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| The revolution begins within, comrade! |
Nobody is forced to use Wall Street's (The City's, etc, etc) products and services.
You don't have to keep a fat stack of "cash in the bank", that those evil Banksters can gamble with.
You don't need to put on your credit cards a load of pointless stuff you don't need and can't afford.
Everyone is not required to go to university and amass huge, life-sucking debts in the process.
It is not necessary for you to take on a massive mortgage that you will perhaps never be able to repay.
All of these things are choices we all have to make, as individuals. They are not mandatory checkboxes in the margin of your life story, which some corporate or public [busy] body demands that you must fill in, on pain of death, or imprisonment, or y'know, maybe just a wedgie… a Chinese burn… or a stern and disapproving look?
What is the Occupy movement today really all about? Is it about relieving Joe & Josephine Average of the requirement to make these kind of life choices and deal with the consequences that may ensue?
An example…
Sick of the banks getting bailed out when they make a mistake? Great, me too! So, let's stop the bank bail-outs.
But, wait a minute… how about those bail-ins, with innocent bank depositors like you'n'me losing our money? So unfair! Yes, that kind of thing is much more fun while it's happening to someone else (but especially those evil bankers of course).
Maybe your bank made a mistake with its bets… but that's not your problem — it's theirs! You didn't place any bet on anything, you didn't make any bad choices that went wrong for you. Right? ;-)
Be the change you want to see.
7 comments:
Hi DP,
was that a little bit adressed to our last discussion? ;)
I personally really dont care about neither the bail ins nor the bail outs. Seriously, if somebody thinks it is his life purpose to gather infinte virtuell digits in some banking computer, as long as I get to have the usefull stuff from the physical plane, so what? In MMT you would propably say "let them have those".
The problem is, if somebody has to work hard to gather those currency units in order to spend them later on the physical plane, but is being raped in the meantime, before he acquires his physical consumption items in the future, THAT is immoral. And this concern both ways. Via bail-outs: which basically means debt monetization via counterfeing via inflation, or via bail-ins (property/wealth taxes are the same), which basically means direct theft from the individual. You argue, that the individuel should choose wisely. Yes, great. You and I might have interest in banking, but even for us it is impossible to comprehend all risks in a particular currency asset, especially the risks are not economically any longer but political at random, how do you expect 99,9999% of the rest of the population to do so?
And the next bail-ins in Euro(pe) will be huge, just read "Back to Mesopotania" (and other publications) by the BCG. And also gold will not change a single thing about this, it might just be a lottery ticket for front runners, but it might be a blank as well. If your socialist government decides that it is better to build tanks and to feed the PIGS, you seriously think, that therefore magically your (FG)gold can buy a next generation car in twenty years, which will never be build, due to central planning of the EUDSSR?
Personally it does not concern me that much, I just feel really really sorry for the regular hard working person, I once explained the problem to somebody: IT IS NOT THEIR FAULT, YOU ARE THE F*CKING PROBLEM, BECAUSE YOU WORK. I got the despressing answer: Yes, I know, but what can I do? I have to, because I am scared to live on social welfare and have too much to loose, not having your possibilities. I tell you, THAT is depressing.
Greets, AD
No, this was entirely unrelated to our conversation of last week (although I can obviously see how you might think it was).
I was just frustrated at the idiocy I saw a rash of earlier today in my Twitter feed. (Yes, I should just unfollow OccupyWallSt… but how else will I get to keep my finger on the pulse of my fellow man, except by witnessing him in full glorious flight, out in the wild? ;D)
It's not like I would wish for everyone to understand the mechanics of banking, just to take the blindfold off and see the basic obviousness of the situation - that their deposits are at risk in a bank. One would think at least it ought to be obvious that banks pay you interest for some reason or another.
Thanks for your suggested reading material - I've just printed out a copy of it and will read it with interest some time soon, I'm sure.
I feel your anguish at the futility of the situation. Really I do.
Prost!
just some social envy
Yes! Just your standard hateful fare of Marxist envy, lack of broad objective analysis of the real situation, and no effective plan of action as a result.
As for Soros funding them, well, who knows. You wouldn't imagine it would be good for business, but… just who knows. #sigh
“beggars don’t envy millionaires, they envy other
beggars who have a few more coins than they do.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/us/23iht-letter23.html?_r=1&
maybe that's something for the Occupy Marxists to consider....(have they even figured out yet, that you cant eat coins nor paper and even bit&bytes in some computer are not so tasty?)
Yes.
This isn't a new idea, at least to the English-speaking world.
To fail to "keep up with the Joneses" is perceived as demonstrating socio-economic or cultural inferiority.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeping_up_with_the_Joneses
Yes DP, I am aware.
The interesting thing is the cultural difference between the anglosaxon "Jones" and the middle european "Jones". Whereas in the US people say it is "social justice" that they can buy that same Mercedes (on credit), I'd say in Germany people consider it "social justice" if their neighbour does not have a Mercedes they dont have as well. I am not sure which version is sicker....
What's your take about the UK?
What is my take for this in the UK?
Didn't we come up with the idea of the Jones, as so many wonderful innovations, and the Americans simply ran up field with the ball.
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