Friday, November 29, 2013

The Real Problem is Us. Really?

Today we read How Complainers Wreck the Economy by Rick Newman on the Daily Ticker. The article says this:
"     Something’s wrong with the U.S. economy. We all know that. But maybe the real problem is us. ...
"     It’s easy to disregard what’s going right and highlight nothing but the challenges we face—which seems to be a lot of people’s preference. ...
"     What’s missing in all of this gloom-mongering is the optimism and initiative we like to associate with America. ...
"     There are plenty of Americans, needless to say, who haven’t let a weak economy or a few disappointments slow them down. ... At some point, you either stop complaining and pick yourself up, or people stop hearing your complaints."
Oh? So now we are supposed to fear that "people" will stop hearing our complaints? Mr Newman, rich people already ignore our complaints. Or did you miss the Australian mining heiress Gina Rinehart, who gave us the uplifting advice to stop complaining and work harder?

Listen, Mr Newman.  Once we were optimistic. The market was going up up up! and we were buying real estate like crazy. We thought our investments were "safe as houses." Our leaders told us how smart and hard-working we were. No one was complaining then, not even about us.

Then the economic hammers started flying and we got hammered.  We lost our jobs. Our investments imploded. We were kicked out of our houses. Every time we optimistically picked ourselves up, we got hit by another hammer. A lot of us lost everything in spite of our optimism and initiative. Optimism and initiative were punished.

Meanwhile we saw the rich bailed out by doubling and more than doubling our national debt. We saw our "lawmakers" pass legislation they had not read. Is ignorance of the law an excuse now? For them maybe, but not for us. We are required to comply with regulations that are made up moment-by-moment. The regulations are constantly tinkered with because the regulators and legislators do not care to figure out the right things to do in the first place. They have just been throwing dog's dinners of policies into the legal system and then finding out which bits cause enough public outrage that they have to be withdrawn.  That is, they no longer even try to get it right, they just throw things out ("try and stop us!") and figure that if they tinker with a policy long enough, they can make it work eventually.

So Mr Newman, our complaints are not really for the ears of the rich, although they should pay attention. What is really happening is that we are still processing the fact that a crisis caused by rich screw-ups caused us to lose a lot of our money and opportunities. What does it mean for us to try to accumulate wealth when it is so easily taken from us? What does it mean that we have to clean up our balance sheets and pay off our debts, but our government is spending like a drunken sailor? Has the government not borrowed more dollars for us and on our backs than we have paid off for ourselves? Are we making any progress or are we still falling behind?

These questions started us thinking. What we are really thinking about, Mr Newman, are fundamental changes in the relationships between ourselves and the one percent (including the government). We do not trust them the same way we did before, yet we do not have the unity yet to hold them accountable. Despite ongoing proof of their incompetence, venality, and power-mongering, they still rule us. (Not lead, rule.)

What you see as complaints are really public discussions and analyses that will probably take years to work out. Very few realize that yet. Once the American people come to a consensus on the changes we need to make, then you will see less of what you call complaints and more initiative. Political gridlock will disappear.

Tosoc.org has taken the initiative to analyze the current situation in a new way and offer a truly original solution, one that has never been tried before because the technology was not available. We do not have to pick ourselves up, Mr Newman. We were never down in the gloomy way that you mean it. We are just trying not to be fooled again.  Instead of complaining about our complaining, you should help us. Support tosoc.org.


The way capitalism should be.

Socialism for the socialists and capitalism for the capitalists.

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