How did this happen. When did it happen? Was it the crash or the Mad(off) men or the shock and awe of the (don't bet on the) banks and the bailout (rages)? What happened to the good old days? They were never that good, as each successive generation supplanted the one before. "Here Son, stand on my shoulders, reach for the stars." Higher and higher till you retired. A gold watch and a fixed income, yours for life. When did that change? What happened? A financial Mt. Everest that once was scaled has now let loose a tirade of snow and ice, slippery and treacherous, and we are all struggling for a foothold and purchase as we are pulled closer and closer to the edge. Many we have watched go over it.
Makes me think of Touching the Void, the stunning filmed re-enactment of the true story of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates in the Peruvian Andes. After reaching the peak and during the descent, Simpson breaks his leg. As rescue is impossible they decide that Yates will attempt to lower Simpson down. As Yates was attempting to lower Simpson 300 feet at a time, the gradient went into a vertical drop and he was propelled over a cliff. While Yates was being pulled slowly toward the edge, his footholds slipping and no response coming from his partner hanging below, as a measure of self-preservation as there was no other option, he cut the rope. Simpson survived falling hundreds of feet into a crevice, causing more damage to his shattered body. When deep within the crevice with no way of possibly climbing up out of it Simpson makes the only choice he can. To climb down, deeper into the crevice. Dragging his broken body inches at a time, down darker and darker there was a crack of light through the ice and eventually he was able to make his way to it and out of the crevice. Now in the bitter cold and in abject pain he made his way, crawling, dragging himself miles down the mountain, over the frozen ground. In the pitch black of night in a howling storm he knew that he was near the base camp because he smelled shit. He had in fact crawled through what was their latrine area and was finally able to call out for help. His companions, who thought he was dead, and were leaving in the morning, of course saved him and they all survived.
I thought of this today as I heard another story of a broken dream of a financial life cut off. Another small business closing its doors, employees joining the growing unemployed and another dream gone. Cut off. Dropped. Fired. We are all crawling through shit. I am a lucky one. I anticipated. Probably because I am a child of show-off business and therefore know firsthand how dismissive Hollywood can be as a business, how fickle and ageist and chauvinistic and homophobic. I have seen lives destroyed, as people's careers were deemed dispensable and were disposed of. SAG sends off the sagging. I saved and lived way below my level and am fine. I will be fine.
I am thinking about the millions of workers who were cut loose by their partners, their government, their businesses, their bosses, their schools, institutions. The rope has been cut. One lost job creates another. Who is going to FIX THE INCOME? Who is going to allow people to age with dignity and safety, that there will be a cushion, a soft seat for them to grow old on, to care for them, to help them to assist the living?
Messages from the good old days? In Britain during the Blitz, the tube stations had a poster that the Government placed there, Keep Calm and Carry On. A simple message of hope and perseverance while the bombs dropped. I was given a replica for my 50th birthday. It makes sense. Carry on. Keep moving; but how can we tell that to a worker in Detroit with three kids who has to decide if he will buy his daughters medicine or food? The shuttered storefronts, the unemployment lines. The economy grew, but not in jobs. How can you fix the income? By keeping with the same team? By holding steady? By carrying on? By keeping calm? The Main Street that is often referred to in speeches needs repairs. There are potholes and cracks in the infrastructure. How about we start by fixing them? And our crumbling schools. And the crumbling infrastructure of our country. Fix the income and we will fix America.
Who knows when that will happen? People were hoping that 2009 would bring it. We just sank deeper. We said that maybe 'cause it was just Obama's first year. We're three months into the second year and still 'nothing'.
The New Mexico Governor (Bill Richardson) has been helping to make matters worse. He wishes to tax our food higher as well as our car registration. He gives away our tax dollars to his friends, for what reasons? He will not say, except that the money is for his 'friends'.
If you are not Native American here and you're poor, you have no right to commodities.
I've rambled on enough for the moment...
But we CAN keep the door to OPPORTUNITY open. If opportunities abound, people and companies can adjust, change jobs, change careers, keep moving ahead.
Get the government or somebody else to stop trying to "fix" things for us, we'll do well. Otherwise Fidel will tell you what you want to hear.
There are millions of Americans, like you, who have lived below their incomes and saved for retirement. For them, there is no financial crisis. For those who buy more home than they can afford, buy too many "things" using credit cards, etc., etc., financial devastation is only a missed paycheck away. It has nothing at all to do with how much you earn. It has everything to do with what you do with what you earn.
Our honorable ancestors who settled this country worked for what they accumulated. There was no government to bail them out. The pioneer mantra was "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without."
We would all be well-served to return to basics like thrift, self-reliance and other "quaint" virtues.
who do you admire more - Curtis, or the CEO of Goldman Sachs, who just awarded himself 100 million in bonus for 2009?
It is long past the time to slam the door on imports and rebuild our manufacturing base, which is the true measure of a countries wealth.
Any American company that doesn't start bringing the jobs home and help to rebuild what they destroyed is nothing but dirt. Any American that buys foreign when there is an american substitute is a traitor and certainly no patriot.
if you still have a job, sort of, working part-time you don't have
enough to live on. When you go on unemployment you are
asked to find three jobs per week to hold onto those benefits,
but where do you find a full-time job when there are none. Even
the fast food joints aren't hiring. Forget retail. It's going to get
worse, a lot worse, before it improves.
Markets are a false god.
"capitalism" is a false god.
"Amerika" is a false god.
"democracy" or "socialism" or any "ism" is not something to worship.
We need to make people's lives better and it has to work for everyone, all inclusive.
And most of that success is due to capitalism, free markets, and democracy.
So go ahead. Jettison them over the side when the seas get rough. They're so last century anyway. But be careful that when you overthrow these imperfect gods that you don't replace them with truly malevolent ones.
The World Health Organization rates the United States 37th in overall health care quality.
http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2009/September/25/quality-of-care.aspx
So where is our leadership and high standard of living in the area of health care?
According to the Cato Institute, the U.S. federal government spent $92 billion on corporate welfare during fiscal year 2006. Recipients included Boeing, Xerox, IBM, Motorola, Dow Chemical, and General Electric.[
How is that a free market?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_welfare
New York City is the 8th most expensive city to live in the World. Los Angeles ranks 23Rd as shown here:
http://www.finfacts.ie/costofliving.htm
The United States ranks 13th in overall quality of life as shown here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality-of-life_index
Our industrialists have been selling our workforces down the river so they can make more money, expecting that as they have robbed the rank 'n file of their livelihoods over the past 30 years or so, we WOULDN'T arrive at a place where we have excessive unemployment and economic contraction so severe it results in this recession??
Add the late 1980s bailout of the savings & loan industry, made necessary by malfeasance. Add our housing bubble, fueled by speculation, rampant malfeasance in the mortgage lending industry, more malfeasance by the regulators, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac & the humongous bailout in the Fall of 2008. Followed by more of the same crap from Wall Street, thumbing their noses at millions of Americans who have been made redundant by technology & outsourcing.
Holy shit, how much more evidence do you need that the current system isn't working? Sticking to it is tantamount to national insanity.
Right-wing pundits have villified "socialism" when the reality is our country & government participate in socialist programs. Social Security (workers pooling their money into a huge fund designed to care for those who are retiring, disabled, etc). Medicare. Our system of taxation
It's strange that anyone would even suggest it right now.
Tax the rich and help the poor. Pay as you go.
If it was that simple, don't you think it would have been done?
Just let this sink in... WE ARE SPENDING TOO MUCH, THERE IS NO LONGER SUPREME CONFIDENCE IN THE GOVERNMENT'S SOLVENCY AND. soon not even the Chinese will want to buy our debt.
How much government securities do you own? They pay next to NOTHING!
Mexico, China, Hong Kong, Laos, India, Cambodia, Canada, Central America, Brazil,
Pakastan???????? Where were you guys when the jobs were leaving? You were silent....absolutely silent. I suggest you continue your silence as you have nothing to contribute...
How many American jobs went to China?
How many white jobs went to blacks?
What is the fundamental difference between these two statements? How is national prejudice different from racial prejudice?
How come those Hollywood liberal never said anything during Bush?
It is very unfortunate that Obama has inherited so many ills from his predecessors.
Little business are not immune of exploiting poor employees eithers. Withthis weak economy they keep on abusing their employees. Also any busniess in the USA big or small take a huge tax break for travel - even though the vacation of these employers are spent in Italie or France and they travel with foreign airlines - These "vacation" does not contribute a penny to the american economy but these scrupulous little business owners still get the tax break for their leisure vacation.
A staff accoutant used to be paid 52K+ now those small business wants to pay 38K - where is the fairness?
The whole business mentality is for the rich people - and now this product of hollywood is caring for the small people - where was she when Bush and Co. exploited the US
If the Brits can do it with bombs raining down on them, it should inspire us to do the same with the "bombs" that are raining down on us.
Thanks.
DandyRandy
http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2007/06/you-wont-need-time-machine.html