We Are Being Lied To
When I saw this video today, it made me think about truth and what we the public are told. We are surrounded by media these days. But how much of what we absorb is more like propaganda? We are told rents are going up for houses. But don’t we also know about high unemployment? The poverty/low wages? We’re told people in the US have lost a huge chunk of their net worth recently, most of it from houses. Even if rents are rising, that just makes us renters poorer, right? Then you should buy a house, huh?
We are told the foreclosure inventory is drying up. But we can see the foreclosures in our cities and towns. We see how long they sit without being on the market. And we read studies that show as much as 90% are being held off the market. Still, the urgency; buy a house! Hurry! Before rates go up.
About those rates; who’s setting the rates? Who is making the loans? It’s not the markets anymore. It’s the guys reading the teleprompters. Or is it the guys who pick the guys who read the teleprompters? We know these politicians can lie to us, but the message is so convincing. Come on, you really want a house don’t you? It’s cheap; it’ll never be this cheap again! They are going to run out of houses, so you better hurry up and buy! And ‘vote for me because house prices are going up and I made it happen,’ says the teleprompter.
It’s not just houses. People tend to buy stocks because the bonds are yielding practically nothing. So stocks go up, and ‘look, the economy is growing! Vote for me!’ says the teleprompter.
And it’s not just our finances. We’re told we are winning wars, only to slink away at night. And that will be spun by the media. We didn’t lose. Hell no, we saved those people! We’re the victors. Oh, and ‘vote for me’.
So just how much of what we ‘know’ is real. And if some of it isn’t the truth, who’s responsible? What’s their motive? Has the ability to shape reality through the media gotten so advanced, that it’s possible to be told up is down and most people will believe it?
“We are being lied to”
… continously.
These lies work well on the uninformed but get laughed at by the well-informed.
Knowledge is power and all that.
“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” - Buddha
I like that quote.
But did the Buddha really say it?
Not sure I believe it…
Reminds of the following exchange:
Person #1: Question authority!
Person #2: Says who?!?
IAT
Sounds like the perfect “echo chamber” recipe.
These lies work well on the uninformed but get laughed at by the well-informed.
But when the ratio between the two groups exceeds 10:1, does the knowledge of the informed help the group? Or does it just provide comic relief as the ship sinks?
At some point it becomes a matter of helping oneself rather that of helping the group.
All the lemmings don’t go over the cliff, some hang back for reasons of their own.
how do you know this?
now i feel naked and exposed
My experience has been the opposite. Well-informed people are ridiculed. It’s like being at a party where you have no interest in drinking and everyone else is drunk.
I also think we’ve reached some kind of phase where not partaking of these lies is considered to be a rejection of national identity. Not just in the U.S., either.
snake charmer said: “Well-informed people are ridiculed.”
Correct. That’s all I see around me locally and in the media. Even individuals who sense something is wrong, support half of the picture, while leaving a big gaping hole in their so-called logic that allows them to misbehave in some way, conferring unerringly the same sort of perceived advantages. Making money is the primary motivator, but making money today is almost impossible to do if you’re trying not to hurt other people. The system is designed to increase cultural misery, since that’s the most profitable model for the top 1%.
And this sort of faulty and unsustainable system is going to run full speed into the granite retaining wall of petroleum starvation. The Western lifestyle is truly doomed.
I completely agree. It makes these political conventions seem even more empty and stupid than they already are. I don’t know if I’d use the word “starvation,” but growth is, for all intents and purposes, over right now.
Yet we keep trying to build more houses. Incredible.
Lies and more lies about competing liars.
It’s lies all the way down.
No one can force you to buy a house.
No one can force you to sign a contract and go deep in deep.
So don’t.
Keep informed. Don’t go into debt. Live below your means.
You have a mortgage don’t you, Mr. Hypocrite?
I dunno if he does but you do…. a huge one…. on a rapidly depreciating asset.
This isn’t about me… It’s all about you and your pandering and whining.
Carry on with your victim parade.
Oh it’s all about you my friend. ALL about you.
I’m not your friend.
Sure you are sweetie…. sure you are.
Don’t beg
Now you have me to fawn over instead of Darryl.
I wouldn’t mind this “living within our means” bit if
1. Our incomes do not increase with time.
2. Our expenses rise due to inflation.
End result is that our means and the living under them are lower every year. If this goes on, living within our means will be living in tenement style rentals housing, or dorms with suicide nets out eht window.
Oh well, I guess we should deal with it. After all, the past 50 years were an bberration.
There are always ways to do it, but not without sacrifice. Some people are living in RV’s, and others in inexpensive housemate situations. Sure, if you HAVE to own your own house, or have a large space to yourself, then it becomes difficult. But it’s certainly possible. There was a guy on the news who was busted for dealing drugs out of his motorhome. He had been parked across from the news station for 3 years for free, and could have stayed if he wasn’t involved in illegal activity.
I don’t believe this country is going to continue down this current path forever. At a certain point, I think that we will right the ship even if it takes a revolution.
2banana said: “Don’t go into debt. Live below your means.”
Sorry, you lost me there. All of our cultural normalcy (which dictates the behavior of at least 80% of the people) says that if you avoid debt, you’re poor. And if you live below your means, you’re poor. Nobody wants to be poor or even act like they’re poor. Because if you do, then you’re insane for wanting that. And if for some bizarre reason you withstand that, you’ll be rejected by most other people.
I know all about the last part. Avoid debt and live below your means, and you end up sitting at home every night. America is a consumer culture. If you don’t follow along, you end up ostracized. U.S. families require conformity and debt and excessive spending. That’s the huge social power of the system. That’s why we HBBers will always lose in the so-called debate.
America is a consumer culture. If you don’t follow along, you end up ostracized.
If so, you are hanging out with the wrong folks.
I am a cheap b@st@rd. I live well below my means. I have plenty of friends who probably think of me anywhere from “quirky” to “odd” to “weird”—but I have plenty of friends. I am FAR from ostracized.
The Advertisers rule . Who are the Advertisers ? Big money, better know as Corporation America . Notice how many Pharma drug TV
commercials you see these days in which they tell you to tell your Doctor to give you the drug they are pushing .
Remember the big advertising campaign that was going on about real estate being a good time to buy by the NAR and Realtors ( about 5 or 6 years ago ) .Anybody that listened to those crazy ads lost their shirt . They should of been sued giving investment advise that was fraud .
All we have these days are a bunch of Cheerleaders for products or even to capture the mind and brainwash the sheep . The Masters even define what the talking points are ,not what the real talking points should be .
I have never seen this level of brainwashing to this degree .Money and big powers have the ability to bribe Regulators ,Politicians,TV programing ,content of TV shows and so called news .Try being a scientist or doctor and go against their lies and your discredited .
You have to search for the truth ,it’s not given to people these days ,just sliced up and edited on the Main Stream News.
Only in American now can you have one set of reality going on in the real world and another set of reality going on in the reporting of the real world . Does anyone believe so called Experts anymore ? Who
is paying them ? Did anyone find it strange that every so called Expert on the news never saw the housing crash coming and it was
rah rah real estate all the way to the bank ( of course this blog was
disputing the housing boom at the time ).They were all a bunch of zombies running around with the same talking points ,no doubt fueled
by the people making the money on the frauds .Is there anything such as neutral data anymore ? All we have are the official stories ,which is the name of a new book that just came out .
This level of shit information is going on concerning all levels of life .
Maybe it was always this way ,but I don’t think so .
i just retired from an advertising job. you are so correct. everything is about selling advertising. there are no “fair and balanced” news channels, not even local ones. every broadcast is tuned into their audience and the news gets played so that the viewers keep watching, so advertising can be sold. period. i even heard an anchor say “there’s two sides to every story” to defend the bank robber who was shooting at the police, as not to offend the audience. i mean, really. i can’t help but feel like our country is simply screwed when it comes to leaders, due to the fact that anyone hoping to be elected is beholdin to a lot of people. it’s just funny to watch the 2 sides defend “their” guy. *news flash*, anyone willing to do what is needed won’t get backed. sorry, don’t mean to be so negative, it’s just how i see it.
I’ve watched maybe a total of two hours of Sunday morning news shows in the last few years, but I was astonished at the institutional advertising, which promoted homeownership, the fossil fuel industry, high fructose corn syrup, etc. And the content of the shows was pure nonthreatening conventional wisdom.
R.I.P. Ray Bradbury.
The same is true in any organization public or private, which of course includes law firms, consultant firms, designers to name a few. Even the last bastion of logical thinking engineering corporations have this issue.
Upton Sinclair was clairvoyant when he said:
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it”.
I think that the majority of the people are not thinking types and want to be that way. The same goes for the current hubris in politics - the people want is this way, of course being lead is getting them faster, but a majority of the Americans do not want common good.
There’s lots of ways to look at this. Such as, jobless recovery. What does that even mean?
Consumers are buying or they aren’t buying. Good or bad? Are they using their credit cards to do this? What if the headline was, consumers rack up more debt at 19% interest.
With housing, it is almost uniformly reported houses prices up, rejoice! But how often do you see affordability down, hallelujah!
Ever so often, the lies surface that make one question the reality we see on television. Like in the youtube I posted above.
I know, Ben.
The lies and distortions of Paul Ryan make me disgusted as well.
The claim: Obama is responsible for the closing of the GM plant in Janesville.
The claim: Obama stripped billions from Medicare, demanding sacrifice of seniors
The claim: The president did “nothing” on debt
The claim: Obama believes government, not people, deserve credit for business success
The claim: Romney balanced the budget without raising taxes
The claim: Voters only received debt from the stimulus
Paul Ryan voted for TARP and the GM Bailout and yet claims to be a conservative.
–The cognitive dissonance within the GOP; and the Tea Party in particular, is astounding.
Let me ask you; what did Obama do? (Besides set up an assassination program). He sure is pushing to keep house prices higher. He’s doing everything he can to get FB’s refinanced on the governments books. To finance to ‘first time buyers’ with almost nothing as a down payment.
Whatever happened to affordable housing with the Democrats? Or were they just lying when they said they care about that, or the poor?
“Or were they just lying when they said they care about that, or the poor?”
Ben, would you please provide a quote so that I may address it?
Thank you.
‘The House is taking crucial steps toward addressing our nation’s need for affordable housing. With Chairman Barney Frank, housing is a top priority for the first time in 12 years. Millions of Americans pay up to 60 percent of their earnings on housing. Congress should help them secure the affordable, safe, and energy-efficient homes they deserve. Working families should not be forced to choose between housing, health care, food, and other basic needs.”
- Speaker Nancy Pelosi
http://www.democraticleader.gov/issues?id=0038
‘HAMP, the mortgage modification program which, while falling short of Obama’s stated goal, still modified 608,000 mortgages since its inception in 2009. Had it not been in place, higher numbers of households would be spending more than 50% of their income on housing, or the number of new households entering the foreclosure process would be higher. Potentially MUCH higher, maybe even double.’
‘Think this doesn’t matter to you? For most Americans, maybe even you, your economic health and your ability to build wealth derives from two things: the value of your home, and the amount of money you earn.’
‘Much of our wealth is tied up in our home values, and our investment income (if we have any) comes from our current income stream. The more people in foreclosure in an area, the lower the prices of all homes. While this may seem to make housing more affordable, that’s only true if people have the incomes and credit scores to afford new mortgages. Not likely when incomes are falling. If you bought your house in the 1970’s for $20,000 and it was worth $400,000 at the height of the market, and has now fallen 25% to $300,000, you’re the exception, you’re still ahead. But if you bought in 2000 for $300,000, and the price rose, fell, and is now still $300,000, you have little or no equity in your home. If your real wages have also not increased, while your expenses have risen, your potential investment income is quite low.’
http://www.democraticconventionwatch.com/diary/4406/housing-affordable-housing-and-what-it-means-to-you
From the comments to the last post:
‘I have never understood people who gamble that the value of their house will increase. Well, I do understand them, they’re the same people who buy stocks and then are astonished when the bottom falls out of that bubble and their savings are decimated.’
‘I’ve bought two houses in my nearly seventy years of life. Both were roofs over my head, not rolling the dice. If you do that, it doesn’t matter what the world thinks your house is worth. Yes, in times of massive unemployment, people will get into financial trouble, but there’s no excuse for paying inflated prices for anything, including houses.’
A quote from 2007 which was 5 YEARS ago; before Obama became President and the year Democrats took control of Congress.
Did you read the link you posted, Ben?
The American Housing Rescue & Foreclosure Prevention Act, H.R. 3221
Homeowners’ Defense Act of 2007, H.R. 3355
National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act, H.R. 2895
Expanding Homeownership Act of 2007
Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Reauthorization Act of 2007
Section 8 Voucher Reform Act of 2007
Affordable Housing Fund
–Ben, do you believe that working families should have to choose between housing, health care or food?
Btw, how’d that whole “Ownership Society” thing work out?
‘before Obama became President and the year Democrats took control’
What difference does that make? Are the Democrats the ‘champions of affordable housing’ or not? And are they not, even today, working day and night to keep house prices from falling?
‘do you believe that working families should have to choose between housing, health care or food’
Why don’t we just let house prices fall? It’s gonna happen eventually anyway.
‘how’d that whole “Ownership Society” thing work out’
What does that have to do with anything we are discussing? For what it’s worth, I support getting the government out of the housing business altogether. If we’d do that, everyone with a job could afford a house.
I support getting the government out of the housing business altogether. If we’d do that, everyone with a job could afford a house.
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/census/historic/owner.html
You should check how much equity these home debtors had along the way. It was lower and lower as the debt spread and prices rose. Hitting an all time low just as the bubble peaked. The only thing between us and 30-40k houses is govt policy, Fannie/Freddie, and HUD.
That’s the best you got?
So, Ben, as you mentioned “equity” and “home debtors”, you must also believe (in the interest of intellectual honesty) that these 30-40K houses will be purchased for cash.
Average American family savings account balance $3,800
http://www.statisticbrain.com/american-family-financial-statistics/
Also, I am surprised by your attempt to make this personal as our debate has been respectful up to now. What changed?
‘you must also believe that these 30-40K houses will be purchased for cash’
Nope. In some places in Arizona people are buying houses in this range, financing for 15 years and the payment is affordable. The horror! And coming to a town or city near you.
‘your attempt to make this personal as our debate’
I don’t see any debate. I asked you several questions about affordable housing and Democrats. You reply with one link to a census site. I’ve had these ‘debates’ with millions of people listening, as far back as 2005″
http://www.radioopensource.org/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-the-bubble/
So pardon me if I am already weary of your partisanship. We can all cite reasons for why things are so screwed up in this country. But IMO, the main reason things don’t get better is because of blind faith in either Democrats and Republicans, AKA party hacks.
So we haven’t been debating?
What would you call our multiple exchanges?
Fact of the matter is, Ben, that you have NO IDEA of my political affiliations or if I’m even an American.
Why bring up the Democrats and Obama if you are above partisanship?
Arizona isn’t the rest of the United States as you have implied.
The census link was for the numbers and the numbers don’t lie; political hacks do.
I thought you were a serious blogger.
Good day, sir.
‘What would you call our multiple exchanges’
A waste of my time and bandwidth.
Do you still own your property preservation, management, and investment company in Northern Arizona, Ben?
HomeGnome Is A Liar
In 2009, Mr. Jones was recognized by Inman News as one of the 50 most-influential people online in real estate. He also owns a property preservation, management, and investment company in Northern Arizona.
http://thehousinghelix.blogs.millersamuel.com/2010/01/06/interview-ben-jones-founder-the-housing-bubble-blog/
Ben, clearly you don’t appreciate the fact that higher house prices make them MORE affordable for the poor
Also, gas prices recovered nicely yesterday. Food, medical care, housing- all also recovering solidly.
Welcome to the declining standard of living. Also, welcome to the Orwellian language the politicians will adopt in dealing with it.
Ben:
One of the problems I have with government is they no longer seem to recognize the individual,just groups-and then the larger and more bizarre the better.
One of the net results is that “leaders”tend to see the environment created by said groups as reality.
THAT makes the task of thinking critically and objectivly just that much more difficult.
Apparently he also runs real fast…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sean-carman/lies-and-the-lying-liars-_b_1848894.html
Questions of character?
I have no questions about Paul Ryan’s character as he assassinated it during his RNC speech.
Did you find him insincere?
As someone who has runs marathons and does triathlons, I can assure you that “mis-remembering” your PR (personal record) - especially when you have only run ONE marathon - is highly unlikely.
26.1 miles is no easy feat. I’m older and not very fast, but 4 hours when you are 20 years old is not very impressive, so I guess that’s why he lied about it.
He’s right up there with Kim Jung Il, who had 11 holes-in-one in a round of 18.
Or a bad memory. I misremembered my college GPA as 3.45 when it was really 3.3. I found out the error when I needed a transcript a few years ago.
“I know, Ben.
The lies and distortions of Paul Ryan make me disgusted as well.”
“claim”
“claim”
“claim”
“claim”
“claim”
“–The cognitive dissonance within the GOP; and the Tea Party in particular, is astounding.”
Keep going girlfriend, you are on a roll. Oh, wait…you left out any group on the left, you know, groups like the Progressives.
- IBP
Jobless recovery means that corporate profits are up but they aren’t hiring anyone to do it. Which is, in fact, wrong. There is business hiring,though not as much as we need. A lot of the offset has been in state and local government downsizing.
‘There is business hiring,though not as much as we need’
‘Some 58% of the jobs created during the recovery have been low-wage positions, according to a new report by the National Employment Law Project. Only 22% have been mid-wage jobs and 20% higher-wage positions. These low-wage jobs pay $13.83 an hour or less.’
‘Some 60% of the jobs lost during the downturn were mid-wage, as opposed to 21% of low-wage and 19% of higher-wage positions.’
‘The fastest growing low-wage jobs include retail salespeople, food prep workers, laborers and freight workers, waiters and waitresses, personal and home care aides, office clerks and customers representatives.’
“There’s lots of ways to look at this. Such as, jobless recovery. What does that even mean?”
It is the end result of many years of control the masses with rhetoric. In this case the government created a war on savers by lowering interest rate so low that non-working people need to pull money out of savings just to live, or others pull it out and spend it before it disappears with inflation. Get enough people to pull money out of savings and spend, and spin the small increase in sales to claim a recovery to get more to pull and spend money from their savings. Let’s keep kicking that can down the road.
With housing, it is almost uniformly reported houses prices up, rejoice! But how often do you see affordability down, hallelujah!
This is also my peeve.
No one is paying me, but I do write this as often as possible in the comments section of online articles, in the hopes that maybe some people will start seeing it that way.
Affordable housing is a good thing.
Speaking of the comments section, I have noticed that more people are sounding like HBB when it comes to housing.
Check out the comments in this article:
Still No Justice for Mortgage Abuses
It has been six months since the big banks settled with state and federal officials over evidence of widespread foreclosure fraud, promising to provide $25 billion in mortgage relief in exchange for not being sued over past foreclosure abuses.
At the time, it looked like a sweet deal for the banks. The fines were paltry compared with the damage done to homeowners and the economy. And much of the relief the banks were obliged to provide could be met by continuing more or less with business as usual.
It still looks like a sweet deal.
“Better buy now” New fresh meat suckers like lambs are easy pickings for the wolfs ready to eat the new! Many because history is not taught today just never learn. Trust, trust, trust!
I’ve been waiting for this HBB Headline for a while now. A long while.
If any of you have any doubts about this blog headline, ask yourself this very simple question;
Why is the stark reality of what I see on Main Street and what I hear and read in the media so dramatically different?
One very important point was left out of Ben’s headline;
There are paid “Contributors” and “commenters” on internet media sites(news outlets, blogs, etc) who are there to shape your perspective. It is well funded and extremely well organized.
Why bother to think for yourself when others will willingly do your thinking for you?
Giving up thinking allows one to devote his/her energies elsewhere, such as going to the mall.
They tell people what their goals should be ,what their clothes should be ,what their roles should be ,what their food should be ,what their investments should be ,what their Politics should be ,what their drugs should be ,what their love life should be ,what their children should be ,what their life should be .
Take a happiness poll and you might find that they don’t know what they are talking about ,along with taking a poll on the state of health of the Nation .
I think the art of poll taking was developed to figure out what people are thinking ,simply for the purpose to combat what they are thinking by counter data . In other words ,what they need to work on to brainwash the sheep . What they need to do to keep people in line ,or distract them from the truth .
People are busy with work and life and they are tired with the stress of life and they become easy to control and direct and all that .
so the poll i received in the mail from romney (oops, now you know) wasn’t just to get my valued opinion, so he would know the “important” issues for me. i felt really important and all until the request for money at the end of the letter. i don’t want to appear cheap, so i didn’t send anything.
Hah, lemming.
I’ve served on both the Rep and Dem State Committees, been a Green delegate, subscribed to Paul’s 1980’s newsletters, and supported issues candidates obscure and celebrated, so I get mailings from every conceivable party and PAC you can imagine, (Helping Build A Better Tomorrow Tomorrow and Save the Babies/God Hates Fags included and often on the same day).
Fortunately my local postmaster knows me and understands, and I live far enough off the beaten path that no one seeks me out.
These “surveys” come in a variety of forms; pseudo FedEx “priority” mailers, 13″x18″ manila envelopes, even the occasional bound booklet, all marked “urgent”, and all informing me that the enclosed survey is meant for me “personally”, requires affidavit of such, and that my opinion is vitally important to the sender.
In my idle moments I dutifully fill them out complete with commentary (as honestly as I can so they know how I really feel) then (and this is key) include a one dollar bill in defiance of their express instruction that I not send cash. This serves two purposes:
-It’s gets me on other whack job mailing lists
-Gives the poor volunteer who has to open and tabulate these things a half a cup of Starbucks for their trouble.
I urge you to avail yourself of this citizenly opportunity. Your opinion matters and the printers, ad agencies, writers, postal services, bank employees, and underpaid staffers need the work.
Think of yourself as a job creator!
you’re right (& left!). next time i’ll do it. and i like your style.
I just send all (political,bank,insurance,etc) prepaid mailers back empty to keep the Postal employees employed.
Malls are like the Circus - way too much stuff going on at the same time to feel sane and centered.
So much info available makes for a tough landscape for critical thinking, organizing your thoughts and reaching conclusions. You can look at past performance as indicator for weighting info in your thinking process, but then there’s the Bernie Madoffs out there, and legitimate experts in their fields that are wrong as often as they are right. You can think, but how do you sort it all out?
I concluded with no uncertaintly that things would end badly with the housing market. It was blogs like this but mostly my personal experience with the S. Cal housing bubble burst in 1990 that provided my critical thinking and knowing. Personal experience is still the cornerstone in my thinking process- even with so much info now available. Too bad. Having to personally experience something before I can know the answer is a slow process.
Also, since malls are private property, they provide the illusion of a town square but without anybody handing out those pesky political leaflets…
“Having to personally experience something before I can know the answer is a slow process.”
Allow those who went before you - and paid the dues in your behalf - be your guide.
Does one really need to personally touch the stove to know that it hot? Can’t a clue or two be obtained from watching and listening to the antics of the guy at the stove who was just ahead of you?
History tends to be repeated but not everybody needs to suffer through the process.
How do you explain to someone that “it will hurt”?
Smack them.
“History tends to be repeated but not everybody needs to suffer through the process.”
But it’s different this time.
“Why is the stark reality of what I see on Main Street and what I hear and read in the media so dramatically different?”
Bulls eye PW! If you ask the lemmings this question, they never have an answer, they look at you as if you are from another planet. What the hell happened to common sense, your own eyes and your own intuition?
There are paid “Contributors” and “commenters” on internet media sites(news outlets, blogs, etc) who are there to shape your perspective. It is well funded and extremely well organized.
And after many years of commenting online, I have yet to be offered money. Darn. I must not be doing it right.
It is really amazing how easy it is to brainwash people . We watched
the Powers convince millions to buy overpriced real estate and to further commit fraud on loans to get in on the bandwagon . “Real estate always goes up” became a truth that sent people to their financial doom . If you ever watched the great documentary called
Century Of Self ( free on free documentaries .com) ,it explained how big business was taught how to get people to buy and how to create demand ,how to make people insecure and buy ,etc.
How many other so called “truths” are sending people to their doom . Don’t even question Authorities ,just do what they say ,while somebody makes money on it . If you feel like a ‘Mark ” ,you are .
> When I saw this video today …
Huh - I thought I saw that video back in 2008.
Here’s the link;
http://www.theonion.com/video/diebold-accidentally-leaks-results-of-2008-electio,14214/
Matt Taibbi from The Rolling Stone Magazine on Mitt Romney:
Last May, in a much-touted speech in Iowa, Romney used language that was literally inflammatory to describe America’s federal borrowing. “A prairie fire of debt is sweeping across Iowa and our nation,” he declared. “Every day we fail to act, that fire gets closer to the homes and children we love.” Our collective debt is no ordinary problem: According to Mitt, it’s going to burn our children alive.
And this is where we get to the hypocrisy at the heart of Mitt Romney. Everyone knows that he is fantastically rich, having scored great success, the legend goes, as a “turnaround specialist,” a shrewd financial operator who revived moribund companies as a high-priced consultant for a storied Wall Street private equity firm. But what most voters don’t know is the way Mitt Romney actually made his fortune: by borrowing vast sums of money that other people were forced to pay back. This is the plain, stark reality that has somehow eluded America’s top political journalists for two consecutive presidential campaigns: Mitt Romney is one of the greatest and most irresponsible debt creators of all time. In the past few decades, in fact, Romney has piled more debt onto more unsuspecting companies, written more gigantic checks that other people have to cover, than perhaps all but a handful of people on planet Earth.
By making debt the centerpiece of his campaign, Romney was making a calculated bluff of historic dimensions – placing a massive all-in bet on the rank incompetence of the American press corps. The result has been a brilliant comedy: A man makes a $250 million fortune loading up companies with debt and then extracting million-dollar fees from those same companies, in exchange for the generous service of telling them who needs to be fired in order to finance the debt payments he saddled them with in the first place. That same man then runs for president riding an image of children roasting on flames of debt, choosing as his running mate perhaps the only politician in America more pompous and self-righteous on the subject of the evils of borrowed money than the candidate himself. If Romney pulls off this whopper, you’ll have to tip your hat to him: No one in history has ever successfully run for president riding this big of a lie. It’s almost enough to make you think he really is qualified for the White House.
‘riding an image of children roasting on flames of debt’
OK, I’d like to point out the youtube was of the RNC pretending to have a vote on how delegates are selected. They now have all the power and the party members have almost none. IMO, the RNC picked Romney, so let’s think about who the real bastards are.
But debt is one thing we are lied to about:
‘Economists who have studied the impact of indebtedness have found that low levels of debt are essential to growth, but that high levels of total outstanding debt can hurt an economy. Beyond a tipping point, adding on more debt will reduce growth over the long run, even if it inflates a bubble in the short run. ‘At low levels, debt is good. It is a source of economic growth and stability,’ concluded Stephen Cecchetti, M.S. Mohanty and Fabrizio Zampolli, economists for the Bank of International Settlements, in a paper presented at the Federal Reserve’s Jackson Hole conference last August.’
Then this:
‘Cecchetti and his co-authors found that growth can be impaired once nonfinancial corporate debt hits about 90% of GDP, or when household debts hit 85% of GDP, or when public debts hit about 85%.’
‘In the U.S., household debt has now fallen to 84% of GDP from a peak of 98%. Nonfinancial corporate debt has fallen to 77% from a peak of 83%. Financial sector debt has plunged from 123% of GDP to 89%. Public debt has risen to 89% from 56%.’
Debt is good, says the bankers, it just matters what kind of debt, and as long as each kind of debt stays under some arbitrary level, which the bankers pick.
Now add this up: U.S., household debt - 84% of GDP. Nonfinancial corporate debt 77%. Financial sector debt 89%. Public debt 89%. Is that not over 300% of GDP?
Borrow, borrow, and spend it all. They even say with a straight face that’s what our economy is ‘based on.’ And people have gone all in:
‘With more than $1 trillion in student loans outstanding in this country, crippling debt is no longer confined to dropouts from for-profit colleges or graduate students who owe on many years of education, some of the overextended debtors in years past. As prices soar, a college degree statistically remains a good lifetime investment, but it often comes with an unprecedented financial burden.’
‘Kelsey Griffith graduates on Sunday from Ohio Northern University. To start paying off her $120,000 in student debt, she is already working two restaurant jobs and will soon give up her apartment here to live with her parents. Her mother, who co-signed on the loans, is taking out a life insurance policy on her daughter. ‘If anything ever happened, God forbid, that is my debt also,’ said Ms. Griffith’s mother, Marlene Griffith.’
‘Much like the mortgage brokers who promised pain-free borrowing to homeowners just a few years back, many colleges don’t offer warnings about student debt in the glossy brochures and pitch letters mailed to prospective students. Instead, reading from the same handbook as for-profit colleges, they urge students not to worry about the costs. That’s because most students don’t pay full price.’
‘Even discounted, the price is beyond the means of many. Yet too often, students and their parents listen without question. ‘I readily admit it,’ said E. Gordon Gee, the president of Ohio State University, who has also served as president of Vanderbilt and Brown, among others. ‘I didn’t think a lot about costs.’
I am not an education snob, because very smart people can be found in all universities. But going $120,000 in debt to attend Ohio Northern? I wouldn’t go that far into debt to attend Yale. She’s likely ruined herself and her family. And think Ohio Northern cares?
Just the right amount of debt, not too little, not too much….
Debt is a parasitic drain, where ever it rests. The only “just right” level of parasitic drain is from the view of the parasite. It is the maximum amount that does not kill the host and stop the game.
For the host, the absence of parasites is bliss.
Seems like I missed a really, really big possible way to “broaden the base” in my list of tax deductions and credits from yesterday. I didn’t get too deep into corporate and business stuff because corporations are taxed on profits, not income and I don’t see that changing pretty much ever. But you could get rid of the interest deduction which would get rid of the tax preference for debt over preferred stock with a defined dividend of [whatever]% unless the company determines that that company needs the money for current expenses or growth.
This obsession with how you would rewrite all the tax laws is going overboard possibly. Taxing interest paid on a business loan is really thinking outside the box. Taxing gross receipts rather than net income would shake things up.
This is not how *I* would rewrite the tax laws. None of it has been. This is another option. It is one way to stop the present benefit that companies have for issuing debt rather than recruiting equity investors. Companies highly value the current deduction they get and completely discount the risk that having huge debt has to their future solvency. You want to try to reduce that preference, then get rid of that deduction and they would prefer the flexibility of having dividend paying stock.
Making a company pay taxes on its gross receipts is stupid. Do you want ANY start ups to have a chance of succeeding? Then forget it.
Of course it’s stupid, but it is done. Case in point Butler, PA. They try to enforce it too!
‘At low levels, debt is good. It is a source of economic growth and stability,’ concluded Stephen Cecchetti, M.S. Mohanty and Fabrizio Zampolli, economists for the Bank of International Settlements, in a paper presented at the Federal Reserve’s Jackson Hole conference last August.’
Steve Cecchetti has been nipping at the Fed’s heels for a few decades…
All this borrowing creates what? Right, fiat money.
And where does the money go? How can we be adding 10% of GDP new debt, and only getting like 2% inflation?
Debt is the symptom to an economy that is bleeding 8-9% of GDP, 4% to international trade imbalances and 4-5% to internal trade imbalances.
Great article by Taibbi, good quote from it….
There is one name that will explain it all. One name of the father of modern propaganda/psycho-warfare.
That name is Edward Louis Bernays.
And most people don’t stand a chance.
+1
Freud’s Nephew and the Origins of Public Relations
by Alix Spiegel
Morning Edition
The Museum of Public Relations
Public relations pioneer Edward Bernays, shown (L to R) from the late 1920s to early ’30s, the mid- to late ’40s and 1990.
April 22, 2005
Years ago, Americans grabbed toast and coffee for breakfast. Public-relations pioneer Edward Bernays changed that.
A Hearty Breakfast
Bernays used his Uncle Sigmund Freud’s ideas to help convince the public, among other things, that bacon and eggs was the true all-American breakfast.
He took Freud’s complex ideas on people’s unconscious, psychological motivations and applied them to the new field of public relations.
…
“Bernays used his Uncle Sigmund Freud’s ideas to help convince the public, among other things, that bacon and eggs was the true all-American breakfast.”
It always was, we just didn’t know it yet.
“We are told the foreclosure inventory is drying up. But we can see the foreclosures in our cities and towns. We see how long they sit without being on the market. And we read studies that show as much as 90% are being held off the market. Still, the urgency; buy a house! Hurry! Before rates go up.”
Definition of ‘Price Fixing’
Establishing the price of a product or service, rather than allowing it to be determined naturally through free-market forces. Antitrust legislation makes it illegal for businesses to decide to fix their prices under specific circumstances. However, there is no legal protection against government price fixing. In an ill-fated attempt to end the Great Depression, for example, Franklin Roosevelt forced businesses to fix prices in the 1930s. However, this action may have actually prolonged the downturn. Investopedia explains ‘Price Fixing’
Some economists believe antitrust laws are unnecessary because the free market already contains several built-in guards against price fixing. Consumers who believe that an item is priced unfairly high can do any of the following:
• Purchase a substitute good or service that is lower-priced
• Decrease their consumption for the good, making it unprofitable for businesses to keep prices fixed
• Buy the product from another country
Distrust among companies in a price fixing arrangement also acts as a barrier to continued manipulation. And, if all those fail, price fixing usually breaks down because of the power of large buyers to negotiate the price they are willing to pay.
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/pricefixing.asp - 89k -
Sorry ,but price fixing from big Monopolies takes away choice because some items you have to buy like food ,gas ,health care ,
insurance ,etc.
Labor price today is based on supply and demand ,in part due to the outsourcing and insourcing of jobs and outsourcing of manufacturing ,but the price that ends up being charged is price fixed .
By all rights if someone is given 75 cents a hour to produce a product,or 5 bucks a hour to produce a car ,I shouldn’t be charged
30 thousand for the new car ,my price should of gone down . In other words why does capital get the benefit of labor savings and
than the price is fixed at what would be high salary wages in the USA ? Sure ,eventually demand will go down ,but the debt bomb
has held up the inflated prices . The high health care costs today are based on high wages and employers paying also ,but this is not the state of affairs in the real world of lower wages and high unemployment rates . You really need to have a system in which
2/3 of the population is thriving to support these prices .
I think about one third of the population in the USA will be able to maintain their lifestyle ,based on having good wages ,and the other two-thirds population is going to take a serious blow to their lifestyle and many will be thrown into poverty . That is not sustainable .
” why does capital get the benefit of labor savings and
than the price is fixed at what would be high salary wages in the USA ?”
Remember what weekend this is. Unions aren’t bargaining for private workers to get their fair share of productivity gains anymore. Capital gets it because they are bargaining collectively (by management on behalf of the shareholders) and the workers aren’t.
Y’all can hate on me all you want, but I am proud to be a union member.
Happy Labor Day!
Remember what weekend this is. Unions aren’t bargaining for private workers to get their fair share of productivity gains anymore. Capital gets it because they are bargaining collectively (by management on behalf of the shareholders) and the workers aren’t.”
But profits on capital will trickle down right … ?
answer no they don’t they surge up in corporate officer pay
Consumers who believe that an item is priced unfairly high can do any of the following:
• Purchase a substitute good or service that is lower-priced
• Decrease their consumption for the good, making it unprofitable for businesses to keep prices fixed
• Buy the product from another country
Rent for 7 years at an inflated price from a Landlord who is a beneficiary of the price fixing. (I tried this, I didn`t like it.)
Monopolies own the substtitute good that is price fixed also .
We are buying all our products produced in other countries already .
Some items you can decrease your consumption of and some you have to have to even function.
“some you have to have to even function…”
Coffee pot is on this list.
Rent for 7 years at an inflated price from a Landlord who is a beneficiary of the price fixing. (I tried this, I didn`t like it.)
You said it.
And I’ll say it again. IF we could rent for half the price of buying, we’d be all over it.
Mr. Pimpman, don’t bother responding because I won’t see your response.
I am happy to discuss the math:
-we pay $2800 month for a SFH that is not rent-controlled (and that is considered “cheaper” around these parts.
-no rent-control and an a$$hole landlord
-90K down payment assistance (interest free, deferred payment for 40 years/20K interest free forgiven after 10 years)
-in escrow on a house that costs less than $450K
-32K cash down for DP and closing costs
-PITI less than current rent
-PITI less than 25% of our income
-we have stable jobs, love where we live, and plan to stay in this house for many decades
-we have dogs, cats and kids
A simple craigslist search in San Francisco proper (NOT south san francisco or daly city) will give a pretty good idea of what the rents are like around here.
If rents AND real estate both collapse in this city, I guess we’ll be sorry, but I’m done waiting. I want to get on with my life and quit worrying about where I am going to live. There’s dogs to walk, waves to catch, marathons to run, kids to raise, friends to hang with, fog to watch roll in, and all kinds of other things in my life that are way more important than money.
“Mr. Pimpman, don’t bother responding because I won’t see your response.”
Little Pimp, You don’t have the intestinal fortitude to ignore me.
Is it still ‘price fixing’ if the gubmint does it?
The smoke-filled room meets the internet.
This sort of thing has always happened at party conventions (and at the delegate level back home) it’s just that now it’s out in the open for the electorate to see. The same machinations color the legislative process in Congress, and show why skilled parliamentarians like Boehner and Pelosi are elected to lead the sessions and control the floor agenda.
Was there ever the slightest doubt that Mitt Romney would be the nominee? Even through the serial clown charade of the primaries? Even BEFORE the primaries? Candidate Mitt was a foregone conclusion, force fed to a kicking and screaming Republican electorate.
And now after that absurd train-wreck of a convention (CSPAN shows all) and all the tepid “endorsements”, the charade that he’s been chosen by the people continues. That the most authentic grass roots movement since Ross Perot could be so blithely marginalized and dismissed should give us all pause and make us rethink the Electoral College System.
Karl Rove will not go lightly into his bat cave, and Citizens United has ensured that a few private funds and cabals will control our elections. It’s just that now we all know how the process really works. The only way to change it is to get involved and keeping making noise. Lots of it. It’s the American Way.
Thank you, Ben.
Was there ever the slightest doubt that Mitt Romney would be the nominee? Even through the serial clown charade of the primaries? Even BEFORE the primaries? Candidate Mitt was a foregone conclusion, force fed to a kicking and screaming Republican electorate.
It seemed to me that there was enough hostility toward him early on that if a better candidate had emerged there was a significant chance Mitt wouldn’t get it. Problem is, all the anybody-but-Mitt candidates that got trotted out didn’t seem to have what it takes. But they did succeed in never allowing Ron Paul to become the anybody-but-Mitt candidate. Even today if you had a primary with just the two of them I’m not sure who would win.
You want to think about really weird stuff? I can’t get this idea out of the back of my mind that the RNC is trying to lose this election.
I had the same feeling about the DNC and John Kerry.
Exactly but for once simple reason.
It seems the media is behind Obama in the same way the media was behind GW in 2004. It’s really weird in that if you’re able to step back from it all the nattering, it’s as though the decision has already been made. They don’t say it but there is a nearly imperceptible theme to it all.
PS- thank you for this topic.
I was thinking just the opposite today. For weeks it’s been all about Romney in the news.
“It seems the media is behind Obama in the same way the media was behind GW in 2004.”
Perhaps, but they are both incumbents, so maybe that comes with the territory. I didn’t get the same media impression about Gore in 2000.
You’re not alone in that assessment, Ben. Basically the candidates are interchangeable on a national level and it would cost Wall Street too much to implement a new administration, but there’s big money to be made off the election process itself (media, logistics, salaries etc.), so they have to go through the charade.
I think Romney knows he’s a patsy, too, but you can bet your bootie he’s making an offshore pants load for playing out the role.
You mean the two parties take turns? Say it ain’t so.
Next you’ll be telling me that party members have been known to switch sides.
In 2008 I thought that Obama’s term would be a disaster for him and for his party, simply because we were already going over an economic cliff. I think the next administration, whichever team carries, will face the same meatgrinder.
They seem to me to be making the effort to win( Republicans), though they might be wiser if they set this one out. But, of course, they are smart enough to figure out some way to profit from what appears to be the coming malaise( best case scenario). Spoils to the victors.
‘They seem to me to be making the effort to win( Republicans)’
There are a few reasons that make me think this. Mostly, it’s what seem to be dumb moves on the part of who ever actually runs the party. They keyed in on Romney right away. OK, so you have the country really sick of wall street, and they pick Richie Rich. Plus, he’s the etch-a-sketch guy that wrote Romneycare. He wants more war even though people are sick of war. (I actually heard him say in one debate that he wanted to go back into Iraq!)
In the primary, with the RNC clearly behind him, he ran a slash and burn attack campaign. I didn’t see many of the ads, but he pissed off Gingrich, pissed off Santorum.
And then there was the Ron Paul group. Remember when there was a rumor of Paul and Romney having some kind of ‘deal’? But no, the slash and burn continued, with outrageous tactics by the now ‘presumptive nominee’ at caucus’ and conventions all around the country.
Rather than gather the party together, they run everyone off at every chance. Even this past week at the convention, they forced through rule changes that made even the tea party people mad. If Romney wins I will clearly be wrong. It’s just a hunch, really. At this point, I don’t even know who is really in charge with the Republicans. So any possible agenda is a mystery.
Romney was talked up early if I remember right but not so decisively so.Then came along Cain and he seemed to be what alot( Repubs) thought could defeat Obama; maybe black neutralizes black. Though of course he went down in flames. Then came along telegenic Perry, but he proved to be too light-weight. Gingrich had his moment, but was decided to have too much baggage by my estimates. And whatever support Santorum had was not mainstream enough for American politics in the year 2012; So you have to go with the capable Romney.
¨And then there was the Ron Paul group¨ Well, with Paul, libertarians were willing to try to be Republicans, but as we now realize, Republicans are not particularly willing to be libertarians. It will be interesting to see if Gary Johnson can pick up the disaffected who should have all along been voting Libertarian but of course in the duopoly that we have now, people don´t tend to stray. Another four more years of Obama and continuing the group identity politics might, just might, help establish the Libertarians. If civil libertarians could become sufficiently disillusioned with the demo-rats as fiscal libertarians surely are after their recent dismay with the Repub-lie-crats, then maybe we could break this duopoly; more competition would be good for US politics.
Speaking of Kerry and Romney – whatever happened to John Kerry’s great plans? I guess we had to elect him to find out. Seems pretty selfish.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/debatereferee/debate_1008.html
And apparently Mitt “has a plan” as well. If it is so great and could help out of work suffering people today, shouldn’t he share them with the American people now? ? I guess we have to elect him to find out. Seems pretty selfish.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2012/08/30/mitt_romney_rnc_excerpts_2012_unlike_the_president_i_have_a_plan_.html
Or maybe neither of them really ever had a plan? No, they’d never lie about something like that.
‘Citizens United has ensured that a few private funds and cabals will control our elections’
If Romney loses, I hope some one will point out that Citizens United was one thing that gave Romney the advantage in the primaries.
See this is another unbelievable thing; most people in this country know that money is corrupting politics, and we’re going the wrong way!
Interesting thought that a party would lose a election on purpose because they might have more power not winning the election .
Or maybe it really is like professional wrestling.
“Or maybe it really is like professional wrestling.”
How can it not be? I was just thinking today, I am a three issue voter.
1. Education: Romney and Obama both want to “reform” schools AKA privatize it and get rich.
2. TBTF banks / OPM. Enough said.
3. Drones. That stuff is scary, and the USA’s direction is very, very disappointing.
I got it . If your looking for the truth look to the comedians ,they always tell the truth .For instance ,George Carlin had it pegged on what was really happening . Just take a look at his tapes on u-tube .To bad Carlin seems to get so depressed toward the end of his life that he didn’t think there was any hope for humanity and he would say that he wasn’t attached to the results anymore . But, many comedians tell the truth ,or challenge our programing . Remeber how Bill Cosby would tell the real truth about parenting in his comedy .
“It’s a big f*cking club, and you ain’t in it!”
High-stakes party positioning is nothing new. The Powers that Be did NOT like Teddy Roosevelt as Governor of New York because he was too much of a reformer. So they worked hard to get him onto the ticket as McKinley’s running mate. They knew that Vice President, while ostensibly a step up from Governor, was a position with no real power. And it got Teddy out of Albany.
OOPS. Biggest. Party. Strategy. Backfire. Ever.
I had been a member of Institute for Justice since forever because of their efforts fighting eminent domain. But when they sent a letter admitting they were behind Citizens United it stopped me dead in my tracks.
Now they send letters blasting obamacare and it makes me sick. So every magazine they are highlighting entrepeneurs they are helping or trying to help - but they don’t think the middle aged self-employed should have acess to health care?
Sure, Citizens United is a terrible precedent, but I’m starting to wonder if it’s going to backfire purely for practical reasons. Doesn’t CU only allow for “speech,” that is, media advertising (mostly TV)? The megamoney can’t donate directly to the campaign to pay, say, for candidate travel or campaign workers or GOTV.
There’s only so much airtime you can buy up before either (a) you run out of airtime (b) people are saturated and tune it out anyway. CU has a natural ceiling.
Great post Ben, I agree 100%. The more you let propaganda from either side spin up your emotions, the easier it is for you to become hypnotized and compliant.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/2-million-buys-silicon-valley-152126460.html
What $2 Million Buys You in Silicon Valley
CNBC – Fri, Aug 31, 2012
“Silicon Valley’s dynamic, tech-based economy has inflated home prices in the area for more than two decades. But lately, thanks to a rash of IPO’s and the mobility of global wealth, relatively modest properties in the suburban towns south of San Francisco have been going for mansion-like prices.”
“As demand has shot up, the price per residential square-foot has skyrocketed. A 1,700-square-foot home in Los Altos, Calif., with dated fixtures and “lots of upside potential,” is priced at $1.3 million, according to one listing. In nearby Saratoga, $1.1 million gets you 1.2 acres of land - but no house.”
No bubble going on here at all, check out the first one listed. How would you like to be the proud new debt owner of that “Million Dollar” home?
Yank that FHA mortgage support, and we’ll see how the valley holds up.
Q: Who gets an FHA loan on a $1MM house?
A: Someone who has $270,000 to put down.
(FHA max is ~$730,000 in the Bay Area)
For what it’s worth, I have a non-FHA, non-GSE mortgage, and the rate is less than 4.5%. I’m currently in application for another non-GSE/non-FHA at sub-4%. (all fixed for 30 years)
I consider these rates to be ridiculously low.
It’s the FED support that is causing ridiculously low rates, not the FHA or GSE.
Good to know. Now we know why you’re pimping.
“It’s the FED support that is causing ridiculously low rates, not the FHA or GSE.”
The FHA is lending to people with 520 FICO and two years out of foreclosure in an effort to prop up house prices…that can not be denied.
‘It’s the FED support that is causing ridiculously low rates, not the FHA or GSE’
Then why isn’t wall street doing it instead? They can borrow from the Fed, but 90% plus of loans are coming from these entities. Here’s a guess; it’s the Federal Reserve AND HUD/GSE’s fueling high house prices now. And we’ll know who’s at fault when millions default in the coming years. Heck, it’s already happening:
‘More than 1 million Americans who have taken out mortgages in the past two years now owe more on their loans than their homes are worth, and Federal Housing Administration loans that require only a tiny down payment are partly to blame.’
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/26/us-usa-housing-negative-idUSBRE83P12E20120426
The reason banks aren’t doing it in greater numbers with the free money coming from the Fed?
The Fed is setting the table with low rates, but the liquidity they are providing (overnight borrowing) is not a realistic source for Wall Street to lend for 30 years fixed and compete with the GSEs.
Other countries had no GSE equivalents but also had a housing bubble fueled by cheap and freely available debt.
When they start telling the truth, it’s time to worry.
Rates aren’t going back up for decades.
Especially if they decide to drop QE3 on our heads.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/540b1fe0-f374-11e1-9c6c-00144feabdc0.html#axzz25HTUN5kX
Since interest rates can’t go down much further, if any at all…..what do you hbb people think is going to have pressure applied?
House prices? Inflation? Zombies?
The truth sets you free ,but they don’t want us to be free .
They want the sheeple to believe that the corrupted systems that are breaking down are going to be solved by the Politicians who are working for the Lobbyist and self interest groups ,rather than something that is sane and will functions for the majority population . Who did they think it was going to benefit to outsource jobs and manufacturing to other Countries for instance .
Zombies is the answer.
Wait, what was the question?
Brains?
If confidence in the dollar wanes it will start an outflow of capital to other safe havens.
Interest rates would rise in defense.
Trouble is, BB doesn’t really know what to expect from his counterfeiting.
If confidence in the dollar wanes it will start an outflow of capital to other safe havens. ”
there are so many dollars it will cause economic havoc in biblical proportions
what do you hbb people think is going to have pressure applied?”
tax savings
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/revolt-of-the-rich/#comments
Our plutocracy now lives like the British in colonial India: in the place and ruling it, but not of it. If one can afford private security, public safety is of no concern; if one owns a Gulfstream jet, crumbling bridges cause less apprehension—and viable public transportation doesn’t even show up on the radar screen. With private doctors on call and a chartered plane to get to the Mayo Clinic, why worry about Medicare?
Being in the country but not of it is what gives the contemporary American super-rich their quality of being abstracted and clueless.
‘We live in a time where Congress spends their time deciding that pizza is a vegetable. We live in a time where we place embargos on countries that are no longer a threat to the world. We live in a time where a president that sends more drones, sends more troops, and kills more soldiers and civilians is rewarded a Nobel Peace Prize. We live in a time where assassinating American citizens as young as 16 without a trial are considered progress. We live in a time where being detained indefinitely without due process and having our phones wiretapped are considered a necessary procedure to our security. We live in a time where we bang our war drums for the sake of war. We live in a time where we spend billions of dollars abroad in foreign aid to build schools, homes, and democracy. We, too, have poor education, foreclosed homes, and restricted freedoms. We live in a time, when the United States ranks 31 in math, 23 in science, and 17 in reading, out of 74 countries by the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development. This proves that my generation is among one of the worst generations in educational history. We live in a time where we lead the world in the number of incarceration rates, military expenditures, and rank 49th in life expectancy by the CIA Factbook. We live in a time where we mistake loving your country with thinking it’s the greatest in the world.’
‘Every time we defend America for a crime against humanity is a time where we put ourselves in more danger. Every time we victimize ourselves for the result of our past wrongdoing, we fuel ourselves to kill and commit more wrongs.’
http://studentsforliberty.org/blog/america-is-not-the-greatest-country-in-the-world/
+1
“Our plutocracy now lives like the British in colonial India:”
We have become EXACTLY like the British Empire of the 18th century.
I had a talk yesterday with a man in his sixties who’s a senior IT guy working for the National Ground Intelligence Center and he was parroting all the canards about our impending energy independence and became angry with me when I started trying to confuse him with factual stuff about EROEI, etc. and the reality that the issue is not so much that there is no more oil to be had, but there’s no more cheap oil to be had. Once again I found myself accused of “being negative”. Too bad we’ve gotten so addicted to magical thinking. When it doesn’t pan out, and it’s failure become too obvious to deny any longer, people will be filled with rage and ready for our “Deutschland Erwach” time….
Maybe this seems tangential to the real estate issue, but it’s anything but; it’s all of a piece.
Speaking the truth elicits near violent reaction from some people. Why is that? I’ve experienced this as well.
How is dramatically lower and more affordable housing prices “negative”? To the contrary; dramatically lower housing prices is bullishly optimistic.
It’s because people are fully invested in a lie. If you’re right, they’re ruined.
Oil prices are higher than they should be - blame all the middle guys and politicians, not the producers. But if you want to see how important oil is to us just review the attached and see how much all other forms of energy contribute in relation.
http://inflationdata.com/inflation/Inflation_Rate/Historical_Oil_Prices_Table.asp
Thank You for this great post, Ben!
Combo - these are the words I live by :
“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”
The only news sources that I can trust these days are The Daily Show & The Onion. They are the only one’s with enough balls to ‘tell it like it is’. (at least, somewhat)
This opinion piece fits with this thread. I hadn’t thought about why Pussy Riot spells their name in English:
‘The obsessive focus of the U.S. media on the upcoming election is evocative of countries where life has the singular misfortune of being dependent on politics…Looking at the policies embraced by both the incumbent and the challenger, however, an outside observer must wonder what all the fuss is about. Obama and the Democrats have already demonstrated they have no intention of dismantling the Empire to tackle the problems at home; rather, they want to double down on both. Well, so do Romney and the Republicans that endorsed him…Whether it’s butter and bombs, or bombs and butter — either way, the country ends up broke, and a lot of people around the world end up dead.’
‘You see, it doesn’t matter what is being done, only who is doing it – and to whom. Whatever produces the results desired by the Empire is good; anything else is evil that must be eradicated. The ironic thing is that this “logic” was first made mainstream by Karl Marx, while the “who/whom” axiom was articulated by V. I. Lenin. ‘
‘One of the “activist” groups funded by American taxpayers has fought a war on Russian culture for years. They painted genitals on a drawbridge in St. Petersburg, held an orgy at a Moscow museum, and sexually assaulted frozen food at a supermarket, but none of these stunts so much as registered on the radar of most Russians. So their handlers decided on another approach, and set up a “punk rock band” of five masked women, called “Pussy Riot.” In English, of course. Three of the “PR” members then barged into Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior and unleashed a profanity-laced tirade at the clergy and the faithful.’
‘The spin machine then kicked in and painted the trio as brave activists defying the “oppressive” Russian state and the Orthodox Church, while claiming their stunt was a “punk prayer.” The facts of the case were buried under the layers of propaganda, with even the non-mainstream media filtering the case through the lens of their preferred narrative.’
‘No amount of logic, facts or arguments seems to make a dent in the media narrative. It isn’t just the Imperial establishment that is wrapped in a virtual world of its own making; the general public has been sucked into the virtual-reality matrix as well. Having internalized the Marxist-Leninist pseudo-logic, neither the rulers nor the ruled are capable of seeing themselves through the eyes of others, recognizing a principle, or even remembering their own founding values. It is difficult, perhaps even impossible, to communicate with someone so obsessed with perception management that they’ve lost the ability to recognize reality entirely.’
‘While the American economy implodes and American society fragments into ever more bitterly antagonistic sub-groups, Washingtonians live in a pocket dimension of cushy government and contractor jobs, courtesy of the fleeced taxpayers and the Fed’s manipulation of money and debt. Whoever gets elected this November will keep killing foreigners (and occasionally Americans), bailing out the banksters and covering for cronies. But the electorate is supposed to argue over abortion, gay marriage, medical care, and “diversity.”
‘Whether you vote for Kang or Kodos, the Empire is what you’ll get. Isn’t democracy grand?’
Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to loose.
-Janis Joplin
This freedom costs me $18,000:
https://enlighten.enphaseenergy.com/public/systems/3Fzt45951
Whether you vote for Kang or Kodos, the Empire is what you’ll get.
Careful now…. don’t be too truthful with the thin skinned about the US. The last time I drew an equivalency between Rome and the US, the cowering fools drew their e-weapons.
Their reaction implies they understand how corrupt and evil empires truly are so I guess that’s progress.
John Cusack sounds a lot like Ben!
“Under Obama do we continue to call the thousands of mercenaries in Afghanistan “general contractors” now that Bush is gone? No, we don’t talk about them… not a story anymore.”
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2012/09/03/john-cusack-obama-just-another-ivy-league-hole#ixzz25Q148cvt
Of course we’re lied to.
We’re told that it is possible for everyone to spend less than they earn, accumulating money.
We’re told that trade deficits do not matter.
We’re told that government debt is a bad, but private sector debt is good.
We’re told the rich can accumulate money, without that money being borrowed into existence first.
We’re told that there is not enough money to repay the debt, but there is a dollar of money for every dollar of debt. Saying there is not enough money is really just saying that we’re not going to make the people with the money spend it.
We’re told the rich got richer DESPITE, rather than because, everyone else went into debt.
We’re told taxes should be about “fair” instead of being about making the economy function.
USA does seem like a “Empire ” now . It seemed like the peoples country before .
but how come some houses are too expensive
Response to Darrell in Phoenix
” Of course we’re lied to. ”
Who is we ??
” We’re told that it is possible for everyone to spend less than they earn, accumulating money. ”
Yes in theory. It might not work for everyone.
” We’re told that trade deficits do not matter. ”
I do not agree
” We’re told that government debt is a bad, but private sector debt is good. ”
A lot of private sector firms with debt do not perform well in the stock market.
” We’re told the rich can accumulate money, without that money being borrowed into existence first. ”
” We’re told that there is not enough money to repay the debt, but there is a dollar of money for every dollar of debt. Saying there is not enough money is really just saying that we’re not going to make the people with the money spend it. ”
But who has the money ?
” We’re told the rich got richer DESPITE, rather than because, everyone else went into debt. ”
Rich is richer because of high asset prices - primarily equity and some in real estate.
They manipulate the financial system and regulatory regime sometimes to preserve their wealth.
” We’re told taxes should be about “fair” instead of being about making the economy function. ”
Democrats tell you that. The Republicans don’t