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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
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So it's okay to protect your borders but not your economy. We have to work for pennies because others are. Great...
Just because someone doesn't have a bank savings account doesn't necessarily mean they have no savings.
Unfortunately, this article suffers from the problem it accuses others of perpetrating. It is delusional. It is actually impossible to live beyond your means.
"Living within your means" is a nonsensical concept if you define it in terms of fictional fiat money. If the oligarchs of the world own the printing press and they throw you in jail when you don't use their money, it is not a problem of spending their scrip wisely. If they own the world through direct and shadow title, it is stupidly ridiculous to think the problem is that you aren't giving them enough of your labor through false scrip payments. This is what it means to be a slave.
Moreover, if banks are not performing their due diligence, it is not the responsibility of the borrower to do it for them. This is the central claim made during the bailouts and the MERS scandals- that we the people are to blame, and Goldman Sachs and the rest deserve to be paid back from the public trough. Nonsense.
It's articles like this that make me think a lot of the "libertarian" blogosphere is a limited hangout to try to recapture the wandering "conservatives". The purpose of libertarians has never been to defend the massive, centralized fascist organizations that they have been decrying up to this point. Any street cred this author might have had, blown out the door by this blinkered article.
As he usually does, in the article above Jim Quinn tends to be grossly underestimating the prolonged and persistent application of the principles and methods of organized crime by the ruling classes against those they rule over, which WAR AGAINST CONSCIOUSNESS has been going on for generation after generation, for a long, long time ... The main difference is that the American People became the victims of the best brainwashing that money could buy, in vicious spirals through the mechanisms of POLITICAL FUNDING ENFORCING FRAUDS ... Meanwhile, some like to propose individualistic solutions, that maybe work for a few people, but which sorts of personal coping strategies are not sufficient political strategies overall!
The essential issues are that the entire political economy has become based on governments enforcing frauds by privately controlled banks. Almost all of the public "money" supply is made out of nothing as debts. The social successfulness of that pyramid scheme system requires that the vast majority people act like incompetent political idiots. Moreover, since there is almost nothing but a core of organized crime, controlling governments, surrounded by layers of controlled opposition groups, the various individualistic, personal ways of attempting to cope with the runaway criminal insanities of a society based upon the excessive successfulness of applications of the methods of organized crime through the political processes are always going to be grossly deficient from an overall political perspective.
NOT SO! The frauds are enforced. There are integrated systems of legalized lies, backed by legalized violence, which almost totally dominate everything regarding the political realities, whereby the excessively successfulness of the applications of the methods of organized crime through those political realities has resulted in civilization becoming runaway criminal insanities.
For instance, anyone who attempted to disregard the messages that "marijuana was almost as bad as murder," but rather promoted the view that hemp was the single best plant on the planet for people, for food, fiber, fun and medicine, could, for decade after decade, have ended up in jail, rather than was able to "live meaningful lives on their own terms." Similarly so for the money laws as for the marijuana laws. Huge Lies, backed by Lots of Violence, for a long, long, time, drove generation after generation of the people being ruled over to adapt to living inside of systems of lies backed by violence by becoming more psychotically insane.
Furthermore, IF one does an even deeper analysis, then one eventually recognizes that there were comprehensible and comprehensive REASONS for how and why natural selection pressures drove artificial selection systems to become based upon the maximum possible deceits and frauds, namely, that the death controls must and do exist.
Someone like Jim Quinn presents superficial analysis, which is then followed by superficial solutions. A deeper analysis faces the ways that civilization necessarily operates according to the principles and methods of organized crime, because its death control systems are necessarily central to everything else. The current American systems are based upon their death controls being done through the maximum possible deceits, by core groups of organized crime, whereby governments are the biggest forms of organized crime, effectively controlled by the best organized gangs of criminals.
Jim Quinn is another example of typical reactionary revolutionaries, who do not look deeper into how the death controls developed. Those were the source of the runaway excessive successfulness of being able to control civilization in the ways that it actually was controlled, and that kind of excessive successfulness was also the source of that civilization developing runaway criminal insanities. Since people like Jim Quinn do not engage in deeper analysis, they do not have to deal with the death control issues, neither coming, nor going, regarding how the problems of financial enforced frauds were made and maintained, nor how any other different systems would still have to be that money is measurement backed by murder.
The essential problems that civilization faces were ALWAYS present. The only thing that changed were advancements in physical science, enabling technologies to develop at an exponential rate. Civilization was ALWAYS based on backing up lies with violence. America was that continuing to grow at an exponential rate, to take the form of an increasingly oxymoronic scientific dictatorship, whereby Americans more and more became the victims of the best scientific brainwashing that money could buy, whose successfulness became vicious spirals, that were feedback loops through POLITICAL FUNDING ENFORCING FRAUDS.
We are trapped within the collective "Confusion, Delusions, & Illusions" regarding how the debt controls are backed by the death controls. The deeper nature of those problems is that the established systems are based upon excessively successful frauds and deceits, while one of the manifestations of that excessive success is that there is almost nothing which is publicly significant other than various controlled opposition groups, which stay within the same frame of reference regarding those fundamental frauds and deep deceits, because those were effectively enforced with destruction for generation after generation.
An article like the one above is merely another example of superficial analysis, followed by superficial solutions. Actually the real problems are way worse, and the most realistic resolutions of those will also become way worse. Nothing is new regarding the "what has occurred in this country over the last 35 years," except for the development of the scientific dictatorship. It is the same old story, on the same exponential growth curve, whereby the excessive successfulness of controlling civilization through covert organized crime (which legalized its lies) has driven that civilization to become more criminally insane, at matching exponential rates.
The deeper problems are that there must necessarily be some death control systems, whose murder systems are the most extreme forms. The history of warfare developed those to be most successfully done through the maximum possible deceits and treacheries. Upon that basis was built the currently existing political economy, whose financial success became based upon enforcing frauds. EVERYONE LIVES INSIDE MONETARY AND TAXATION SYSTEMS BASED UPON ENFORCED FRAUDS.
Individualistic, personal, coping strategies with respect to that are somewhat possible, but overall politically insufficient. The only genuine solutions would require the development of different death controls, to back up different debt controls, since all private property is based upon backing up claims with coercions, with the most abstract form of that becoming money is measurement backed by murder.
By and large, the persistent and prolonged social successes based upon applying the principles and methods of organized crime was the history of warfare and economics. People like Jim Quinn do not engage in deeper analyses of those problems. Firstly, they do not fully face the nature of how the Deep State was made and maintained. Secondly, they do not admit and address the deeper reasons for how and why some death control systems must necessarily exist.
Another typical example of that pattern of reactionary revolution was presented in this article:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-10-09/deep-state-source-all-negativity
The Deep State: Source Of All Negativity
American households can best be understood as having been the victims of home invasions, whereby gangs of criminals moved in and took over the families' finances. All of the problems that Quinn correctly listed above are the results of the American People adapting to be ruled while living inside of systems based upon the ruling classes enforcing frauds. However, it does no good to then stop at that still superficial level of analysis, to then propose bogus "solutions" based upon the same old-fashioned false fundamental dichotomies, and the related impossible ideals. For instance, to promote bogus "solutions" where there will not be any death control systems, or, at least, none that human beings are consciously aware of operating.
The typical reactionary revolutionaries superficially recognize the degree to which the ruling classes are the biggest and best organized forms of organized crime. However, those kinds of reactionary revolutionaries then tend to never propose and promote any better death control systems, to back up better debt control systems. Rather, those reactionary revolutionaries stay within their superficial analysis, promoting their superficial "solutions."
America has had its debt slavery systems generate numbers which are debt insanities. The vast majority of Americans have been forced, for generation after generation, to adapt to living within those frauds. At the present time, the most likely resolutions of those runaway debt insanities are that those will provoke runaway death insanities. Indeed, those now seem to be the only realistic ways in which different death control systems might be able to emerge.
Of course, I would recommend harder political science fiction with respect to those issues, which rise, at least theoretically speaking, to the level at which there are theoretically possible political solutions. However, practically speaking, that is politically impossible, within the runaway established systems of POLITICAL FUNDING ENFORCING FRAUDS. The reasons for how and why so many people are living inside of political fantasies are that they adapted for generation after generation to living inside of sociopolitical systems which were always based on backing up lies with violence, where the ways and means to develop the abilities to enforce frauds grew at an exponential rate, as progress in science and technology was primarily applied through burgeoning scientific dictatorships.
To boil it down, to metaphorical statements of the literal social facts, the ruling classes have captured control over the governments' powers to rob and to kill, and therefore, act as the Vicious Wolves, through their more Domesticated Dogs, while those they rule over have become mostly Zombie Sheeple, that have adapted for generation after generation to be controlled in those ways. Tragically, that situation has resulted in there now being almost nothing by the core of organized crime, surrounded by layers of controlled opposition, who are mostly Black Sheeple, which promote the bogus "solutions" that everyone should become better Sheeple, while the genuine solutions are that everyone should become better Wolves.
The essential issues are the death control systems in general, with their most extreme form being the murder systems. There can not actually be any genuine resolutions of the real problems outside of that, because all human artificial selection systems are necessarily inside of the natural selection systems. The main reasons how and why doing that any better LOOKS DIFFICULT TO THE POINT OF APPEARING POLITICALLY IMPOSSIBLE are due to natural selection pressures driven the artificial selection systems to become based on the maximum possible deceits and frauds, hence, the current existence of globalized electronic monkey money frauds, backed by the threat of force from apes with atomic bombs.
The kinds of personal problems that Quinn correctly describes are merely superficial symptoms of wide-spread and pervasive ways that Neolithic Civilization, pumped up and UP with progress in physical science, has actually pumped up and UP sociopolitical systems based upon backing up lies with violence, the excessive successfulness of which has driven that kind of civilization to manifest runaway criminal insanities. Those problems are way worse, and way more intense, that guys like Jim Quinn discuss, because those problems can ONLY be resolved by changing the death controls that back up the debt controls. That is extremely problematic because all of the dominate social political systems are ALREADY based upon ENFORCING FRAUDS, and so, are ALREADY controlled by the best available professional liars and immaculate hypocrites, who continue to present the same old-fashioned false fundamental dichotomies and the related impossible ideals, as the bullshit basis for their bogus "solutions."
At the present time, America still leads the way in the development of globalized electronic frauds, backed by the force of atomic bombs. That symbolizes all of the rest of the ways that progress in physical science has been applied through scientific dictatorships, in order to perfect the brainwashing techniques that have resulted in the social facts becoming that:
In my opinion, it appears to be politically impossible to prevent the runaway debt insanities from provoking death insanities. There seems to be no way out of the vicious spirals of POLITICAL FUNDING ENFORCING FRAUDS. The overall, prolonged, excessive successfulness of ENFORCING FRAUDS has required the vast majority of people to develop attitudes which deliberately ignore the principle of the conservation of energy, as well as deliberately misunderstand the concept of entropy in the most absurdly backward ways.
WE ARE LIVING INSIDE OF WONDERLAND MATRIX BIZARRO WORLDS, WHEREBY THE EXCESSIVE SUCCESS OF ENFORCING FRAUDS HAS RESULTED IN THE VAST MAJORITY OF PEOPLE HAVING FRAGMENTED FANTASY WORLDS OF MISCONCEPTIONS.
In my view, guys like Jim Quinn, as well as most of the rest of the content on Zero Hedge, share in those fragmented fantasy worlds, since there is almost never deeper analysis of how and why the death controls back up the debt controls, and must necessarily do so. The REAL problems are debt insanities threatening to provoke matching death insanities. The only genuine alternatives must be to develop better death controls. However, since the established systems are based on their long history of success through deceits, and surrounding them are the controlled opposition groups that stay within the same frame of reference of those deceits, it continues to be politically impossible for any better resolutions to actually occur, and therefore, the debt insanities keep on automatically getting worse, faster, which is like pressure cookers with their safety valves welded shut.
Those who look at the pressure gauges are predicting eventual explosions of unprecedented magnitudes, while those who look at the fact that there has not yet been any such explosions of those magnitudes therefore tend to expect that there will continue to not be. Since those pressure cookers have become globalized electronic frauds, backed by the threat of force from atomic bombs, there is nothing in human history to compare that to. Nobody knows, including the ruling classes. Nobody is in control anymore, and certainly NOT those whose lives have been ruled over by systems based upon ENFORCING FRAUDS FOR GENERATIONS!
@ We are all responsible for our own lives and our own decisions.
That isn’t exactly true; the government primarily is responsible for the new demographics of multicultural America.
According to the Census Bureau, 17.4% of the US population is Mexican or Latino (2014 estimate). And according to a comprehensive study of U.S. Census Bureau reports this past September welfare use by households headed by immigrants from Central America and Mexico is 73% while 51% of immigrants -- legal and illegal -- access welfare programs, far more than the 30 percent of native-born Americans, many of those black and white Americans who have lost their jobs to Mexicans, H-1B immigrants and offshoring.
Of households headed by immigrants who have been in the country for more than two decades, 48% access welfare.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2571257/?utm_content=buffer9363e&utm_medium=social&utm_source
Never mind either that Obama uses the help of the Mexican government to get the word out to those south and north of the border about free food stamps through Mexico’s embassy and network of approximately 50 consular offices… “to ensure that Mexican-Americans and Mexican-nationals working in America are apprised of how to go about qualifying and applying for food stamps.
Or as the Agriculture Department’s website puts it: “USDA and the government of Mexico have entered into a partnership to help educate eligible Mexican nationals living in the United States about available nutrition assistance.”
Gen Xers lack of savings is NOT evidence of "a juvenile approach to life". Rather, it's an aftereffect of tens of millions of jobs being exported to the EM world, real household wealth having eroded profoundly, and banks offering such pitiful interest rates as to render the traditional savings account unworthy of anybody's time.
Many people are recklessly credit-dependent, but this is a cross-cultural characteristic, and more than anything indicates a corrupt financial system and government. The people ARE to blame for allowing the power elite to do this, but "brainwashed" describes our population better than "juvenile" (including Xers) .
Dining out, lack of savings, did he miss any Baby Boomer talking point? Speaking of lack of savings and being a juvenile, how about those millions of people at or near Social Security age that have no savings? Are they juvenile too? Or is it just people not in his designated cohort?
And if we're to blame for letting the elite do this, what specifically should we have done to stop it? These articles lay blame and guilt, but never really describe the true problem, or if they do, they never connect it to the current perpetrators. There are a lot of "let's blame ourselves for what our opressors have done" disinfo campaigns going around the internet. It's the "conservative" thing to do to take responsibility, so use that against people. We should probably try to excise these attacks on us from our mental routines.
Is it more juvenile to entrust your wealth to material marketable objects of non-discretionary value?
Or is it more juvenile to entrust your wealth to arbitrary credits of no particular value, which are systematically and intentionally debased, whose value may be entirely dismissed at any moment?
I submit that these are not examples of a lack of savings vs savings. These are variances in definitions of the term 'savings'.
No body has accurately predicted a disaster. So not everyone would listen and react to anyone predicting a disaster.
I would stop earning in dollars, when bosses pay in Gold. It is simple.
I would stop buying us treasuries, when someone show me how gold can be held against a government bent on confiscating it.
I would increase my household savings, if prices allow me save anything from my salaries.
I would buy a second hand car, if someone would sell me one with monthly payment with low interest as new car or tell me how to handle high cost of maintaining old cars.
Otherwise, stop making all those noise. We know the truth.
BTV on Direct TV is a good channel to watch (353). Show is called countdown. It beats the US clown financial shows.
Food for thought.
Japan is going to begin new stimulus. UK is milking Yuan business relationship.
not surprised.
"most American households to be living on the brink of catastrophe, but continuing to act in a reckless and delusionary manner."
The American Governemnt is living on the brink of catastrophe, but continuing to act in a reckless and delusionary manner. (national debt with endless wars)
Wall Street is living on the brink of catastrophe, but continuing to act in a reckless and delusionary manner. (leverage, derivatives and asset bubbles)
We are all in it together.
But some are more "together" than others when it comes to consequences.
Surprise, surprise: the people live like they are taught to. Example from above shows them a State that spends like a drunken sailor, runs up a massive debt and doesn't seem to be able to handle things in a responsible manner. Why should they behave any differently?
Meanwhile, the adverts they are showered with tell them to buy and buy and buy and then, buy some more. Through what sort of miracle would they be sensible?
I tell people this all the time: don't buy shit on credit, unless you pay the whole card off *every* month, and still have plenty left over. Don't lease cars unless you have so much money you could buy the car and throw it away every few years for a big loss. Don't buy breakfast at those fancy doughnut shops like Starbucks. When my dad went to work, back in the day, he took a *thermos* with coffee made at home. His generation would not even consider paying 5.00 for a cup of coffee and 2.00 or 3.00 for a criossant.
If you live like that, you might not end up rich, but you will probably have a few dollars in the bank.
For the life of me I can't see the difference in Paul Ryan and Boehner. Oh Oh Oh I got it.. . . . The tan!!! That's it! The Tan! Things will be great without the tan! Forward into the darkness we trod.
So, in other words, people like me, who have saved and saved and done without, will be responsible for all those who have enjoyed the fruits of their labors. I don't have a cell phone. Or cable TV. Or expensive vacations. Or iPads. Or dining out, etc...
I look at what all these other people have and wondered how they could afford it. I make okay money, but have never felt wealthy. I've struggled to pay for repairs and maintenance. I've had years where I didn't put anything in the bank or retirement account due to pay cuts and soaring inflation. Yet, I still have money in the bank and far more in retirement (i'll never have enough though) than the vast majoriyt
I will never forget a statement my father made to me in regard to a Gulf Coast trip from Florida's panhandle to Texas he and my mother took about 20 years ago. The tour bus had to detour off the Interstate system and passed through parts of rural Alabama and Louisiana. In talking about the trip and their experiences I asked him what struck him the most about what they saw and he summed it up in 4 words, Tin shacks and cadillacs. I queried further and he said he was struck by the fact that brand new cadillacs were parked in front of tin shacks and run down slums everywhere he looked. So people back then were willing to forgo decent housing and buy the status symbol. Reap the whirlwind.
To be fair Jim, while you are right you have not accounted for generational differences in views on money and credit.
To a Baby-Boomer who was brought up to believe the Dollar was Gold-backed (though for foreigners and not for him) Dollars are money. All economic activities are about accumulating Dollars. It makes sense they would keep their wealth in Dollars.
To a Gen-Xer, whose first experiences were stagflation, and Reagan-era borrow-your-way-to financial independence, Dollars are depreciating credit you should arbitrage to accumulate real things...yes, even homes. Because the value of the Dollar is arbitrary, while real things depend on the market of relative values.
If you are a millenial, whose first experiences were the tech boom and Greenspan's low-interest and banking's no-qualification loans, easily defaulted... Then money is theoretical, gadgets are nice, and the distribution of these things is social, lacking any connection to productivity. So, you borrow to buy what you need with the certain understanding that the monetary authorities will be forced to print and forced to keep you solvent in order to sustain the system from which they extract money and power.
All of them are right...to some degree. But each leads to widely varying definitions of wealth, and widely varying strategies for survival.
Is it more juvenile to entrust your wealth to material marketable objects of non-discretionary value?
Or is it more juvenile to entrust your wealth to arbitrary credits of no particular value, which are systematically and intentionally debased, whose value may be entirely dismissed at any moment?
I submit that these are not examples of a lack of savings vs savings. These are variances in definitions of the term 'savings'.
Based off of 5000 participants? Also, Google surveys pop up on articles I want to read and I randomly hit answers to get to the article. So while I believe things are gloomful I in no way trust Google with any "surveys" they conduct. In fact, considering the number of them I hang up on I wonder demographically who actually answers survey questions anymore.
Based off of 5000 participants? Also, Google surveys pop up on articles I want to read and I randomly hit answers to get to the article. So while I believe things are gloomful I in no way trust Google with any "surveys" they conduct. In fact, considering the number of them I hang up on I wonder demographically who actually answers survey questions anymore.
"It’s almost as if a mental illness has befallen a majority of Americans."
Americans are victims of toxic injury from vaccines, fluoride,
chemtrails and GMOs deliberately placed in our air, food, water and medicine to handicap, dominate and control us.
This guy should change the name to the "Constantly Blame the Victim Blog".
People there mostly complain about those on welfare, minorities, & the poor. Fake libertarian site.