The problem before us couldn’t be clearer.
As long as we have a debt-dependent, interest-based economy, we have a built-in addiction to growth, pure and simple. Not because interest mathematically requires perpetual expansion, but because the institutions we’ve built around borrowing, lending, taxation, and investment are rewarded when tomorrow’s economy is bigger than today’s.
There are two other economic “reality use cases” that don’t get nearly enough attention.
If you want stability, you need to remove the built-in bias toward either growth or decline. Reward durability, efficiency, and maintaining what already works.
And if you believe the world needs to stabilize—and eventually perhaps voluntarily reduce—its population from somewhere around 9 billion, then you need an economy that can prosper with fewer people and less resource consumption. Not one that requires ever more customers, workers, borrowers, and taxpayers just to keep yesterday’s promises.
OK. Simple enough to be obvious from middle school on. But here’s the problem: No one is teaching it. At least not where the decisions are being made.
Instead, we’re trying to grow our way into balance, finance our way into sustainability, and borrow our way into a future that may require less of almost everything except intelligence.
When growth is the only rewarded outcome, even destruction can become a business opportunity. War destroys infrastructure, which creates reconstruction contracts. Disasters destroy homes, which creates rebuilding demand. Disease creates medical revenue. None of this makes society richer simply because someone gets paid. But the revenue appears on somebody’s books, and that’s enough to keep the machinery interested.
This isn’t really hard to figure out. (I mean, if I can….)
Defining MCP — Monetization Change Point
A Monetization Change Point is the moment when an economy begins rewarding stability, durability, efficiency, and reduced resource consumption as reliably as it now rewards expansion.
We aren’t there.
Earlier, Dow futures were up a bit—50 points or so—while the other indices were also stirring in their graves. Brent was down, which should help markets firm. Hardly worth your attention unless—and only unless—you are actually ready to click a buy or sell order today. Otherwise, take a day. The Market Show will still be running tomorrow.
More interesting are two reader comments that nicely summarize the titanic battle for the territory between your ears.
Reader n___ notices something positive:
New power plant work is surging, but this time for heavy industry, not data centers. I think we will be swamped again with new orders before the end of the year. We are looking at multi-year production backlogs.
I’ve heard much BS about the Federales sponsoring replacement of Chinese sub industrial partners; I’m now seeing the first indications that it is real.
Balancing that, reader d’Lynn is bothered that:
Goldman Sachs has lost nearly all of its year-to-date gains as the bond market rises. 26 other corporations sit on the same door-step.
“Brace for Impact.” We are on the verge of the greatest price drop in history – Oxford Club.
Dimon: AI will cut jobs, that’s the way it is., but cut truckers’ pay to $25,000 a year and you risk civil unrest.
This world is so messed up that even Tom Cruise is starting to make sense.
Bunch of wise old men around here—band of merry thinkers that we are.
And notice something important: Both readers can be right.
One sees factories gearing up, power plants being ordered, and years of industrial work ahead. The other sees financial stress, threatened employment, and the possibility that markets have priced in a future that the underlying economy can’t deliver.
That’s not necessarily a contradiction. It’s what happens when we confuse growth in transactions with improvement in human circumstances.
A factory can have a five-year backlog while the people buying its products are going broke. An AI company can build a billion-dollar data center while eliminating jobs that once supported thousands of households. A country can report rising GDP while its citizens spend more time and money just maintaining the lives they already have.
The numbers go up. Whether life gets better is another question entirely.
Which brings us back to MCP.
Until we figure out how to monetize not needing another replacement, not requiring another loan, not rebuilding something that should never have been destroyed, and not consuming resources simply to keep the growth machine fed, we’re going to keep rewarding activity whether or not it improves the human condition.
Monetization of growth can turn war and misery into revenue engines for particular industries. And we see precious little evidence of a Monetization Change Point.
In fact, some of us are so old that we’ve watched the meaning of “funny papers” evolve from Sunday comics to Confederate money, Weimar money, unredeemable dollars, Federal Reserve notes, collateralized mortgage obligations, purely notional crypto, and those wonderful pseudo-paper NFTs.
Oh, and I’m a Zimbabwe trillionaire, too!
Not all of those financial instruments are equivalent, of course. Some represent useful claims on productive assets. Others represent promises, speculation, or historical souvenirs. But the progression is a reminder of how inventive humans become when there’s money to be made creating another layer between value and its supposed representation.
My, ain’t Progress something to behold?
The real question isn’t whether we can keep growing. Humans are remarkably good at finding new things to monetize.
The question is whether we can learn to make money when the right answer is to stop growing something.
Until then, watch closely as the business of destruction and reconstruction keeps finding new customers. Not because war makes the world wealthier—it doesn’t—but because the profits from destruction and rebuilding can accrue to particular players while the costs are spread across everybody else.
There’s your incentive problem.
And until the incentives change, don’t expect the outcomes to.
News Compressor: ON
First-Aid kit at the ready? PPE on? Let’s roll.
Hurricane landfall: Isaias will make landfall along the northern Gulf Coast within approximately 24 hours. Odds: 95%.
Energy production: A substantial portion of temporarily shut-in Gulf offshore production will remain offline through Saturday while operators evaluate conditions. Odds: 90%.
Refinery disruption: The storm will cause at least some precautionary refinery, pipeline or petroleum-terminal interruptions beyond offshore production shutdowns. Odds: 80%.
Middle East diplomacy: U.S.–Iran discussions will continue without a publicly confirmed comprehensive settlement during the forecast window. Odds: 80%.
Regional military escalation: Additional Houthi missile or drone attacks against Saudi or Red Sea targets will be reported within four days. Odds: 70%.
Horn of Africa: Ethiopia–Eritrea border tensions will produce further military incidents or official warnings during the forecast window. Odds: 75%.
European debt: French government borrowing costs will remain sensitive to budget negotiations and political developments. Odds: 80%.
AI finance: Additional large AI infrastructure financing announcements or investor concerns about capital requirements will emerge within four days. Odds: 70%.
These are judgmental forecasting estimates, not statistically calibrated probabilities. On the other hand? Ignore the odds at your peril, especially if making beer bets. It’s Friday, after all, and the idea is win ’em, not lose ’em.
And So?
The latest internet galvanize-polarize-monetize story would well be this one: Pentagon says execution of Fort Hood shooter will be livestreamed | AP News.
Yes, in our view, Malik has it coming. Televising the firing squad sends an important message to enemies of America: Don’t do it.
But brace yourself for mood-swings over this being on TV.
We’d remind any hand wringers that on any particular night, after rousing car chases and such, hundreds die in televised violence.
In fact, so pernicious was TV violence that in the 60s, at the firehouse, Pappy advised his platoon “Sit back at least 10-feet or the blood will get all over you…” B-shift at Engine 37 counted 32 deaths in one Untouchables episode.
And so…dying on TV is…what, exactly?
Around the Ranch: AI & Witch Mirrors
Hell of a paper on Peoplenomics tomorrow. What is the connection?
Think about it: A glass mirror reflects the body back to intelligence. AI reflects intelligence back to itself. Tomorrow we’ll explore what happens when the observer starts wondering which side of the mirror it’s on.
If you don’t follow already, the AI revolution is starting without you.
Item #2 Happy Birthday
HBD’s to daughter Allison and son G2 – “the twins” (but more like womb-mates). They’re turning 46 today.
Elaine and I figure it’s a sure sign of aging when the kids start getting Social Security. Elaine started younger with the “kid thing” so she’s already got two getting benefits. Or, is it three?
Number of offspring getting benefits has become like birthdays for us. We don’t talk about ’em so much, anymore.
Write when you get rich,
George@ure.net
George, I must disagree on the base line demand for Growth. The interest payments aren’t there is growth falters. We are beginning to see that in spades with the commercial real estate markets.
Another point to remember is that, at its base, dollars are the only thing accepted in the US for tax payments. As the markets convulse and shrink, the cash available for taxes becomes dearer and dearer. Foreclosures and bankruptcies suck the life out of things like in the early 30’s. Infusing the economy with “make work” inflated dollars comes acropper when used to pay for hyper inflated food, housing and taxes.
“Growth”
You walked around it.
For 50+ years people have said what is a sustainable population level for each country and the world?
The hint was less than 9b. It once was said to be around 2b. But, everyday we consume more natural and other resources which lowers the sustainable number.
So we have wars.
GDP? There are other measurements that net the pos and the neg. I recall the Genuine Progress Indicator. It peaked around the 1970’s or by mid 1980.
You think the oligarch’s are going to allow such a thing to be required reporting?
Sorry Ure, this is old stuff. Deja Vu. All of this was said decades ago. Remember the 1972 Rockefeller report. Limits to Growth and the more recent Update?
Right on schedule the world has begun its collapse. BUT, no one dies of overpopulation or is paid less, or needs all those other worldly critters.
Sustainability is not taught in schools. The Sierra Club, Audubon, Izaak Walton League, et al., all metamorphed into socialist open borders growth addicts. Just don’t use lead for fishing weights or in bullets for hunting. But, it’s Ok to devour their habitats.
But what we did was turn on the globalist faucet and flood the U.S. with the 2nd & 3rd world which made the U.S. much less sustainable and needed huge sums of debt to mask it all.
In fact, some of us are so old that we’ve watched the meaning of “funny papers”…
The Godfather – Funny papers
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9IXEa20J_GQ&pp=ygUnVGhlIEdvZGZhdGhlciBoZSByZWFkcyB0aGUgZnVubnkgcGFwZXJz
In fact, so pernicious was TV violence that in the 60s, at the firehouse, Pappy advised his platoon “Sit back at least 10-feet or the blood will get all over you…” B-shift at Engine 37 counted 32 deaths in one Untouchables episode.
The Rifleman (1958-1963) The Complete Rifleman Massacre (Kill count)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nrOPVo5GFY4&pp=ygUXVGhlIFJpZmxlbWFuIGtpbGwgY291bnQ%3D
Even Chuck Conners said it was a very violent show.
Amazon.com Inc., Visa share gains contribute to Dow’s 400-point jump!
OK, think about The Outer Limits intro and make some modifications….
“There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur, or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: There is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to… The Outer Limits.”
We are controlling the stock market. If we wish to make it higher…
You fill in the rest.
The stock market they sell you…
The REAL stock market…
content://com.android.chrome.FileProvider/images/screenshot/1791617212936383510068.png
“We’d remind any hand wringers that on any particular night, after rousing car chases and such, hundreds die in televised violence.”
count me in as a handwringer then. yes, the punishment is warranted but your casual dismissal of a public execution? sinking to the depths of depravity. I want no association with a site which has totally lost it’s moral compass – I don’t even know who you are any more.
it seems that a lot of commenters have been run off for various infringements. now you’re left with your loyalist foot soldiers. the future you and your country inherit has been hard-earned and well deserved. enjoy October 12.
You are certainly entitled to be a handwringer, just as I am entitled to examine the subject without adopting your moral conclusions.
But you might consider opening a history book sometime. Public executions have been a fixture of human societies for thousands of years, from ancient Rome through medieval Europe and into relatively recent American history. They were public spectacles long before television, streaming video, or the internet existed.
That history doesn’t automatically make them right. Nor does acknowledging it constitute an endorsement. There is a considerable difference between examining the public display of punishment, questioning its social purpose, and celebrating someone’s death.
My point was about the strange moral boundary we’ve constructed around televised violence. We routinely consume fictional killings as entertainment, yet the prospect of broadcasting an actual state execution produces an entirely different reaction. That difference deserves examination, not an automatic accusation that the person raising the question has lost his moral compass.
As for the suggestion that you no longer know who I am, I’m the same fellow who has spent decades asking uncomfortable questions, following arguments wherever they lead, and occasionally irritating people who would prefer I didn’t.
You’re welcome to disagree. But disagreement isn’t depravity, and moral outrage isn’t a substitute for reading what I actually wrote.
Oh, and there’s another topic in the index you might want to look up: **deterrence**. For centuries, governments made executions public precisely because they believed the spectacle would discourage others. Whether it actually worked is a legitimate research question, and the evidence is considerably less settled than you suggest my moral compass ought to be.
But here’s the larger point: If you want to argue that public executions are morally wrong, make that argument. I’ll listen. If your argument is that merely discussing their history, purpose, or possible deterrent effect constitutes depravity, you haven’t offered a moral argument. You’ve simply declared yourself the morality police.
And I don’t recall appointing you.
— G
As a multi-decade follower, I don’t always agree with some of your, or some readers, but I respect them. I’ll also will watch that murderer go find his virgins, or a very hot place.
In my opinion, Trump is a long way from perfect, but he’s been orders of magnitude better for the USA than the Democrat alternatives.
yrs ago, I worked nights at a convenience store in Tulsa while going to school. every night, 3 am, a Tulsa detective would stop by for a snack and chat. He said every time a bad guy got shot, crime would stop for 3 days in Tulsa. So, punishment works! or, it did then.
“I want no association with a site..,”
Then why are you here?
Bad form…
You’d do well to remember your native land was established as a penal colony, where public executions were frequent, often gruesome, family spectacles. A haughty proclamation that such a proceeding is “depraved,” because you lack command of the English language doesn’t qualify you for special dispensation. The depravity lies not in mentioning, or even celebrating the execution of an incomprehensibly bad person, but in blowing off the 45 people whose lives were changed forever by Hasan, on November 5th of 2009.
Personally, I hope the firing squad members make a public spectacle of lubricating their bullets with bacon grease before they chamber them…
(“The latest internet galvanize-polarize-monetize story would well be this one: Pentagon says execution of Fort Hood shooter will be livestreamed | AP News.
Yes, in our view, Malik has it coming. Televising the firing squad sends an important message to enemies of America: Don’t do it.”)
(“You are certainly entitled to be a handwringer, just as I am entitled to examine the subject without adopting your moral conclusions.
But you might consider opening a history book sometime. Public executions have been a fixture of human societies for thousands of years, from ancient Rome through medieval Europe and into relatively recent American history. They were public spectacles long before television, streaming video, or the internet existed.”)
the hanging judge..only hung what three… but he made it a public spectacle.. caning…in the middle of town square.. zero crime..who wants their pearly whites on main screen as its happening..
I understand the moral and ethical delima many face without seeing pure evil….and I am about as peace loving do unto others as any true followers…BUT….one of my many jobs was photographic… and the things I had to deal with..theres a couple I wouldn’t have any trouble flipping the switch or having them face up on a guillotine after seeing what they did…
I won’t go into details on what they did..but there is a reason why the death sentence is there.. I believe in the NAFTA treaty two..outsource industry hell outsource violent prisoners with a once a year proof of life to prisons outside the usa.. save tons of cash and..you don’t ever see anyone that wants to return to their prisons..
(“My point was about the strange moral boundary we’ve constructed around televised violence. We routinely consume fictional killings as entertainment, yet the prospect of broadcasting an actual state execution produces an entirely different reaction. That difference deserves examination, not an automatic accusation that the person raising the question has lost his moral compass.”)
god am I with you on that one..we have game shows where glorifying sociopathic behaviors wins..
shows where bashing zombies killings rapes just about any depraved activity is seen as fun and enjoyable and households where both mom and dad have to work long hours leaving our children without adult supervision…..its also why..I don’t watch mainstream networks…. I watch the Hallmark channel..my only regret with that is the staging..every show is staged in a neighborhood where real life issues simply don’t exist..each living in a McMansion …. but tgen that’s why the soap Opera was popular..except there it was the opposite..the families on the daily stomach churns show was so bad that your life simply didn’t suck that bad..
there won’t be any who hacked up sally movie on in our home..your children can watch what I watch..
too funny. did you miss this?
“yes, the punishment is warranted”
comprehension is not your strong suit is it – anyone? and by harking back to barbaric practices from a few hundred years ago you’ve just proved my point by your own admission.
the usual whack a mole vigilantes have popped up on cue
George tick
AG.Kimbrough tick
Ray tick
dLynn (surprised by your reaction – having second thoughts about selling your AI child into servitude?)
Well, at least Whac-A-Mole is alive and well!
But you seem to have skipped the actual point. Yes, I favor televising executions in appropriate capital cases. You oppose that. Fine. That’s a legitimate disagreement. You’re going large on opinion, woeful on data.
My historically supported observation was that societies have used public punishment for centuries with the *intention* of deterring others. Calling those societies barbaric doesn’t answer the question of whether public visibility affects behavior. If you have evidence that it doesn’t, let’s hear it. I’ll readily distinguish historical practice from scientific proof.
My underlying view is much the same as Heinlein’s observation that an armed society is a polite society: visible and credible consequences can influence conduct. Whether that principle applies to televised executions is precisely what we’re debating.
Meanwhile, you’ve managed to name four people without supplying an argument against the deterrence proposition. That’s not much of a rebuttal. It’s more like another mole popping up, huh?
fair comment. I take it as a given that my comments are just that – an opinion based on my life experiences and way of viewing and decoding the world. I do believe (admittedly without hard evidence) that livestreaming an execution is a step too far. I would go so far as to say the consequences may be far reaching, even if it does not go ahead. if I had such a visceral reaction to this I can only imagine how those intent on destroying the US would see this as a polarising call to arms.
the whack a mole crew keep things in check. sometimes it just hurts………….
OK—fair. We get to agree to disagree, without involving bystanders…ahem.
Truth is, I wondered about the televising too when it first scrolled by. But here’s a core part of George being George: egalitarian to a fault. Good for the goose, good for the gander.
My quickest route to clarity was to try the other shoe.
Suppose an American went to a Muslim country and, in the name of Christianity, unleashed a similar religious killing spree. What would happen to him?
Would he get big-name attorneys and years of appeals? Would an execution be kept out of public view? I’d wager the answers in some such countries would be very different—but the country matters, and a wager isn’t evidence.
My question to you is simpler: would you have the same visceral objection if that American’s execution were televised? I’d expect the same objection on the same principle.
That comparison doesn’t settle whether televising deters anyone. It does test whether our standards travel when the identities change.
If you believe in equality—and that’s core me—keep a shoe handy.
See how it fits on the other foot.
unfortunately guru sage new AI economic minds , and , patriotic can kickers, you have overlooked the most important change which will whip your buts red raw including don trump (godfather) . the mighty USD$. go boy even if your people hate yah ,some of us show you respect . thats a 30 year gold bull in countless battles with yah . your turn now greenback , whip and shock them new minds red raw.
Linebacker 1 and 2 didn’t work in vietnam. Isreali led deep strike didn’t work in Iran. Congress says no to more than border control. Keep in mind view of democrats start wars (Carter.. loss helicopters in Iran…weak; Clinton, won Palestine for jews… 9/11; Obama, out back jet in China.. weak) versus republicans’ police wars (Regan…peace thru strength; Bush elder, Desert Storm; Bush younger, Police Iraq Afgan; Trump… Police Iran).
Result? no go… Only win for Clinton was attempt police action in Yugoslavia by taking down electrical substations and resulting civilian action (riots) against folks…aka military
This comment is for jim in mo.
Sorry to read about Diana. Scary indeed. I’m just going to throw this out just-in-case, so you moved into your new (to you) house a few years ago and your wife just retired. She is now in the house for most of the day and night, I assume. I would check the house for mold or other toxins. Diana’s health reminded me of the story Karen R Hurd has repeated multiple times about her young daughter and how they had moved into a new home that had been sprayed for bugs just before they moved in. Karen can be found on Youtube.
“The Karen Hurd Bean Protocol is a nutritional approach created in the early 1990s by biochemist Karen Hurd to help detoxify the body and balance hormones through the power of soluble fiber.”
You and Diana are in my thoughts and prayers.
This study should be of interest to Jim in MO. According to the study, Ivermectin and Fenbendazole have been used successfully to treat a number of types of cancer.
https://twitter.com/i/status/2107938324027724258
https://twitter.com/i/status/2108297644061667438
Check out the studies on sweet wormwood…..I truly believe I am still up on my feet pestering everyone because of sweet wormwood.. I had been reading ancient Chinese herbal medicine and came up with studies..then some pretty impressive studies in Canada and austrailia..what’s interesting is its historical.. used for thousands of years from ancient China to the wagon train pioneers …
just like marijuana…( the herb that alcohol and pharmaceutical industries hate)
in studies done everywhere but the usa..some show that simple vaginal and rectal suppositories break the goop around antibiotic resistance viral and bacterial illnesses…
https://pubs.acs.org/aidcbc/article-abstract/6/3/338/1321794/Uncovering-the-Hidden-Antibiotic-Potential-of?redirectedFrom=fulltext
now there are tens of thousands of pages or research on marijuana effecting almost every industry around ..it was common in every medicine cabinet until the paper industry spent billions to make it a controlled substance..
https://aacrjournals.org/cancerres/article/72/8_Supplement/1979/578682/Abstract-1979-Sweet-wormwood-derived-artesunate?
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12159492/?
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0254629922006743?
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3995097/?
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4298291/?
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28254675/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32758647/
There are just as many on over me tin as well
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12566834/?
I’ve never been opposed to death penalty, but it seems to me that this mass televised execution will function more as a recruitment vehicle for enemies of America than a deterrent. I see the death penalty working to deter “normal” low lifes but for the jihadist it appears to be a more kill our enemies get your reward with me type thing. This can be carried out like executions have been conducted for decades in America (hopefully with no snafus) or produced more like a highlight reel.
I suggest that the firing squad be comprised of female soldiers. The prospect of being killed by a woman could be a significant deterrent to Muslim terrorists, as being killed by a woman would keep him out of heaven.
one good observation of G .. all the war stuff and war shocks come on the weekend . its as though they are preparing the robots for next week coming . the famous “they” those without names or faces . the hard working salt of america is watching sport , kicking back after the work week . but they get working on the weekend setting things up.
re: Rule of 72
How apropos for today’s “Urbansurvival” issue to touch upon interest rates. Meanwhile USS Abraham Lincoln CVN 72 received msm coverage following a return home to San Diego, Ca.
Speaking of coinkydoinks, my ship came in regarding a library hold request for Annie Jacobsen’s “Biological War-a Scenario”. I opened the tome to a random page. Spoiler alert: a whistleblower alleges that the Russians have a plot to deliver plague in aerosolized form to Europe beneath NATO radar.
According to Gemini, the rule of 72 for doubling one’s money can also serve as a calculator of the number of infected individuals doubling during a spread of infection.
The learned Lisa Cook, a Biden appointee to the Fed, has a PhD. Apparently her disertion examined banking systems in both Tsarist and post-Soviet Russia.
Public declarations in response to #47 Administration inquiries into Dr. Cook’s real estate holdings allege mortgages held by Washington, D.C. headquartered BFSFCU (Bank-Fund Staff Federal Credit Union) also known as BankFund. Its website states “as a member-owned cooperative, we exist to serve you, not to generate profits for shareholders”. BankFund offers services to staff and families of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund.
Unless things have changed in the last five years, Russia has NO bioweapons program. Russia’s emphasis has always been on chemical weapons and nukes. That said, they do the bio research we all do, to strive for better/cheaper/faster responses to deadly infestations and diseases like smallpox, anthrax, botulism, and of course bubonic/pneumonic plague. It wouldn’t take much of a shift in priorities to modify this research into a weaponization program, should they ever want to…
Trump just does not like the Fed’s Lisa Cook does he ?
king donny doesnt like anyone that doesnt agree with him .
any developer will tell you that when you start any development you start a big fire . the only way you can put it out is to throw money at it . now king donny was no good at putting fires out in his career . but now!! he has found a novel way to put fires out .he uses other peoples money . the workers tax of USSA , and treasury (or whats left of it ) . donny ceases to amaze and all the time he chisels off a few billion for himself and family . da big kahuna is boss of democracy
7.7 earthquake at Panama. Still to early to determine if Pacific-wide tsunami is generated
Propagation time to Hawaii is 7:05pm HST if tsunami is generated.
There is public debt, and then there is this:
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/09/american-debt-delinquency.html
This is a start on explaining why I am seeing a surge in homelessness here local. While there is a move afoot to reindustriailize, that doesn’t mean there won’t be many living by the roadside. And digging oneself out of a debt hole has never been harder. The times that Dickens wrote about are coming back in style.
I’ve seen three families forced out of low-income housing because the cost of low-income housing has become anything but low.
My granddaughter recently put a $380,000 bid on a house and still didn’t get it. That same house sold for $38,000 twenty years ago. How are ordinary wage earners supposed to catch up when housing prices have risen so dramatically while wages haven’t kept pace with the cost of living?
We’ve spent decades deregulating essential services and commodities, and the cost of necessities has steadily squeezed the common wage earner. Housing, healthcare, utilities, insurance, and transportation aren’t luxuries people can simply stop buying when prices rise. They’re the foundations of everyday life.
My wife suffered a stroke in her early twenties, and the cost of protecting her through catastrophic health insurance has been an enormous financial burden. Under the circumstances we’ve faced, I’ve often wondered what our financial position might look like today if those same premiums had instead been invested in something as simple as savings bonds. We could potentially have accumulated close to a million dollars over the years.
I understand that insurance protects against risks that savings alone cannot cover. But that raises a difficult question: Why must families spend so much simply to protect themselves from financial ruin when illness strikes?
We keep talking about economic growth, reindustrialization, and rising markets. But what good is a growing economy if the people doing the work can no longer afford a home, adequate healthcare, or the basic necessities of life?
When low-income housing becomes unaffordable to low-income families, something fundamental has gone wrong. When a lifetime of working and saving still leaves people one medical crisis away from financial ruin, we need to question not just how much wealth the economy produces, but how that economy serves the people who sustain it.
We shouldn’t have to wait until families are living by the roadside to recognize that the system isn’t working for them……
Perhaps the measure of a nation’s prosperity shouldn’t be how high its markets climb or how many billions its wealthiest citizens accumulate, but whether an ordinary person can work an honest day’s labor, put a roof over their family’s head, afford healthcare, and still have something left to save for tomorrow. An economy can grow in dollars while the people who sustain it grow poorer in the realities of everyday life. We need to stop measuring success solely by the wealth being created and start measuring it by how well that wealth supports the people who create it. After all, what good is building a stronger economy if we’re leaving more and more of our own people behind?
I had more spending capacity at $3.00 an hour than I do today at $14.00 an hour..in the seventies mom stayed home as the adult presence… everyone had healthcare…then deregulation.. mom had to work and affordable life started distancing wages…
I always am so very wealthy. My wallet has 50000 Reichsbanknote from 1922, 1000000 Turk Lirasi from 1970, and ten trillion Zimbabwe dollars from 2008. I often show them to people when talking about the Fed.
The same wallet always has a solid ounce to further illustrate the difference.
There’s a government desire here to go cashless, thankfully resisted by most people with some sense, but the value of that odd paper stuff is still crashing just like the rest did.
Paper… good for walls and ass wipe.
Stiks
(““Brace for Impact.” We are on the verge of the greatest price drop in history – Oxford Club.”)
Great thought provoking situation….the dog chasing his tail……I have said this over and over…I see the issues from the top of the pile…While those shoveling it in jars ledgers for future like my older brother simply can see it because it simply doesn’t exist in his neighborhood…he still sees the bottom line so its not noticeable to him..numbers are there its still ok…but he is missing the piranha chewing away at it from the bottom….When prices rise beyond what people can afford, spending slows….. Businesses lose sales, cut production, and lay off workers…. Those workers then spend even less the waitress that starts crying after she realizes she has a decision… gas,milk,diapers,or daycare…, all of this is pushing the economy further toward a price collapse…the economic death spiral… So what’s the solution? Raise wages, issue tax rebates, or pump more money into the economy to get people spending again. But there’s a catch: if those measures fuel inflation, the purchasing power of people’s savings takes another hit. The frugal family that worked hard, sacrificed, and saved for the future watches the value of those savings erode while trying to keep up with the rising cost of living…. its not noticeable at first…. that crap sneaks up on you fast…..one day its just there..and everyone is wondering why they didn’t see it coming..it hit me when I was young..been a struggle my whole life..mine was catastrophic medical expenses..
My father once told me a story about Weimar Germany: one child saved his money while the other spent his time enjoying life and chasing women. When the currency collapsed, the savings became nearly worthless, while the wine stored in the cellar became a valuable commodity. Think about that. One child sacrificed for the future, only to discover that the rules had changed….
We’re borrowing against tomorrow to sustain today, piling obligations onto future generations while trying to keep the economic wheels turning. Rome diluted its silver coins to produce more money; other societies have learned the hard way that you cannot endlessly expand monetary claims without consequences….as long as we are consumed by endless wars and printing more to keep up…we will continue down the slope…or cliff..
Seriously I lived through an economic death spiral. I know what happens when the numbers on a ledger stop being numbers and start determining whether a family can keep its home, heat its house, put food on the table, and hold on to some of their dignity…its extremely hard to pull out of it to….( which has me curious..could we still be able to pull out of the death spiral if we did a Roosevelt, Carter,or went by what Ron and Rand Paul suggested.. or are we to far into it where we simply have to finish the roller coaster ride…)
The trap I see ahead..
We can Continue borrowing…. The government accumulates more debt and greater interest obligations, potentially leaving fewer resources for other priorities…
If we cut spending abruptly..Government contractors, employees, businesses, and households dependent on that spending may suffer…this is also the same trap with healthcare industry..we spend trillions on insurances.. we give grants to pharmaceutical companies exceeding a hundred billion a year for research on new medications.. to fix it would be realitively easy..but on the flip side..it would be devistaing to those that depend on the revenue being spent…..
We could Raise taxes…. then Households and businesses will have less money available to spend, save, or invest….look at me.. even with all my health issues and those of my wife I had to find something I could do that wouldn’t put me back in a wheelchair just to meet the increase of essentials…
We could Stimulate the economy… with a tax rebate or stimulous but If additional demand exceeds the economy’s ability to produce goods and services, inflationary pressures return…kind of like putting a bandaid on an arterial bleed…
Or…we can Allow a major contraction… As Prices and asset values fall, but then unemployment, business failures, and debt defaults would make the adjustment devastating…jimmy carter and the inflation…loss of industries that up until now were considered to big to fail…..
my thought is….What if we did a Roosevelt….our infrastructure definitely needs an intervention…What if We quit military expenditures or cut our police actions of endless battles and America instead approached its infrastructure problems the way Franklin D. Roosevelt approached the Great Depression—not simply by trying to get money circulating again, but by putting people to work rebuilding the productive foundation of the country?
A modern Roosevelt-style program would therefore need a financing plan rather than simply another enormous spending authorization….like my household…I have to fit what it takes into what I have…
We’d have to Redirect some lower-priority expenditures toward productive domestic investment….Repair bridges, roads, water pipes, dams, electrical transmission systems, and public buildings before deterioration makes the work more expensive. These projects address existing needs rather than creating infrastructure simply to generate jobs….oh my god…I can totally fit my rant on solar towers in this spot…lol lol lol..Develop local generation and storage, strengthen substations, and improve grid resilience. Pilot projects could test the approach before public money is committed to a nationwide rollout…. build one the rest will follow..
When the financial system breaks down, we don’t necessarily lose our wealth-producing abilities I learned that doing day labor…( look at Greece.. for a while women traded sex for food elderly dumpster dived for food..but ..just like my experience.. I could trade the labor of what I know in trade for what I needed). (.had a guy deliver meds tonight..his son is doing the blood tank and chemical tank steam cleaning..they pay$25.00 an hour..)—but like every civilization before us when we lose the machinery that connects those abilities to our needs there is a total reset.
Perhaps it’s time for us to rebuild that machinery before we discover just how much we have to depend on it….
of course those are just my thoughts..I haven’t been keeping up with the studies..just don’t have the time..And seriously..even my kids think I’m nuts on what I see coming.. so far like my siblings on the rainbow of life it hasn’t affected them….YET
(“Oh, and I’m a Zimbabwe trillionaire, too!”)
Dam…that blows the Christmas present surprise..lol lol lol lol….
I’ve got the Christmas gifts on order and paid for December delivery. Citrus prices were up noticeably.
I gave this years Christmas gifts out in june…with what Stu and other prophetic psychics have predicted and seeing the world slowly collapsing into chaos and violence…I gave the gifts out just in case.. A home made cold smoker a light some koji ( everyone should enjoy a 300.00 a pound aged steak)
and the kids made bright betties.. a cup or a oil lamp..
the kitchen gadget is to bring people back to the dinner table..to discuss the daily events..get them away from the brain sucking tv..a light to be an inspiration for others..
the compasses will be handed out at Christmas..