People who think that politicians are better incentivized to protect them than bankers are going to have a hard wake up call one day.  Exhibit 1: Greece.

Last edited by JDelage (2010-05-13 09:44:08)

I reached the end of my financial rope @ 2 years ago. I tied a knot and have been hanging on. Immigration northward is a worldwide phenomenon. It doesn't take a genius to see it's impact. But I wont play the blame game like a candidate for California governor. At least, not the one's we readilly notice. It's like arresting the prostitute and not  the john. Nothing is more disheartening than being turned away from work by a contractor ( truck sporting sticker ' make welfare as hard to get as a contractor's license' ) as he loads up on latinos. Revenge is watching the building slump and contractors fighting with their old employees to work for other contractors.
I no longer recognise the person on my resume. If I list my M.A. they think I'm in between National Geographic assignments. So I just list my two Associate degrees and make up a legend about why I didn't continue to a B.A. As to my baby boomer generation, yes it is self centered. I list my military service and more than once realise my prospective employer, or the professors 'teaching' me in university are still often enough professional students who stayed in university to avoid the draft and married and made babys when that ran it's course. People paid $300 to defer service in the Civil War and the Romney's multiple sons still find it inconvenient.
I need to declare Chapter 11. The irony is it costs $1800 to do right. I should have done it when I closed my 401K instead of paying off partial debts. The firearm collection is gone, the books, kachinas, vintage car and now my horses who paid their way until cowboy movies began filming in Canada and Australia to save money.
So, I filter the scams on Craigslist, the newspaper, Employment Development Department. Yes, we know you're wearing a nice suit and tie. But going through our mock job interview training is mandatory with miss 20 something bobblehead, and no your benefits ran out before the numbers hit the level for granting extensions. My part time job of 3 years just went to more 'casual labourers.' It cost him to much to pay me even when I agreed the commute to the jobs ( often 4 hours total) would be on my time and took a cut in pay.I hear one of them drove the truck with the brake on, melted the driveshaft which fell off on the 405 at 5P.M.
So I collect those beer bottles, sometimes indulge on the 6 number tax on stupidity and look in my closet imagining I own something still of interest on EBAY.
I still plan, if nothing else a minimal wardrobe of merit. Should wind up on the street, I want to distinquish myself from the chino and polo shirt clad former WAMU clerks who reflected their employer's philosphy of economic prickdom, even when they never had one.
I'm venting and apologise.

Last edited by ckav (2010-05-13 12:45:46)

My standard was always at odds anyway. I don't think it igent false snobbery to say a season pass to the theater and musical season is of more intrinsic value than a roomfull of unfair trade made electronic Borg nightmare.
I am active on a similar forum devoted to wet shaving, a pursuit I returned to save money and improve my appearance in small part (and hope.)
A PRC vendor of shaving brushes, one who with little research is also  a counterfieter on EBAY of western brands continues to post his product breaking forum guidelines behind the smokescreen of poor english. And the fools buy his brushes and wax eloquent on the price, once they factor out excesive shipping. Meanwhile the american and english vendors who have supported and responded to this pursuit's growing demands and wants are pilloried for every lessoning of quality or service.
It's a fun pursuit, a small space and time of doing one thing right in my routine. Communism and capitalism in practise share more than that initial C. I only take solace in whoever hangs us with the rope Lenin mentioned buys it at Walmart.
It will probably snap on first use.

Last edited by ckav (2010-05-13 13:32:29)

Its all starting to look decidedly dodgy, a whiff of systemic collapse across the Western world. How long can the banks and nations play extend and pretend to ensure another round of bonuses? This largesse and legalised accounting fraud. How did we end up financially in the same position in debt as we were at the end of WWII, at least then we had Spitfires, a great Navy, a manufactuing base and had fought a world war against fascists.

Scary, baby, scary. No, really fucking scary.

That's why I'm drinking ultra rare whisky from a mothballed distillery and digging 'Trane's My Favourite Things.

When this myopia ends, and it will end, and the real situation is brought into focus, I wonder who will be hanged by the mob first, banker fraudsters, or politician con-artists? And who replace them, a military dictatorship? We shall find out soon enough.

More tea Vicar?

The problem with democracy is that politicians have no incentive to do the right things.  They are paid a fairly small amounts (given their general level of expertise), so they have a huge incentive to indulge in some (generally legal) form of demagoguery / corruption.  Furthermore, they don't suffer or benefit from the long term consequences of their choices.

I'd like to see representatives paid in stock options on their country's overall market, vesting over 20 years, 1/20th a year, and worth $2M at grant, each year.  That would create a strong incentive for politicians to focus on the long term health of their country, rather than the short term benefit of their regional electorate.

Last edited by Kingstonian (2010-05-19 10:04:15)

Last edited by formby (2010-05-19 11:38:13)