This came out a week ago:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/fed-americans-wealth-dropped-40-percent/2012/06/11/gJQAlIsCVV_story.html
With figures such as these, over which some of the top feared disastrous
psychological pressures are placed on the individual, and other Western
nations experiencing similar hardships over employment, everyone is
exactly where the 1% need them to be for a repeat of the Dirty 30's.
Bear in mind, the wealthier nations have never really been well
off--they were acting as if scarce resources are unlimited, and very
much failing to realize that if their fellow humans abroad are
suffering, primarily due to said selfishness, or because of destructive
3rd world development strategies that better achieve that end. What
adversely affects one group eventually comes back to bite the rest, like
pollution and war.
We already have, according to CBC this morning, some 25 wars globally,
most of which have been long-term. As Ed suggests below, countless turf
wars should develop within municipalities over everything from luxuries
to basics as things get tougher. But gangs, as well as the top 1%, will
run out of staple supplies.
We may soon have to do what Cuba did when the USSR stopped sending food
and fertilizer after its collapse. Because Cuba's economy was based
solely on growing and exporting sugar cane and tobacco, both heavily
dependant on chemicals for mono-culture crops, everyone had no choice
but to go organic, and grow their own. It swiftly became the only way to
feed themselves in a world unwilling to provide assistance. And it was
the best thing that could have happened to them. Lets hope they can stay
clear of derivatives, fiat funds and US food wars. And for year-round
energy to grow our own food, we'll be forced to develop alternative
energy--another life saving industry. That is, if we can stay together
as a society.
With an unrelenting, still feverish "1984"-like belief in
derivatives/swaps being good for the economy, despite the big meltdown
and all consequences, and with no government rules or checks foreseeable
and all politicians investing heavily in such unhealthy markets
themselves, I suspect the money masters will be free to run both
treasury and resources past the point of rebuilding for a very long
time. Down the road, derivatives won't work as B.S. once the system
collapses. Gold will likely return as the standard, if weapons don't.
Rebuilding will likely become a local thing for those areas where we
don't kill one another off, though how we can avoid guns and aggression
as part of that new world, I'm not sure. Short of gene manipulation to
rid us of stupidity and suit-psycho behaviour, we'd best prepare for
more craziness. The notion of neural manipulation, though already in the
works in the secretive worlds of the controllers, is too costly and time
consuming with society soon to crash round our ankles. Just another
control dream. Though many would guess correctly that advertising,
education and propaganda have worked beautifully in this respect, their
effects require constant tweaking and chronic exposure. There won't be
such expenditures in the near future.
This could be viewed as typical of gloom, but my response is atypical of
the Canadian masses. Where they place faith in oil, Harper or other
politicians, or even religion to pull us up out of economic despair, I
believe that life's purpose is noble, far richer and definitely more
capably envisioned than any Wall Street puppet master can conceive.
Controllers can't control life's meaning, though they manipulate many
minds to that effect for what seems an eternity. Many civilizations
collapsed because of usurpers and undeserving leaders. In time, a drop
in the bucket. Built upon falsehoods, nothing lasts. Millions may die
needlessly, but this sick fairy tale with the greedy and powerful as
worshipful cries out for a fresh ending, and that ending calls for
rejection of money as god; for enlightened humans to become Earth's
caretakers and one another's compassionate and respectful teachers. We
have to rewrite, re-envision, re-distribute, re-tell, re-learn and
re-think, re-educate, and re-wire towards a responsible, and
life-teeming future. But I don't believe those great voices will be
heard until the monstrous machine grinds to a halt. Once media is down,
and armies and civil servants are no longer paid to protect politicians,
the mercenary forces will be far off in isolation, guarding the elusive
banksters. Then communication will be possible. The dirty diapers will
at last get changed. In short, no faith in the system, but plenty in the
purpose of mind and existence.
*Natalia*
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/fed-americans-wealth-dropped-40-percent/2012/06/11/gJQAlIsCVV_story.html>
On 19/06/2012 12:07 PM, Ed Weick wrote:
Whatever is happening is a mix of things. Gloom does seem to have
taken over -- a general feeling that even when you really try, you're
not going to get anywhere, so why bother. Things afflicting the US
economy, and parts of Canada as well, include the growing power of the
1%, the loss of jobs because of automation, the sending of jobs abroad
where they can be done more cheaply, the purchase of products we used
to make from foreign sources, and a general uncertainty about where
things are going.
The proportion of the labour force that has stopped looking for work
has grown, as has unemployment among those who still want to work.
And college degrees don't seem to matter much anymore. The old system
of middle class propriety and sobriety is fading out, as is the middle
class itself. However, something else that isn't given much attention
as yet may be happening. In his "Coming Apart", Charles Murray
refers to groups called something like "street corner gangs" that are
increasingly present in /Fishtown/, where his poor whites of America
live. These guys don't want steady jobs or responsibilities, but they
will take advantage of whatever may come their way -- welfare, petty
crime, or whatever -- and they are learning to stay afloat quite
effectively in the increasingly depressed economy. Yet one has to
wonder what would happen if their numbers grew. Might they move
society away from it's present state of manageable disorder and more
deeply toward chaos?
Ed
----- Original Message -----
*From:* de Bivort Lawrence <mailto:[email protected]>
*To:* RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION
<mailto:[email protected]>
*Sent:* Tuesday, June 19, 2012 12:12 PM
*Subject:* Re: [Futurework] Gloomy America
Gloom is popular these days....
Not that there is not good reason for concern, more for some than
others. It is when gloom and pessimism become a psychological
condition and displace the natural abilities of a person or
community to be proactive in resolving the reasons for concern
that gloom-as-fad becomes dangerous, and perhaps fatal to the
person or community.
I see such self-defeating levels of gloom in some people and some
communities in the US and Europe, and, to refer to some of the
messages posted here, to Canada as well.
To an interesting extent, the nature of this gloom is ironic:
wealthy societies and their members falling into gloom because
their levels of wealth have fallen, while in poorer parts of the
world optimism reigns as people experience and expect relative
progress, though the level of progress they may achieve will still
be far below that thought of as the norm in the wealthy societies.
Is there some karmic justice in this? Have the wealthy merely
become spoiled, and in their ensuing gloom they guarantee their
further fall toward the global median?
I've always credited Canada with better political discourse,
cleaner and less-selfish motives than the US, and better (foreign)
policies. It saddens me to see Canada seemingly sink into the
political and psychological norms of the US. I so much hope that I
am overstating the case.
Cheers,
Lawry
*From:*[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
[mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Ed
Weick
*Sent:* Tuesday, June 19, 2012 7:45 AM
*To:* 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION';
[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
*Subject:* [Futurework] Gloomy America
Worth reading, but brace yourselves, it's gloomy.
Ed
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/19/us/many-american-workers-are-underemployed-and-underpaid.html?_r=1&hp
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/19/us/many-american-workers-are-underemployed-and-underpaid.html?_r=1&hp>
Sample:
Now, with the economy shaping up as the central issue of the
presidential election, both President Obama and Mitt Romney have
been relentlessly trying to make the case that their policies
would bring prosperity back. The unease of voters is striking: in
a New York Times/CBS News poll
<http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/04/19/us/politics/20120419_poll_docs.html?ref=politics>in
April, half of the respondents said they thought the next
generation of Americans would be worse off, while only about a
quarter said it would have a better future.
And household wealth is dropping. The Federal Reserve reported
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/12/business/economy/family-net-worth-drops-to-level-of-early-90s-fed-says.html?ref=binyaminappelbaum>last
week that the economic crisis left the median American family in
2010 with no more wealth than in the early 1990s, wiping away two
decades of gains. With stocks too risky for many small investors
and savings accounts paying little interest, building up a nest
egg is a challenge even for those who can afford to sock away
some of their money.
Expenses like putting a child through college --- where tuition
has been rising faster
<http://trends.collegeboard.org/college_pricing>than inflation or
wages --- can be a daunting task. When Morgan Woodward, 21, began
her freshman year at the University of California, Berkeley,
three years ago, her parents paid about $9,000 a year in tuition
and fees. Now they pay
<http://students.berkeley.edu/finaid/news/detail25.htm>closer to
$13,000, and they are bracing for the possibility of another jump
next year. With their incomes flat, though, they recently
borrowed money to pay for her final year, and to begin paying the
tuition of their son, who plans to start college this fall.
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