We know what we need. Just give us the money so we can do it. Delegate a little. Decentralize. Stop telling me what I want like you know. I live just blocks from the White House, and you really haven’t a clue what I need. So give us a all a raise and let us handle our own lives. We live our lives. You don’t. You want limited government: well, all you have to do is give us the money to live and reasonably achieve our goals and stop trying to put us in chains. That seems like an awful lot of work for someone who doesn’t want the government to do anything.
In summation, we’re somehow cutting expenses and saving what we can and never getting ahead. That’s not even counting the debt. With student loan payments, we’re going backwards. As a form of protest, I’d say don’t even pay them. It might cause a recession, but it’s better than a recession happening anyway and your not having money to ride out the storm. That’s sort of a game theory discussion that basically surmises that it’s better to not pay back the loans, irrespective of ability, because someone else might not be paying either whether they can or not. In short, you don’t want to be the only one paying. If baby boomers, the 1%, investment companies, insurance companies, large corporations, and so on can just stop paying whenever they choose, so can you. I mean, your income isn’t rising, your living expenses and interest expenses are, more and more of you are getting paid jack compared to what you’re worth, and it’s making so many of us so stressed out. So just stop coughing up the dough. See how the banks feel about it. Anyway, if we all have bad credit scores, they’re going to have to lend to someone or figure out a way to operate without Interest Revenue, their bread and butter.
Look, the money is out there. Some of it has left the country and won’t easily come back if it went to China and even a few ally countries, but mostly, it’s still here. It’s just in a very illiquid form. It’s untouchable. We can’t have any. That is temporary. We WILL get that money so long as it stays in this country or in an international trade system that allows that money to rotate through all of us and not in China where they’ll trap it and keep it away from us as long as they can. The vast majority of that wealth will stay here, and that’ll be a great benefit for us in the future. In terms of financial wealth, I do believe America’s best days are ahead of us. In terms of innovation and competitiveness, no way, but strictly speaking about a cash balance, we’ll be doing just fine as soon as those bloated billionaires, corporate slush funds, and investment and insurance companies are either forced to redistribute or die off.
In the mean time, the concept of minimalism is trending. It’s popular to live in a cubby hole or an attic in New York City while trying to make it as a musician. Maybe do that. In the short run, I’m not sure there’s a better way but bare-bones financial discipline. Skipping meals, doing your own home repairs, hoarding coupons, adding water to your soap bottle to get a few more squirts out of it, and so on. Taking a nap instead of going to the doctor. I mean, I don’t know how else people can save money. They’re paid nothing and are expected to somehow survive?
We need to be protesting, calling Congress, and boycotting the goods and services of our own employers. We deserve a fair wage. I know “we” doesn’t include me, and I know I have ineffable privileges in this world, but I’ve made it my darn business to know what it’s like to have nothing, and with what little I can truly feel about it, I have to tell you it’s scary. Running out of money is no joke, and yet the current administration is laughing at millions of American struggling to summon enough energy to walk to the bus stop while sick and hungry, half the time in cold weather.
Call your Congressperson and tell them to renegotiate student loan debt. Tell them you’ll stop paying unless you can refinance. Tell them you’re broke and that they know why. Tell them the biggest problem isn’t the debt but the inability to pay. Tuition shouldn’t be as high as it is, but we could’ve paid if it weren’t for so many other problems. Tell them to NOT support the RAISE Act, repealing Dodd-Frank, rollbacks on labor regulations, reneging on student loan forgiveness programs, and anything else that doesn’t empower you to take care of yourself. Like I said, you know what you need.
We can do this. We can get them to listen to us. We can get enough people in office in 2018 to get appropriate bills passed. Stay strong. Keep fighting.
Great article shedding light on these economic issues. Outstanding student loan debt is like a house of cards that will eventually collapse. A key phrase in your article is “fiduciary duty to constantly raise earnings per share”, which will always create great wealth and great poverty, as one cannot exist without the other in a credit-based economy that strives for infinite growth.
I have a slightly different take on this.
(1) Executives at companies with more than 1,000 employees have little control over what their companies do, other than buying and selling components. Ask them what R&D in any of their divisions is doing on a particular day — no clue. One of my assignments in trying to turn around a troubled company was to find out what projects were underway and which ones might have so real value in the future (value as in the ability to create revenue). Management didn’t know.
(2) Technology has changed the relationship between workers and product. We simply don’t need all of the workers to produce the same amount of stuff. Instead, we need creativity to help find new stuff to make.
(3) Unfortunately, there’s a lag in communications between markets, companies, schools and students. Part of our problem is having too many people lacking skills or with obsolete skills (e.g., COBOL programmers). Finishing high school should not be optional for anyone. Nor should at least a two-year college degree. However, we need to strengthen adult learning and teach people that stopping learning is economic suicide.
(4) Hand-in-hand with item (3), basic college education should be free, as it is in much of the rest of the world (Europe, the Middle East, China, etc.). That reform takes care of the debt issue.
Unfortunately, US politics is dominated by a small cadre of rich and greedy who place themselves above law and country, and make the rules in Congress. That’s why a thinking person has to consider seriously the idea of living someplace else. Upwards of 3% of US citizens now live in another country (that excludes military/government workers stationed offshore). Free healthcare (in many cases, better healthcare), free education, lower food and housing costs are powerful incentives.
Reblogged this on sportyoldude and commented:
I worked up to three jobs as a student just to feed myself and put a roof over my head, and that was in 70″s when tuition was a lot cheaper. part of the reason for the inflated tuitions is the NCAA a pernicious parasite that sucks the money out of schools and universities and gives little in return. they are listed as a non profit an insult to anyones intelligence.
I would like to thank you for following my blog. Although our beliefs may not overlap at times, it is people like you, with an open mind and accepting heart, that give me hope in the other sides of the political spectrum.
Thank you for your comment. I’m glad you’re here. I certainly want to learn about everybody, and when there’s something that doesn’t seem to add up, I don’t run away from it. I ask about it.
Please share your thoughts about any of my posts and any additional information you may have. You’re welcome here.
I’m still waiting on a national politician willing to push hard on exactly the points you make here. Someone to make it their central issue. Elizabeth Warren is the closest it seems.
I mean, these are huge problems that can damage a society long term. But most politicians either openly dismiss or at a minimum pay lip service. It’s frustrating.
Thank you, Jon. I support Senator Warren’s opinion on a number of issues. Another is wage theft, which I wrote about a few weeks ago.
It may be a complex issue, the more likely scenario is the one that you’ve presented. I don’t know that no one cares, but I think they still have this bygone ethos that “everything will work out in the end.” The younger generations can’t justify that outlook.
Despite what baby boomers say about us, we’re actually MORE responsible than them, and we want some assurances. We’re tired of analogies to “bootstraps” and “grindstones,” and I don’t want to ever hear the word “sticktuitiveness” again. We want data. We want action. We want something real. Who’s going to give that to us is anyone’s guess, but Elizabeth Warren is on my short list of nominees for the ticket in 2020.
Working on keeping my daughter debt free for undergrad, but she’s been told grad school will be on her dime.
Thank you for your comment. That’s a good plan. It’s expensive.
Debt is inevitable for so many and you may never work in the field you study. Might as well study what makes you happy. That may be the only silver lining.
I recommend studying in an expensive city to maximize salary potential at nearby employers.
Actually the cost of living in AZ is reasonable and we’ve just approved a $12/hour minimum wage. ASU is also improving its education model.
If she’s staying there, she’s set. ASU merged with Thunderbird, a gradschool I looked at out there. Several of my high school classmates went to ASU or UofA. One even went to NAU.
I’m happy about the AZ minimum wage increase. I talk about that in last week’s post about Wage Theft. That’s the best solution. We know what we need: give us a living wage, and we’ll take care of the rest.
I’d be interested to know how much local coverage Arpaio is getting. There’s a national spotlight there, and I’ve certainly written about immigration in general at least four times on TrumpDiaries alone, but sometimes people in distant states are more concerned about certain issues than are the locals.
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2017/08/29/judge-wont-vacate-former-sheriff-joe-arpaios-contempt-conviction-without-oral-arguments/614854001/ Actually Arpaio’s pardon is not official yet. Something to do with the fact the person has to admit to being guilty. Arpaio has maintained his innocence the whole time.
Thanks for letting me know. From what I’ve read, issuing a pardon is determining that someone is guilty so it doesn’t matter whether the defendant pleads guilty or not. However, given that pardons don’t require any reason and that they are irreversible, no one’s really cares about the details.