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The Collapse of The American Dream Explained in Animation.

mean mr.mustard

I Pass Satellites
Veteran
Ha! I just watched New Hope and Empire today!!

Burnt through a lot of nuggetry as well.

If I can get the TV back I'm doing Jedi tonight.
 

Dropped Cat

Six Gummi Bears and Some Scotch
Veteran
lol.

I recently transferred the Star W*rs trilogy from VHS to MP4.

The originals before the digital add ons.

Good stuff.
 

St. Phatty

Active member
I understand your frustration Klompen. What was I supposed to do the my $$$$ hide it under a mattress. I invested heavily in stocks. Bank stock as well. Tax deferred investments as well. Worked for me...

Over 40 years I averaged about 8% return. I also have an annuity that I am drawing in in retirement....and am still invested in real estate.

Today like while I was working I paid taxes and put the $$ back into the economy by spending it helping other companies make a profit. There fore your comment about investors being useless for the economy is wrong.

As a matter of fact I built a cabin in the mountains with the returns on the bank stock. I know lots of peeps that made money off of me building the cabin...

I think you would like Karl Denninger's writing at
https://market-ticker.org

In between all the ranting about immigration and many other things, he has a lot to say about the relationship between Health Care and business.

He sold an Internet Provider in Chicago for the range of $25 to $100 million. Then realized he didn't want to start another business.

He explains the reasons why.

It relates to what other members have said about the collapse of the Roman (or American) Empire.

It I was Mr. Trump, or any President, I would be very concerned about creating a business environment that Karl Denninger finds hospitable.
 

Klompen

Active member
I understand your frustration Klompen. What was I supposed to do the my $$$$ hide it under a mattress. I invested heavily in stocks. Bank stock as well. Tax deferred investments as well. Worked for me...

Over 40 years I averaged about 8% return. I also have an annuity that I am drawing in in retirement....and am still invested in real estate.

Today like while I was working I paid taxes and put the $$ back into the economy by spending it helping other companies make a profit. There fore your comment about investors being useless for the economy is wrong.

As a matter of fact I built a cabin in the mountains with the returns on the bank stock. I know lots of peeps that made money off of me building the cabin...

Look, I'm not saying you're wrong for doing something to succeed in a system designed to offer that as one of the safest routes to freedom(quite literally). You did what helped ensure your future.

That said, and I mean no offense by this, but spending money to put other people to work doesn't actually create any value in any literal sense. The people who you hired, the people who built things for you or ran the things you invested in actually did the job of creating value. For the most part, investors just wield control over those efforts via their money.

Of course one could argue that financiers help direct the efforts of the economy and that is a service of value. Sometimes that can even have some degree of truth. Its just overvalued in our society and rewarded disproportionally as a result. Of course there's also the issue of what specific ventures you invest in. Local investments in small business for example are much more beneficial to the practical economy than large-scale investments done on an impersonal level.

Ultimately two primary things create value in an economy; Finished goods and raw materials. Labor is a direct vehicle to those products, and some types of investment can function as an indirect vehicle to those products. Bond investment for example injects companies with money and once it is repaid the relationship between investor and company is finished. Stock investment on the other hand can easily become a parasitic relationship that can go on indefinitely.
 

Klompen

Active member
But isn’t the owner (s) culpable? He/they took the company public to cash out on their investment, which in turn, unleashes the greed. Any passion that a company starts with typically disappears when a board takes over.

tbd

Unfortunately in our economy a company that wants to have the financial clout to tackle other companies needs investment. In the increasingly restricted markets of the world this can be absolutely vital to even get your foot in the door of the big time game. In the short term it floods companies with cash and they hope to obtain a place in the market that will ensure them expanding profitability. Unfortunately over the long run this arrangement almost never works out for the company anywhere near as well as it does at the time of an IPO.

So yes and no. The owners make the dark deal to ensure the death of the company either now or later. Lots of money is thrown at them in the process so it can seem like such a no-brainer even though its ultimately kind of toxic to the working class, small business, and the consumers.
 

St. Phatty

Active member
Holy crap there's some crazy shit on that page. He doesn't sound mentally stable.

Yes he rants about a lot of stuff.

I suggest sticking to his writing about Health Care reform, and business stuff.

He wears several hats. Definitely a skilled programmer & website operator, he makes $$ off of market ticker.

If I was a District Attorney or state deputy attorney general and was allowed to pursue health care reform, I would use his listings of the antitrust laws & codes being broken as a starting point to arrest doctors, clinics etc. that are breaking existing laws.

People talk about health care reform, but pass by the simple fact that no new laws are required to reform health care reform. Existing laws simply have to be enforced.
 

MJPassion

Observer
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Yes he rants about a lot of stuff.

I suggest sticking to his writing about Health Care reform, and business stuff.

He wears several hats. Definitely a skilled programmer & website operator, he makes $$ off of market ticker.

If I was a District Attorney or state deputy attorney general and was allowed to pursue health care reform, I would use his listings of the antitrust laws & codes being broken as a starting point to arrest doctors, clinics etc. that are breaking existing laws.

People talk about health care reform, but pass by the simple fact that no new laws are required to reform health care reform. Existing laws simply have to be enforced.


The same can be said about many areas of law.
 

CaptainDankness

Well-known member
Give a man a gun and he'll rob a bank, give a man a bank and he'll rob the world.

Just the prices of housing are far over reasonable prices as most people need to loan money and pay it off over 15 years or so. Fact is without that bank that $100,000 home is more like $15-20k without a bank because the average person can't afford more and even then it's going to take a few years to save $20k working the average job. But a bank loan $800 or so a month ain't too bad, unless you get injured in the next 15 years and can't work or someone gets really sick and it costs more than the insurance will cover. Yeah, the bank always makes out they just resell the home for full price even though it's been paid on for. 10 out 15 years.


Not too mention the reason many small businesses fail is they take out a loan, so instead of just trying to make a living you must pay the bank first.

We could easily stop the banks without a single drop of blood, the problem is convincing the world to not get a loan and to stop paying off loans, but that will never happen some people want to do away with cash all together and just have a bank card or micro chip, fuck those people! Lol
 

Putembk

One Toke Over The Line
Premium user
Great points all. I have to harvest this morning....will comment later....
 

armedoldhippy

Well-known member
Veteran
peaceful revolution IS possible. but you have to be willing to face the army, like Gandhi did dealing with the British in India, or Bull Connors deputies & attack dogs RE the Civil Rights marches organized by King. folks still died, but it was murder, not battle. big difference to those on the sidelines. so big that it changed public perception & FORCED change on the authorities... anti-Viet Nam war protests here in US made a difference as well. bound to be someone on here besides me that know what the song lyrics 'four dead in Ohio" referred to...
 

St. Phatty

Active member
America lost its balls that day.

I kind of got lost in the conversation.

You mean the day of Kent State ?


Give a man a gun and he'll rob a bank, give a man a bank and he'll rob the world.

Or rob the lottery machine. Some guy started talking about that & I said, "that's exactly what I was thinking but I didn't want to say it."

I don't think those machines are even bolted to the floor. AND they store the cash, in the machine.


>> Fact is without that bank that $100,000 home is more like $15-20k without a bank because the average person can't afford more and even then it's going to take a few years to save $20k working the average job.

That's one of the things Denninger rants about, how low interest rates have skewed housing costs in the US.
 

mean mr.mustard

I Pass Satellites
Veteran
Yeah.

It changed many things that had far reaching consequence.

I think it's more accurate to say that was when we decided to quit fighting inadequacies in representation and dissatisfaction in government in many ways.

The government still has big brass balls.
 

MJPassion

Observer
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Give a man a gun and he'll rob a bank, give a man a bank and he'll rob the world.

Just the prices of housing are far over reasonable prices as most people need to loan money and pay it off over 15 years or so. Fact is without that bank that $100,000 home is more like $15-20k without a bank because the average person can't afford more and even then it's going to take a few years to save $20k working the average job. But a bank loan $800 or so a month ain't too bad, unless you get injured in the next 15 years and can't work or someone gets really sick and it costs more than the insurance will cover. Yeah, the bank always makes out they just resell the home for full price even though it's been paid on for. 10 out 15 years.


Not too mention the reason many small businesses fail is they take out a loan, so instead of just trying to make a living you must pay the bank first.

We could easily stop the banks without a single drop of blood, the problem is convincing the world to not get a loan and to stop paying off loans, but that will never happen some people want to do away with cash all together and just have a bank card or micro chip, fuck those people! Lol


A lot of folks use cognitive dissonance to remain ignorant because they falsely believe that ignorance is bliss.
 

bigtacofarmer

Well-known member
Veteran
A lot of folks use cognitive dissonance to remain ignorant because they falsely believe that ignorance is bliss.

I think in order for ignorance to be bliss there has yo be more at play than just ignorance. I do believe that for some peope if you add enough toys, trucks, guns and electronics to go with a steady diet of clear beer, caffeine, sugar, red #wtf and fake news, ignorance can infact be bliss.

But you can be three generations deep in a ghetto, never had a relationship with a proper functioning adult. And be ignorant and very non blissful.
 

Klompen

Active member
Ignorance is the root of all struggling. There is no problem that a lack of ignorance could not solve.
 
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