The future of the United States includes...

[Sandybestdog]

Quote from MRBRETTONWOODS:

Yes and those high school kids often went to production-based jobs rather than consumption. Now since this whole economy is based on a consumer bubble, when that pops they will have to revert to production based jobs ultimately. All of the consummable items such as expensive german cars and Mcmansions, etc were nowhere near as common as they are today.

Umm sorry but I have to ask, where are all of these German cars and McMansions? People like you go on these tirades about Americans living beyond their means. You hear one story on CNN about somebody buying a 400k house making 30k a year and think that’s everybody. I don’t know where you live, but I live in supposedly the 12th richest county in the country and when I drive down the street, I see apartments everywhere. I see small townhouses overflowing with cars everywhere because they have to rent out the basement to help with the mortgage. Remember, if you see a neighborhood with 50 nice homes in it, there is probably another neighborhood close by taking up the same space, but has 1000 apartments in it.

I work at an exclusive golf club about 30 minutes from my house. I go there and see the parking lot littered with BMW’s and Mercedes. But these are the super rich in the area. Everybody else is driving old cars. I’m sorry but you philosophy needs a reality check. Real wages are down, people are struggling just to keep up.

 

[MRBRETTONWOODS]

Quote from Sandybestdog:

Umm sorry but I have to ask, where are all of these German cars and McMansions? People like you go on these tirades about Americans living beyond their means. You hear one story on CNN about somebody buying a 400k house making 30k a year and think that’s everybody. I don’t know where you live, but I live in supposedly the 12th richest county in the country and when I drive down the street, I see apartments everywhere. I see small townhouses overflowing with cars everywhere because they have to rent out the basement to help with the mortgage. Remember, if you see a neighborhood with 50 nice homes in it, there is probably another neighborhood close by taking up the same space, but has 1000 apartments in it.

I work at an exclusive golf club about 30 minutes from my house. I go there and see the parking lot littered with BMW’s and Mercedes. But these are the super rich in the area. Everybody else is driving old cars. I’m sorry but you philosophy needs a reality check. Real wages are down, people are struggling just to keep up.

Well what you may see personally obviously does not reflect the verifiable researched data. The US is the third largest country in the world, of course there will be some variation.

 

[Sandybestdog]

Quote from Mom0/pH0x:

well, that's because of inflation and the central bank gradually increasing money supply, so there's more money in circulation when the 105 is due... theoretically at least... also, the lender HAS to make something for assuming the risk of the loan... otherwise there would be no incentive to loan and growth of all kind would be exponentially slower...

What risk is there to the lender? If you take a $100 bill out of you pocket, go and Xerox it and hand it to me as a loan and I don’t repay it, what have you lost? 5 cents for the paper? There are no real assets being lent, it is all created out of thin air. The lender will keep the interest from the loans paid back and then just “write off” all the bad loans.

 

[Sandybestdog]

Quote from drcha:

Since when do your parents, or anyone's parents, owe them an education or a house?

Well how about this, we say we aren’t owed anything and in exchange all the 50+ crowd simply pays off the $11 trillion credit card bill they left us and they have to sell their houses for the orginal 50k they bought them for 30 years ago. Oh and lets not forget that they also have to give up their pesions plans and their Social Security, since the under 35 crowd won’t be getting any of that either. So, do we have a deal?

 

[Sandybestdog]

Quote from southamerica:
July 8, 2009

SouthAmerica: This is a guy that started his company when he was 17 years old, and he has been doing well since that time.

He works very hard, sometimes these guys work around the clock for 2 and 3 days at the time non-stop taking breaks only to sleep on the couch on his office for a few hours.

He has initiative, he has good business sense, he is a very hard worker, and he has about 25 people working on his office. He created a job for another 25 people.

About 2 years ago when he needed more space he bought the building where his business is locate today for one million dollars.

On my book this guy is an asset for the United States – he has a real business and he is creating something of value.

I don’t consider this fellow a greedy little capitalist in the sense that you mean.

On this case he got the seed money for his business from members of his family, but there is a group of investors that I admire – the venture capitalists. They give the seed money to build the companies of tomorrow. These guys add value to the US economy since these companies eventually grow and create the new jobs of the future.

A greedy little capitalist, a bottom feeder, a parasite are these guys who work for companies such as Goldman Sacks, some hedge funds, and most private equity firms – most of these guys are worthless since they buy healthy companies strip them of any value, raid their pension plans, destroy the lives of thousands of people just to make a quick buck, and after they are done stripping these companies they leave behind companies full of debt, thousands of unemployed people, and they spin the carcass of a very sick company to the suckers who invest on these companies. Or they create garbage that they repackage as investment vehicles to sell to unsuspecting investors in the US and around the world.

I have no use for this group of parasites as far as I am concerned they are just a piece of shit. They create wealth for a small group of people by destroying the foundations of a sound economy.
.

This is a good story. I am 25 and have tried a few businesses, but have failed several times. That’s ok though. But it seems young people nowadays don’t want to start businesses anymore. I don’t know why, it just seems they have no desire to do that.

I will say that unlike the guy in your story, I had no family funding my ventures. I’m sure things would be different if I had. I had to tap into the credit cards when things weren’t going that great and I am paying for that now. It’s nearly impossible to start a business nowadays without someone backing you or borrowing money.

 

[Sandybestdog]

Quote from MRBRETTONWOODS:

Well what you may see personally obviously does not reflect the verifiable researched data. The US is the third largest country in the world, of course there will be some variation.

So again where are the Mcmansions? Are all those apartment buildings vacant? Why are you so intent on bashing Americans for wanting a decent standard of living? More specific, why is it wishful thinking on the part of the youth of today to think that they should be able to have the same standard of living that our parents did without working twice as hard?

 

[MRBRETTONWOODS]

Quote from Sandybestdog:

So again where are the Mcmansions? Are all those apartment buildings vacant? Why are you so intent on bashing Americans for wanting a decent standard of living? More specific, why is it wishful thinking on the part of the youth of today to think that they should be able to have the same standard of living that our parents did without working twice as hard?

The data is right here:
http://www.census.gov/mcd/

The living standard of the baby boomers was artifically high too, the ponzi scheme started with them, spending was so extravagent that eventually Nixon had to axe the gold standard. I'm not bashing anyone, I am saying that this post-71 economy as it stands entails a massive consumber bubble, which is true.

 

[nutmeg]

They were saying it would take a good dictator about 4 or 5 years to straighten out this country.

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With a dictator who needs politics? Point being, there's enough current brain power in the US to address and solve our problems, politics gets in the way. Perhaps they realize quid pro quo is bs and they are not interested in the game (or tired of it).
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Basically they think that the United States is in a massive mess in many ways
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There is no shortage of media who like to discuss "dirty laundry" of the US.

What's newsworthy about what works? There is no grant money or new funds on the tried and true, failure is the hot topic.



Failure is fine. Imo, we fire the failures or worse, make examples of them. Do you know what we have lost? Experience. Bring in a new crew until they fail, then fire them. So on and so forth until everything is run by people who have never made mistakes - amatuers.

 

[Scataphagos]

Quote from MRBRETTONWOODS:

The data is right here:
http://www.census.gov/mcd/

"... this post-71 economy as it stands entails a massive consumber bubble, which is true.

But WHY? Was it because Boomers are "stupid and greedy"? Was it because it was ENCOURAGED by government?

Not to worry. With what the Boomers have lost in this mess and will continue to lose over the next decade, nearly all of their "excess" will be taken back.. and in punishing style.

It's like a life-long poker game. Just because you've been ahead, doesn't mean you've won. You don't win until and unless you quit the game and still have the money.

 

[Misthos]

Were'nt we talking about dictators here?

Anyway, I brought up the concept of the benevolent dictator/tyrant the way Plato described it. In ancient Athens, pure Democracy always devolved into tyranny when special interests ultimately hijacked the government. Plato believed that an occasional stong and just ruler was needed to set things right.

A modern day equivalent, in my view would be Teddy Roosevelt. Abraham Lincoln and FDR too, could be described as such.

Basically, A strong executive leader with good morals ignores both wealthy special interests and avoids bowing to the mobs. He sets the ship straight, and (the hard part) he steps down.

The conversation SouthAmerica was referring to reminds of this concept. After all, how else does a captured government - which we now have, run it's course? How much wealth can the powerful special interests plunder until an ultimate collapse? Some historical examples:

Republican Rome became an Imperial dictatorship - some were good - Hadrian, Augustus, Septimius Severus, and some were really bad: Nero, Domitian, Elagabulus. In the end, the bad emperors' actions ultimately compounded and bankrupted the empire - morally and financially. Therefore unchecked executive power ultimately leads a country to collapse from within due to rampant, unchecked corruption.

Sometimes a strong government that only caters to the elites is overthrown - the French Revolution, the Bolshevik revolution. Needless to say - those were ulimately horrific times for all socioeconomic classes. Everybody loses in a violent overthrow.

And then you have enlightenment. When the people get behind moral, intelligent, just leaders. The American Revolution best describes this scenario. But think about it. The Founding fathers were freakin geniuses - many were musicians, inventors, statesmen, knew ancient greek and latin, farmed.... they were truly Renaissance men. They could have created an Aristocracy of Special Interests and plundered the new nation. They didn't. They created a somewhat weak central government and warned their fellow citizens to always be vigilant.

How often in the history of human civilization does that occur? Once or twice every millenia?

My conclusion is that we need a strong third party candidate that is just and moral and scares the crap out of Congress - a kind of "de facto-not de jure- benevolent dictator" in the mold of Teddy Roosevelt.