"Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making" is also the title of a book written by David Rothkopf who has identified "just over 6,000" people who match his definition of the superclass (with the help of his researchers)- and described its ability to rule the lives of billions of people worldwide.... Sure, there are 'good guys" among the superclasss, but they are clearly not winning... you have been warned!
Debt is control only when it is collectible. If the debtor has the legal or other means to resist "repayment", debt is meaningless.
I've been thinking of this editorial opening for quite some time. I wanted it to reflect on my stance and pursuit to help Humanity at my own level. Bad economics being a great source of divide, I suddenly recalled the story of two pals of mine, in their late 40s, who might be heading for a divorce as I type this. Three years ago, their goal was to pay back these (damn) credit cards and they fully succeeded. They are not financially secure according to the mainstream standards: they live from paycheck to paycheck, even though being practically debt-free, and have a 401k (which could evaporate at any moment in a stock market crash). However for now is not bad at all considering that 80% of Americans have debts up to their eyeballs -- the U.S Treasury included.
So what happened? Well, at the beginning of the housing boom, they didn't have enough for a down payment and the husband lamented, thinking that he was about to miss the American Dream. There was also lots of peer pressure since he works in an environment of highly paid executives representing the top 15% of the society and of which he doesn't belong to. It soon became an obsession: home ownership would never be for him. He was born a failure. The despair surely got worse when in the midst of the boom-mania, he was strolling down the streets with his wife looking at the new condos being built. Mesmerized and with a sad smile he explained for how much money those apartments were sold or flipped, assessing restlessly the equity lost for not taking part in this mega-speculation that was supposed to be endless.
From the beginning, she didn't buy the exuberance and it turns out that current events prove her right. Today the stories about the housing market are unraveling, although the media are still gravely underreporting the situation. So, every time her husband was hypnotizing himself with ever-increasing home prices, she made a duty to lecture him and email him as many enlightening pundit's views as possible to make her point. Even GE's Immelt declared Housing Great Depression a reality. In despair she then armed herself with the U.S Constitution, which prohibits central banking as drafted by the Framers... The attempts to make her husband come to his senses remained futile. Her 'out of control greed' theory was first ignored then mocked and badly trashed. Remembering dotcom bubble stories, she wondered if the housing-mania was not mind-controlling him in the same way.
The justified gloom and doom data forwarded to him daily got on his nerves. He became irate, accused her of being obsessed with 'an economic end of days'. He used guilt in turn, adding that if they couldn't afford to buy a home, it was because of a lack of income whatsoever. The blame went on and on: instead of studying newspapers data, she should use her energy to come up with real solutions to earn more instead. Feeling rejected and misunderstood, bitterness fed her motivation to make her husband comprehend the dangers of denial.
His obsessions versus hers quickly became a philosophical issue; and this is precisely why they see a counselor today. It is very likely that the housing mania was a mere catalyst after all. Of course, they could have had enough for a down payment if not having maxed out their credit cards in the first place... but it recently surfaced that predatory practices are too pervasive in the 'plastic industry'. Likewise, your life can easily become hell if you are not fully informed. They simply racked up so much credit card debt because companies had raised their debt ceiling systematically over a 5 year-period. To be fair, she remained more or less 3 years without a steady income, but nonetheless this didn't prevent them from changing their spending habits. Until reality hit her like a freight train 5 years ago, they had copycatted the widespread mantra of 'shopping til you drop'.
"When you're in a hole, stop digging." David
Walker, former U.S. Comptroller General and star of
the documentary ,I.O.U.S.A
LONG/TO BE CONTINUED
http://www.un-debt.net/