No, I didn't can you post a link?

Warning, Bias in first minute, lightens up after it really starts

 

I agree the solution should be humanitarian, rather than cutting everybody off and saying "Good Luck!".

The best start would go into evaluating, truly evaluating the welfare system and food assistance programs. An audit of the overall bureaucracy, then down to individuals.

Yes. Only how to do it? Can't let the government do it. What independent body would do a fair and unbiased evaluation? How to ensure that any recommendations are actually followed?

Those items alone, while cutting down on corruption, would probably cause riots. Though several studies have shown it's the only way out for states like California, Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Pretty soon, all the states will have that as their only option.

For sure they would, especially the union issue, but they have lost their way a long time ago.

 

Yes. Only how to do it? Can't let the government do it. What independent body would do a fair and unbiased evaluation? How to ensure that any recommendations are actually followed?

The same way you find a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Or the same way you get to ride on a Unicorn.

This is the reason the outlook is so gloomy. The past several presidents haven't lifted a finger toward any of the items I've mentioned.

People are too worried about abortion or their stance on legalizing drugs, when neither of those issues will be solved in a single 4 year term. The whole ERA movement, which I'd equate to abortion, took half a century to get through. The drug thing, well, that's supplying a ton of cash for Law Enforcement toys through confiscation of cash, vehicles, housing, etc. They aren't going to kill that golden goose anytime soon.

 

Warning, Bias in first minute, lightens up after it really starts

well that one's going on facebook. I use facebook as a tool to try to enlighten people, but they never listen. I go as far as to tag people in things like this, hoping that they will get the point that I want them to watch/read the material. Trying to enlighten people who are comfortable being dumb and naive is so frustrating. It seriously worries me when I tag 50+ people who I know (family members, close friends, military buddies) and I get 3 or 4 people who respond. take this for example: I wrote it a few weeks ago and tagged everybody in my friends list. 4 replied.

Ever wonder why it gets harder and harder to live every year?

Most of my life I have been, like most people that I know, under the impression that the people on the streets and the people on welfare are there because they aren’t motivated. They don’t try hard enough. They would rather sit back and let someone else do all the work while they sit at home and be paid to do nothing. While I’m still sure that’s the case in a lot of instances, I have started to reflect back on my own situation. There have been a couple of times, where if I didn’t have a family, I would have been on the streets or welfare. And as time goes by, it seems that despite my best efforts, I am getting ever closer to being poor(er). From my perspective, with the job that I have, and the amount of effort I put into it, I should not be having any money problems, but problems abound. I have been seeking the answer to the question “why does it keep getting harder and harder?” I will now attempt to explain the epiphany that I have just recently made.

Do you have a dollar in your wallet, or in your bank account? If so, do you know where it came from? how it was created?I’ll tell you; at some point, someone took out a loan from a bank, and that dollar was created. It could have been a home loan, car loan, business loan, or government stimulus loan, any kind of loan. In any case, someone is paying interest on that dollar in your wallet. That’s how money is created; when people take out loans. Contrary to popular belief, money is created by private banks when they issue loans. It’s not created in the government mint, or solely by the FED (the fed is a private bank BTW, not a government agency). Banks create this money out of thin air and then expect to be paid interest on it. They just type it into existence on a computer screen. Well, where does the money come from to pay off the loan? It comes from somewhere else, maybe a paycheck, which also at some point down the line originated in the form of a loan. So we are paying off loaned dollars with loaned dollars. Banks only generate the amount of the Principle. You take out a loan for 10,000$, the bank creates 10,000$, not the extra 5000$+ for the amount of the interest. So where does the money that is supposed to pay the interest come from? IT DOESN’T! It does not exist! ALL the money in circulation is the principle of one giant loan, and there is NO money in circulation to pay the interest on this giant loan.

Even if everybody everywhere in America, or the face of the entire planet for that matter mystically woke up tomorrow morning with an unquenchable drive to be productive, get off welfare, go get a job, and pay their debt to society, and they actually DID this, there would still be a portion of people filing for bankruptcy, losing their homes, losing their cars, not paying student loans, etc. because THERE IS NOT ENOUGH MONEY ON THE PLANET TO PAY ALL THE LOANS. Yes, even if everybody stopped protesting, and went out and got a job (assuming there are jobs to be had), there would still be “losers” despite their best efforts. It is mathematical fact. Now, I’m not saying the protesters are right. In my opinion, they are mostly a bunch of entitlement seeking lazy idiots. The occupy movement is angry at some of the right people, but has completely missed the boat on WHY. They are protesting rich people in general. “you have money, you should give it me” – that’s their general message as I have interpreted it. I have read up on their demands and gripes, and nowhere did I see anything about the Fractional Reserve System (that’s what it’s called by the way, this system of creating money by the banks, google that). They just want the rich to “pay their fair share” – fair share of WHAT? Interest?

The banks: The banks know that not everybody can pay their loans. And they don't mind. See, they have the legal right of counterfeiting; so they counterfeit as much as they want, and loan it to you. When you default, they get your house, or car, or whatever. They get REAL GOODS in exchange for FAKE MONEY. This is only the first in a long list of perks the banks get. Another perk, is that as they are pumping out all these dollars, they are diluting the power of the money. They jack the inflation sky high and cause the cost of everyday items to go up, so that you have to keep coming back for more loans for things that you otherwise could have just paid for outright. One more perk of being a bank, is connections. All the major banks are connected via a network, with the FED at the center, so they can effectively be considered one giant bank. So when you take out a car loan and you take your check and give it to the guy at the car lot, he takes it and deposits it in his bank, which is linked with your bank, so effectively the giant bank created 10,000$, and then the 10,000$ was turned around and given right back to it; BUT you still owe the bank 10,000$ + INTEREST. And the most important perk of being a bank, is that you get to rule the world. Yes, I said it. EVERYBODY is in debt to the banks. Including, and to an unfathomable extent, THE U.S. GOVERNMENT. Do you think that the government considers YOUR demands as much as they consider the BANKS’ demands? If you owed trillions of dollars to guy A and nothing to guy B, and they had conflicting interests, who would you try to make happy? You are naïve if you think that the government doesn’t cater to the banks.

So, that’s why it gets harder and harder every year. Banks drive down the value of the dollar, and the public further into debt. We’re all working indirectly for the banks night now. Even if you don’t have a cent of debt; your house & cars are paid off, you have a steady job, etc. you are still under the bank’s thumb because they decide how much your money is worth. That’s why I have to work 60-70 hours per week at SKILLED LABOR, and barely afford to pay my rent, not own my own car, and feel like I’m sinking lower and lower, maybe to the point I won't be able to feed my family one day, when men of my grandfather’s day could graduate high school (or not graduate) and be able to afford a house and a reasonably comfortable life, working 40hrs/week doing UNSKILLED LABOR. Every day the banks get richer and the poor get poorer. The government has done nothing to stop this. They could have at least made sure that minimum wage followed with inflation.

Back to the occupy movement; The problem DOES lie with the banks, and with the paychecks of the CEOs; not because just by virtue of CEOs being RICH, but because the CEOs are UNFAIRLY rich. They used to have a term for this fractional reserve and loaning money at interest practice; USURY, google that too. I don’t think that mindset of “Don’t be angry at the bank CEOs because they are rich; they earned it, you didn’t” holds any water. The banks might not be STEALING money out of your pocket, as is usually how the defense goes, but they are stealing the VALUE of the money that you DO have, that you DID earn, and demanding even more. Did you know that the dollar is only worth 4 cents compared to when it was introduced?

This is all quite silly when you consider that money is NOTHING. It is a unit of measure. A unit of measure to represent a trade value of goods/services. An able bodied young man such as myself saying that he can’t afford a house because he doesn’t have enough money, is like a contractor saying that he can’t build a building because he doesn’t have enough inches. We are working our asses off in pursuit of a deliberately fabricated scarcity of measurement units. Its utter nonsense!

What can we do about it? STOP USING THE INFLATED MEASUREMENT UNITS! Being that money is a unit of measure, it is (or should be) infinite. What is the total number of meters? There is no total. There are infinite meters. SO WHY IS THERE A FINITE AMOUNT OF MONEY? I think I’ve covered that, but it’s because the banks generated the finite amount to keep you on a hamster wheel.

So, what can we do about it? Well, I think the permanent solution is rather obvious. But in the short term, you can TRADE. Goods and services. As much as you can. Use craigslist. Don’t use dollars to pay for anything you can get away with trading for. There is only so much you can trade, and finding a trading partner who has what you want and wants what you have is tough. There are trading communities with Mutual Credit Systems (google that) and there are alternative community currencies popping up all over. SPREAD AWARENESS. Most people who I know have not heard this information. The more people “in the know”, the more likely change will come. DON’T BE COMPLACENT. This problem is not going away until someone does something about it, and you don’t care, nobody else will care either.

please correct me if I'm wrong about anything here, and please let me know if you have any more ideas about what we can do individually to mitigate this problem.
Thanks,
-Charles Staton
​

There are a couple of things in that writeup that could be argued, but they weren't. I don't think anybody read it because it was >100 words, and they were busy watching jersey shore.

 

That sums it up well.

Work for a paycheck, barter and trade for whatever else you can.

The more skills you have, the better off you'll be in a "barter and trade" world.

We've seen these worlds happen, but have ignored them. You see it right after a city is wiped off the map by a tornado, or a coast or state is destroyed by a hurricane. People barter labor for food and trade gas for ice. No money exists since the ATMs are all down, people will only take something they can use at that moment, and cash is far down the list when fighting for survival.

 

I wouldn't dumb down the Occupy movement. It will be back with more punch come spring with its own style of "American Spring". The movement is getting strong support from prominent writers and activists including Richard Heinberg, Charles Eisenstein and Chris Hedges. Google Occupy Love.

Also Google Occupy Congress, January 17.

 

my views on the occupy movement have changed slightly since I wrote that. but not entirely. If I were to write it again, I would go easier on the movement.

 

There not enough money in the world to pay the interest that keep increasing.
People can't afford to pay the interest,and the interest % go higher for the
young in the world,that a real problem.

 

so what about hard working people who work two/three jobs and do not live in the glamorous house but rent a basement suite and have a beat up car trying to support their kids? those don't exist or tough luck?

and

...
I respectfully disagree. The demographic you point to does exist, but is not representative of every "hard working person struggles to make ends meet." The minimum wage here is 7.25$/hr. If a person were to work 40hrs/week, that's 15,000$ annually, or right at poverty level for a family of 2.
...

I appreciate that there are (and I have sympathy for) people who work hard and struggle to pay the bills.

But a hard working person can bring in $15000 a year and probably more. And ultimately you don't need much more than food and rent to survive and save. Many of the self made millionaires came from immigrant families where 12 people lived in a tiny slum apartment and they worked hard and saved and improved their lot in life.

I'm sitting here in shorts that i paid $7 for, a $2 tshirt from a second hand store (I buy large sizes in quantity for $1 or $2 as they are great to work in at home) and a pair of flip flops on my feet that were free as a birthday present some years back. My underwear i think was a 3 undies for $12 value pack. I try not to waste money looking rich.

I have plenty of time for people who really are working hard and struggling, but still a lot of that is choice. What ticks me off is when someone is crying poor about not making enough money, but they are wearing an $80 shirt (because they will ONLY wear brand names) and they are driving a car worth 30 grand more than my old car. They could have a much better quality of life, a better future, better education, better resources to invest etc if they spent 30 grand less on the car and 5 grand a year less on clothes and quit their whining...

And for people really struggling there are plenty of places in the US where after the sub-primes fiasco etc you can buy housing very cheap, and there are very low rents, and from what I've seen on TV food is generally pretty cheap in the US too. So that example of $15 to $20 grand for a year would buy a quite a decent quality of life and allow someone to save for the future and build their investments, they might just have to MOVE to somewhere cheaper.

 

Sorry to join the thread late, but if I understand everyone then if the minimum wage is eliminated I get my own personal Mexican to bring me all the pot I want (or any other opiate of my choice) for "therapeutic" consumption?

Ummm, yeah, OK. I'm in.

 

Sorry to join the thread late, but if I understand everyone then if the minimum wage is eliminated I get my own personal Mexican to bring me all the pot I want (or any other opiate of my choice) for "therapeutic" consumption?

Ummm, yeah, OK. I'm in.

lol, yeah until the impending financial collapse caused by banks, at which point you need to trade for your weed

 

lol, yeah until the impending financial collapse caused by banks, at which point you need to trade for your weed

I've thought about this for the past 4 or 5 years. There is NO easy way out, unless you get off the grid now and into a rural area, and a few hundred thousand people have a pretty solid head start there.

I don't have TV/Cable, don't mind getting dirty, and am set up with family for a farm to work at. I figure the best place to be would be near the food, I can weld crap, fix the electronic stuff around, since there's not much of it, and most of it is basic (well, cept for the GPS controlled combine), and be a farmhand.

 

yeah I was saving up for a little plot of land until an unforseen life event caused my to spend all that. I'm trying to get back there.
Between my dad & I, we could live off the land.
This is why I have such interest in intentional communities. I think it would be best to establish or join one now that's already self sufficient. And not one of the hippie ones who don't believe in owning guns.

 

yeah I was saving up for a little plot of land until an unforseen life event caused my to spend all that. I'm trying to get back there.
Between my dad & I, we could live off the land.
This is why I have such interest in intentional communities. I think it would be best to establish or join one now that's already self sufficient. And not one of the hippie ones who don't believe in owning guns.

The problem with those communities is they've never really lasted unless they were familial based. Whenever there are more than 5 people in a group, there needs to be a hierarchy and decision making. Usually the most charismatic people get appointed to that spot, but those people are usually the worse at performing the actions required, because they want EVERYBODY to be happy.

None of the communes from the 60's and 70's lasted more than a year, or a few years in a couple cases. Some produce more than others, and the others are content letting them produce more, so the producers leave, and they all get hungry and go back to town.

 

check out the twin oaks community in west virginia. They've been self sufficient since the 60's. Population in the dozens. A little too hippie for me though

 

correction, it's in virginia, 100 members
http://www.twinoaks.org/

 

correction, it's in virginia, 100 members
http://www.twinoaks.org/

Just peeked at the website. Pretty much describes what I think Hell must be like...seriously!

 

Just peeked at the website. Pretty much describes what I think Hell must be like...seriously!

Kinda what I thought, didn't want to say it out loud, though.

 

Just peeked at the website. Pretty much describes what I think Hell must be like...seriously!

yeah its pretty gay, but the point was that intentional communities can work long term.
maybe I should find a better example and strike this from the record so I don't make people think that intentional communities suck

my bad

 

yeah its pretty gay, but the point was that intentional communities can work long term.
maybe I should find a better example and strike this from the record so I don't make people think that intentional communities suck

my bad

Thing is, that commune survived the initial couple years and is now familial, a tribe, if you will, which are pretty stable long term for small populations. When tribes get large, you end up with Africa.