Tuesday, March 6, 2018

if seneca fell in the woods 2 of 2


IF SENECA FELL IN THE WOODS 2

We left off asking what the Seneca Cliff moment was when the middle class died.  It was already weakened to the point it was a zombie, shuffling about under a burden of lifetime debt, zero home equity, lost pensions ( don’t forget the corporations and Unions offshored pensions to the workers back in the ‘80’s, giving the illusion of increased worker productivity [ just like Chinese manufacturing gave that illusion in the 90’s and replacing jobs with the Internet and the housing boom did so in the Oughts.  Since the ‘08 implosion it was the central bank purchase of corporate stocks ].  You will lose your 401k soon enough ) and no job security.

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My contention was that ObamaCare killed the middle class.  The reason I believe this is the case is not because health care was the only benefit left ( although it was-but then, weren’t we used to losing everything over a lifetime anyway? ), but because this locked in the cost spiral, which met the wage decline, and there was no longer anything left to cut back on to meet this increased tax.  The middle class has been battling for its survival for two generations now, and every time it found a solution to the problem, that very solution locked in the next problem which was compounded.  It simply just ran out of solutions.  Kind of like the civilization collapse itself.

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So, this isn’t really about the middle class.  If you thought there was any hope for it thirty years ago you weren’t paying attention.  It is about another Seneca Cliff nobody noticed.  I’ll wager you a jelly filled donut that almost nobody knows that their economic class/culture is dead ( right.  You downsize to a “tiny house”.  Which is WAY overpriced because you bring the same Keeping Up With The Jones’ fight of the peacock feather middle class aesthetic with you.  So you stay on the wage slave debt peon hamster wheel.  You poor deluded idiot.  You really are clueless ).

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Before, the slow death by cancer ( no, not the usual suspect of the central bank.  The dependency on petroleum ) of the middle class was “treated” by the slow progression of less bad choices.  Second income.  More debt.  Less children.  No savings.  There was always a way to slightly increase income or somewhat save money from other expenses.  With the White House Negro Muslim, after following his instructions to stop friggin playing golf for two damn seconds and bail out the banker held insurance industry, mandatory health care was the next newest problem that simply wasn’t treatable. 

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You cannot trim the budget when your medical tax increases 20% a year.  Not when rent has doubled in the last decade ( another banker fiasco, rubber stamped by the FedGov ).  Not when unemployment is above Great Depression levels.  Not when a third of the grain crop going to ethanol increases food costs.  Not when there are no jobs without a college degree and that degree now exceeds the cost of a home twenty years ago.  Not when cars now cost what a college degree does.  In short, medical was just the straw that broke the camels back.

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Remember the fuss the left raised when the Death Panels were mentioned?  Here’s a thought for you.  Be poor, and see where that gets you trying to stay alive.  We all have heard of the broke South American city selling the public water company to a private entity, and the poor being unable to get enough water.  That is where we are today with health care.  Because there is little the American public wants to stay out of corporate hands.  Not that socialism would help, because that is always a casualty in a downturn, but corporatism is obviously no answer unless you are part pf the 9% Straw Boss Class.

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So, what are the former middle class doing?  Just doubling down on what used to work.  Getting further and further in debt.  Trying to work more.  Both fundamentally flawed strategies in an economic collapse.  And I put very little blame on status seeking or lifestyle choice.  How much choice is there?  Everything that you do has been monetized.  You can’t work without the high debt of college.  You can’t work without allowing the job to dictate your location.  Which is a multiple choice.  Close to the ghetto to save a little money, or further away for double the price.  The elite love uppity ghetto dwellers.  It helps real estate inflation.

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You can’t work without paying too much mortgage or college debt, or pay too much for transportation, and when you do work you get a medical insurance plan that equals your house payment ( and that is just the insurance itself.  Try saving for the deductible, or the co-pay ).  Even for the long suffering middle class, it is literally unaffordable.  The average scum wage worker cannot rent, and the average middle class worker cannot afford the taxes.  When you make MORE than the median national wage, you STILL cannot afford rent, a car payment AND medical, all at the same time.

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The middle class lifestyle has turned into a prison sentence.  You can squeak by, barely making ends meet, able to increase your debt whenever there is a car repair ( which becomes more and more likely as quality drops like a stone ) or a doctors visit, but it doesn’t take long before you are financially underwater.  Say, by the time you are in your mid thirties.  Then what?  My middle class parents solved the problem by staying in debt for a mortgage past their point of death, and continue to work, by going from professional to monkey jobs, well into their seventies ( and that is with THREE pensions ).

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Wow.  That sounds like just the kind of lifestyle I want!  Where do I sign up?  Okay, I suppose there is a bit of unwillingness to give up a lifestyle.  With my parents, though, it just seems they literally cannot comprehend that what was true all their lives is no longer so.  I imagine they are like most folks, not buying the propaganda because they are stupid or lazy, but because that is their reality.  Their preconceived notions are validated.  Isn’t that what propaganda is, anyway?  Tell the rubes what they want to hear.  Why do you think Something For Nothing scams still work? 

END ( today's related link http://amzn.to/2EXBqNs )
 
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13 comments:

  1. After the collapse and resultant die off the remaining people, who are a hardier stock, and wiser to the b.s. game afterwards will accept settling into a fuedalistic arrangement in most areas. Lords and Barons owning whole towns and swaths of counties territory-wise. A total top down structure with a cradle to grave place for everyone occupation and social standing-wise. Not 'merican freedom but that was screwed up beyond recognition and unusable past a point of no return anyway. Having one's place a known variable and being fed,housed,protected, with structered civil society is a holy manna dream after our current reality. Lord Bison is not far off the mark.

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    1. We trade freedom for security now, it won't be any different later.

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  2. I'm buying most of this blog....I think the generation that is now in their 20's and 30's are going uphill with a large weight tied to their necks. I'm a little older than you but I think they will live long enough to see outrageous inflation and then deflation as then oil trickles to a stop and jobs and food become scarce. The elites will keep things going as long as they can. We have seen the can kicked down the road so much since 2008 that I wonder how much longer the can will hold together.
    I'm just waiting on the next waterfall event, which might look like a class 6 rapids. Not a BIG waterfall, just one after another collapse. If that is the way it goes down most of us will look around and say "What the F@#K happened".
    I'm not qualified to give financial advice but it looks to me like we should cash out the 401k's and IRA's and buy "stuff" while its affordable and available.
    Don't start crying when wheat is $15 a bag and ammo can't be purchased at any price. Oh, don't forget the fact that house you bought "in town" is in foreclosure and the natives are rioting because Wally world won't take the EBT card and there's nothing to buy in the grocery store anyway. Lord Bison told you so....

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    1. I may not be qualified to give financial advice either, but I do anyway. While I agree that tangibles MUST replace digital wealth, don't be stupid with what you buy. You don't need a semi-arsenal, you need to be out of debt. You don't need freeze dried food, you need junk land. Cash out the pension and ONLY buy what pays or saves. More bullets and band-aids aren't a smart investment as far as trading your retirement money.

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    2. "Some" bullets and bandages are a good idea regardless of your situation/location. Even in a 2nd floor apartment, you can stash a few months of food for a couple hundred bucks (ideally, with yours and others EBT cards). They owe you money, but you could accept a few trips to "bulk grocery mart" with the card in partial payment (the vig). You will have to get your own 90mil food grade buckets and lids. Ammo and fuel are things that need to be paid in first-class currency (or on-line digits). +1 on getting retirement money out of stocks/bonds RFN and out of "the system" pretty soon. JUNK LAND! That's where you need to figure out how to stash some of the survival goods in a way that looters can't find them.

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    3. I don't trust any digital promise. Seriously, nobody can actually believe any will be kept? If Amazon commission keeps being low I'm going to need to draw down my checking account in case I need to go on Food Stamps. One less thing they can steal from me ( minimum $1500 to avoid monthly charges ).

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    4. remember to draw down in small amounts or feds wills take it as you are now a suspect in drug dealing or money laundering. cannot draw out over 500 per month, i think.
      it is to avoid being reported to the federale thuggees.

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    5. I'm sure I'm on worst lists than this :)

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  3. The collapse will happen. It will be multi faceted. It will include all the scenarios many people have forecasted, just not all will happen in the same place. The major cause of all this or I should say the trigger event will be what most people don't see coming. It's already started. It's happened before. It's called a Grand Solar Minimum and unlike the global warming/climate change bullshit, this is based on hard science. 206 year cycle, going back untold millennium. Responsible for the collapse of major empires through out history. We really do live in interesting times.

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    1. I recently started reading up on this and think it is far more worrisome than Gore Warming. I don't think we have long to severe crop shortages effecting even us. Got wheat?

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  4. Are they "grab-oids"? And the thing can't eat Michelle. The new lunch program is vegetarian and she is all dark meat ( even if rancid and probably transgender ). But I like your vision, brother!

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  5. Lord Bison being a Debbie Downer

    Do you use Pert Plus for your lovely hair?

    Seriously though, sucks to be us. I'm loving the 55 hour weeks with little to show for it. Heck, I just may keep the working poor dream alive long enough.....

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    1. I have nothing material to show for my 40 hour writing/research week, but I sure have relaxation and peace of mind. It is a great trade-off. Sure beats the old 65 hr week with lots of disposable income but even more stress.

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