America Evolves
Hot off the wire:
Once upon a time we had Labor, and Labor was good. It transformed the dog-eat-dog working class into the middle class and, with a little help in the form of the GI Bill and secured 30-year fixed mortgages and social security, America was both productive and prosperous.
But then Labor became quaint and we threw it overboard for technology in the name of globalization. We were told it would create a new and improved middle class... a white collar middle class deluxe. A lot of people lost their jobs but a lot of people were able to buy cheap big screen TVs so it was OK... it was a different kind of prosperity.
But then technology became quaint too, and we devolved into a high yield nation of "financial products" and "hedge funds" and "investment firms" supported by the direct manipulation of monetary and fiscal policies. This enabled a new class to emerge, the Fuck You class, who used other people's money, at considerable risk, to create staggering wealth for themselves without concern for penalty or consequence. Leveraging became all the rage... investors leveraged themselves to play in the global market, consumers leveraged themselves to buy more big screen TVs, and companies leveraged the low cost labor from lesser evolved countries to spare themselves from having to share their prosperity with American workers.
The Fuck You class got really prosperous and China got really prosperous and the American tax payers got stuck with a financial shit pile so big that most of them don't quite yet comprehend it. Now Americans can sit in their depreciating homes and watch the economic fall out on their big screen TVs.
THE most important thing to take away from all of this, of course, is that social security is evil and Obama had a crazy preacher and Sarah Palin is just like us.
As Lehman Brothers teetered Friday evening, Federal Reserve officials summoned the heads of major Wall Street firms to a meeting in Lower Manhattan and insisted they rescue the stricken investment bank and develop plans to stabilize the financial markets.Ah yes, another chapter in the story of America.
Once upon a time we had Labor, and Labor was good. It transformed the dog-eat-dog working class into the middle class and, with a little help in the form of the GI Bill and secured 30-year fixed mortgages and social security, America was both productive and prosperous.
But then Labor became quaint and we threw it overboard for technology in the name of globalization. We were told it would create a new and improved middle class... a white collar middle class deluxe. A lot of people lost their jobs but a lot of people were able to buy cheap big screen TVs so it was OK... it was a different kind of prosperity.
But then technology became quaint too, and we devolved into a high yield nation of "financial products" and "hedge funds" and "investment firms" supported by the direct manipulation of monetary and fiscal policies. This enabled a new class to emerge, the Fuck You class, who used other people's money, at considerable risk, to create staggering wealth for themselves without concern for penalty or consequence. Leveraging became all the rage... investors leveraged themselves to play in the global market, consumers leveraged themselves to buy more big screen TVs, and companies leveraged the low cost labor from lesser evolved countries to spare themselves from having to share their prosperity with American workers.
The Fuck You class got really prosperous and China got really prosperous and the American tax payers got stuck with a financial shit pile so big that most of them don't quite yet comprehend it. Now Americans can sit in their depreciating homes and watch the economic fall out on their big screen TVs.
THE most important thing to take away from all of this, of course, is that social security is evil and Obama had a crazy preacher and Sarah Palin is just like us.
posted by Logic101 at 9/13/2008 08:23:00 AM
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