IN the government policy-generated boom/bust cycle, the damage is done during the boom part. The false economy allows people to get away with projects big and small that would not be warranted otherwise, and at the same time good projects go starving for funding. From remodel jobs if doubtful necessity and dubious aesthetics, to superstadiums at taxpayer's expense, to criminal wars and the security states, all those features of the boom times must now be paid for with the bust.
As I said, if you have a paycheck, pension or property you are sunk. One way or another, it will not do. Having all three will not help, it will just mean you are being hit from three sides.
The USPS has stopped making pension payments, so they can waste more money internally. the have assured people currently collecting pension money from the post office that their payments are not in jeopardy. Of course. In a Ponzi scheme, the people first are getting paid while later people are getting ripped off. Every week postal employees make a contribution to pay for retired workers, but nothing is being set aside for the current workers. Madoff went to jail for this.
We could have avoided this by letting the market bust the bad banks, clearing the decks, and then letting the chips fall where they may. Instead, American elected Obama who tripled down on the disastrous Geo Bush policies. McCain would have done the same thing.
One reason nothing will change is every individual is developing an idea in his own head that he will be an exception: I am an exceptional worker, I have this connection, if we just get the right person in office.
Maybe each will be an exception. Probably not.
The people who benefit from the system will not change it, desire no change, but in fact need one disaster after another to stay in power.
Fighting is pointless, and fleeing will just get you where it is worse. The only safe haven, relatively speaking, is self-employment. As I said, taxes will be raised to 95% of income, but if you think this is a problem for the self-employed, you still do not get it. It is never about the money, it is about the lifestyle. As a practical matter, when every penny you direct to be spent in your business is also your lifestyle, then those pretax dollars go very far indeed, especially when the economy is in the dumps, due to parasitical govt policy.
At a congressional hearing, Timmy Geithner says taxes must go up on the self-employed, or the size of government might have to be reduced. Since the size of government cannot ever be reduced, the taxes will go up.
The bust is not over, so the price will go much higher. It has already been decided who will pay for bad govt policy, for our decision to be a fascist empire (big govt and big biz as one). The answer is you will pay. In the next 50 -75 years the powers that be will make a huge mistake, and most people will escape to anarchy. The best vehicle for this storm is self-employment.
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