Oh, History... How Little we Knew Thee

Allow me to begin this post by explaining one thing:  I am not a financial expert.  I'm not even close.  I know what I know about economics from the few classes I had in the subject, and from just keeping my eyes open.

What I do have, though is a healthy dose of honed cynicism.  And what I see today during these trying economic times is that there is such a huge disconnect between "real America" and the American financial and social elite that this no 

longer resembles anything close to the "Home of the free and the land of the brave".  Let me explain something to you, when your country is held hostage by robber-barons, you are no longer a free people.  

The people that are running these corporations, as well as the people that are running the government are the SAME GROUP OF PEOPLE!!!!  The senior level administration that is in charge of cleaning up this mess and holding people accountable... who do you think created the mess?  Am I really to believe that these people screwed

 up, profited from it, and then once moved to regulatory status are going to prosecute their buddies who did the very same thing?  Right.

Why is it that whenever it's the little guys who are struggling and going bankrupt, that's just market forces and survival of the fittest?  Then when one of these multinational "too big to fail" banks or insurance companies or whatever the hell they do starts to go under, we have to step in there and fix it.  

Maybe there are valid financial and economic arguments for or against doing th

is.  That's not what I'm here for.  I don't care about the economics of it.  I am here to make a moral and societal argument.  Allowing this looting to continue to take place is essentially allowing an oligarchy to form right under our noses, one in which we have absolutely no say in the day to day runnings of our country.  We will take what meager scraps the ruling elite throw at us, and if we want to change anything it'll just be too bad.  There will be no avenues remaining, as the system will have swallowed all checks and balances originally put in place.

Some have said this is what was going on for years.  Only the battle has been raging for years, decades even.  The problem is now the battle is in the endgame and it doesn't look good for the plebes.  I say why we still have a little say in this (and by "we" I mean the few legitimate representatives we have remaining), we should cancel all of these "bailouts", and allow all these companies to die.  I say the population returns to survival mode.

Listen people, you don't have to have every new cell phone or tv or car or whatever new shiny distraction they throw at you.  You just don't need it.  You need food, water, shelter, and medical care.  Well all of those things will still be there if we let these crooked bastards die.  We let them die, and then we build the system back up.

Oh and anyone who has a problem with allowing companies to die because then people might lose their jobs... How is it okay to profit from a competitive system when you're winning, and then not expect losses when you're losing?  If you're gonna play the game you need to be prepared to lose.

  

A Lament of Weakness

So today's post is about my own stubborn and inane psyche. I would guess, however that the phenomena about which I will speak is fairly common among the rest of the plebes.

First let's start with a little background. I grew up in a small town (actually it was an area that was 30 minutes away from a small town) in Eastern Kentucky. Not exactly cosmopolitan. I also won't say that I had an impoverished upbringing. Let's call it "humble." Due to this early start, let's just say that you wouldn't call me the most travelled of people. In fact when I graduated college at 22, I had never been out of the country. Since then I have made it to Mexico on business, and for the record never ever stay for more than the length of a layover in Mexico City. Just don't.

On to the story. The other day I am at work and my boss calls me into his office. He begins explaining some issues that have been happening at one of our clients' installations. Then I hear these words, "How do you like snails?"

I suppose for some reason the way this statement came at me and entered into my head was just somehow threatening. I knew what he was asking. Would I be willing to travel to Paris and work for a week? And I was defensive. I immediately started spouting off all of the inconveniences this was going to cause me. I would have to have someone take care of my dog. I would have to change the timeline on my other projects. I would have to get something done about my knee. Eventually I reluctantly agreed and began lamenting my unfortunate situation.

Then I went back to my office and sat down in my chair. It was at this point, at the desk which is intentionally reserved for the most logical of thoughts, that the rational me stepped in. I asked myself, "When was the last time you had a chance to go to Paris, or Europe for that matter?"

"Well, I don't guess I ever have," reactionary Hunter replied with a sliver of humility in his tone.

"And how many chances do you suppose you'll get aside from this?" came the condescending drip of the rational side of my brain. He can really be a pretentious ass sometimes, but I deal with him because he's usually right.

"I suppose very few. I see your point, please don't go on one of your rants." The measure of hope at the end of that statement was audible, even in my head.

But of course it was too late. The rational side had gotten indignant and was on his pedestal. "So you're telling me that when faced with the prospect of a BETTER THAN FREE trip to Paris, France that the first thing you thought of was 'Oh no, what am I going to do with my dog?'..." Nothing from the primal side.

"That's good. You don't say anything. You disgust me."

The preceding was an actual (paraphrased) conversation between the two competing ideas in my head that morning and the end result is the same. I was disgusted with myself for going straight to the bad in the face of a very good situation. Since that I've noticed it happens more than I had noticed before. There's no real point to this post I guess other than the obvious feel good, pseudo-evangelical mantra of, "Try to see the good in all situations." Which I would like to append to.

"Try to see the good in all situations. Especially if they are overwhelmingly good situations to begin with. Retard."