The various things assailing Japan are at work in the US, too. I have said repeatedly, studying Japan closely lets us understand the US better for we have chosen to follow the ZIRP borrowing path to ‘prosperity’ which seems to only come to the top 1% of the population. This stupid idea that borrowing cheap money will make the poor richer should be laid finally to rest. Statistics and history shows us, this benefits only people at the very top. Combine this with commodity inflation and sales taxes, etc, leads to greater poverty at the bottom and greater wealth at the top. This, in turn, kills society and sets into motion a form or inner rot.
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First off, the pretense that the tsunami, many earthquakes and Fukushima nuclear disaster hasn’t been relentlessly hammering Japan’s economy, all we have to do is look at the daily news to see this never-ending destruction at work: asahi.com（朝日新聞社）：Survey: 30% quake-related loans in arrears
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Thirty percent of loans to companies afflicted by the Great East Japan Earthquake are past due, as well as 10 percent of housing loans to earthquake victims, a Financial Services Agency survey showed. The overdue loans total 550 billion yen ($6.8 billion), the agency said.
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Doesn’t sound that bad? Yes, it is. Just three month’s statistics show a 30% collapse in finances! And there is no end to it especially since many of these earthquake damaged regions coincide with the nuclear disaster areas where the loan losses will be 100% once the year is over. This is a huge hunk of the eastern parts of Japan north of Tokyo. What is worse is, these loans are NEW loans, not old ones. No interest and no principal has been paid off at all! The loans were taken and immediately went into default.
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The US had problems with this sort of emergency loans, too. To bail out the bloated, overpriced, bubble housing markets, the government re-wrote loans to people who recklessly and unfortunately, deliberately deep into debt. Virtually all of these loans given to people to keep them solvent went belly up within less than a year. It was hopeless. As for giving loans to businesses in the parts of Japan hammered by recent events, this is also pretty much hopeless.
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People with no or insufficient income can’t pay back any loans at all. This is a harsh reality one can’t forget even if one wishes for people to pay back loans. Sometimes, this is impossible. The micro-loans in India game has collapsed due to this harsh reality. Once everyone jumped aboard that business, it exploded in size and now has imploded leaving many in bankruptcy or default or buried too deep in debt to get out and thus, like in Japan, are committing suicide instead of building a family and strengthening a nation.
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The magazine surveyed 1,000 men in their 20s concerning their incomes, their savings, and what (if anything) they spend their money on. Armed with this data, it sketches a portrait of a generation – incomplete, obviously, but revealing all the same. If the findings are accurate, almost exactly half (50.8%) of male Japanese in their 20s earn less than 4 million yen (around $50,000) a year.
Asked if their earnings are inadequate, 67.7% say very much so. Add to that the 26.5% who say rather so, and you get more than 90% of the generation in its marriageable prime mired in financial straits. By way of contrast, only 6 of the 1,000 (0.6%) claim to be financially comfortable. Savings? None, say 11.6%; 100,000 yen or less, say 19.5%. A quarter (24%) spend less than 10,000 yen a month; half (49.6%) spend less than 20,000 yen…51.8% say they put money aside for a vague “whatever comes up.” 33.2% save for hobbies; 30.7% for electronic equipment; 21.2% for old age; 17.5% for a house; 15.7% for marriage.
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This certainly fits in with Bank of Japan employment data. When I go into Google Images, a fair number of the graphs there are from me! HAHAHA. Naturally. This is not a favorite topic with most ‘economists.’ I stand nearly alone in this area. Like with Chinese economic facts, I have a long, long involvement in Japanese economic issues for many decades now. I view the place with love and alarm as I see the social problems there appearing here.
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From my blog March, 2010: Japan Remains Major International Trade Problem | Culture of Life News
Money Matters: Tokyo Wants To Be World Bankers Like London
Here is more information from the Bank of Japan’s latest report:
Far from being rebuilt since 1999, Japan has been cutting severely. The GOP is trying to force the Democrats to cut back ruthlessly, too, while spending like fiends, themselves, whenever they are in power. The other problem is obvious: both Japan and the US have been on government borrowing binges. But both paid for the reconstruction/stopping depression efforts via more debt, not raising taxes on the very rich. This rich diet for the rich versus starvation diet for the poor leads to more, not less depression. Feed the poor and tax the rich leads to a fast-growing economy since it won’t pay to hoard wealth anymore.
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This hoarding/starvation model is how all despotic governments are run. In the US and Japan there is a ‘democracy’ but it has been taken over and run by elites who own the media and who bribe anyone, left, right or center, who wins any elections on popular platforms. This is why few things really change when there is an election. The lower classes want to keep what they already have which is mainly various social services while the rich increasingly isolate themselves from public systems.
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In both Japan and the US, the growth of private schools for the rich and well-connected is growing and the public schools are increasingly for the lower working classes who see their children tumbled into the same classroom as the lumpen proletariate who are the children of the unemployed and unemployable or even criminal classes. This leads to a collapse in the ability to learn as the classrooms are turned into chaos. Far from organized, well-attended classes in Japan, we see the same separation of the students there.
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To have children means having money for private schools. This adds onto the financial burdens of marriage and child bearing which means putting off having children, longer. This also leads towards crippling personal debts on top of paying taxes for the malfunctional public systems. On top of this, going to college is increasingly expensive in both countries and this means starting one’s most biologically productive years, deep in debt and thus, unable to have children due to being unable to pay for early childcare (which is good for children to have since it socializes them) and buy a house for the family.
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In the US, we now have an alarming generation of college graduates who are so deep in debt, they don’t qualify for home loans. The only hope for them is for housing to drop dramatically in price so they can then buy on a lower price level. This is one of the biggest forces driving down house prices today.
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The Japanese graphs above illustrate the downward forces at work in their economy. These got a huge kick downwards this spring and the giant sucking sound of losing whole sections of Japan, some forever, is just beginning to register. As I showed the other day, shipping in Japan has slowed to a crawl compared to say, 2007. This will show up in the next quarter’s statistics. Smart people know it is happening now. Couple this with China squelching inflation and this adds to the deflationary spiral. For inflation was caused by investors bidding up the price of many necessary commodities especially food and fuel.
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This inflation has lashed Japanese households just as hard as in China and the US. The problem there is, the people have responded in the usual way: use less, cut back on life more and more. It is hot summer and the people there are living pretty much a pre-1955 lifestyle with virtually no air conditioning, for example. The use of cars is less and less each year of this epic depression and will drop further. This, of course, pleases the global warming people who think everyone should imitate this and there are good reasons to do some of this.
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But this isn’t leading to a vibrant society of happy people. The people of Japan are profoundly, fatally unhappy. This graph from a decade ago shows it all:
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Japan had a depression. Did this make things better or worse? The suicide, collapse of marriage and drop in childrearing statistics show that this depression in wholesale prices has not made life better. It has hammered the people. Who dares go into debt if the price of paying it back rises each year and the ability to have extra income to pay it drops, too?
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This is the dangerous dynamics of depressions. Just like papering over things by printing money can quickly spiral into hyperinflation, creating a depression is an opposite dynamic which, when out of control, can crush an economy for not just decades but even centuries. To have a great depression with the world’s biggest debt to GNP ratio (200%) is a hole one can’t escape in 100 years. The only escape is for Japan to default on its debts. Since most of these are owed to the Japanese people, this will bring instant poverty to the greater bulk of the elderly.
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Since their grandchildren can’t save money or marry or buy much of anything due to this depression, this may be the only option but since the elderly vote, like here, and the young, like here, don’t bother to vote, the democratic solution will be to keep the grinding status quo as long as possible. But like all systems, it can’t run like this to infinity. There is a ‘crash’ point and Japan is rapidly entering this red zone thanks to the recent disasters.
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Here is some interesting information about all of this. Namely, even with a massive, multi-decade depression with dropping prices, Tokyo is STILL currently ranked 1 overall, most expensive place in the world for expatriates to live, out of 300 international locations.
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Grocery costs for food, non-alcoholic beverages and cleaning material items such as baby consumables, baked goods, baking, canned foods, cheese, cleaning products, dairy, fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, fruit juices, meat, oil & vinegars, pet food, pre-prepared meals, sauces, seafood, snacks, soft drinks, spices & herbs is relatively more expensive compared to other cities with a rank of 1 out of 300.
Healthcare costs for general healthcare, medical and medical insurance such as general practitioner consultation rates, hospital private ward daily rate, non-prescription medicine, and private medical insurance / medical aid contributions is relatively more expensive compared to other cities with a rank of 1 out of 300.
Household costs for housing, water, electricity, household gas, household fuels, local rates and residential taxes such as house / flat mortgage, house / flat rental, household electricity consumption, household gas / fuel consumption, household water consumption, and local property rates / taxes / levies is relatively more expensive compared to other cities with a rank of 2 out of 300.
In terms of the hardship people are likely to experience, assessed in global terms, Tokyo is ranked as a some hardship location with a hardship index of 20%.
Dalian, China is ranked as a high degree of hardship location with a hardship index of 30%. BUT…Grocery costs with a rank of 276 out of 300. Healthcare costs with a rank of 235 out of 300. Household costs with a rank of 147 out of 300.
Berlin is ranked as a minimal hardship location with a hardship index of 10%. San Francisco is ranked as a minimal hardship location with a hardship index of 10%. New York is ranked as a minimal hardship location with a hardship index of 10%.
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Note that the areas where Japan costs the most in the world are the ‘food/healthcare/home’ costs not to mention, fuel. Especially since Fukushima. The environmental costs to one’s health have shot to the moon there since Fukushima. I can’t imagine anyone choosing to live there right now! Maybe, if you have no children and don’t hang out around water downspouts, it may pay to live there but I wouldn’t want to do this. No major similar (coastal) US city has a ranking of hardship as high as Tokyo. The growing cities in China have a worse ranking but note it is NOT due to food/healthcare/home costs!
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This is what kills off families. The Chinese want more children, not fewer. The Japanese don’t even want to get married, much less, have children. This is due to their peculiar, anti-feminist culture but also due to weariness from living in the most expensive but less safe society in the world. Safe doesn’t mean crime rates, it means the ability to live comfortably and not worry about dying from say, radiation pollution.
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Here is a revealing interview from an American man who married the daughter of a construction empire which got rich off of the government building boom only to go bankrupt in 2008 due to the global crash: asahi.com（朝日新聞社）：Ex-American says Tohoku people have to take control of rebuilding process – English
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Steve Yamaguchi: I think everyone should be much more angry at politicians and local government officials and say, “Why are you placing priority on your own convenience?” and “Why don’t you take more action?” At the same time, there are already signs of a battle in the disaster areas over vested interests or collusion with an eye toward the rebuilding process as well as schemes that are close to being fraud. Not being able to know whom to trust, people are unable to do anything because they are caught up with feelings of helplessness and tension.
Asahi: Do you believe a strong leader is needed?
Steve Yamaguchi: In a mature democracy, an individual who helps reach an objective that has been decided on becomes a leader. Such individuals will have to be able to gather the information and methods needed to make the necessary decisions about the situation. However, the general public has to decide on the fundamental objective.
As someone from the Tohoku region, what I am concerned about is the feeling that people are becoming passive and holding the feeling that “someone else will do it for me.” Regarding what to do about harbors, shopping malls and schools, we have to thoroughly talk about such topics among ourselves in order to reach a conclusion that we can all be satisfied with.
If that occurred, each person would feel a sense of responsibility, and there would be more energy. A strong leader will not be born unless there are strong followers.
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China absolutely seethes with ‘strong followers’ which is troublesome for the government but a sign of a vibrant, bent on growth society. People want better lives and are willing to literally fight to the death for it. They are willing to take great chances including contesting with the authorities in the streets. I see factories close here and in Japan and the workers in both countries hang their heads and shuffle home! I am most astonished by this.
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Instead of rioting, instead of going to DC and tearing it apart, people go home and get drunk and then kill themselves, their families or run off to even poorer places in the hopes a lower standard of living will still let them live somehow. In China, one sees great energy and this is even more true in many Muslim nations. Malaysia just saw more mass demonstrations and arrested and beat many people. In Syria, they are fighting a grim war with their own dictator and won’t back down.
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Many US workers who once had good jobs have moved south where the remaining factories still operate but just barely (that is, they can be and will be pulled in a moment’s notice). There, the voters have chosen foolishly to vote for people who set the trap whereby all factories can move to China at a moment’s notice. But now, the depression has moved into the poorer parts of our country where there is still cheap labor. So finally, South Carolina voters torn between values, economy which is unbelievably sad.
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But with South Carolina saddled with a 10 percent unemployment rate — one of the highest in the nation — the struggling economy is upending the priorities of many so-called values voters, forcing GOP candidates to rewrite their campaign playbooks…For much of her adult life, Karen Christmas has been an unabashed values voter. A longtime Sunday school teacher and recent GOP activist, she said issues such as school prayer, gay marriage and abortion used to top her list of priorities as she evaluated Republican presidential candidates.
But since losing her job of 28 years when the Blumenthal Mills textile company shut its doors, the dire state of South Carolina’s economy has been foremost on her mind.
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The childish distractions set up deliberately to lure her into voting for wolves intent on devouring her and her offspring has finally hit an economic wall. Faced with total personal destruction, now, a great deal too late, she realizes she should look at the money, not at her preacher, for advice. That is, she needs a job. Now, who is telling her where her job moved to? Obviously, it is not here!
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Competition from Asia drove Blumenthal Mills into bankruptcy. Since there are zero tariffs and no trade barriers, everyone overseas rushed into the US markets and this caused depression of prices here and of course, the collapse of any native industries. Note that BOTH the GOP and the DNC believe that more free trade is the only way to fix this mess! How insane is this? She can’t vote for some ‘Tariff and Tax’ party since many people don’t want to pay any taxes, they want Japanese ZIRP loans instead! My ‘Tariff and Tax’ party wouldn’t appeal to anyone except for history buffs who recognize this is the only way to protect our nation.
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Blumenthal Mills once had 800 American workers. Now, they have zero. The factories in Asia are cranking out materials, instead. Did these workers move into other factory jobs? The answer is painfully obvious: AUTOMATIC MISERY | Culture of Life News
My Host Site, WordPress, Is Run By TOTAL IDIOTS…GRRRR | Culture of Life News: St. Louis Fed: FRED Graph
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Rutgers associate business professor Susan Feinberg told Talking Points Memo that she was at a Washington, D.C. restaurant Tuesday when she saw Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) with a bottle of Jayer-Gilles 2004 Echezeaux Grand Cru at his table.
So Feinberg approached Ryan’s table and asked him “how he could live with himself.”
Ryan, claiming that the other men had ordered the wine, acted surprised to find out the pricetag. “Is that how much it was?” he asked.
When Feinberg asked if Ryan’s dinner companions were lobbyists, one of the men stood up and said, “Fuck her.”
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He should be thrown out of office. I say, anyone taking AIPAC money should also be tossed. But this requires angry Americans in the street, demanding this. Not sitting at home, worrying about gays kissing.
Email:
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Culture of Life News 
My wife’s best friend, a Thai woman married to a Japanese man, just returned to Japan with her autistic son and husband. His mother and brother live south of Tokyo somewhere. They live with his unmarried brother because his mother’s home is tilting and cannot be repaired.
We tried to warn her about going back. I fed my wife information about the nuclear disaster and also the lack of healthcare for autistic children there, but her husband would not talk about it, so the woman also stopped talking about it. They chose denial instead.
It was very sad. The boy was receiving nursing help here from the Department of Health, but he will receive nothing in Japan. She is also pregnant, and will give birth in Japan — a radiation zone.
The husband just seemed interested in only two things: working and drinking. He barely played with his son and was gone at least 18-19 hours a day, leaving my wife’s friend to care for the autistic boy all alone.
We really tried to convince them to stay in America, but you cannot break through the wall of denial once it is built. All you can do is stand back and watch as the predictable disaster unfolds.
Ms Feinberg was in that same restaurant, she too drank wine and on a government salary also. I am aghast that she could drink fine wine and eat fine food when so many go hungry or thrirsty and still live with herself. Has she no conscience. But wait, I will bet that she believes all the righteous collectivist claptrap things so she gets a morality pass that cannot be extended to another sinner. God it’s good to be a righteous merkin.
When a screaming, righteous drunk intrudes on a private meal, the only proper answer is indeed “fuck off”.
If it had been me, and I were as regular a customer as Ryan probably is, I would have asked management to escort the harridan out of the place quietly. In a civilized society, she would have been shunned by all and sundry for his incivility.
So to parse the story, we don’t know who his dinner companions were, we don’t know who bought the wine, we don’t know shit but we can be angry with this specific thief because the wine was moderately expensive. I suspect the accusatory thief had cheaper wine ( but not Ripple ).
@EMS Do you have evidence that his dinner companions were AIPAC lobbyists?
Well, I am not going to argue with CK about who is more righteous: a “business professor” working for Reuters (Mordoch?)or a political whore dining with his pimps, but… oh wait! We don’t know who was actually dining at the table on bottles of 350 dollar wine and porterhouse steaks!
Instead, we must guess among various candidates:
Greenpeace activists
Cousins (twice removed)
Nuclear Regulatory Commission members
Mother Jones editors
Oil Company executives
Farmers
Homeless Advocates
Medicare Recipients
AIPAC brown shirts
Child Health Advocates
Gosh! Who could it be? The list is nearly endless!
To me, CK represents the death of common sense.
@DeVaul : It’s Rutgers, a state university. She dined out on the New Jersey Taxpayers dollar.
You are correct DeVaul, we don’t know who the other diners were. They could have been cousins, frat brothers in town for a meal, any number of things, It must be uncommon sense to be able to determine that his fellow diners were people you don’t like.
DeVaul I have a question for you, what is your opinion of the jury decision in the Anthony case?
I cannot answer that question because I do not know if Casey is the mother or the girl who was killed. Perhaps you can enlighten me.
Sometimes, “uncommon sense”, as you describe it, can lead you safely past insignificant obstacles that others use to distract you from what you know to be true as a result of life experience. I have seen Ashland Oil executives dine every night on steak and wine, and then head out to the bars for a few more hours, but never saw any other class of people do that.
DeVaul,
It sounds like you are referring to the ” unlimited expense account ” class.
I too have seen executives wine and dine in small groups and in banquets.
The expense for items on the menu were not important, only whether the accounting rules treated them as business expenses (written off on taxes). After dinner might include some bar hopping, but strip joints and other little private escapades may also be included. Its a good gig if you can get one.
Well, who paid for the steak and wine?
If Uncle Sam did not pay for it (although he does now, but he might not have 20 years ago), then who pays? At the time, I assumed it was the shareholders — the little guys who were suckered into buying stocks. They paid for the stead and wine and beer and hotel rooms and valet parking and private offices and outside and inside counsel and all legal fees of the executives fighting each other over corporate pay.
They even paid my expenses, which did not make economic sense to me. My living expenses during the trial were $150 a day ($110/room at the Westen Hotel, $10.00/day for valet parking, mileage on my car, Arby’s and other meals equals about $150/day) compared to my earnings of only $50 a day. My living expenses during the trial were 3 times my pay.
You can only imagine what the attorneys and corporate execs were costing the shareholders, not to mention using a trial over corporate bickering as a means to escape paying taxes that might improve our country and help pay for the use of a federal courthouse for nine months.
No, the rich always find a way to shove their legitimate costs off on others. This is a way of living that has been around for at least 5,000 years, and it has created a class system whereby those below serve those above until you reach the people that CK despises — the lower class of working people whose only refuge from the predations of the rich and powerful is escapism in the form of NASCAR and other stupid forms of entertainment.
If you despise the lower classes for “giving up”, then you must also confront who it was that caused them to “give up” on improving their lives in the first place. You will find those men on Wall Street and inside the Beltway (with a bottle of Chateaux l’Expensive nearby, of course).
Once again, Elaine, You presume Ryan’s dinner companion to be an AIPAC member. My, you can be droll.
Jim
Elaine, There are many more differences than similarities of Japan and USA. Such as Culture, Land, Populations, and Military operations/protection just to name a few. I’ve been pondering the bald-face lie of the US default, debt ceilings and austerity The blatant lies about the budget encompassing entitlement programs paid into by the taxpayer; funds that are separate from the budget and deficit is Audacious. Obama was chosen to sell the lie and implementation. We do not want the financiers making a profit on social security funds. We do not need to adjust age or chained CPI. The fund is solvent. The No-Brainer Adjustment I suggest is remove the maximum earnings table ($106,000) and every paycheck is OASDI taxed. Majority of US workers pay 12 mos. a year. And so should the workers income that supersedes the maximum.
So what if the USA defaults. Will China, India, Europe, Mid-east, and Asia, Mexico, South America……. stop imports? Do these economies (other than Europe) have economic living wages so the workers can buy the goods they produce? Will Europe and parts of the middle east turn away US military protection? Many of the countries that export to the USA except Europe do not protect workers, pay living wages, and social safety programs, including China. China’s industrialization is due to USA WTO agreements. The deal always was buy our debt and you can export your enslaved labor made goods here. Free trade swung the pendulum too far and destroyed livelihoods and created enormous personal debt at home. And horrid poverty and extreme wealth. “The contrast of affluence and wretchedness continually meeting and offending the eye, is like dead and living bodies chained together” T. Paine Agrarian Justice Essay
Default means foreign investments lose, global entities lose……and so do the profiteers. US dollars will be of value to US citizens as the chosen bartering tool for labor, goods, and services. The USA is a living viable fertile land, resources, and population to meet our necessities and live good lives. So go ahead and reset and remove the greed and poverty to return to a balance equilibrium. And eliminate the IMF. The IMF is the bankers and profiteers tool to enslave populations and steal the resources.
We need to return to where we had stop in the 1960’s and restart the engine. We need an enlightened RFK
@DeVaul: Actually I find it refreshing that you don’t know anything about the case or the jury decision. I was dining with an acquaintence the other night and there was a TV in the background blasting on and on about the decision. It was my first exposure to Nancy Grace and the Anthony case.
Actually, I would like to know who Nancy Grace is. I just read Kunstler’s article today and he described a hilarious woman with “flared nostrils…bomb-proof, platinum plasticized hair.” I’d love to see who that is.
I only got a TV a few years ago so my wife could learn English better. I don’t have cable and I only watch a show called “Wipeout”, which my wife will not watch with me anymore. She watches a show called the “Bacheler”, which I cannot watch anymore, so I play with our daughter during that time so she can enjoy her show.
Most live news is not captioned for the deaf, and it is just as well I suppose, as I would probably just be outraged by it anyway.
‘China absolutely seethes with ‘strong followers’ which is troublesome for the government but a sign of a vibrant, bent on growth society. ‘
Vibrant my eye! China is HELL.
Feinberg/Ryan….they both feed at the government trough.
‘Business Prof’..a Joke.
Anyone reading this ever take a college business class?
I took one in which Prof Kelmar [class title SMALL BUSINESS]
told us to not go into business.
DeVaul,
It looks like I pushed one of your buttons, but I basically agree with you. While you were getting car mileage, the executives were getting airfare. Who pays, you ask. Hey, its a business deduction, so maybe a little out of the stockholders, but most of it comes from taxpayers.
One can argue that the corporate “unlimited expense deductions” and other significant corporate subsidy / deductions are corporate welfare outlays which are really no different than welfare for the poor. These twin welfare projects were not seen to be problematic by the average middle class until the middle class found itself on the austere end of the deal. The nation now finds itself where the entire middle class directly feels the effect as these twin welfare projects ebb and flow. And the prospects for serious austerity may already be racing down the track.
rps,
An issue that concerns me relates to the US government capacity to influence or fake the inflation indicators within the country, as a means to artificially manage the debt situation. This will likely alter the trading value of the US currency as long as the government and/or international import/export external trade is involved. Such action to address the debt and prop up financial wealth can wreak havoc on the well being of the regular population.
ck, are you a member of any advocacy group? or perhaps involved in activities in support of an ideology.
Feinberg is an employee. That is contracted to provide services. For you to say that she “dined out on the New Jersey Taxpayers dollar” seems to infer that she is not entitled to receive a salary with which she might pay her own way in life.
As for “Do you have evidence that his dinner companions were AIPAC lobbyists?”
What was written was “I say, anyone taking AIPAC money should also be tossed.”
EMS never wrote that the ‘economists’ paying $700 for two bottles wine are AIPAC lobbyists. Although at $350 a bottle many of us ordinary folks might suspect an attempt to make nice with the politician was in progress.
Economists I have met are careful with money, unless a corporate goal is involved.
And another thing, the phrase “I suspect the accusatory thief had cheaper wine ( but not Ripple ).”
Well are you saying someone is a thief? Generally the accuser has to justify the accusation. If you do believe a crime of theft has been comitted you are obliged to report the event to the police.
Personally I like Ripple and don’t see why its not good enough for anyone else.
As for Casey Anthony, she has been acquitted of all felony charges (i.e., of first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter, and aggravated child abuse), but is convicted of misdemeanor charges of giving false information to police.
Finally you might consider
http://enenews.com/professor-fukushima-consequences-unlimited-space-time-social-dimension-doesnt-limit
We all will live with the consequences of fukushima and may well die from them.
in a nutshell:
“The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.” ~ John Kenneth Galbraith
@OOh
In order of your comments:
1) No.
2) She is paid out of tax receipts, same as are all the members of the house of representatives. She, like they is the recipient of stolen wealth. What thieves do with stolen wealth does not change the fact of the initial theft. Give it to charity or spend it on wine, matters not.
3) I took EMS’s comment in the context of her posting. Not as a single unconnected thought. EMS is a good enough writer that her contexts are rarely jumbled.
4) Economists are indeed oftern careful with their own monies. With other folk’s monies, especially with the theft money we call taxes, not so much.
5) Ryan by virtue of his position in congress is a direct thief, the employee of Rutgers U is a recipient of stolen property in the form of her salary. There is probably a legal hairsplit there. I am sure I should report one tax eaters theft to another tax eater. I am also sure that doing so would not be economically efficient.
5) Re Ripple de gustibus non est disputandum. also Illegitimi non carborundum.
6) I gathered from all the yelling on the tv the other evening that the verdict was unexpected. Apoplectic would be an appropriate description of the talking heads condition.
the verdict was unexpected because people didn’t realize that you could get a jury pool that collectively stupid. (of course, we were surprised on the OJ decision also)
somewhere, villages are missing 12 idiots.
All civilizations tax someone, somewhere. The question is, what are the taxes for? This is the debate which the GOP turned into mush by pretending that taxes are evil. They want more DEBT but when the opposition takes over, they want no debt…until they take power again, then turn on the debt spigots again.
This ‘anti-tax’ garbage is propaganda for children. People who resent paying taxes in their tiny incomes fall for this while the rich laugh all the way to the bank as desperate peons vote to cut taxes and hate taxes.
This was true in the past! Look at our Founding Fathers, a large number of whom even owned slaves and had estates run by forced labor.
Still don’t get it do you?!!! Debt is about control. The more debt, the more justification for taxation, the more control over the civilian population. You talk about the Founding Fathers owning slaves, this has not changed, just the methodology. With one difference, the Founding Fathers imported slaves, they did not enslave their own people. Not that it makes it any better — but you get the picture, eh?
In fact, they improved on the system, they turned the slaves into citizens so that they could re-enslave them with debt, and then tax them for their work. Nifty piece of work that.
Under the regime imposed on the American people at the turn of the century, debt is created out of thin air, making huge profits through the leveraging of the fractional banking system for the parasitic class.
Now, you can choose to stay with it, or like the girl who was raped as a child by her stepfather but has finally seen him locked up after learning during her law degree that he could still be punished for his crimes. http://tinyurl.com/6kajp8h
Bottom line: put up or shut up.
Here is a long but complete explanation of money for debt creation. or slave creation depending on which angle you are looking from. Worth watching.
Great video Clueless! Watch and share!
Freedom in the 50 States: an eyeopening video that gives a clear perspective of socio-economic and political freedoms in America, a sort of common man’s guide to the real state of the Union.
Please note that the richest States (which are quickly headed toward bankruptcy) are also the least free. Something to consider when working on your Plan B, C, D…