🏷️ economics

Lately my viewing habbits have gravitated towards the Showtime Network. Surprisingly the biggest draw for me has not been weeds or some crazy movie, but documentaries. This one Maxed Out (SORRY GOOGLE VIDEO IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE. LINK WAS -4840432044369494646) sucked me in totally this weekend. This is why the Republicans are going to wander the desert for the next 30 years. In the middle of this doc they show how the unwinding of the bankruptcy laws in this country effectively brought back the Debtors prisons a la Charles Dickens. Two of the main characters of this show Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey are interesting twist to the whole thing. For the most part I can't stand Suze, but to me Dave Ramsey has been the shining light of the Fox Business Channel. The economic climate has finally caught up to his message, "It's cool to be Frugal."

So on one end we have the average people succuming to slavery by the banks and on the other we have the Uber Capitalists. They're kind of the people that @hodown sees on a daily basis in NYC.
Yes, it's long but it does show the pinnacle of what everyone is striving for in the New York Metro Area. Those are the people everyone wants to be or pretends to me at least in their mind. It's kind of ironic that the financial "products" that some of that crowd came up is the fuel that indirectly is helping us burn $4 gas in our cars. To me it's kind of shocking to see the people that can burn though cash like it's nothing be Neanderthals. Since it always that the higher class of people the more civilized or gentrified, but in reality the ultra wealthy may have always been this way, we just never saw it on TMZ.

In the end we need to tilt ourselves to the left, a la FDR style.
We are going to have to turn to civic sacrifice to turn things around for everyone as the decession deepens. That means higher taxes on the corporate/hedge fund crowd & all sorts of other middle class building initiatives.

Communist, Eh?

Unregulated markets + Unscrupulous Businesses = Fleecing of the Common People. It was the Republicans that overturned most the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 sometime in the 90's to get us to the brink of Financial Oblivion. Citing such catch phrases as , "Uncompetitive" "Burdensom Regulation" and "Free Markets" they unwound all of the safety nets, safeguards and other legislation that prevented such an event for almost 80 years.

Great, just what we need more deregulation. Big Business has everyone's best interest at heart. I'm not saying that going the other way is in our best idea. To balance things where people can take their shot and succed in the free market and yet have a social safety net underneath them is the ideal, i.e. Canada.

It's just that now that we are on the brink of a major recession/Depression the ugly truth of Capitalism is coming to the limelight. THE LOSERS PAY OFF THE WINNERS! It's a Zero sum game. For everyone that is going to be on the street due to their house getting foreclosed on there is some bank somewhere that took the other side of the trade that is going to make a mint.

As far as I am concerned the game is over. Economically speaking unless you have a lot of money in a foreign currency or precious metals your wealth is depreciating by the day literally. There will be some great changes in store for us in the future. Real change is going to occur now that the formerly middle class and upper middle class people are going to lose their "STUFF" en mass.

Get ready for economic bloodbath as this month moves closer to the end. We're fucked.

• My apologies if I sound like a raving lunatic...