I am really getting kind of tired of the bullshit line "Everyone has a 401K, everyone is in
the stock market" Like all 401Ks are in the stock market.
To this I say "BULLSHIT". I don't know how many remember one of GWB little tricks was
to drop taxes on dividends and keep the taxes on the interest earned off savings.
Who does that tax rule benefit. The wealthy. Because poor asses, or average asses don't get
dividends, they just earn interest off CDs or conventional savings. But that is still being
taxed. I don't understand this, since Reagan was the one to put these taxes in place.
If President Obama wanted to help, he might could drop the taxes off the interest
on savings. It is just another example how the top tier of rich folks have
gamed the system to their benefit.
When I was a kid, before the internet and 24 hour cable news, I never knew what the
stock market was doing. I didn't give 2 shits. You could only find out if you read the financial
section of the paper.
It wasn't a minute by minute counter on the fucking TV. Come on, we all know the stock
market has nothing to do with our daily lives. Or when did the gas pump change prices on a
daily basis, sometimes on a hourly basis. When did we all become speculators of oil.
This whole thing is surreal. I can't just raise my prices one day, and then the next
raise them again, and then lower them. At first they tried telling the prices were going
up because of Katrina, more storms, cold winters, blah, blah, blah.
Now they don't even bother to lie about the reasons the gas goes up and down. This last
raise was because it was summer, and the oil companies know folks are going to travel
more.
So the oil companies make huge profits, banks are making huge profits. Even though
they supposedly were on the brink of collapse just a mere 6 months ago. Man, that sure
was a quick fucking turn around wasn't it? It may have something to do with having a special
relationship with the FEDs, who are throwing money at these institutions.
The serfs at the bottom, just keep running around trying to survive. And the mega-million
bonuses at the top keep on coming. LIke a hit parade rolling down Mainstreet. Except this
time they are hitting you hard in your bank account or your shrinking paycheck. Or no
paycheck at all.
About 2 years ago, I asked the manager at my local bank how the stock market could
be so high, yet my business was tanking. Everything seemed to be tanking. Her
reply didn't surprise me," Someone is making too much money." No Shit! Remember
those record oil profits last year?
We all know that now. Or I wondered how car companies could keep pumping
out cars nobody was buying. We all can see what happened to that question. The car
companies took themselves to the brink. I still am not sure they will survive. Cash
for clunkers is just a little bandaide on a huge bleeding wound.
I don't have any money in the stock market. I say fuck the stock market. It has nothing
to do with me or my service business. I never get a call that says "Hey, the stock market
is up, I think I need your services."
Fuck the stock market. It does not reflect the masses, the commoner, the serf. I just
wish I didn't have to hear about it everyday. What has it got to do with me? Since when
did savings have to bring a yield of 10 or 15 or 20 percent. I always thought you saved, and
added to that savings by putting more in every week or month. Then you might earn a
paltry interest rate. But the money would be there when you needed to use it, not gone
because you stuck it in a Mutual Fund, and then it lost 90% of the original value. Mutual
Fund is just another word for GAMBLE.
My father was a compulsive gambler and the family suffered for his disease. So the
average person doesn't understand the stock market, and why should they. It looks
like it is gamed for the big players. So just save your pennies, don't pay attention to
the stock market, if it goes down then the big guys are the ones losing the money.
And they can afford it, because the government takes care of it's own. And the average
bottom feeder is not on that buddy list.
The upside being, you may not be evil. or have no morals or ethics. Even though something
may be legal, doesn't make it right. It really disgusts me, greed, greed and more greed.
Is money all these Wall Street gamblers care about? So my advice, keep it in your
mattress, keep it in a CD, or a savings, or an annuity. Or you could buy affordable
property, or rental property, or art, etc. Just stay away from the Stock
Market. If you aren't Goldman Sachs or Citi, or BOA, then you aren't gonna win. Remember,
they front run the whole system, and the little guy only gets the scraps, and they aren't
none to good.
I always like to say, " I have friends in low places, how about you?"
Update: Wow, some of you got kind of pissed. But I will clarify one point. I did not diss
401Ks, my company has a 401K. But here is how it works. First of all I own the company, we
are tiny, tiny. But the 401K works like this: My employee puts in as much as much as 10%
of their pay, according to Fed Law I can match up to 3% of their contribution. It goes directly into
an account at a local bank, in the form of cash, just like an IRA. They employee is free to
take their own 401K and do what ever they would like with it, including Mutual Funds if
they so choose. They are fully in charge of their own money, their own 401K. So am not
against retirement accounts, there is a difference between 401K and Stock Market. Your
401K could be in the form of a CD or what ever. Just thought I would add this, so people
don't think I am totally ignorant or selfish, or a jerk.