"A Master of Arts
Is not worth a Fart." - Thomas Fuller
And, of course,
"Our mutual value is for us the value of our mutual objects.
Hence for us man himself is mutually of no value." - Karl Marx "Comment on Mill"
We've been trained to know that nothing comes for free. If I'm going to offer you a million dollar idea, and I really am, then you have to earn it somehow. Otherwise, you will know that the idea I offer is actually not worth "a million dollars" or that there is some part of this diary that you have not understood that contains a "catch."
The other option is that I am a fool. We know that fools and their money are oft afleeing.
A conservative (a real one) would object to American society's expectations. A revived Cato would scream him or herself hoarse over the shady dealing that each American expects from neighbors, the angles each American seeks to play. A leftist (a real one) would object to the way that modern Americans use "earn" to denote "endure unethical behavior" or "triumph over a fellow worker in a competition." However, we, most of us, take it for granted that any offer is suspect, if only because of the suspicious offers pouring into our inboxes, and have been competing since we have been getting and spending and laying waste our powers.
You see, I have bad credit. I do not mean that I have slow or weak or poor credit, but actually bad credit. I have Jeffrey Dahmer credit, Wayne Gacey credit, it terms of how bad it is. If my credit were a person, it would be both successful and psychotic. (I'm neither one. In fact, I think credit ratings are somewhat inverse in character, sometimes.) I'm not alone in this. Many of you have bad credit. Most of you do.
Recently, I've come to the conclusion that only the newly born and newly dead have clean credit.
I also have advanced degrees in unemployment. I got an M.A. in English literature! I went through the Ph.D. program in it. I was a Classicist. I've worked in schools all my professional life.
Take these two facts together, and you will understand that it is impossible that I would ever be allowed to start a business. Therefore, were I to have a million dollar idea, or even a hundred and twelve thousand dollar idea, I could do nothing with it. The capitalist owns the means of production, and the capitalist owns the means of acquiring the means, as well.
Go past this here thingamabob, endure a bit on credit ratings, Marx and production, artisans in economics, and I'll give you a new business idea that I feel fairly certain would work and be profitable anywhere there is a population above 15,000.
I've annoyed readers already by making assumptions about them. When I seemed to claim that all everyone every any wanted to nuke the world, folks got a mite irked. In this case, when I say that You, reader, probably have poor credit, my guess is based on recent trends.
1. There are $897,000,000,000.00 in consumer credit card debt today.
2. Between 1992 and 2007 (no data I could find for 2010), collection agencies increasedtheir income by $3,757,097,000.00
3. Financial industry profits before taxes were $610 billion in 2000, $1,370 billion in 2005, $1,525 in 2006, $1,383 in 2007, $1,047 in 2008, and $1,125 in 2009. (Some crash, eh?)
The usury law is now something that I have to link in order to prove to people that it exists in the United States. The idea that credit cards were limited to 10% seems impossible to the imagination. In the same states that employers like the Kochs love for their labor laws, there are also no limits on what pawn shops can charge or payday loans can take.
Here is a question for you: what does "interest" mean? Really.
Ever wonder if it's different in banking and in "vested _" or "conflict of _" or "you, girl, have got my _?" It isn't, really. Interest is "profit, benefit, bonus, extra, personal desire." An "interest rate" is a "profit" rate. It is, therefore, nothing less than how much rent bankers can charge on money. In the case of a loan, this is obvious enough. In the case of your ATM card, it isn't.
How much money did banks make in profit on NSF charges? Oh, $24,000,000,000.00 in 2008 came from consumers in profit, after any losses incurred. It is in the bank's "interest" to charge this "interest" on a micro-loan to the consumer, and so a "top innovation in the financial sector" was to devise something called "order of payments." (That's the habit of not running a debit card's withdrawals until the next day, then running the largest first so that a balance is obliterated, and then running all the small ones, so anyone operating near the margins, which is most of America, will trigger the infamous $40 cup of coffee.)
Ok, never mind. Thanks to the President, you may have opted out of that trap. How's your cell phone? You have one, don't you? You simply must. How else will you have an app? How can you listen to music, except on a .25" neodymium speaker? How else to watch Avatar and enjoy its ecological message, except on a disposable device with rare earth materials? (Sorry. As a teacher, I have grown to really hate cell phones.) You signed a contract, of course.
Have you, um, canceled your contract, uh, ever?
Did you notice that you can't do it on time, no matter what you do? Even if you do, Verizon, anyway, will "already reported to collections" with your account "in error" and ask you to deal with them.
Consumers don't even react when someone says, "We'll call a collection agency," because, at least based on my freshmen and sophomores, most have met up with them before they've had their first beer.
Grrrrrrraaaaa
[Breathe! Dude, stop it. Look, here's your pill. No more testosterone shots for you this month.]
I deny that that was me in the picture.
Ok. I'm clam now. I sea I got knotted.
In an economy that has been blown up by its capital markets, where the investing class has gone to Rio with its sugar baby, the rescue comes from the artisan class. Artisans keep making goods and devising services that are ingenious, locally oriented, and priced directly at the local consumer's capacities. The small retailer and the local maker step up after the souffle fall of moneymen and money honeys.
However, if the local bank is owned by one of the five banks, and there are only five banks, and if there is a duopoly of credit, and there is, then artisans are only possible when there is no barrier at all to production, and that's impossible.
So, here's my idea. If any of you are well capitalized, as they say, or newly born or died and with a good credit rating, you are free to use this idea.
We can foster the artisan class and become capitalists in our own right (without the money) with craft shops.
The garage
Buying automotive repair equipment is expensive. Having a garage is rare. Having room, tools, and all those little tools that you forgot to get, as well as having shop manuals is impossible.
The garage: Imagine a fully stocked garage with two lifts, tools, and a library of shop manuals. People come to the shop and pay $10/hour to use the shop. They sign a release indemnifying the shop against accidents, and they agree to return everything. For a bit extra, the shop owner can retail some supplies and sell snacks.
The shop
Middle class dreamers with large houses fantasize about getting a woodworking shop or metal working shop fully assembled. Oh, they buy one piece at a time. A table saw! Cool! Then it's an adze. In about fifteen years, the owner is making birdhouses or, potentially, very creative and interesting things. However, it is fantastically expensive to be able to try, and it is for elites.
The shop: Imagine a large space (an abandoned Wal-Mart would do) with lumber, metal, and all the tools. The walls are lined with project cubbies, and people can store their work for a dollar a day, rent tools for $5/hour, and work.
Now, tell me these businesses wouldn't work. All I ask is that I get a discount when I show up.