Let’s begin with the stock market, shall we?
What’s that? You don’t give a rat’s ass about the stupid stock market?
As well YOU shouldn’t. It is still deeply disturbing to consider that most of the Dow is now comprised of (bankrupt) financial companies.
Yet the Dow is up 140+ points at the moment (after shedding more than 200 yesterday.)
Which tells you what, good citizen?
It tells you that whoever controls the ‘value’ of shit will never go broke. It tells you that ‘their paper’ (as long as they remain in power) will always appreciate in value even when everything else (like the dollar in your pocket) sinks like a rock.
Well good citizen that ain’t the only thing that has ‘stagnated’ over the past decade
"A Decade of Labor Market Pain" (Mandel on Innovation and Growth)
In February 2001, nonfarm payrolls hit their business cycle peak of 132.5 million. Ten years later, the latest data pegs February 2011 payrolls at 130.5 million, a 1.5% decline. To put this in perspective, the ten-year period of the Great Depression, 1929-39 saw a 2.3% decline in nonfarm employment, roughly the same magnitude. [snip]
Although unemployment remains very high, at this point that’s mainly due to lack of hiring; layoffs are quite low. This means that people who still have decent jobs aren’t feeling much at risk of losing them. So any urgency would have to come from concern about those who don’t have jobs — those who lost them in the slump, and of course young people trying to get started on their working lives.
And those people — at least one in six workers, judging by U6 — don’t seem to have much political or psychological visibility. In effect, they’re being written off.
What’s wrong with this picture good citizen?
To the extent that the market for goods expands in tandem with the population, the labor market must expand by 150,000 jobs A MONTH just to stay even.
Now, thanks to globalization, our labor force has actually shrunk by 2million over the past ten years…not counting the 120 months of 150,000 per month the labor force should have grown by.
Understand, the people were added, we made ‘em right on schedule. What’s missing is their ‘income/input’.
Yes good citizen, contrary to conservative rhetoric, people who can participate in society pull their own weight.
No jobs (because they were farmed out/eliminated) means no contribution.
Worse is the ‘captive audience’ this turns domestic consumers into.
We keep hearing about how our economy is being hollowed out yet nothing is done about it…because trade protectionism is ‘bad’. We’d lose all of the jobs making the stuff we export!
Hello, anybody home? What jobs do you think the shiftless bastards are farming out?
Worse, guess who controls the purchasing power OF YOUR FUCKING MONEY?
Yes, good citizen, food (here in the US) is jumping by leaps and bounds as energy prices (like stocks) approach their historic highs…and guess what our financial overlords are saying?
That’s right, ’inflation’ is ’tame’.
Um, it’s hard to say which we’ll run out of first, rope or light poles?
Which is to say if the ’solution’ lies in culling the population, the only ones we need to ’lose’ are the unproductive rich.
Just saying, ya know?
Anyway, thanks for letting me inside your head,
Gegner
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