Contract

Greetings good citizen,

While every other index is flat, the Dow is (inexplicably) up…not a lot but it shouldn’t be anywhere near where it is and I’m wondering where the outrage is?

Why outrage?

Every point the Dow climbs ‘irrationally’ represents a corresponding drop in your personal purchasing power.

Soon there will be little difference between funny money and confetti!

Makes you wonder where the boss is going to get his hands on all of that ‘confetti’ (and how he expects to stay in business after he cuts most of his employees so he can afford the rest (thanks to Wall Street.)

There is much talk about the ‘looting’ of our (global) civilization but, perhaps unsurprisingly, no action.

Which tells you what about our ‘justice system’, the same justice system that decided it was okay to kill those it was established to protect…

For some INSANE reason there was yet ANOTHER ‘random shooting rampage’ out in the land that burns and shakes yesterday…and yet another somewhere in the Mid-west the day before…

But these are just ‘crazy people’, if we take away their guns, the cops can exterminate ‘em without getting shot, making society so much ‘safer’!

Which is to opine that there is a point where danger is preferable to the (faux) safety of the go along to get along plan.

They acknowledge and deplore your grinding poverty but that, as they have told you repeatedly, is ‘YOUR PROBLEM’ (and they’re running out of patience waiting for you to ‘fix it’!)

They won’t shoot so long as you don’t complain, or point fingers or try to take the guilty to court.

Can't you understand it isn’t ‘all about YOU’ (it’s about them!)

THEY had the ‘good sense’ to be born to parents who could provide for them, you didn’t!

Look at all of the trouble that’s caused!

But I digress…the ‘attitude’ of those born to wealth isn’t worth criticizing. It’s those over ambitious ‘ne’er do wells’ that we need to take down a few pegs!

While the wealthy don’t appreciate what they’ve got because they’ve always had it (and can’t imagine life without it) this doesn’t necessarily make them ‘bad people’.

The problem comes in when they use what they don’t know to make decisions.

They fail to comprehend that they live on a different planet than the rest of us.

Thus do they make lousy policy…and our politics make little sense.

Because they aren’t rooted in reality as the average person understands it.

Now we will touch upon another of my favorite hobby horses, The Human Social Contract’

Something the conservatives mistakenly like to refer to as ‘the law of the jungle’…(Ah, but how quick they are to deny this when they step into a courtroom!)

The basic human social contract is pretty simple. I let you live if you let me live.

It’s an agreement not to kill one another.

USUALLY (but not always) there is an implied ‘I’ll help you out if you help me out’ added onto this agreement but most of the time that one falls short because neither wants to go first.

So we have the ‘surface agreement’ that we don’t kill each other on sight. An agreement that was later solidified by the courts to include not killing one another for violations of the original agreement.

Like the act of claiming the water hole for yourself.

Now you aren’t trying to kill me directly but if I can’t find another source of water you’re killing me indirectly.

So now I’m thinking I made a bad deal by not clubbing you to death when I first laid eyes on you.

So if I go to your house and off you for messing with my ability to live, I get arrested for assault (if I don’t succeed in killing you…)

But we have a different problem here don’t we?

The ‘human social contract’ is no longer just between you and me. Now we have ‘non-human entities’ playing on the same field.

Corporations get to tell you that you will pay what they demand or you won’t get what you need to live. Doesn’t matter if you can ‘afford it’ or not (and it’s usually not.)

Now a whole groups decides what’s good for them and its ‘nuts to you!’ If you can’t afford it, tough!

And they wonder why history is written in blood…

Well, one thing never changes, stupid is as stupid does.

So is the Human social contract still ‘relevant’?

Only if you want peace…

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Econo-babble

Greetings good citizen,

I focus mostly on the ‘economics’ of our civilization so I can gauge our social viability although this has become an exercise in futility considering all ‘money’ is funny.

That’s right good citizen. Even the ‘intangible’ stuff you earn under A Simple Plan will be nothing more than part of an accounting system designed to facilitate resource usage planning…otherwise we’d do away with it completely.

Failure to plan is planning to fail.

Um, in that respect my posts have routinely been going further and further ‘off the reservation’ as the >One Percent uses their ability to ‘fabricate’ money on an ‘as needed’ basis, further widening the gulf between them and those compelled to ‘earn’ their meager sustenance.

It is circumstances like we face today that provide the strongest argument against counterfeiting.

It is also the reason you should hustle down to the nearest Kinko’s and start running off sheets of twenties, pronto.

You’re getting ‘left in the dust’ by the, er, ‘legitimate criminals.’

Again we take a closer look at the headlines from today’s NY Times business section:

On Wall Street, the Rising Cost of Faster Trades
By NATHANIEL POPPER

The advantages of the nation’s increasingly high-speed stock market are under the microscope after a number of recent trading malfunctions underscored the risks that have come with rapid changes.

Geez, do you think they’re referring to all of that expensive electronic equipment or is it the software’s inability to compensate for the ‘front-running effect’ these systems create?

That’s what happened with Knights…their computer set off a ‘chain reaction’ by fucking up the trading algorithms used by other trading software.

Now the equipment cost a few bucks, no doubt…but the avalanche of bad trades cost a bunch more!

However, don’t be cozened into thinking this is the end of ‘front-running’ good citizen. It isn’t.

Worse, it will ultimately result in the end of trading.

Besides having to be a real chump to buy equities these days, being forced to pay more only adds insult to injury.

When a game runs out of suckers that game ‘ends’. Which is going to put one hell of a ‘dent’ in all of those 401k’s.

What are the boomers going to retire on when the NYSE goes ‘poof’?

If Romney/Ryan is elected, you won’t even have you SSI to fall back on!

And then (unsurprisingly) you’ll FIGHT!

But I digress, let us continue with more examples of ‘Capitalism at its finest!’

Giant Hospital Chain Creates a Windfall for Private Equity
By JULIE CRESWELL and REED ABELSON 8 minutes ago

Under private equity ownership, HCA made an aggressive push for more revenue that sometimes led to conflicts with doctors and nurses over concerns about patient care.

Same old, same old. We are saddled with the most expensive, poorest quality healthcare on the planet and the Republicans block every attempt to improve it, not that Romneycare is a true ‘improvement’…it has loopholes a mile wide!

But isn’t ‘Profits before people’ the new Republican campaign slogan?

German Small Businesses Reflect Country's Strength
By JACK EWING

The small and midsize companies of the Mittelstand will play a key role in determining to what extent the German economy will continue to provide a counterweight to the recession in southern Europe.

Um, why do you suppose small businesses in Germany are more successful than their European counterparts?

Could it be because the Germans are taught from a young age that German products are the best, putting an added emphasis on the basic fact that ALL ECONOMIES ARE LOCAL!

Failure to emphasize this fact has put the leaders of other Western nations, er, ‘behind the eight-ball.’

Euro Zone Economy Declines, Putting Pressure on Leaders
By JACK EWING 10:07 AM ET

Growth in Germany in the second quarter was not strong enough to compensate for persistent recession in Spain and Italy, data released on Tuesday showed.

Once again I direct your attention to the crystal clear concept that it is IMPOSSIBLE to maintain an economy centered on the wealthiest One Percent (because all of your workers die or revolt and die!)

The idea behind Exile is to give the hopelessly stupid a practical example of what their lack of appreciation for those who actually DO things results in…by removing them from the environment they so cavalierly take for granted.

Retail Sales Gain for First Time in 4 Months
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 9:58 AM ET

All major retail categories showed increases, a sign that consumers may be gaining confidence.

Consumers ‘regaining confidence’? What does THAT have to do with the irrational rising of energy prices which are included in the retail sales figures despite their being excluded from inflation calculations!

Can you say ‘Back to School’?

Municipal Bond Rule Mired in Legislative Limbo
By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH

The Dodd-Frank provision would require municipal bond advisers to put residents’ interests first but a House bill would eliminate the measure.

And, amazingly, the Republicans believe they are going to win in November? The question, good citizen, is will you be shocked enough to get off your dead ass and do something if the One Percent forces their will upon us (again)?

Factory closings by the Detroit automakers have lowered Canada’s vehicle production from three million cars and trucks a year in 1999 to 2.1 million last year.

Canadian Dollar’s Strength a Factor in Autoworkers’ Talks
By IAN AUSTEN

Talks begin this week on a new Canadian Auto Workers contract as the three Detroit automakers have been scaling back their operations in Canada.

Um, people can’t afford ‘new’ cars, they are already ‘debt saturated’ and most of them are a single paycheck away from insolvency.

This ‘throttling’ of our civilization is untenable and will drive us to the brink of extinction.

Our (self-professed) ‘betters’ are fools and incompetents, both blind and deaf.

But I’ve rambled on long enough already,

Peace, good citizen.

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner