This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Confusion, Delusions, & Illusions
Submitted by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,
Two recent surveys, along with numerous other studies and data, reveal most American households to be living on the brink of catastrophe, but continuing to act in a reckless and delusionary manner. There have certainly been economic factors beyond the control of average Americans that have resulted in real median household incomes remaining stagnant for the last 36 years. The unholy alliance of mega-corporations, Wall Street and bought off corrupt politicians have gutted the nation of millions of good paying jobs under the guise of globalization, while utilizing debt, derivatives and financial schemes to enrich themselves. The malfeasance of the sociopathic privileged class does not discharge the personal responsibility of citizens for living within their means. A lack of discipline, inability to delay gratification, failure to understand basic mathematical concepts, materialistic envy, absence of critical thinking skills, and a delusionary view of the world have left the majority of Americans broke and in debt.
The data that captured my attention was how little the average American household has in savings. Roughly 62% of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings and 21% don’t even have a savings account, according to a new survey of more than 5,000 adults conducted this month by Google Consumer Survey for personal finance website GOBankingRates.com. This dreadful data is reinforced by a similar survey of 1,000 adults carried out earlier this year by personal finance site Bankrate.com, which also found that 62% of Americans have no emergency savings for a medical crisis, car repair, or unanticipated household expenditure.
The fact is these are not highly unlikely scenarios. They happen every day as part of our routine existence. Everyone gets sick. Every car eventually needs new tires or an engine repair. Every home will need a new hot water heater or roof at some point. It is foolish and short sighted to not expect “unexpected” expenditures. Living in the moment and fulfilling your immediate desires may feel good today, but leaves you susceptible to disaster tomorrow. Gradually building a rainy day fund over time is what adults should do. Only immature children operate with no safety net. Everyone has an excuse for why they end up living on the edge, but the data exposes us to be an infantile nation of spendthrifts incapable of distinguishing between wants and needs. It might be understandable for young adults who are burdened by student loan debt and entry level jobs to have little or no savings, but the data for older Americans is most disturbing.
It seems 51% of all Generation X adults between the ages of 35 to 54, in the prime earning years of their lives, have ZERO savings, the highest among all age cohorts, with over 20% of them not even having a savings account. This is incomprehensible and reveals an almost juvenile approach to life. Approximately 70% of all 35 to 54 year old households have $1,000 or less in savings. These are people who should have been working for the last 10 to 30 years. To not have put aside more than $1,000 is beyond irresponsible, and the justification of earning no interest on savings is disingenuous as they could have earned 5% up until 2008. This shocking state of affairs can’t only be laid at the feet of the evil bankers and rich corporate titans.
Every person has to accept personal responsibility for their own life. There is one sure fire way to accumulate savings and that is to spend less than you earn. It sounds simple, but the vast majority of Americans have chosen to live beyond their means by allowing themselves to be lured into debt by the Wall Street debt peddlers and their Madison Avenue media maggots selling dreams to willfully ignorant delusional consumers. Consumer dependent corporations hawking autos, electronics, glittery baubles, fashionable attire, toxic processed sludge disguised as food, and other slave produced Chinese crap, require a vast unlimited supply of easy money debt to keep profits rolling in. And the Federal Reserve has been willing and able to accommodate them.
Those who control the levers of this perverted economic system utilize Fed easy money, propaganda advertising messages, and the susceptibility of an oblivious populace, suffering from delusions of grandeur, to create generations of debt enslaved hamsters running on the wheel of life. But, we were not forced into this enslavement. Millions have chosen to live lives of quiet desperation in order to keep up with the Joneses. They would rather portray themselves as successful and wealthy, rather than make the necessary sacrifices required to achieve success and wealth. Everyone has the ability to live beneath their means. Millions have made the choice to do so. The chart above shows 10% to 20% of people do have $10,000 or more in savings, including young people. Many are average middle class Americans, not the despised 1%.
It is certainly not easy to accumulate savings in an economy stacked against the working middle class, but it is possible. It requires self-discipline, deferring gratification, patience, budgetary skills, staying employed, and not coveting your neighbors’ possessions. The lack of short-term savings is not an isolated data point. It is representative of a nation of narcissistic live for today ne’er-do-wells who rarely concern themselves with the future or the consequences of their actions. They haven’t been putting all their spare cash into their retirement plans either. When you realize the typical household between the ages of 35 to 54 has less than $10,000 saved for their retirement, the mass delusion becomes clear. How could Boomers, who have worked for 30 to 40 years, and experienced the greatest bull market in history (1981 – 2001) have only $12,000 of retirement savings as they approach retirement?
These are median figures, so half the households have even less retirement savings. It requires decades of living above your means to accumulate such little in savings. The apologists for the non-saving masses often argue Americans were utilizing their homes as a store of wealth to be used in retirement. This is just another false storyline, as the savings poor public used their homes like an ATM machine from 2001 through 2008, extracting hundreds of billions to spend on granite countertops, exotic Caribbean vacations, home theaters, BMWs, Olympic sized pools, bling, and new boobs for mommy. Equity in homes plunged from 60% to below 40% in the space of a few years and has only recovered to 55% after the Fed induced faux housing recovery. There are still millions of homeowners underwater, with the next leg down guaranteed to add millions more.
The millions of American households living on the edge and headed for a poverty stricken old age have a million excuses for why they never saved a dime. These are the same people who will demand the government save them from their own foolishness and irrational life choices. They will demand the rich (anyone who worked hard, saved, and planned for their future) be taxed more, so they don’t have to live with the consequences of their reckless disregard for common sense and self-discipline. These people should have read some Shakespeare in high school, and maybe they wouldn’t be in this predicament.
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.” – William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
We are all responsible for our own lives and our own decisions. It isn’t complicated regarding how to save money. But it is hard. It requires simple math skills like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division – concepts not thought too important in our government controlled educational system. It requires self-control, acting like an adult, and distinguishing between what you want versus what you need. It’s OK to splurge once in a while, but since around 1980, multiple generations have been binge spending in an orgy of debt debauchery unmatched in human history. Since 1980 the U.S. population has gone up by a factor of 1.42, GDP has expanded by a factor of 6.3, and consumer debt has exploded by a factor of 10. The amount of consumer debt per person in 1980 was $9,300. Today, the total is an astounding $65,200 per person, a 700% increase in 35 years. We owe $21 trillion of mortgage, credit card, student loan and other debt to the felonious Wall Street bankers. This nation has gone insane.
“In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
With a median household income of about $56,000 and median net wages per worker of $29,000 it is fairly easy to grasp the monthly inflow of a middle income household. In Median World, taxes will take about a 16% chunk out of those figures, so the median household ends up with about $4,000 of take home pay per month. If they own a median priced home of $189,000, their monthly mortgage payment would likely be about $850. Add another $200 to $300 per month for property taxes and you are on the hook for $1,100 per month. A median rent figure would be in the same ballpark, unless you live in SF, NYC or a few other overpriced markets. This is where many people go off course, allowing themselves to be lured into more house than they can really afford with low down payments guaranteed by the government, driving the monthly housing burden north of $1,500. McMansion envy has destroyed more lives in the last ten years than any other delusion.
Food, clothing, utilities, and home upkeep expenses could total $1,500 per month for a family with kids. If one or both parents are stuck with student loan debt, a monthly payment of $200 to $400 would be normal. There isn’t much spare change left to fund their remaining needs, wants and desires. But their neighbors and coworkers are all driving new cars. They can’t be seen driving a used 10 year old clunker. People will think they’re poor. Shallow appearances are all that matter to a vast swath of America. According to Edmunds.com, the average monthly payment on a new vehicle is $479. We can’t have one spouse driving a new car, while the other slums it on public transportation, so two newer cars will add another $900 or so of expenses to the monthly budget.
Wall Street and the automakers are only too glad to offer those with good credit a 7 year 0% loan, guaranteeing a permanent status of being underwater on your loan until you must have that new model after four years, rolling the underwater loan into the next purchase. The permanent leasers convince themselves they are making a good deal as they sign their lives away every three years without understanding the financial implications of the leases. And then there are the 20% subprime auto buyers who pretend to pay until the repo man shows up in the middle of the night. This delusion of debt is how annual auto sales have soared from 10 million in 2009 to almost 18 million today.
I’m on the road every day and it is mind boggling to see the number of newer $30,000 to $50,000 vehicles cruising the highways and byways of America. Even in the poverty stricken neighborhoods of West Philly, brand new BMWs, Cadillacs, and other $25,000 or more vehicles are parked in front of dilapidated hovels and low income housing complexes. Virtually none of these vehicles are owned outright. Americans are essentially renting their luxury wheels so they can appear successful. The way to become financially successful on a modest income is to buy used cars and drive them for ten or more years. The years of no car payment can be directed into savings. Very few people chose this path. That is why auto loan debt has now exceeded $1 trillion, up 40% since 2010. Wall Street wants you in perpetual debt and millions have bought it hook line and sinker. But at least they appear prosperous to their neighbors, while they’re really in debt up to their eyeballs.
The choice to indulge in driving over-priced ornamental transportation basically leaves the average household with little or no discretionary income at the end of the month. But that doesn’t stop spendthrift nation from becoming addicted to their mobile phones and binge watching reality TV. The average American, who had never heard of a mobile phone in 1990, now can’t go 20 seconds without checking their phone. And they are paying through the nose for the privilege of staying terminally connected. We have smart phones for dumb people. Even welfare recipients without jobs, living in low income housing and dependent on food stamps, somehow find the funds to have a smartphone in their hand 24/7. Maybe directing those funds towards books might give them a better chance of exiting poverty.
In one survey, 46% of Americans with mobile phones said their monthly bill was $100 or more and 13% said their monthly bill topped $200 per month. The average individual’s cell phone bill was $73 per month last year, a 33% increase since 2009, according to J.D. Power & Associates. When they aren’t texting, tweeting, or facebooking on their iGadgets, they are watching basic cable boob TV at average price of $100 per month, up 39% since 2010. But our connoisseurs of crapola need the NFL Package, HBO, Showtime, Netflix, and on demand porno. Tricked out smart phones and cable packages are not necessities. They are wants. Wasting $200 to $300 per month on narcissistic compulsions is a choice.
Possibly the largest squandering of resources occurs on a daily basis, as Americans spend money they don’t have on $5 lattes, toxic fast foodstuff, craft beers, and whatever else strikes their fancy. According to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer expenditure surveys, the typical household spends $2,625 each year, or around $219 per month, on food away from home. Those in higher income brackets spend the most on restaurants at around $370 per month. Millennials, with the least amount of discretionary funds, view dining out as a social event, and choose fun and frivolity over finances. The concept of brown bagging your lunch for $1 rather than spending $10 at Paneras, or brewing a pot of coffee for 25 cents rather than paying $5 at Starbucks is inconceivable to the live for today credit card cowboys and cowgirls.
Dining out is the ultimate personal choice and a huge factor in the non-existent savings of American households. Over the last two decades Americans have abandoned the frugality of buying food at the grocery store on sale, using coupons in favor of eating out at a hefty premium on a daily basis. The result has been a $10 billion gap in spending between groceries and dining out being obliterated by an army of live for today for tomorrow we can make the minimum payment on our credit card juveniles. Not only has this penchant for satiating their hunger contributed greatly to their lack of savings, but has been financed on their credit cards. That $25 Applebees dinner, financed at 18% interest over the next ten years ends up costing $54. Multiply this foolishness hundreds of times per year over decades and you understand why Boomers have less than $1,000 in savings accounts and $12,000 or less in retirement savings. It’s just math.
The expenditures detailed above don’t include healthcare, entertainment, vacations, government extractions (tolls, fees, fines, taxes) and assorted other miscellaneous wastes of money. It is pretty clear the monthly outflow exceeds the monthly inflow for the majority of Americans. That is why the average household has credit card debt of $7,500 and those carrying a balance pay an average interest rate of 14% on their $16,000 ball and chain. This is on top of an average mortgage obligation of $155,000 and average student loan commitment of $32,000. The Wall Street hucksters are only too happy to help you finance a lifestyle well above your true means. They borrow from the Fed at .25% and charge you 10% to 20% for the use of credit created out of thin air. They always win. The willfully ignorant are thrilled they can now pay their IRS bill, property taxes, utilities, and just about every daily expense with a credit card. They fail to acknowledge the insanity of their chosen lifestyle path.
I still remember something my sophomore English teacher Mr. McGrath taught the class, based upon the writings of Aristotle. Human beings are rational, sentient, living, corporeal substances. What separates us from animals is our ability to think and act in a rational manner, rather than just on instincts and urges. Based on what has occurred in this country over the last 35 years, I’m starting to question the rational part. It’s almost as if a mental illness has befallen a majority of Americans. The Deep State and their minions on Wall Street and the corporate media certainly attempt to mold and manipulate the minds of the masses, but at the end of the day people are free to disregard those messages and live meaningful lives on their own terms. Even though living above your means has become “normal”, it is only normal in relation to our profoundly abnormal society. Telling people the truth today is meaningless, as they don’t want their illusions destroyed. But destroyed they will be, when this teetering edifice of debt comes crashing down on their heads.
“The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives, that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does.” They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness. These millions of abnormally normal people, living without fuss in a society to which, if they were fully human beings, they ought not to be adjusted.” – Aldous Huxley – Brave New World Revisited
“Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
»
- 59058 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Chirp, chirp, ribbit, chirp, chirp...truth...chirp, chirp, ribbit, ribbit...
Excellent points in the article. However, the US government does not appear to have any interest in financially responsible citizens, .gov prefers to have debt slaves that are dependent on .gov
With a zero interest and debasing currency policy, it’s difficult to justify saving for the average person. After all, we have seen that the government will do bailouts if “necessary”: GM. Chrysler, Banks, Home “owners” with 0% down, health insurance etc. coming: student loan debt etc.
Just because one doesn't have a savings account doesn't mean one doesn't have savings. I'll bet at least one out of those thousand surveyed were stacking something outside of the banking system.
I am Chumbawamba.
I have the minimum in my savings account. I would have had a lot more gold, silver and Benjamin's if it weren't for that terrible boating accident. Do you think it would have been safer to store it in a bank?
So . . . the Federal government is just mirroring the American people?
Maybe we have the leadership that we deserive!
Let's hear it for democracy!!
You are obviously referring to Federal governmement debt. The US government is not alone with being overcommitted. Japan we all know about, China is an enigma. They have loads of debt, but they also have huge capacities to make money or so it appears. Some say they will go bust, but none of us really knows and me thinks that they're big elephant, not so easily toppled over.
The EU is only just now shifting into view. When they were confronted with the fact that their member Greece could never pay the loans back, they gave them new loans and at the same time adopted the Ukraine who is four times as big as Greece and will require funds for decades. And while they were at it, their biggest member Germany thought spending untold billions on taking in migrants would be fine.
Why would Americans think responsibly, when all governments that matter do not? One hitch and all the dominos could fall at the same time, China, US, Japan, EU, Ukraine and maybe others that I have not taken note of.
In Russia they mightn't be hit so hard. First of all the mentality to live within means has been learnt the hard way over centuries and it was also their good fortune that the IMF withdrew from Russia. By the way, IMF - they tell all countries how to structure their policies successfully - why did they leave out the US?
Permit me to explain the low savings rate.
1. If you're on welfare you're not allowed to save money.
2. If you work for the government you have a huge pension and don't need to save money.
3. If you aren't 1 or 2 above then you're taxed to dath and can't save anything.
That just about covers everyone.
It's in the stands!
I really wish these pontificators would stop blaming the great masses of people. This isn't their fault, they are recieving false economic signals. This is the fault of the central bank and the government. Those are the only two institutions that have really caused this shitshow.
Nothing to worry about. Obama's gonna import millions of muslims, africans and S Americans and move them into your neighboorhoods. Problem solved.
Let's see....I'm 46, I have over $100k in IRA, and about $2k in savings. I have 4 kids under 10, a job that cut my salary 25%, for my wife to find a part time job, that wouldn't even cover day care for after school for the kids, We go out to eat once a month, if we do, it's with the kids because it's cheaper than getting a babysitter and just going with my wife. We haven't been on a vacation since 2007, but I'm not thinking of the future or living within my means....Go Scratch
Mathematically impossible......sucks!
Who's fault are the central bank and the govt?
"Confusion, Delusions, & Illusions"
The truth is that we are all beings of "free will" who are all trapped by the illusion produced by "our leaders", which takes away "Free Will" incrementally, while they claim "we gave them our permission" by our action of "participation" which is used as "evidence" of our "permission".
Only "our leaders" benefit from this illusion here on earth, while their power is granted by offworld entities in exchange for the huge amounts of energy created from hate, fear, death, sadistic abuse of all kinds and open genocide, which is all supported by the legal structure witin the "illusion".
Try that on for size.....
With leadership that has told Americans that they are ENTITLED to everything under the sun just because they exist, I can't say I'm surprised by any of this. Screw it up? So what? Declare bankruptcy, go on the government dole- there's a million way to skin the cat.
A car, a house, a cell phone, internet access, a college degree, heat, electricity, enough food to get everyone in the house up around 300 lbs, healthcare to treat their weight-induced diabeties... all are "basic human rights" now. Why depend on yourself for anything? Just keep electing whoever promises the most free shit. Problem solved.
New drug on the Tele promises to help "remove excess blood sugar" and even may result in weight loss!
Instead of taking the that pill, why not just cut the carbs...we are so fucking insane...no wonder Abilify is the #1 prescribed drug.
Abilify Side Effects
Dizziness, lightheadedness, drowsiness, nausea, vomiting, tiredness, excess saliva/drooling, blurred vision, weight gain, constipation, headache, fainting, mental/mood changes (such as increased anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts and trouble sleeping may occur.
NICE!
I'll be storing some wealth in Zero Hedge Coin 0 if I get a chance, and will be encouraging the government to do the same. Wish me luck. http://zhc0.com
15horses1donkey. I think if you keep pimping this idea on Zero Hedge as a cryptocurrency, I am gonna have to track you down, and bitch slap you into the middle of next week for being a pimp ass bankster schill bitcoin wannabe rat bastard motherfucker. IF ZERO HEDGE HAD A FUCKING CURRENCY OF IT'S OWN, IT WOULD BE MINTED IN INCORRUPTABLE NON HYPOTHECATED NON DERIVATIVE NON MARGIN ABLE SILVER OR GOLD. Get your shit together, and change your direction while you still have an ass to kick. Jesus, fucking kids these days. You all think technology is a miracle. All it is is electrons that can be made to go poof any fucking minute now. if i blew up your phone right now, you would look like a cow at the slaughterhouse just at the moment the bolt gun goes off - " How could you do this to me ? What'll I do now ? " Improvise. Adapt. Overcome. Triumph over adversity. And, transform your idea into minting a fucking coin out of noble metals, or I will make you look like a one legged man at a nut kicking contest.
Perimetr, I do not need leadership. Keep the "We" have the leadership "We" deserve to yourself if you are a follower.
#overturnedcanoesmatter
"Just because one doesn't have a savings account doesn't mean one doesn't have savings."
Savings accounts will be subject to bail-ins. Why would anyone want a savings account? A person would be better off buying a generator, a large gas tank, and a bank of freezers to keep his chocolate stash in!
Beans bullets and popcorn? Don't forget hard liquor keeps pretty well too.
100 years of the FED; 98% devaluation of the currency...."saving" in PAPER MONEY is for fools.
Ask me how much I have in a "savings account" and I will give you a small number...ask me the value of my farmland (and other hard assets) and I will politely deny the request...
A problem with farmland and real estate is it is an unmovable target for taxation and confiscation. Don't pay the protection money (tax) and they take it from you. They can take your land for a variety of reasons they come up with. Resist and they kill you.
You DO NOT own land and real estate. They only let you use it for time being, at their whim, and as long as you continue to send them increasingly larger payoffs at regular intervals.
This is backed up by threat of violence against you.
I know your heart is in the right place, but Good Luck!
"You DO NOT own" anything...period.
But, when you look over history, farmland has done extremely well even during extreme times. My family history includes farmer ancestors "occupied" by the Nazi's...but since they were farmers, they were allowed to stay put, and alive, as long as they handed over what they produced...the Nazi's left, the land was still there and they are, to this day, still on it.
Firebrander is right. The FED publicly announces it intends to make any paper savings worth 2% less over the next 12 months. This creates the economic incentive to do one of two things. Invest at greater than the forecasted 2% loss to make a little money or Spend It ALL RIGHT NOW before it looses its purchasing power. Choice #1 is difficult to accomplish when your passbook savings acount or money market is paying .1%. Stock markets are scary....have you seen all the ups and downs? Starting a business is hard, and then all my eggs are in one basket. Hence the smart choice is spend it all. Even smarter....is spend more than all. Hence the "consumer economy" and the debt bomb. Joe sixpack has no idea how to out manuver the FED other then borrow and spend.
And...let's not forget the "First Time Shack Buyer Tax Credit of 8k" and, "Cash For Clunkers" programs.
We are a 70% consumer spending-driven economy that would be half, or less, were it not for debt spending.
Let's also not forget the culture we are from. Since the end of WWII, our economic power rose on consumer credit spending. We were raised AND taught this behavior since the Great Depression. It is the single largest reason for America's since. Stuff IS the American Dream!
Trouble is, outsourced incomes left us without means to consume much, and easy credit temporarily satisfied our old, inculcated mode of being.
Again, we were TAUGHT this behavior from early childhood on...
Since the end of WWII, consumerism has been WHEREVER we were
m
After WW2 the US was a producer, in fact the only intact industria power on the planet, the others having been bombed out. A factory worker could support a family on one income. There was little lavish consumption.
Partly true – all true if you replace .gov with .bank. The government is just at tool/extension of banker-interest. US has the best government a private bank (FED) can buy.
Fucking retards. Deserve what they are going to get. Problem is they are going to take it from us and we will go down with the ship. I hate democracy.
I dunno, even mob rule would be better than the plutocracy I have had my whole life.
Umm, have you interacted with the American public lately? It's not a good idea, I assure you, you would regret it.
The United States have never known Democracy. Just a fail attempt at a Resprestative Republic that quickly turned into the Plutocracy that the very founders warned would happen. So after having spent plenty of time out and about. MAybe pure ugly mob rule ( spelled Democracy ) would have been better.
Hitlery, you are dead on correct. It's like trying to communicate with a schizophrenic off his meds. Things I can't see without getting physically ill -
Bill
Hillary
Odouchebag
anyone on MSNBC
Wolfe Blitzer
Biden (btw, a dead ringer for Jeff Dunham's dummy Walter)
too many other people to list
But - it's all good - i just focus on finding my own peace of mind
No mob rule has never worked and will never work. A republic is the best way to do it. I believe only land OWNERS and/or tax payers who get nothing in subsidies should be allowed to vote. I rent a house and I'm willing to give up my right to vote until I get some land, if that means the other retards who like Hillary or Sanders can't vote as well.
I'm with you on this. Landowners and ex-military only. You want to vote, you gotta earn it.
Then it would be worth earning.
Ex-military? The military is the enforcement arm of the money printers, they are the threat to the republic.
Perhaps you should read "Starship Troopers" -- Robert Heinlein
"I believe farther that this (The Government of the United States) is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other." Benjamin Franklin
Democracy is going to get us all killed.
The sad fact is that half of the people are below average...no matter the measure.
For the last few generation, that is almost as mind blowing as telling them that most people have more than the average number of legs.
Its fun to watch their little minds struggle with that one!
Got it right off...the average number of legs is just under two; no one has three but some people have one or zero...
The Bell Curve has been seriously distorted, this is no longer a nation- this is a rabble.
..a dead broke rabble.
Idiocracy happens.
"Umm, have you interacted with the American public lately? It's not a good idea, I assure you, you would regret it. "
yep its a downright nightmare, stupid obvious assuming brain dead zombies is being too kind.
I have been thinking about this entire democracy thing and have come to the conclusion that even if it had ever existed it would have been awful.
Just too many idiots.
Well, actually , half of the people are below the median, but I know what you mean.
I welcome the day the system reset and all the retards die off, stricken by hunger, poor hygiene and the disappearance of crap TV programs.
It will never come, of course. The day the system reset is the day the mob will ask for a 1984/Brave New World/V for Vendetta dictatorship, because somebody has to care for them.
The mob is being groomed for that. The reset wont happen till after the dictatorship.
But it's your responsibility to take care of the weak and simple minded....and if you can use someone else's money to do it, all the better.
Generous souls, each and every one of us.
A gun to the head makes us so.
Seems thwarted Darwinism wasn't so clever after all.
Its best not to piss in your own gene pool..
That is why the founders of the USA created it as a Republic, NOT a democracy.
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
Democracy is mob rule, buying votes.
The moment of rude awakening approaches, inevitably.
Jim, you forgot the most important issue. If you have any income or savings, don't have a kid, or 3, or 8, or 15.
What about the "village" that will raise and "educate" them?
It's a great thing, how they figured out that indoctrinating the children of educated, motivated and equipped individuals was much tougher than those who were principally interested in the inherent "benefits" those children bestowed upon them, especially those who were born simply as the result of a coin toss, as to being aborted or not due to the "inconvenience" of it all. Children of indifferent and willing dependent parents are an easy task to indoctrinate, to follow the pied piper to their ends. Unfortunately, collectivism creates such a significant vacuum at the vortex of the drain, that it will suck many of the rest of us down with them.
Democracy of the truly educated and enlightened could approach Utopia, whereas a democracy of the dependent mob is hell on earth. Education and true enlightenment have usurped and replaced with indoctrination of entitlement and justification of theft in the name of economic justice. Hell it will be then.
Telling people the truth today is meaningless, as they don’t want their illusions destroyed. But destroyed they will be, when this teetering edifice of debt comes crashing down on their heads.
And they still won't accept it. They will perish in disbelief.
A few contrarian thoughts seem in order; perhaps a small percent of these people perceive the future as less than secure.
Why save in a bank when the bank may simply confiscate one's money. Cyprus?
Why save in a bank when we may enter hyperinflation at any moment and see our purchasing power evaporate?
Why not be in debt, because everyone knows SHTF is approaching so we might as well enjoy ourselves now?
Why be responsible when all our "guests" get to join the FSA?
Can't we just get Bernie to raise taxes on the rich and bail us all out?
I was thinking something similar while reading this. I wonder what percent of those who don't have "savings accounts" are saving in altenative ways? Especially the pessimistic GenXers. (of which I'm one.)
We are gonna be fine, the UN wants to legalize all the drugs.
Natural Law can be a good teacher. But where to draw the line between libertariany and anarchy.
Same here in Germany, and the UK. You should see the brand new BMW, Audis, VWs etc.
And the nice thing is the car companies get to charge more because the monthly rate is so cheap.
"The vast majority of any group, tribe, state, nation, and empire, are the unenlightened, and the demise of all these due this fact." Aristotle
Damn, they had Nigger issues even back then. Who would of thunk?
Just look at the governments that "people" have been electing the past decade. Today, what's called "right wing" are what used to be centrists to soft socalists.
Today's progressives are hard on socalists.
Your english teacher doesn't know shit. Animals absolutely think and act rationally. What they can't do is manipulate the world and communicate.
Didn't dv you but Yes they do manipulate the world- even if the "world" is the house they live in. Come by sometime around 5pm and see what my 100lb shephard does to get my attention. "It's suppertime FOOL"!
Many pets are quite adept at manipulating their "owners". Many animals can communicate, too, although not always vocally.
Almost 60 and do not have these problems. The desire to let fools be fools and walking away saves money - For the next generations - Houses make for lousy retirement funds (read your insurance policy for all conditions where they do not pay) - One fund that should be first is the fund to insure that your funeral is paid for because if it is not there, the ditch is.
Don't worry about the funeral expense. When your dead you are a bio hazard and .gov will need to do something with you.
While I live, my body is my problem if I want to be comfy, or even if I don't. Once I'm dead, my body automatically becomes someone else's problem. I'm sure as hell not going to worry about it. Once I'm dead, as far as I'm concerned, my body is no more use to me than an empty candy wrapper. If you don't want it lying around stinking and creating disease, YOU do something with it. Why the hell should *I* pay for it?
Thanks for the lecture, guy who writes about it but does nothing more.
Says the guy who reads about it but...
The Federal Reserve wants people to spend. They say whatever little people are able to save is too much.
Beyond crazy.
So the people as well as the government acted irresponsible.
The Fed's plan rest solely on ever-increasing amounts of debt.
If I spend some of my cash to obtain a Gold Eagle, am I doing what the Federal Reserve wants?
To the letter, but they don't care about the letter. They want the people to not only read their minds, but to read their minds in the future after things haven't gone their way, and make them go their way for free.
Gad Dammit, its called entitlement. I deserve every gad damn thing, especially that lifted 4x4 diesel, long bed, crew cab Ford F350 w/ fish finder and the in cab beer cooler!! While I am at it gimme that gad damn bass fishing boat too. Finance that phuker for 240 months because my shit dont stink and I deserve it because I was born and I am ENTITLED to it, motha phuckas!!
Entitled.
I hate that fucking word.
But that is it in a nutshell.
How many people would sign a form that they reject ALL social benefits/entitlements in exchange for a 25% reduction in annual taxes? Next to fuck all. I would of course.....too bad that fucking government form does not exist. The government can keep the other fucking 75% and do what the fuck they want. I promise I will not bitch...as much.
crew cab Ford F350
I like your taste in trucks.
dont forget the 600$ yeti cooler
I am Pac Man, destroyer of worlds.
Everything, everyday, everywhere, since birth, is geared to manipulating us to act this way.
Facebook and social media does nothing but give people a window to dress their pathetic little lives, and show the rest of the world what a wonderful vacation your having. Car your driving. Dinner your eating. Football game you are enjoying. Ad nauseum.
The government lies to our face about the state of the state. And encourages everyone to spend, spend ,spend.
The church, where people once learned lessons in life and how to delay satisfaction and live grounded, is out of favor and mocked.
There are NO good role models. And if you espouse the values spoken of in the article, you're a weirdo or brainwashed.
Exactly why my conclusion is we are fucked, and the only way out is for this bitch to burn to the lug nuts. You ain't fixing this. People need to suffer and learn.
But so far, THEY look right! There are no ramifications for the abhorant behavior. The game goes on. The poor are fat. Everyone has cellphones and flat screens. Dimwits are driving Beamers. ILLEAGAL Hispanics are running around in brand new F250's for chrisake. There is no downside.
Until, one day, there is.
BINGO. Nailed it. But you must remember, they are of this world. You don't want to be of this world in these times. Trust me.
my ex cunt sister in law bought a house she couldnt afford in 07'. Stop making payment in 08'. She kicked out my cuckold brother in 09'. Haasnt made a payment on the house in 7+ years. AND STILL HAS YET TO BE FORECLOSED ON DESPITE NOT MAKING A SINGLE PAYMENT.
I on the other hand am a sucker who pays rent every month of $1450 for a shitty stidio apartment.
Fuck America!!
No downside to being an asshole in 20USA.
I hear ya, brother. I pay my mortgage every month on time and I don't even get so much as a reach around come Christmas from my bank.
I hear ya! I have been paying four mortgages a month consistly for years and I have never received a reach around either. Its down right shameful!
..and she's the cunt...
how is church different from the FED? Both are based on ies and empty promisses while diverting attention from objective reality and enriching the priestly classes
This post is why I still come to ZH. Bravo, sir.
You got to remember, how many people will say they have assets on a survey so it gets all skewed. I bet the survey was just a fishing expedition for households with assets that could be a target for "investment advisors". I hang up on any survey. Or am I too suspicious?
I recently told a friend how much I have in savings. His jaw dropped open.
And yet... he was going to get married with a guestlist of 350 people... 60k in total... and yet they have no savings.
I'm sorry but that's plain stupid to take out a loan for that.
And then he was bragging of his honeymoon trip that will cost another 16k for 1 month.
And he lives from paycheck to paycheck!
Everybody likes to act like they are rich but they aren't!!
The number of people I know who drive 2 luxury cars and live in a 5 bedroom house while they only have 1 or 2 kids and while they have plain jobs is just crazy! It really deffies my mathematical skills!
My secretairy just bought a new Mercedes CLK!! WHY?! That's 2 years of salary for her! And they drive it like a boss.
She parked on my spot and later I heard that I must be jealous because I said something. A material object gives people the feeling like they are more and better then other people. Always been like that but these days it's getting crazy.
People find it all so important to show off to people they don't know and who don't give a fuck to each other.
I never could figure why anyone would care what a stranger thought about you. One rule I have is that I will believe anything anyone says if it doesn't make any difference to me (kid is top of class) and I believe nothing unsubstantiated when it does make a difference to me. Makes it easier to have casual conversations without arguments. Lots of nodding.
how about when something, like, say, the satellites that we've been told since the 1950s are floating up in the air, not subject to "gravity" do not in fact exist, and we actually use the same ground-based radio system, of course continually upgraded ...
that might not make any difference to you , or me, but inside ... to know that the entire space program has been a hoax ... then you really get to wonder ... how deep the deception goes.
then someone shows you the ISS space station models that are used under water for "training" , for the real thing, you know, when we go up but don't go down, because, you know, gravity stops happening at a certain height ( LMAO ) .... then you look at the facts, the greenscreens, the snorkels now promoted by NASA .... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kgt3V-2xPFU and you start to understand why the billions & trillions keep getting funneled to fund the fun ...
remember when they told us the moon is 232,000 miles away, yet we can look up at it with the naked eye and see clearly features .... with a few power magnification we see details ...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KsH2M4m4zM
then we learn the movie producer James Cameron is funding the MARS movies ... filmed in Greenland and Mohave desert, USA ....
but what difference does it make.... teaches us to be a little more careful be LIE ving stories from pathological liars ....
oh.... remember how we are told that the scientists weighed the moon using the Cavendish method ? (pretty good method, hasn't been improved on really in a couple hundred years) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCnLRikqAws -from the man who escaped the science cult
I believe you.
Years ago I heard the comment that "Americans are the only people in the world that buy things they don' need or can't afford to impress people they can't stand to be around" I get it
Your friend is going to take everything you have with a butterknife because you are a cucked faggot without so much as a pop gun for self defense.
Sorry :((((
What do you do with 10's of millions of repo'd cars/trucks? The debt system incentivizes behavior like this only making the Marxist revolt that much easier...
What do you do with 10's of millions of repo'd cars/trucks?
You supply them to a 'moderate' group of people halfway around the world.
That way the repo'd owner can't tap into a cut price used market and have to purchase new.
ah....
Silver and Gold.
When I read articles like this I wanna go buy some Gold/Platinum or Palladium. Silver is my fuck you whenever I can purchase.
How to subvert the masses and create modern state slaves:
1. Train them to react to impulse when they are young (and call it education)
2. Avoid exposure to critical thinking, philosophy or any other form of developed thought (and call that education as well)
3. Through mass media, infer that a life of narcisstic indulgence and idle leisure is the ultimate goal for any adult
4. Destroy any sense of community to insure that the messages and lessons in points 1 to 4 remain unchallenged
5. Utilize mass advertising and deceptive promotion to initate buying patterns based upon the above
6. Continue point 5 until the young adult is buried in debt.
7. Keep them in a state that is one step removed from financial disaster through government hand outs
8. Tie the government handouts ($oma) to obedient government sanctioned behaviour
Presto - modern state slaves at your every beck and call ....
Do Bieber posters count towards assets or savings?
How about that beanie baby collection...
Assets. There's definitely some BTU value there.
surely, WB7, the recent Beeb's pics showing off his "assets" would be worth much more... even got his pop's proud approval ...
now for a Ralph Lauren big spread in VOGUE with the Beeb's & Caitlyn Jenner in a hot passionate embrace .... the scent could be.... ??? fill it in Zeros :)
Trouble is... when it all comes crashing down on their heads they're going to go crying like babies to the government. And where's the government gonna get the money to placate these idiots? From the savers like you and me by raising our taxes!
Kind of updates the ant and grasshopper story. What can you expect when people can opine for a living instead of being productive. Unless all the grasshoppers can be booted to a virtual reality environment, it will end very badly.
Taxes? Hell, they'll just confiscate your e-money remotely.
So..."savings" are limited to "savings accounts"? Come on...! In 1972, maybe...
First of all, if you are drinking 25 cent coffee you are drinking water/crap. Secondly, what is even more appalling is the amount of households with less than 1000 rounds of ammunition savings. The coming zombie Apocalypse brought on by our satanic overlords, will deliver the true bill to these 3 series BMW driving dipsticks. Is there any thanks in the article to all these morons, because they are the only ones doing anything to delay this day of reckoning. Well, them and the Criminally controlled FED. Get to know your neighbors, so you can all roll your Beamers to the end of the cul-de-sac and try to block the brain eaters. This Shithouse is about to go up in smoke. 6.06
how many rounds do you think it will take to protect you from a car going 60 mph going by throwing 3 plastic bottle molotov's at your "fortress". and how many buckets of water to put it out before you die of smoke inhalation, run outside and get mown down, or get shot by your own ammo cooking off?
these are all important questions.
Oh, don't go injecting reality into someone's Road Warrior fantasies...
Everyone leaves out that ppl have to sleep some time. Why bother driving past, winging molotovs and whistling Dixie? Just walk up at 0300, pour gas all over the deck, and toss a match.
BTW, ammo cooking off is NOT going to shoot anyone. It might give you an owie if it hit you, but not likely any serious damage unless TONS of ammo are burning.
The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco published a working paper this month, "Measuring the Natural Rate of Interest Redux," in which it introduced the potential for using both negative short-end rates coupled with another round of quantitative easing (QE) focused at the long end, as a response to the next recession.
http://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/files/wp2015-16.pdf
Thomas Laubach
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
and
John C. Williams
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
October 14, 2015
Abstract
Persistently low real interest rates have prompted the question whether low interest rates are here to stay. This essay assesses the empirical evidence regarding the natural rate of interest in the United States using the Laubach-Williams model. Since the start of the Great Recession, the estimated natural rate of interest fell sharply and shows no sign of recovering. These results are robust to alternative model specifications. If the natural rate remains low, future episodes of hitting the zero lower bound are likely to be frequent and long-lasting. In addition, uncertainty about the natural rate argues for policy approaches that are more robust to mismeasurement of natural rates.
If the abstract is a hint, sounds like a real page turner. :)
I do get the point of the article. But with all the mixing of average numbers with median when it more proves the point Mr. Quinn wants to make, it seems clear he assumes those reading this article are as dumb as those he is writing about.
logged in to upvote this.
If ya read this and take all the examples from a debt is good slant, you'll have a better grasp of reality. Hand to mouth debt fueled living is pretty much required to exist.
“We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality”
-Ayn Rand
Wow...truer words have never been spoken. The oligarchs created a consumer-driven economy and they are proud of themselves. Edward Bernays was 100% correct on how to manipulate the weak-minded masses. "You deserve a new car!...and a huge McMansion...and a boat, bigger than the neighbor's boat!" The bankers are laughing at the debt-slaves they created. But it WILL all end, and end ugly.
The tech companies have peaked. The high flyers like Netflix, and Facebook make nothing, add no value...just entertain the fools. When the property mega-bubble in Silicon Valley goes, it will take everything with it. The layoffs are everywhere...downsizing...and the lemmings cannot just jump into a new high-paying tech job and a new BMW. With $10k a month payments on a $1.8mil 2,300sq ft house built in 1967, the greatest crash in history will be the result. Thousands will just walk away and the banks will demand more bailouts. Total insanity with bidding wars again and again. You cannot work at Home Depot and pay that mortgage with $2k/mo property taxes along with the Lexus and Tesla lease payments.
The Fed is 99% responsible as the great enabler. D.C. is culpable too with their reckless kick-the-can deficit spending habits. Putin will be laughing as the U.S. collapses just like the Soviet Union did...bankrupt. Dragged into endless wars and massive defense expeditures for our adventurism. Long way down, and negative rates will do nothing but panic people. The party IS over.
Excuse me?
Isn't this how stuff is supposed to work? If you're stupid, you get taken advantage of? I buy your used repossessed car for 1/3rd of what you paid.
I buy your "short sale" house for 1/3rd what you paid.
Does that make me one of the "elites"?
Or, did I pay too much?
The Edyookashunal Sistim ensures a steady stream of idiots, prepped to be taken advantage of.
idiocracy will win eventually. free cars, owebombaphones, student loan forgiveness, free housing, free helicopter money. doing the right thing is a good idea but don't expect to come out on top. the free shit army will move in next door like it or not.
I'm in this category. I've had no career, just job after job. Layoffs and the occasional unexpected expense seem to kill any savings I manage to accumulate. Right now, my hours were chopped at work. Down to 2 or 3 working days per week. 6 weeks of this have eaten through all the extra I paid on my bills, and once again, I'm eating up savings to stay afloat.
I have no retirement, but with the way the communists are succeeding, there will likely be no retirements after they're confiscated by the gubbamint. No medical coverage either, and no, I won't sign up for socialist slavery in the form of Obamacare. They can fine me, I will not pay. They can take my house, it'll be ashes. I'll no longer bend the knee to these assholes.
I do stockpile foodstuffs and some critical materials. It's been one of the smarter moves in the last 6 years. Paying ahead on bills is a kind of savings, and I recommend the stockpiling of mission essential consumables.
No, no new cars. All are paid off, bought used. No cable, no tv, no vacations. If we eat out twice a month, it's a big month. No rock n roll lifestyle...we saw The Martian last weekend. That's the first movie we've seen in months.
This guy is right, but the other side of this is earnings. I can't seem to make enough money fast enough. Gas was 3.68 a gallon over the summer. Ouch
"With a median household income of about $56,000 and median net wages per worker of $29,000 it is fairly easy to grasp the monthly inflow of a middle income household. In Median World, taxes will take about a 16% chunk out of those figures, so the median household ends up with about $4,000 of take home pay per month."
I don't know what world this guy lives in, but a person making $56k doesn't have take home pay of $4k/ month.
Oh and talk about simple math skills - last I checked $4k/mo x 12 months is $48k. Take home pay after fed, state, local and ss taxes even with smallest deduction is closer to 70% of gross. So if $56k is gross, take home at most is ~$39k. And that's BEFORE any health instance or 401k contributions.
right - and the more recent published "official" median net is more low $50s ....
the actual real net median is probably low $40s ...
and a more realistic takehome is - 35-40% of that, so .... with today's housing $$$,
the above comment about debt based month to month is more accurate
i was trying to be generous w/ 30% - but yeah - whenever i consider gross pay, i tell people to figure they'll take home 60% of it if they're lucky.
Dupe
if everything is free and all that maters s your rights, life is great. Notice refugees dont want to go to Iran China or russia. or otheer Arba countries. If 300000 yen crossed in to a country with guns it would be war. If they carry kids you must give your assets and country to them and convert.
if everything is free and all that maters s your rights, life is great. Notice refugees dont want to go to Iran China or russia. or otheer Arba countries. If 300000 yen crossed in to a country with guns it would be war. If they carry kids you must give your assets and country to them and convert.
Y'know... all these articles never break anything that may reflect reality by race. The history books do.
Of course the "bottom" 50% do not have "savings" ... the same policies that favor the equity and housing markets, are the4 saem ones that favor illegals and disfavor domestic middle class.
That is how they were designed. Is that still a secret?
Wait till the Global Warming hoax is played out in taxation; it will put more pain on the poor who need more energy, not less worldwide.
Many of us trying to reduce debt are only one medical crisis away from bankruptcy thanks to Obamacareless.
I've NEVER bought a new car and NEVER will.
One point the author forgot to mention was planned obsolesce. You can't just buy a newer car and expect it to last 10 years with basic, self done maintenance. Our older 2001 mini van lasted to 175,000 miles ( about 5 years) and that was being very careful. I had an ancient diesel Jetta that might have rolled forever but it can't hold 4 kids and 2 adults. If you can get 5 or 6 years without an new engine, tranny, or other $$$$ parts you are doing good. The new electronics just mean more $ out the door for repairs. At least that been my experience.
Maybe your cars didn't last long because you drove them 35,000 miles per year. Long commute?
Not really. About 20,000 a year but well taken care of.
Commuting is a big part of the trap most people find themselves in. I know not everyone can work remotely, but if you can you definitely should. Not having a commute is mentally and financially freeing.
Good point. You can't get a job that pays well anywhere but in the city, and you can't afford to live there even with your well paying job. So you live int he burbs and run the daily rat race. And it eats your income right up, keeping the oil companies happy.
I commuted to Anchorage for 3 years. It was dangerous as well as pricey. I had to make another 5 dollars an hour to afford the gas, which became second only to the house note in monthly expenses. Stopping that was a HUGE savings in money and TIME, as well as a serious reduction in personal risk.
I have a work from home job that brings in a paycheck and take care of the farm and human kids, but the really $ is in the city where my hubby builds bridges. He moves around a lot, longest commute was 1.3 hours. Trying to get a company truck as they had a great year and just bought a dozen. It would save us about $500 a month and wear out their vehicle instead. Yeah, if he could do this at home, I'd be all for it!
We live in a screwed up, dog eat dog paradox, divided into a dichotomy of the minority of haves and have nots ..
My own world example. Last week a 24 year old kid, some self proclaimed (IRA) Irish-mob ganster shoots his 20 something girlfriend 4 times in the head, a Guard/police officer, and then himself leaving behind two kids. This week a postman commits suicide, today I'm surviving in my reality dysfunction.
A month ago, my ex, marries some jack ass and has a fancy wedding. Needless to say, he splurges $7500K on BUSINESS CLASS flights to Mauritious, money they don't have. He's just back from 3 years working in Australia, and they are blowing money like they are millionaires - they are not. Myself, I fall into the upper end of the above graphs, I'm 32, lived in shitty dumps when I studied, worked two jobs and fought for an education, beating off drug dealers, petty thieves, domestic violence etc.
Now, as for the point ..
I grew up in nasty Apartheid South Africa during the 80's, you know the place where whites supposedly had 'slaves' and treated black people as if they were 'sub-human'. Well, it wasn't that bad, it did get a whole lot worse, being robbed at home half a dozen times, my father - army veteran served disarming bombs in the British Army, not the safest past time I may tell you, has a monkey put a gun to his head at work by a gang of fucking baboons, which is why I moved to the United Kindgom/Ireland. I can say, that since the 2008 crash, this place is getting bad. Not just for the above mentioned shit I just mentioned, but IN EVERY FACET of EVERY DAY EXISTENCE. I could go on, but the fact that our society is valued by materialistic, narcissistic needs tells me we are one argument away from being stabbed or having our throats cut.
I may be better off today than I was yesterday in terms of income supplement. but I can assure you I DON'T FEEL SAFE, NOT WHEN YOU GET YOUR CAR VANDALISED FOR NO APPARENT REASON AND YOU CAN'T GO TO A BAR/PUB WITHOUT EYES IN THE BACK OF YOUR HEAD. I'm not paranoid, just trying to avoid the crazy mother fuckers trying to either rip me off, destroy my property or fuck with my family. Thank God (of which there isn't) that I don't have kids in this fucked up society.
Thank you for listening. Take care now.
zaphire, you can't thank an entity that doesn't exist.
I get it, the war on humanity, perpetrated by humans, rages on.
It's not helpful that you thank an entity you consider a myth, is it?
Frankly, I can't prove a negative- Thankfully, I don't need to.
Ha ha, well done. Yes, there is no God .. more an expression of delusion :p
New debt loans are allowed to be 40% of income. Payroll taxes are about 15%. Other debts/costs like cars and sales tax, let’s say 10%. That is about 65% of income.
Why do people go into debt at 40% for housing? It is access to decent public schools, which attract similar types of people who want their kids to “not be around” the rif raf.
This is why home owners become irate when the wrong “element” moves into the neighborhood.
If 40+15+10 = 65% of income is vectoring away, that leaves on 35% to trade with others.
65 or 70% is vectoring from wallet, toward government and toward bankers. The debt money returns as usury to bankers initially. This is why it is important to have property taxes, because people bid up homes to have access to neighborhoods. In the course of bidding up prices, the banker wins with mortgages. What is pledged to the banker is money that doesn’t go to taxes. Government then taxes income or other regressive types of taxation, which are damaging.
Oligarchs have shifted taxes off of property and unearned income, and onto earned income.
So, the vectoring, or channeling of credit as money is entirely incorrect.
Say’s law is a circular flow where joe pays maria who pays jim, etc. THAT DOES NOT HAPPEN IN THE REAL WORLD.
The real flow is from your wallet, and then vectoring toward debt instruments, to either disappear or to pay usury.
The usury diverts to an upper loop of rentiers that are taking a free lunch – as parasites. Said parasites may or may not deign to spend it downward into transaction economy. IF they do spend it is on extraction means, or on luxury goods.
The other diversion from circular flow is toward FICA and payroll taxes. This is a loss of discretion, which means people are subordinated. Government does re-spend, so that money cycles back. But, govt adds layers of bureaucracy, which add inefficiencies and create drag, friction and waste.
Government belongs in inelastic sectors, and anywhere else in the economy, they need to butt out.
All of this means that people work their ass off, only to have their exchange medium stripped from them. Say’s law is not operative.
A large chunk of private credit money supply is waste, loss, friction, and usury – probably near half of your output is taken from you unnecessarily.
Change the money system if you want economic freedom. Economic slaves do not have the time to engage in politics or catch thieves.
Since the press is about 7 large corporations, then the system is also stripping your wallet money, to then propagandize you and make you think a certain way. All good parasites try to control the brain center.
www.sovereignmoney.eu
MEFO,
Even at .25%, P<P+I. If I were able to teach this simple truth to 3rd graders, the world as we know it would be totally transformed in less than one generation.
It is not the money system that needs changing as money is only a medium of exchange. It is the Constitution that needs changing. Government should not be allowed to borrow money. Period. Credit cards should be banned and replaced with only debit ot PIN cards. Bankruptcy laws including student loans should be made much easier so that banks will be much more cautious in lending. If those things are done, millions of consumers can shed a large part of the pile of debt they have built up, some or all of the greedy banks will shut down, government will shrink, and the economy will get back on a path of real growth. Oh, and while you are at it, term limits would get rid of the career politicians.
Don't criticize me for letting "responsible" consumers off the hook. There is more than enough responsibility to go around. The system is and has been rigged and the sheeple were lead to slaughter to benefit the top 1% with the full knowledge and consent of corrupt politicians. The good news is that when SHTF, it will be the top 1% will lose the most.
Love ya' Jimbo, but check your premise, K?
You seem to think that having no savings stashed away in the black hole is a bad thing. You're ignoring the FACT that whatever you place there immediately becomes the property of the black hole.
Try this for me:
Go to your local black hole branch and try to withdraw $10,001 dollars in cash from your fdic insured savings account.
Do it, and get back to me.
My savings is in brass and lead.
Look, you either want protectionism, or you want progress. There can't be both. There IS a global economy. Either participate or be bypassed. "gutted the nation of millions of good paying jobs" is complete and utter total bullshit propaganda. If someone can do a job just as effective and cheaper somewhere else, well good, pay them to do it. Is that unfortunate for someone who remembers the 'good old days' where they could do it here for some unfortunate sum (to the customers,) instead of being able to buy it 2 for one on sale at Walmart because Chinese folks will do it cheaper? Maybe. Is it bad, or evil, or some sign that people are conspiring against you? No. But is it a sign that they're not? No. It's neither here nor there. This class warfare 'keep things the same like they were for my grandfather' bullshit isn't going to help anyone. If all we do is bitch and moan that things are changing too fast for us to adjust then we deserve to be left in the dust. Anyway, there is a real problem out there. That corporations can be in bed with government at all. That government has the power to even sell them favors. The problem is that they have this power to sell, or to rent, as the case may be. If we don't allow government to tarriff things, or to license things, then nobody can be 'favored' with treatment in this regard. The problem isn't that the world is changing, nor that things are going global, but that the government is charging a fee for certain people to benefit from their guns more than others, and that's all that's required to benefit.
There are no jobs. That's the central problem in many people's eyes. More to the point there is no way for people to make money on their own in a shrinking economy. They are left out.
How do you fix that?