Many of us have not been able to look away since "Hank" Paulson laid out his bare-bones ransom note plan for the dicatorial powers authority to save us all. The situation our economy faces has led to serious discussion, probably more than we have seen about any other issue in the last eight years. But few are getting to the heart of the problem. More below the fold.
Full disclosure: I work in the financial services industry for one of the gargantuan banking entities. I am not an economist and did not study management, accounting or finance. My job is to push hundreds of millions of dollars a day thru the great series of tubes to and from other banks.
Doing this in some aspect for a little over three years has opened my eyes to the thrust of our economic woes.
You've probably seen complete fucking guesses reports that all the voodoo debt these banks have on their books may exceed a quadrillion dollars. Some of you have seen this website http://www.chrismartenson.com/... which gives a thoughtful yet easy to understand explanation of our debt-based economy.
Well here's what my wee little brain has been wondering lately: can we really continue to tolerate a completely immoral economic philosophy?
In essence, our system is based solely on debt. Every dollar you've ever seen has been loaned into existence. For my entire lifetime and most of yours there has been absolutely nothing backing up our almighty buck, i.e. gold, silver, very small rocks, churches, cider and so forth. Have a problem? Print more Georges, Jacksons and Benjamins.
We all know this causes inflation. But what does inflation really mean? It means that your dollar will likely be worth less and less as time goes on. Which means you'll need to amass lots of dollars and gamble invest them almost perfectly without ever making a mistake wisely in order to ensure that they have the same purchasing power years down the line.
Now I've worked a little with retirement plans. The idea is, you save a few percent of your salary, your employer throws in a few, you pick a diversified mix of investments and they magically average 7-10% a year for 30-40 years and you can retire and never worry about money again.
Oh, unless you have an emergency and need some of the money at any point in your life. Also, if the market goes south when you're just a few years from retirement and you haven't yet converted all your assets to a money market (which we thought were completely safe until last week), you will never recover from your losses.
In the end you've worked your whole life and saved and gambled possibly a hundred grand but by the time you retire it only buys you what fifty grand bought you 30 years ago.
Does anyone see a problem with this?
Shouldn't a dollar saved be a dollar saved? Should you be forced to risk it all just to make sure you can stay in place?
The answer is categorically NO!
Our economic system punishes those who would save and rewards debtors and gamblers. It destroys the American promise that if you work hard and save you can build a better life for yourself and your family.
It's all a giant fucking lie that most people will EVER be able to pull themselves to the same economic level their parents enjoyed barring some miracle (the lottery, inheritance), a massive income (alas, even richers have to gamble the shit out of their money) or the ability to NEVER lose money they've invested EVER.
Our economy MUST cease its focus on growth! We should reward those who save and discourage reckless gambling and debt! We should NOT bail out the Wall Street machine that has constantly profited from us.
Let them burn and take their crooked dice game with them!