn’t mention it, did they?
Well, the system is corrupt and self-destructive. It works only by increasing the amount of debt in the society – including student debt. And it works only until the debt bubble gets so big it blows up. But there’s a logic to it… a sinister logic that turns you into chumps for older generations. Spending on credit favors the existing owners of capital … and people who have existing claims on the government money. Let me explain …
When the government borrows money it gives the money to a zombie to spend, or it spends it directly. Usually, the money goes to an older person – your parents or grandparents – in some form of social welfare subsidy, pension, job, contract, or support program. When they spend the money, it goes into the coffers of corporations. This increases profits… and share prices. Who owns those corporations? Do you? You don’t? Then who does?
Your parents and grandparents benefit again. They are the owners of the nation’s financial assets. By increasing credit, they shift real wealth from the future to the present … and from you to them. This is the money you haven’t earned yet.
I’ll spell it out for you: The government borrows a dollar. It gives the dollar to one of its pet zombies. (It could be a health researcher, a drug addict, or somebody who makes bombs.) The money goes – one way or another – to a corporation, which registers it as a sale.
If it has a 10% profit margin, 10 cents is recorded as a profit. If it sells at a price-to-earnings ratio of 20 times, its stock price goes up $2. This makes the owner of the stock – it could be one of your parents – $2 richer. (I’m oversimplifying … but you get the point.)
But the government now owes $1 more. And who’s going to pay it? You are! Your parents and grandparents are retiring… and collecting their Social Security and health care benefits. They think they will be able to sell their stocks, too … and their houses … and have even more money to spend.
Time to Wipe the Slate Clean
Now, it’s up to you …
You need to get a job so you can pay for their health care benefits. You need to pay your taxes so they can keep their wars going. You need to buy a house, too, so they can move to Florida and retire. You need to vote for their candidates … work for their companies … and pay their bills.
This is the test you face. You are arriving in the economy at the tail end of a 60-year credit expansion. Debt has boomed. The economy has boomed. We, your parents, enjoyed an economic expansion that began when we were born and continued, with only short interruptions, until we retired.
We got out of school with little or no student debt. We could start businesses with fewer impediments. We could borrow money to fund our businesses and our lives. We could hire, fire, switch jobs… buy and sell houses… move from place to place.
We were freer – and richer – than you will be …
… unless you can wipe the slate clean of our debts … our foolish wars and dumbbell programs … and our attempts to hold back the future and prevent you from living rich, full, free lives of your own.
If you don’t rise to this challenge, you will inherit our bills, our regulations, our restrictions, our obligations, our delusions, our prejudices, and our vanities. You will also inherit a financial crisis – worse than the crisis of 2008 – and a long and grinding economic slump.
The debt expansion of the last 60 years will turn into a dreary debt contraction, possibly dragging the economy into another Great Depression. Either you find a way to shuck off, default on, or inflate away your parents’ debts… or you’ll stagger under the weight of them for the rest of your lives.
Either you break free from the jackass things your parents have done to you … or you deserve what you get.
Congratulations, chumps.
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Well done Bill, well done!
Rubbish. Much easier said than done.
I too hate student debt, but what are the realistic alternatives? The best and brightest keep going to college, because the career prospects for high school drop outs are truly bleak.
ZH should be careful with these articles. Not all college education is bad. Most STEM majors get employed right out of college making good money.
Agreed Especially ones with Java skills (not coffee drinking). If you can pass the Java test, you're hired. Usually for around 80K for new grads in the midwest.
My take is this is another leftist piece to persuade the easily confused that socialism is better for them that a free market economy.
"My take is this is another leftist piece to persuade the easily confused that socialism is better for them that a free market economy."
Exactly. They are trying to sell the idea that the system failed. Not that their poor choice of major/lack of studying/etc. had anything to do with it. So what do they need to do? Change the system of course! Socialized/government controlled everything!
"A drone firing on cave dwellers in the Hindu Kush."
Hey I need to be serious for once. Has anyone seen or head from Regional Indian?
. GENERATION GAP: The Feud that Dictated the Destiny of the World
I work in IT, and around Java people. I am 40ish years old and the only people younger than me are all indians (dot, not feather). It's like the whiteys don't want to learn marketable IT skills. I know my shit and am a 1 interview hire just about anywhere and made a comfortably liveable wage after a complete uprooting relocation to Florida last year. I think the white kids would rather smoke pot and play video games than learn Java / .Net / SQL / Oracle
" Has anyone seen or head from Regional Indian?"
Like..., that's relevant...
" I think the white kids would rather smoke pot and play video games than learn Java"
+100
You fucking retards and the STEM gospel.
If you had a clue, you'd realize that STEM workers are going to see their incomes drop faster as a % of past real wages than any other segment of the workforce.
If you don't believe me, merely talk to tech workers in Silicon Valley and the great H1B wave of immigrants right now, increasing at an exponential
rate.
Did you even bother to check and see who began and sponsors STEM Programs? It's The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Microsoft, GE, Boeing, IBM, HP, Dow Chemical, Ford, Monsanto - all companies exporting high wage jobs and importing lower wage ones. Do you really believe the STEM propaganda?
They want STEM workers, alright. They want LESS EXPENSIVE STEM WORKERS.
Anyone that is not constantly looking at the real future in front of them, and working to adjust, is going to get run over. CompSci is a K-Wave (Kondratiev) and it is long in the tooth. If I was a machinist in the 60s, I would have made bank, but would be jobless today. The same applies for the workers in IT that think they got a free ride for life.
Realize that many companies today are run by men who DICTACTED TO SECRETARIES when they were younger. I have seen so much waste in IT budgets it is not even funny. When that guard goes out and a new, younger guard comes in, they will see through a lot of BS coming from IT managers and the budget hatchet will come out and reap savings. The simple truth is that slowly the industry is becoming a commodity and with that goes the fat margins for most of the lazy milk suckers.
This will always be a good field for smart, talented individuals, but the gravy train that most have ridden is quickly coming to an end. This is precisely one of the reasons I moved to AK (see post downthread).
Regards,
Cooter
All I gotta say is...
Ignorance is very costly.
Yeah, since most everyone wants a bigger piece of the pie when a bigger pie is the answer.
The idiots claiming this is a leftist article promoting socialism haven't read Bill Bonner before. The guy is as anti-crony-capitalist, free market, Austrian economics as they come. He's simply pointing out what the younger generation SHOULD be doing, but seeing as they helped elect Obama twice I'm sure he would conclude they will end up chumps.
I forgot to share this link, best freak video on College ever...
https://youtu.be/SaNlow-vmyA
Reading Bill Bonner is how I found Zero Hedge. He is exactly right about the fraud perpetrated on America's youth by the Gluttinous Geezer Union.
Powerful points, Truth. And it’s significant that these multinational corporations who have the inside track with Congress on getting cheap labor are the major supporters of a multicultural society breaking down the European white culture to make way for a "Utopian" international conquest of resources and labor.
And with their campaign disappear the American patriot and the prosperity of the American worker.
The intention of these globalists with their massive international investments and global holdings, of course, is to replace Western Civilization with their own secular-humanist new world order.
Darkness is descending upon white Americans.
Glad I went from public indoctrination strsight to
machine shop after HS graduation some years ago.
Got Bridgeport?
oh rubbish
We graduated back in the Bluebeep days: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEWr1ikhHhg
Now it's all twitter and COD3 lame.
i beg to differ
i know many white ppl interested in programming and IT skills
" I think the white kids would rather smoke pot and play video games than learn Java / .Net / SQL / Oracle"
Nothing is worse than willing slaves and useful idiots. This whole thread is appalling. The kids prefer to smoke pot and play video games because they have neither hope, nor a direction, nor a future.
You think you can solve this by condoning crazy student debts and forcing everyone into ONE single way out, studying Java / .Net / SQL / Oracle? You are preparing a future where all that makes life worth living like arts, culture, philosophy are going to be irrelevant. And you'll get a country of moronic zombies endlessly programming video games and apps for people who WON'T be supposed to use them, as this will stop them from studying Java / .Net / SQL / Oracle, which are good for video games and apps.
Talk about the dumbing down of the USA... meanwhile, countries with less of a utilitarian bent are producing BRAINS in every possible field. And you know how? By having proper FREE-FOR-ALL education. Countries where you study what you want, buddy, because every possible talent can come in handy at some point.
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
-Robert A. Heinlein
I up voted you because you're correct - a society where everyone is a JAVA/.NET expert is both boring and poor, as no one knows how to make bread.
However - "study what you want" is bad advice when the choices include gender studies, history of wine, and various ways white men have oppressed everybody except other white men, and when anything not a STEM course is taught by a neo-fascist who denigrates original thought and only wants his/her ideas repeated in the vast echo chambers our 'universities' have become.
Better advice: if you're not interested in STEM, find a good library. Read. Think. Write, Have someone you respect critique your work, and repeat as necessary until you're useful.
Truthseeker2
I read the article and the book review on amazon.
How do you account for this?
" Though no one in power will state this publicly, the Federal Reserve has already declared the winner of the generational war: the Baby Boomers won and Gen-X and Gen-Y lost. Fed policies insure the Boomers will benefit from financial bubbles inflated by the Fed, and the following generations will lose--not just this year or next year, but for decades to come."
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogjan15/generational-war1-15.html
A Comment on the book from Amazon:
"The fact is the boomers have ushered in a era of unsustainability that will burden future generations with government dept., unaffordable health care, do-it-yourself defined contribution retirements, underfunded education, outsourcing of jobs for short term shareholder value, urban sprawl and increasing dependance on non-renewable resources.
The author somehow thinks SUVs are an expression of boomers environmental values. That they needed those 4 wheel drive monsters to get out and enjoy nature." "In the end this book amounts to another group-hug in a long line of group-hugs going back to the woodstock album and the big chill.
Just reading other reviews illustrates just how easy it is to flatter boomers. History will remember this book as a very accurate account not of reality but of how the boomer generation viewed themselves. It's interesting how the 60s have been so glorified that it's common to hear kids from the baby-echo generation lamenting how it's too bad they missed the 60s and how they wish they had a 60s era mustang. As a young child in the 60s and 70s I will never forget just how disgusting boomers were."
The Fourth Turning is a much better book on this issue.
http://www.theburningplatform.com/tag/prophet/
"Prophet generations are born after a great war or other crisis, during a time of rejuvenated community life and consensus around a new societal order. Prophets grow up as the increasingly indulged children of this post-crisis era, come of age as narcissistic young crusaders of a spiritual awakening, cultivate principle as moralistic mid-lifers, and emerge as wise elders guiding another historical crisis."
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2012/07/12/the-generations-of-men-how-the-...
It’s also important to keep in mind that no generation is “better” or “worse” than another; each generation has unique strengths and weaknesses, each is important, and each provides balance and self-correction to the cycle of history.
Truthseeker2
If your generation really want to earn redemption, this cycle of your life is your last chance.
Reconcile the past truthfully, and assume your role as the wise elders who share in the sacrifices the younger generations are making.
Be the Prophet generation, not the profit generation.
Divide. Conquer. Repeat.
It's the kids. It's the parents. Zzzz.
Something about blame.
One day, when enough of us are hungrier, and don't have access to our chosen distraction/addiction/dependency, our minds will clear, and we will notice that the biggest buildings have bank names on them. Why is that, we will ask? And when the manager's answers don't fill our stomachs, we will agree with our brethren that the bank, corporate, and government buildings might be better used as clinics, care centers, schools, and shelters to house the survivors of the multigenerational trauma that has been heaped upon us.
Divide and conquer them, we might think.
And today is not that day.
Thank you Freewolf.
My parents had policy dictated to them just as it is dictated to me. They had the honor of sham elections just as I do. So how do I hold them accountable? The elite used American labor to conquer the world and in the wake of WWII labor, awash in easy credit, was feeling pretty good. Trickle down? Hell yeah! Reality has set in- capital needs slaves not partners. Machines not people.
Boomers are heading back into the work force, many of them can't retire, so how, exactly, have they made out like bandits? If they are living on interest they are being robbed by current policies.
Death to the vampire system. Long live the new flesh!
The parants fault Bill? You have got to be kidding me. Unless the grandparants left a shit load of money to the parants to blow on trips, wind& dine most of us had to work our asses of to be able to afford kids and keep up with the new generational goodies their friends had.
Yep, who ever wrote this needs his own reservation on a lamp post, right next to the banksters.
Don't blame the elites who outsourced everything. Don't blame the politicians who sold out their voters. Don't blame the MSM, who told you nothing would happen. When everything goes to shit, blame mom and dad.
If anyone is still dumb enough to believe this, they get what they deserve.
Mom and dad goosestepping right behind their Baby Boomer leaders.
Fuck all you trolls. Bankers good, parents bad. That divide and conquer will have blowback someday.
Who let and later allowed the politicians and bankers to take over/stay in power? Yes, your parents and their parents and so on...
"many of them can't retire"
We call that just deserts. Where is the law of physics which states that Baby Boomers must have a retirement of some sort? This law violates symmetry about 100 different ways, ask your great-great-grandparents about their "retirment", or maybe some Africans, where the retirement age is usually above the average life expectancy by a decent margin.
In my view a good society takes care of its elders.
Retirement in the supposed richest, noblest, most exceptional nation in the world doesn't feel out of bounds.
"Or... Elders should be cared for as they once cared for the younger generation. "
A-ha! The old honor thy parents horseshit.
The generation that didn't honor their vows or commitmnets to their progeny still expects more from someone else.
What happened to the part where thy parents raise their children to succeed in functional families that capitalize on the booms by building infrastructure instead of shipping their children's jobs off or packing them with cheap foreigners and squandering the first world status, etc.?
Both parents abandoned the family unit and pursued their own interests leaving their children to fend for themselves in fraudulent 'nuclear' tv managed shell families, and to be processed by the statist neo-liberal neo-scialist labor preperation farming system called public education.
The kids did get sold out by the boomers. Some of us were even divested of our inheritances from our Grandparents by greedy parents: remember when the Unified Gifts to Minors Act had to be re-written because the parents were robbing their children and abandoning them to be garnished and hassled endlessly by the IRS for taxes on money they had never receicved?
I personally was one of those defruauded in the 80's by that shit. I never got my inheritance but the back-withholding and garnished wages went on for over 6+1/2 years. I did squat and sleep on porches like the kids in that picture: in the 80's and 90's precisely because my parents robbed me of what was rightly mine and then shut the door in face to let the bureaucrats savage me after.
Fuck the boomer scum.
Want some cheese with your whine? It's a real loser that blames an entire group of people for their personal problems. Your experience is personal, not universal, so blame your parents but don't blame mine. Do you think that boomers have had any more control over the elite than young people do now? What a fucking joke... 60,000 boomers died in Vietnam -- sixty thousand kids. Compared to what difficulties younger people have today...? They have college loans and owe money? Boo fucking hoo.
That said, I really feel for people with student loan debt -- they were screwed without a doubt, graduating into this trainwreck of an economy.
I call bullshit on these lazy-ass memes that blame one entire generation for everyone's problems. To the author of this piece of shit piece -- "your parents" created institutions like the FED, the IMF the BIS, etc? Really? "Your parents" must be about 120 years old. And "your parents" didn't vote for wars, or inflation, or getting off the gold standard, anymore than you did. "Your parents" were indeed lucky to live through some pretty good times, but that's all over now, and millions of boomers are struggling too, these days.
Most of you guys sucker for this divisive schtick everytime. This system will never improve as long as stupid people are eager to remain divided over superficial crap like generations, race, "gun control", "liberal" vs "conservative" etc etc. It's all bullshit.
ZH likes to scapegoat, always "us against them", but the only "them" people should be concerned about are TPTB. And better to stick together against those powers otherwise we're all going to suffer, I don't care how "prepped" you are.
Boomers' parents got to enjoy the 1930s depression and World War II. Boomers got to enjoy Vietnam and multiple assasinations of American leaders. It's no fault of their own were born into a relatively peaceful and prosperous time with peak resources, peak empire and a government that actually worked pretty well for the majority of American workers. Gen Y or X gets to enjoy the collapse, yeah, but at least they are young and hopefully have energy to deal with it. Boomers' elder years are not going to be a bed of roses either in these times. No one creates the world they were born into, and very few are able to change it.
It is the Boomers that are continuing to asset strip this nation with inflation so that they can enjoy today and leave the bills for others to pay tommow.
Where is the Cap Ex? Where are the jobs?
Buybacks and stock pumping for pensions isn't building anything.
It is the Boomers that have been and continue to ship jobs overseas or stack them with cheap foreign labor.
My personal history is an illistrative example of exactly how avaricious and callous the Boomers have been to their progeny and this nation. It isn't whining to point out that the criminals have been running the show and what the personal costs are for allowing it to continue.
Illustrating what the real and ugly costs are is what this article was about.
I have already paid those costs personally.
Real people pay in real personal costs: lost opportunities to build businesses and wealth and families and happiness of their own, garnished wages from hard productive work, denial of access to education and medical treatment and a whole host of services that cost money.
I could go on and on because I have actually been there.
I know what is coming because I've been living it.
My parents sold their parents and their children for their pleasure. None of their friends hald it against them.
The whole generation is utterly amoral and self centered to extreme with few exceptions.
My parents sold their parents and their children for their pleasure. None of their friends hald it against them.
The whole generation is utterly amoral and self centered to extreme with few exceptions.
Right the fuck on. This is it in a nutshell.
As for those who claim "I was one of the good ones", one word.
Nuremberg.
OK guys, tell us ignorant boomers what we can do about it NOW. Or are you just going to whine at your kids to suck it up, it was all granpa's fault?
nuremberg poaster? Jesus. You're still alive dude! Get off that couch and put your money where your words are.
To cure your ignorance, due listen to the posted videos by Professor Richard WOLFF on youtube.
Begin with
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZU3wfjtIJY
Next Listen to the Crash Course by Chris Martenson.
Next, become open instead of playing the blame game.
Learn history. Read Eric Fromm's works.
This is a global crisis that began in the late '60s when Boomers were very young.
wolff is a marxist clown and if you are listening to him you are as big a fool as anyone.
Exactly. And Eric Fromm?
Eric Fromm and his Frankfurt School Crypto-commies baked this Crisis Cake. The Boomers ate it up and skipped on the check. They've abandoned their kids in a condemned restaurant to bus the tables and borrow some crumbs on credit.
I don't think it's the boomers per se, but the people of all ages that are greedy assholes and those who just don't think about what they are doing. I'm 45, doing ok, lots of freinds not so much. They are good and hard working. Some are boomers, some are my age, some are younger. I would blame it not so much on a generation but on a system.... and if anything it's the parents of the boomers that sewed this shit. And most had no idea. That's my 2 bits.
greedy bastards... the whole lot of them...
May I respectfully ask what the equivalent to NAFTA, GATT, NSA, TSA, DHS, BATF, CFMA, ACA, LRAD, SWAT, HNB1, TARP, QE, CDO, CDS, MERS, HFT, VIX, so on and so forth was back in the good old days when people werw moar honorable?
None of these things were up for a vote, nobody voted for them. You think people back "in the good old days" had any more control than people do now? They did a lot more protesting in the streets back then. Now all people do is type.
But ya did, sadly (and with no malice).
If you're a registered voter, you blank-checked everything your OwnerLords have done. Said "ok!" to every politician elected during that time.
Voting isn't choosing, its CONSENTING and APPROVING.
Until The Public un-votes, and less than 50% are still saying "yes, please moar!" to the big Red, White, and Blue dick up their asses, things will continue.
That's progressivism, after all.
It's ALL progressive. They just didn't tell you WHAT they were progressing towards.
And street protests? While still registering a "Yes" vote? 6 of one, half a dozen of the either, ZERO SUM.
Total horse shit, like all your other comments. Voting is not consent, unless that vote was in a board room or in congress. There is no consent, when the choice is under duress.
Elections are a fraud. Voters have no more power in the US than they do in North Korea, where only one asshole is on the ballot. Here there are 2, but they were both put there by the same people.
Vote: "Wish, swear, or pledge." Synonymous with "Consent" or "Affirm."
Elect: "To select, or choose."
"There is no consent, when the choice is under duress."
REALLY?! So, you had a gun placed to your head, or your dog threatened with death, if you failed to register to vote? You're actually saying that you were under duress when you signed and sent the registration in?! Because that's the only time you "voted."
And if you KNOW elections to be fraud, may I inquire WHY THE FUCK YOU ARE STILL A REGISTERED VOTER? Again, it's like a child repeatedly sticking their tongue in a light socket because "next time" maybe they won't get shocked. That, and knowingly facilitating fraud makes you culpable.
For an example of how desperately governments (ANY governments) need your consent, watch the following (Dutch "Voteman" video...serious WTF/eye opener):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjbBSLZlpsQ
And if you don't like what I post, move on. I certainly am not forcing you to read it.
Although from the sound of it, you are agreeing with me in principle, but disagreeing with the specifics/verbage.
That's right shit head. Try forming a third party. See what happens as you are villified as a gay crazy, and nobody will ever hire or do business with you again.
So nobody votes, and either the dems win or republicans win 3-2. What did that accomplish. Aw, never mind. Trying to wake up a sheep is useless.
Boy, I think you should go back on your meds.
I was trying to be cordial. Stupid me.
You are obviously hard of thinking (not to mention someone with little-man complex...) Are you going to try to steal my lunch money now?
I would engage you in a battle of wits, but would have to supply you with a weapon in that case.
You have not succeeded in refuting ANY of what I have said so far. Just hurled spittle-laced invectives and ad hominems. Either prove me wrong, or kindly STFU and let the adults speak.
To reiterate (yet again, in a slightly different fashion):
-If nobody is registered, the OWNERS cannot claim to have a moral mandate.- You are fundamentally lacking in comprehension. VOTING IS A DUMMY LOAD. IT DOES NOT HAVE ANY AFFECT ON THE OUTCOME OF ELECTIONS.
You even admitted yourself that elections are fraudulent. So which is it? If they are fraudulent, your vote does not matter anyway.
And what is the purpose of voting, either way? You choose to legitimize fraud by participating in fraud? Have you rationally thought any of this through?!
In the previous post you just said that if "nobody voted" Team A would beat Team B by a single goal...which is illogical, according to your prior assertions that elections are fraudulent ab inito. Logically, if your assertion is that elections are fraudulent, and if nobody voted, the same outcome could be epected. Team A would beat Team B by a single goal.
If you are a REGISTERED VOTER, YOU ARE COMPLICIT IN THE CRIMES OF WHOMEVER IS ELECTED. You are ON RECORD as having CONSENTED, with a signature no less. Incidentally, the Voter Registration card is one of several documents in which you claim Citizenship (subjecthood).
Incidentally, you conveniently ignored my question about how you were coerced into registering your vote...under threat and duress. Care to share, or are you going to hope no one noticed the ridiculousness of your claim and put your tail between your legs?
I have to wonder, are you being deliberately obtuse, or is the truth of this too much for your three functioning braincells and fragile, Matrix-interfaced psyche? Because it seems like this is hitting a nerve with you.
Oh, and how do you like knowing you voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012, and Bush in 2000 and 2004? Because you did, if you were registered. Not that it matters, because they are all the same regardless. Sociopaths are sociopaths. Parties are what we did when we were teenagers.
Grow the fuck up, put your big boy pants on, and start realizing that the world is not what you have been taught it was.
And you are right, Mr. Sheep. It is impossible to wake some of you up. Keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Keep sucking the dick of the Oligarchs, and enjoy the unhappy result.
Sometimes, a person has to register to vote in a low tax state to be domiciled there and escape the rapists in another one. I just don't vote. I also recently acquired citizenships in two other countries and am actively pursuing other protective measures so that I can at least light one or two candles instead of pissing at the darkness when the demolition derby is fully operational.
No one has ever given me a dime, I had to pay for my parents' funerals and I am proud as hell that I did. I worked my way through school and today I'm set. If I can do it, anybody can, it only takes hard work, saving, starting your own business, practice honesty, and most importantly of all, be careful which person you marry. If your spouse is into instant gratification and wants to keep up with the Joneses, drop him or her like a used rubber. You will be doing all concerned the favor of your lives.
One other thing, be sure to go into a business that you are an expert, whether it's plumbing, electrical, computers, engineering and construction, or sales. Ever wonder why so many restaurants and bars go belly-up? Because they didn't know Jack about the business. I can cook and balance a checkbook but that doesn't make me a restaurateur or a CPA. I worked as a bartender but I don't know Jack about owning and running one, profitably.
I can assure all one thing, sitting around chanting "woe is me" and "my rotten parents" will get you what you deserve, NOTHING.
To sum it all up:
GREED
The game is rigged.
Cite precedent. I'm waiting. Put up or shut up.
Socialism, is that when the goverment gos to the bank and says we will hold a gun to this guys head for life and not let him deffault on your loan?
FREEDOM AND CAPITALIZIM, YOU HAVE COME A LONG WAY BABY....
Because, obviously, according to your logic, every single college student can pick the right major. We can have 10 million new Java programmers a year!
The reality is that the economy has to be functional enough to provide jobs for most all college graduates who are making an effort, not just for some tiny slice of graduates who pick the one specialty that is currently in demand.
The whole house of cards starts to tumble when the average person earning the average degree can't find an average job that pays a high enough average wage to afford to start a family, buy an average car and buy an average house.
Your last paragraph describes me. I'm letting the anger flow unrestrained. I have very little to lose and frankly life isn't all that impressive right now. My anger is currently focused on the useless govt narc that tried to put me in prison 22 years ago for claiming that I had 20 grams of cannabis. We'll see what the future brings. I'm having fantasies of serious retribution. Not trying to quell them. I didnt deserve to be kicked in the teeth by my govt when I was 20 years old and had been working since I was 14. Im not going to stand for it. Nobody should.
Here you go bud.
Guillotine - Death Grips.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Orlbo9WkZ2E
Courage is easy when there is nothing left to lose. I am not quite there myself but if my loved ones were killed I would be far less restrained.
There is a storm brewing in many quarters. I feel the tension every day. When the pendulum swings it never stays in the middle. I am not a violent person but I find myself preparing for a violent future and I pray I am wrong. Better to be ridiculed than to be right.
Miffed
Technically I'm a boomer but so is my mom. This is where I don't like labels blurring the lines, because they're often inaccurate and incomplete. Growing up in the 70's I believed legalization of cannabis would happen sooner. I never expected the war on drugs to come and to last as long and be as harsh as it's been. The "get tough on crime" voters were my parents generation. They're only now starting to back off on their anti-drug crusade but they'll never own up to the social cost of their rigid and ignorant belief. I use the war on drugs as one specific example, there are others.
Its obvious that the older generation also infected people with a lack of critical thinking skils or the capacity to grasp the overall picture. This whole rotten mess is going down the toilet and your STEM degree aint gonna help you. Phds were unemployed during Great Depression 1 too.
Duh.
Take a look around and tell me this system isn't failed?
Socialism? You missed the Zombie discussion?
This whole construction needs to be junked and it's illegal puppeteers kicked to the curb.
We could have a robust economy by eliminating the freeloaders of every stripe and using wasted capital to build in the present without using income from the future.
Taking back our power to coin interest free money and kill reserve banking fraud would do just that. Try to imagine a system of Govt. that had to have a balanced budget and to collect every dime instead of borrow before it could spend.
This would be a radically different govt. than what we have today.
"free-market economy"? BWAHAHAHAHA! Boy, you really ARE a scream. Can't decide if you are deliberatly trolling or if you really are THAT dumb. Maybe both eh?
Are you a Java programmer?
"....If you can pass the Java test, you're hired. Usually for around 80K for new grads in the midwest."
On what are you basing your opinion?
I have not searched for a programming job in a number of years. However, when I was, 2000-2005 I sent out hundreds of resumes. And NEVER, NOT ONCE did I see an ad. where Java was the only thing required for employment. Usually, Java was one of 5 or up to 15 software suites/languages skill sets etc. desired to qualify for a position. (In fact, once I saw an ad. where they wanted someone with 10 years of experience using Java, when the language was only 2 years old!)
Eventually, I came to realize, that there is not an real job behind each ad. Kind of like an adult friend site,.. Just more propaganda to brainwash the masses into thinking that the malfunction is with their deficient education/skills.
echoes from a classroom in some random proprietary school for the wayward and hopeful:
"....If you can pass the Java test, you're hired. Usually for around 80K for new grads in the midwest."
nevermind the man behind the curtain OceanX..
You can hire an Indian to do anything you need in C# or Java for a few bucks a day. That profession was a goldmine until about 20 years ago. Now you better have the word "engineering" somewhere in your degree or you'll be lucky to ever get a job on the strength of any degree of Java skills.
A company can spend $80,000 a year on an American programmer, or they can spend $11,000 on an Indian. The Indian employee has very good English skills, good grades in college, and a good work ethic. $11,000 buys him a comfortable middle class lifestyle in India. It is not working for cheap.
Exactly.
OceanX, roddy, and others here "get it," and it's a relief to see.
What's happening now is that multinationals doing business in the U.S. are pushing for more and more easy immigration regulations for specialized workers (tech, medical, IT, chemistry, biosciences, etc.) because that way, they can pay less and less in both nominal and real terms over the coming years, whether their employees are in Boston or Bombay.
STEM is part of this process. It's designed to fool people into thinking it is designed around good intentions in a nationalistic, competitive sense, when it really is prepping the ground and collective mentality to see American high tech workers, formerly paid much more than foreign counterparts (as they used to be more productive), catch salaries down to foreign OR domestic workers of foreign nationality and citizenship.
Programming, even at high levels, will soon be a $20/hour job. Watch, wait and see.
The truth is on average you need to have 3.75 Indian programmers to replace an qualified American counterpart.
Almost dead on....just did an SAP upgrade. Things I could explain to an American and they could take and run with would take days of my time and multiple people to get scoped out and programmed. I'm talking simple things too. There were only a few 'western' programmers and everyone always went to them first....last resort, Indians. Language, cultural, mentality barriers are greater than people think. It is possible to do with Indians, but be prepared for the 3-5 rule like reader says....and if this is the case, then where are the savings.?.?
We just finished an Oracle upgrade and the experience was entirely different from yours. The team consisted of a Norwegian (male), a Korean (female), two Americans (M/F) and two Indians (M/M). Of these six, the Norwegian and Korean really knew their stuff while the Indians weren't as experienced but made up for it with working late into the night. The American male's role was almost that of public relations/translator, although they all had programmer titles. Oh, and the American female put in her 8 hours and then headed for the beach/bar while the others continued to work past sundown.
i Am fucking sick and tired of seeing ppl from india here taking away work from americans who have gone to college
If they weren't here- they'd be in India working for the same corporations- many are. Whether they're here or there isn't the real problem.
The gubmint issues work visas, and offshoring, because the gubmint is owned by the corporations.
In turn, the corporations are owned by the Billionaires.
We have the best government money can buy.
That's what I'm sick of.
There it is in a nutshell.
The bright side is that instead of expensive pretty wrapping paper with a bow on a box, people are finally stating to see govt. as clear saran wrap on a steaming turd.
Even the blissfully unaware are starting to catch a whiff.
You get what you pay for.
I've hired and worked with Indian "IT Professionals" who are actually from India -- born and raised, and let me tell you that 9 times out of 10 professional is the furthest description you can use to describe the service and quality that you get. In my experience, you need at least several Indians to do the job of one solid Canadian or American.
Anyone that has worked in the Middle East GCC countries (Saudi, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, Oman) for example can attest to this vehemently.
This quote pretty much sums it up:
very good English skills? you have the sarcasm mode on, right?
Say you didn't have the experience of having head hunters contact you and ask you for an "updated" resume? That happened to me when I was laid off back in 2006. I tried looking like crazy but couldn't get anything in my career field. Then I left Massachusetts and was able to get into another field and get steady employment. The real game is that only the well-connected have jobs and what is posted on Monster or other job boards is eye candy for the stupid masses. Oh and the headhunters and go and screw themselves to death!
This is the trick. Create a fake job ad that is impossible to fill. Then they use that as a basis to hire H1-B who just happen to have these skills. They really don't have them but the employer lies.
Experienced and saw all the exact same thing. When I see someone write a comment about 1 programming skill and all of sudden they'll be earning $80k a year, I know I am reading a comment or article written by someone who has not been around very long or knows nothing about the software profession. Been there, done that and know BS when I see it. THe only way I escape the apocalypse of outsourcing was changing industries and utilizing my engineering background rather than just programming ... the laundry list of skills I accumulated is long and with depth. The outsourcing blows it all away into nothingness.
Long time programmer here and yeah the idea that you pass a java test and are earning 80k is a stretch. I have managed to survive the apocalypse of outsourcing and insourcing of H1s but to do it you have to be on top of your game. You can never rest on your laurels and I have to spend an average of 10 hrs a week outside of regular work reading and learning to stay competitive. Its a major pain in the ass to have to learn the latest framework etc every 6 god damn months and alot of hard work. Who knows how long it will last but there still seems to be a demand for lead type of devs that have experience, critical thinking skills and communication skills. I got a degree in bong hits and sega hockey so its still my best option by far.
try specializing in embedded controls....be an arrogant ultra-safe type who only works in bare assy (no higher level languages) on bare metal (no underlying OS platform). the programming is actually more fun, you never have to learnthe latest framework every 6 months....just pick up the quirks of a new chipset once in awhile. it helps if you do the hardware design as well....
Agree. you have to find some little niche and be the best. So good that management knows that if anything goes wrong in the middle of the night that you can figure out the cause and corrective action. You have to make management look good over and over again. You must finish projects on time and under budget, put in weekend and night hours to keep up with your skills, and be liked by your customers. If you can do that, plus have the best institutional knowledge, build an internal network of like minded folks/performers in different technology support areas, so you can gain favors when a solution or research requires acurate and timely information from an area you can't access due to seperation of duties, you are golden up to today. You may feel great to be in good graces now, but have a feeling that you are a debt slave trying to stay running on the debt treadmill. Sometimes the payment shears nick too close that it turns your stomach when you stop to think about hoping to keep a job so you can give your tribute to the system.
The problem is the "cut expenses" train keeps on rolling. For now, top performers have had nothing to worry about, but almost all other costs have been cut (in-sourcing, off shoring, near shoring, etc.) Soon outsourcing the top performers will be the target, like it or not, the managers won's lay themselves off first. Maybe a company has met expense reduction goals by moving 50% of jobs to asia, but what will happend over the next 10 year? That 50% will likely become 80% and the chances of keeping your job keep going down. It's a lot to hope you can make it another 10-20 years with a big target on you due to your cost. Maybe 1 in 1,000 will make it unless something happens to end globalism and increase protectionism.
Indeed.com has a nice "salary" search where you can toss in a keyword or two, they match it to recent job postings, and you can see salary trends, compare trends between areas, and stuff like that.
http://www.indeed.com/salary
Try that for Java, .NET, or whatever IT bits tingle your rocks.
They also have a trends feature that works similar, so one can see how job postings are growing (or declinging) with regards to various tech bits. I used this in the past to decide if I should actually invest time in learning a technology when I was looking for career path options.
Regards,
Cooter
Egad,
I stay away from programmers. Think of it. The Programmed writing the programs.
Just like I predicted that the E retail industry was not an innovation but the death of retail, so is that programmer.
Geez, at some point you have to realize that in technology, the real bubble is just that, a bunch or crap codes and reallly mean very little to life. Makes me think of myspace, or maybe in the future facebook or twitter.
Even the names are pathetic and fake.
If you can pass the Java test, you're hired.
Java: Watered down C++ with training wheels.
Mathematicians with PhDs make $500,000 but you have to work. I decided a long time ago that it is definitely not worth the hassle. They can take their 1/2 million a year and shove it.
It always struck me as crazy that the mathematician who writes an HFT program gets paid half a million a year while the program makes billions a day. I never understood why the mathematicians didn't just write one for themselves and retire to a nice nation they just bought with today's profits.
Motasaurus It always struck me as crazy that the mathematician who writes an HFT program gets paid half a million a year while the program makes billions a day. I never understood why the mathematicians didn't just write one for themselves and retire to a nice nation they just bought with today's profits.
----
Answer and this answers the question of why many smart people don't do what you think.
Let's say I am a young mathematician and computer programmer and GS comes to me and says, "We will hire you and pay you $500,000/year if you will write a program for us to HFT"
Now you are this super smart mathematician that isn't making shit. Yea, you might be lucky enough to have a cozy academic job making $100,000 if you are lucky. So you take that GS offer.
You are now locked into various patent, disclosure and privacy contracts with GS as part of your employment. While you might have asked, why didn't this person do it on their own without GS? Well you didn't have the resources of GS to reach those goals.
That is the devil in the details. GS or whatever bank provides the resources and takes whatever you can give and owns it. All corporations do that, not just banks. And even though you may have created or invented something, it isn't yours - it belongs to the corp.
----
Now I want you to realize that this is how banks manipulate and cause problems globally.
A foriegn nation is in capital crises and needs monetary aid. Some central bank provides that resource. But in return, they own you.
It's nothing but a legalized mafia and it is endorsed by government. That is why we are all fucked.
That's why you kinda have to read stuff before you sign it.
The VC guys aren't going to treat you much better and you'll be working a lot harder too.
People like a return on their money for risk.
While you might have asked, why didn't this person do it on their own without GS?
It's more about being able to cut in line or jump to the front of the line than it is about math. Add a short random delay to each transaction and watch all HFT algos go "poof!"
I'm sure I'll get deluged with down-arrows for this, but there is actually more to an education than purchasing (on credit, no less) the right set of employer-ready job-specific skills. If you do it right, you learn how to think in a disciplined way. That's a set of skills that allows one to learn anything. There was a time when an employer would hire a bright person, and teach them the skills required to do a job. Now that's been outsourced to the colleges, and the costs outsourced to the would-be-employee/student, just as self-serve checkout lanes and self-service phone trees outsource customer service onto the customer.
I'm quite the one to talk; I dropped out of college, after having dropped out of high school. Come to think of it, I didn't finish middle school either (true story). But I did learn how to learn. I know how to find information, evaluate it, sort it and distribute it to those who can make specific use of it. In other words, I was taught how to do virtually anything. JAVA programming didn't exist a couple generations ago, and it might not exist in another couple generations. But being able to sort and deal with information, how to learn, has always been valuable and always will be. I've never been without multiple job options a day in my adult life, and now I've been (as I put it) gainfully unemployed for 11 years, having come to the realization that I can make a lot more money with a lot less stress by selling my skills to many employers, rather than allowing a single employer to have a monopoly on the product of "Me." It's a lot easier to support one's self and familiy than to support one's self and family, boss's self and family, various administrative assistants and hangers-on and a corporate structure on the fruits of one's labor and intelligence. It does require that one be willing to take sole responsibility for one's self, and to live by one's wits. But if you're going to live by your wits, it's better to rely on the ability to learn anything than a specific set of skills. That's what education is supposed to be. If you want vocational training, good for you. Go and get it. But that's not the same thing, regardless of what the thoroughly financialized Education Industry will try to tell you. And sell you.
But I did learn how to learn. I know how to find information, evaluate it, sort it and distribute it to those who can make specific use of it.
This is the lifetime skillset worth having. Better be able to analyze market trends and forecast the next big skill demand as well. That one REALLY pays off.
I had a friend in high school who never graduated. Then he went to Yale undergrad, and never graduated. Then he went to Stanford to work in mathematics - artificial intelligence. He's a Bay Area real estate dude now, so make of that what you will....
Monetary Policy Overides All?
Maybe if the impoverished camping students in photo 2 spent less on cheeseburgers?....
I see a psychology, womyn's studies, primitive cultures, and a herstory major in that photo. I also see 4 Democrat voters.
edit: Add at least 2 more Democrat voters to the count. I missed the Walking Dead photo.
Be kind to the moo cows.
They are the only true majority.
mooooooing at cows
life is good...
Tease em but don't tip em over. They won't give much milk for a couple days.
They should watch Dual Survivor, and actually learn something about Basic Survival.
Tip : The Prepper Gear (for bugging out) is tiered as follows... Thing to have...
1. On your Person at all times, i.e. in your pants, shirt, vest, jacket
2. In a Day-pack (day hike)
3. On a Bicycle or Motorbike (Saddle Bags + Cart)
4. In Car Trunk or Truck (and Trailer, if possible).
That way, depending on the urgency and situation, you go for #2, 3 or 4 in a matter of minutes, not hours. And I'd stay away from regions of extreme climate conditions, if you have to live outdoors (in tent) for long periods.
That takes care of your own needs. Next, to gradually rebuild your New Life, you'll need to ID and form small groups of people with complementary skills and common goal: Climb back up the Foodchain.
With all that free time, it might be a good idea to read Survival Books and Foraging books. Nature offers lots of food everywhere -- if you know how to find it, ID it and prepare it. I.e., when not begging for Handouts on a street corner, or some Gov office. Heck, if you have half a brain and any ambition, you can offer your help at a Soup Kitchen, Shelter or Community Organizer office. There are plenty of the latter in Democratic areas.
I'll be easy to find during bugout Kirk. I'll be at the nearest cigar bar smoking a La Gloria Cubana and sipping Jack Daniels.
Waiting for the rules of engagement to firm up.
The best and brightest? Some of the stupidest people I've met have college degrees. My cousin, who's in college tells me her reading class is going well. Reading class? Yep, reading class.
College ain't what it use to be.
Naw, it's always been that way. I went to UC Berkeley back in the seventies and about 1/3 of the freshman class had to take remedial English. And these were native english speakers. I'm thinking "why are they even here if they need remedial English?".
The truth is about 5% or less of people actually have a drive to learn new things and take enjoyment in learning. These are scholars and engineers and scientists by nature.
The other 95% only learn when it's forced down their throats. These should be in trade school or learning on the job somewhere.
Bingo-rooni!
And this is precisely why the whole "everyone's snowflake has to go to college" meme is destructive.
Or, as I explained it to my happy hour buddy down south ... if you got nine sods bucking hay onto a trailer and one driving the truck, if they all go to college, you will still have nine sods bucking hay onto a trailer and one driving the truck.
Education doesn't change how the economy works, that takes entrepreneurs, capital, innovation, and good decision making. It is one, big scam.
Regards,
Cooter
Cooter, please capitalize South, if you are talking about my area of the country. If not, apologies, BTW, I like your posts.
College reading class? My oldest is just finishing up kindergarten, and he can read. I can't fucking believe it. I thought the system was supposed to be totally screwed. Kids reading in kindergarten sounds pretty un-screwed to me.
Could it actually be improving?
Kaiserhoff, only one solution when you realize the truth.
But I'll bite:
Keep the current funding system. Just make it non-fraudulent.
The way it would look:
You sign your name on the Promisary Note (you know, a big "N-Dollar Bill") CREATING the funds (and here you thought the Fed was the only one that could create money). You hand it to the "loan company." They hypothecate it for several times its face value, and hand you the markers to use for your "Education."
That is the end of it. The transaction is finished. You gave fair and generous consideration (your signature, authorizing the creation of the funds), they gave you the shekels to use for lernin'. Done, and done.
Not much different than what is going on now... minus of course the fraud/larceny by trick and deception wherein the "loan companies" get you to pay them again, and yet again, for the PRIVILEGE of creating money for them.
If the loan-er cannot show that they risked funds that existed PRIOR to the loan being "made," then that is fraud. If they show the loan on their books as an ASSET, that's fraud (same basis for the FedRes' private rental currency, but I digress).
Don't believe me? If you are thinking of "taking out" a loan, stipulate that you want the funds disbursed as cash. Ask to meet the "loan company principle" in person, and have them bring the money in a briefcase (before you sign anything).
WON'T HAPPEN, EVER. They don't have the money, since they need YOU to create it out of thin air.
The presence of fraud vitiates contracts ab-inito. Read that again. Agreeing to fraud does not obligate the "loan-ee" to anything whatsoever (must be good-faith on the part of both parties). Any monies the loan-ee remits are by definition ill-gotten gains for the "loan company," the product of fraud by trick and deception.
It's like letting car thieves keep the rides they steal, because the owner should have known not to leave it parked on the street.
Never mind the fact that a Corporation is not alive, and cannot therefore enter into a valid contract with a living being.
Recompense needs to be made to all loan-ees retro-actively, as anyone that diligently paid these thieves did so in good faith, because they believed (wrongly) that they were doing the right thing. They need to be made whole, with interest for the likely hardship and suffering they experienced by sacrificing financially to enrich CRIMINALS.
The heads of all the companies (and anyone in the GOV complicit) need to be imprisoned, and made to eat RAMEN for the rest of their lives. Let the punishment fit the crime.
Every single outstanding "LOAN" made in this fashion is fraudulent.
This information needs to be spread far and wide. When it is comprehended, things will change. Until then, business as usual.
Kaiserhoff,
I agree that the author should have provided some examples of solutions. I wish that I had people telling me about the debt that I was acquiring. But I didn't think twice about going to school. I am stuck with and trying to break free ASAP. I have paid over $30,000 in principal alone and still have a long way to go.
My profits of my candles with silver coins (www.etsy.com/shop/ScentSavers) goes toward my student loan debt. I have a ways to go, but at least I'm working towards my financial freedom. I am also educating people along the way. I think that they would great graduation gifts. Hopefully, the candles along with some info on the flyers get the kids to think about their financial futures.
Included on my product flyer is this quote: "Gold is the money of kings, silver is the money of gentleman, barter is the money of peasants - but debt is the money of slaves." - Norm Franz
The best alternative is to have the government pay tuition for the top universities, like any other self-respecting country, and ask the rest to go to community college.
(actually the rest would work itself out, as you can't ask $30k/year tuition for a school if the good schools actually have free tuition thanks to subsidy)
All the other countries you refer to have a different business model.
They steal an even larger percentage of their Subject's money in order to "give it back to them."
Since 100% of "The Federal (Reserve's) Income Tax" is pure profit for the Federal Reserve, none of that is available for "services." (Oh, you get "serviced," just not how you would like...)
I suspect that some of these other countries you speak of MIGHT actually spend 1% of the up to 80% "mandatory donations" their subjects pay them. Grudgingly, I aver, but still, it's something.
But it is begging your masters for crumbs, and just encourages them to be more brazen.
How about, just like the Medical Industrial Complex, you dismantle the structure that allows for price inflation (Insurance Scam Companies and Loan Companies), and allow the price of things like medical care and Education to come back down from their current hyper-inflated costs?
How many employers like hiring a bright High School Graduate?
Sure, you can get into a training program for some pretty awesome technical skills, but, odds
are that can cost as much as a college degree, and no guarantees you get a job after that.
You could apprentice in plumbing for 5 years, and it's a good career provided you aren't working
somewhere real estate doesn't collapse or you don't get hurt
So if you don't go to college that means you have to drop out of high school and have no skills? I'll bet the average welder, electrician, or plumber is much better off financially than 75% of college graduates. Most college degrees are worthless and the person would have succeeded without them anyways.
Spot. Fucking. On.
A two year lineman vocational schooling is BANK. Every single town in the ENTIRE United States has electrical lines which need constant maintenance/repair. Power is going to be the LAST thing anyone gives up when shit goes bad. I say this choosing electricity over a flushing shitter.
Regards,
Cooter
"I too hate student debt, but what are the realistic alternatives? "
Trades: Plumber, Electrician, welder, etc, or start a small retail business: Deli, convience store, machine shop, etc.
Or, go to community college for all your electives and then transfer to a university to finish up your degree. Do bother with Liberal arts degree. You need to pick a professional Major, preferably STEM.
Or self-train educate yourself Computer science (ie Database, Web, programming, virtualization, Linux ). For the cost of a few classes you can set up enough hardware to learn just about anything about CS. For experience, join an open source project as a contributor, especially for anything that is cutting edge.
Self training can also be applied to trades. Find a Plumber, electrician, machinist to learn from, Be a helper and offer to work for free (Still cheaper than paying to sit in a classroom and still not get paid). The only trick is you need to be reliable (show up on time, and be helpful). Then start studying on your own time to pass the test be become licensed (at least for a Plumber, electrician, Some prefressions you do not need a license: ie machinist).
If you want a job for life, be a plumber. The cost of a tech school is a fraction of the usual route and in some cases, the education can be had just from OJT. Just like a nurse, there is a job waiting for you, anywhere you go in the nation.
Micchone is SO HOT!
And so RIPE under all that Zombie goo and personal slime.
Note: No TP in the Great Outdoors. And I don't see her carrying handsoap or sanitizer, etc. No Thanks. Getting Dirty is about what you do, not in what you are.
what you all fail to understand is that we as a civilization are not being served by drone armies, we are serving the drones. whichever empire does not master the newest best warfare technology cannot dominate. mastering that technology is insufficient , however, for domination on its own. far more is necessary, such as the cooperation of the population in general. these drones kick fucking as as killing. warfare has changed forever and you peaceniks can hate on satan all you want, but satan knows no nationalties, creeds, skin colors, or classes
he is very much equal opportunity. drones for everyone!!!!.
. satan loves drones.
and drones love satan. they are in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-g .
first comes love than comes marraige then comes drones with satan in a hellfire carraige.
woohoo!. go drones! je sui droninator.
Time for your pill, taslaberry.
Yes. The red one.
Ha! What a bunch of losers! I see the fat-asses still have enough loose change for cigarettes, though....nice priorities.
bullshit, the parents signed off on those student loans too
Baaaaaaa, Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, Baaaaaaaaaaaa, Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa......
and now mom/pop (maybe grand) want to send you back to cro-magnon compliments of vlad's vast nuclear arsenal.
I went to a high school graduation some years back, and listened to the valedictorian speaking about how they all look forward to being productive and paying taxes. I bit my tongue, as I thought,"get back with me in about 5 years and let me hear that again".
Wow.
Good little brainwashed Subjects.
"Being Productive."
YES, BUT FOR WHOM?!
It's not about the answers in life, it's about knowing the QUESTIONS to ask.
COWS are productive.
SHEEP are productive.
SUBJECTS are productive.
"Am I being productive for myself, or another entity?"
"And why do they call me a Human Resource...?"
They were raised for an expected hippie Paradise, but all the flowers wilted as their expected Promised Land became a barren Hell.
Oh and while you're doing this shit, get the hell out of my house
<< And good jobs are hard to get. >>
Engineering company to cut fifth of its workforce, third of its fleetSubsea 7, a London-based subsea engineering and offshore services company, announced plans to cut 2,500 jobs by early 2016, according to Reuters.
http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/morning_call/2015/05/engineering-comp...
mmm ... an engineering degree used to be considered to be pretty solid.
Why I left the big city (one of the reasons). When shit comes undone, all the folks that thought they were secure are suddenly jobless. 100s or 1000s of engineers all applying for the same few openings in the same area (mortgages and all that - can't move) isn't pretty. I have seen it up close.
Regards,
Cooter
"Why I left the big city (one of the reasons). When shit comes undone, all the folks that thought they were secure are suddenly jobless. 100s or 1000s of engineers all applying for the same few openings i"
True, but consider North Dakota - bakken (rural by any defination) had been swamped by people in search of a job. Unfortunately at least a large enough population is willing to travel in search of a job. Its only the parasites that are not willing to move and will remain in urban regions, simply because thats where the biggest handout come from.
The best option, is buy property and build a homestead where the odds of something like a bakken happening are very remote, and then just travel to get work (rent), When the job is over you just move on. When the SHTF, you have you have your homestead to bug out too, as well as nice place to get away from the rat race. ideally find an employer or become the employer when you can either work from home or can work a 4 day week (ie 4 ten plus hour days) and travel back to the homestead. I know this is easier said then done.
Under no circumstance can I see buying a home in an urban/suburbian area makes any sense. Most people need to find a replacement job every few years. Buying a property near a job is futile since you would need to deal with the hassle and expenss of selling and moving every few years. Better to rent to be agile to the shifting economy and job market.
Read the Fourth Turning, by Strauss and Howe. It tells everything thats going to happen.
Exactly. It's time for a cleansing world war. Clear out the genetic dead wood and start over.
War doesnt clean out the genetic dead wood. It kills the unlucky.
The Unlucky CREDITORS, mind you. Every 70 years or so, because that's when the Corporate Bankruptcy Reorganizaiton of the United States happens. 2001 was the last one (burned the 100+ story filing cabinets and stole the gold).
And the genetic dead wood would be the inbred sociopathic devolved genocidal degenerates that consider themselves our Masters.
But yes, sadly, it looks like that particular play is going to be called. Unless enough of the Public extracts their melons from their poop chutes.
And so the game goes.
War often kills the BEST in a society - the young and strong, and often the naively idealistic. You have to wonder how Europe might have been different if WWI had not occurred. The best men of a generation were killed wholesale.
In many ways war is reverse eugenics -the 4F's survive while the best physical specimens get killed. Even in all out war you have a cross section of the population killed though protracted war with starvation and disease kill the old and young at disproportionate rates.
Excellent. Someone else gets it.
The two "Great" wars were about (in part) culling those that would stand up and fight.
Weeding out those with the strength and will to fight for something (the WRONG something, but still...).
Two generations in a row, to really down-select the gene pool for strength of will, and up-select for docility and compliance. Prepping the population for what we have now...everyone's SITTING watching TV, no one (or rather, a vanishingly small percentage) stands for anything anymore.
Yet another key to the puzzle.
And I would say not reverse-eugenics at all. They are getting exactly what they want out of their Farm Animals.
This never occurred to me until a friend of mine explained to me why the French are such pussies; Napoleon killed all the real men in his 20 years of wars and all that was left was the ones who hid or were unable to fight. The French Revolution was a 20 year riot. Just look at Hollande for the dividend payment.
Devo!
Regards,
Cooter
Yes indeed! It puts wars (and any sort of prolonged Civil Disturbance) into new light.
I would also postulate that it is a learned trait, since those that stood up got pounded down. A third possibility is the genetic depletion of Delta-FosB, a chemical that is depleted with repeated traumas (interesting study here: http://phys.org/news/2007-07-brain-chemical-despair.html)
Either way (genetic, neurochemical or memetic), the results are the same: pussification.
We are conditioned to believe the history "just happens."
I will paraphrase and extend a quotation from one of the prior Figureheads:
"If something happens, you'd better believe it was planned that way." -Franklin Roosevelt
Yes, he said "in Government," but simply extrapolating to a larger system (itself made up of "governments," thus retaining logical consistency), it becomes clear that history, far from being a random collection of uncontrollable events, shows itself as a rationally planned piece of storytelling.
Oh, I'm not saying it is planned down to the very last detail. Just like any good Cinema, TV series, or work of literature, the Authors start with a general outline, an armature of a plot. A direction and a desired outcome. Contingencies are put in place, allowances made for the fallibility and unpredictability of the human organism.
It becomes clearer when you know what you are looking for.
The older ones , TPTB, also get a war dividend in that the virile men have been thinned, thus more witch wool for the ivory tower pricks.
This might explain a lot of the spineless I encountered living in Europe. If you think Americans are sheep you haven't seen anything until you've dealt with Europeans. Between the WWs and living under monarchs for centuries they can behave like the ultimate house niggers. This is especially true in the workplace where the lack of independent thought, challenging the status quo where necessary, complete and total fear of "the boss" and lazy ass attitude of "its not my job" is simply overwhelming. Don't rock the boat is a commandment for them, no matter how rotten things are.
So Bonner...it's blame the parents?
The US government has not needed to care what voters thought since 1971. When they realized that the Fed could back up all their spending they were able to ignore the protest against increased spending with Obamacare, Medicare part D and other programs. It is not that boomers did not protest, we were just ignored. Before kids start blaming their own parents let them consider that in 35 years their kids will be blaming them.
This has not been a case of boomers begging for more stuff. it has been a run away government that does not rely on tax revenue anymore. All taxes have done is slow down the rush to D-Day. When the dollar breaks this whole show will have a very lengthy intermission.
As a man born in 1910, my grandfather lamented his parents and his generation for not standing up to the abuses piled upon Americans by Wilson, Hoover, FDR and Johnson. As a small businessman-inventor, he had particular vitriol for FDR. He basically said that people of his age let my generation down by doing nothing. That is what Bonner is calling our attention to; for what ever reason, our lack of capability to tackle the runaway government you so apply describe.
Today's young people are really going to have to work their brains in order to obtain a standard of living that was realized during a period of time where obtaining such a standard was done with relative ease; middle class. My kids are dissapointed that they may not ever have the life I've had, but they've been given the tools to get on with their lives whatever that may be. That's the best this boomer could do, be honest, supportive and don't coddle.
As a baby boomer I was first in my line to go to college (engineering) BUT had a full set of practical skills courtest of a blue collar family history. I paid part of my way through school rehabbing the places I lived. MY children are going to top tier universities but still have basic skills. Both are pretty good carpenters and mechanical skills. I doubt they'll have the same lifestyle as adults that they had as kids (such is the nature of limited resources and a growing population).
We were lucky and did better than expected - our kids will make it through college without any debt. We worked damn hard to get where we are but know plenty of others who worked just as hard who are barely getting by thanks to one problem - a job loss, health problem or other issue. Having worked hard to get through college and worked while IN college my wife and I promised out kids a college education if they did the best they could in school. They held up their end.
Our kids have realistic expectations and are actually pretty good about living within their means. This is pretty unusual compared to their peers - many of whom spend like mad without ever thinking, depending on parents to bail them out. They've been far more realistic about their goals than friends who seem to be counting on theor parents to get them jobs when finished with college (a far too common path these days).
The SMART kids who do well in school and work hard will be OK. It's the ones who EXPECT everything without any effort on their part who are in deep trouble. That applies to the not so well educsted who thought they could work construction like their father (no so easy with lots of competition for low wages) and to the well off (whose parents got them into a decent college and even got them thrir first job - but the lack of effort and work ethic lead to a quick reality check).
interesting how the lasvegaspersona is not concerned or upset about the 4 trillion USA sent on the fake "war on terror" but is ALL upset abotu obama care. Trolling is a full 24 hours job, indeed.
huh?
How as I suppsed to know I had to mention your pet peave in my comment? I'll do my own complaining you do yours...At one comment every few days I give myself a "D" for trolling...but Ill work on it...hear it pays really well, better than my medical practice I'm sure.
The problem is not so simple. The millenials often don't have enough knowledge or sometimes don't even care enough to fix it. Just chopping something up into generational or race warfare is retarded and just plays into a divide and rule paragigm.
Here's a song written about 20 years ago about the very same problem and counting... I'd imagine 20 years ago most people were pretty ignorant of this sort of thing..."none are more helpessly enslaved than those who believe they are free". Well the lights on now, and a lot of people realize the're in a cage...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlBIa8z_Mts
I told my kids to choose a profession they liked but to keep in mind they would not like it very long if they didn't make much money doing it. They listened. They were educated in private school and we paid out-of-pocket for college. One is an engineer and the other a physician.
Too many kids fail to consider the return on student loan debt with their major. Not surprising with the economic example set by out government.