I often wondered how my father, who earned less than $12K at the height of his working career, could put two kids through college, pay off a house, buy his cars with cash, and accumulate more money in savings (CDs of course) than both my brother and I (plus our working wives) combined. This explains one part of the mystery. (By the way, I never buy a new car before my old one is at least 12 years old, bought my last television set over 30 years ago, and lived 30 miles away from work where houses were more affordable.)
The other part is explained by the fact that my father and my mother came from self sufficient farming families who knew how to live off food and products they produced themselves and little else. While they left farming when even that couldn't produce a living, they retained many of their frugal habits. I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears
This is at the very least convenient for the ownership class.
It's a three way squeeze - cut down the amount of ready cash from income, pump up consumer desire to frenetic levels, and then offer cheap credit to make those exotic dreams possible.
If you count the bailouts it's a four way squeeze, because the bailouts are effectively another massive tax cut and rebate for the ultra-rich.
True. I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears
I am very glad that she has been put in charge of monitoring the TARP expenditures. While nothing has been done to correct the problems, her reports have been scathing. From this video and what else I have seen of the lady, I have no doubts about her integrity. No one in Washington can ask "How could we have known?" As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
He demonstrates the simple arithmetic truth: something that grows 7% a year, doubles every 10 years. During those 10 years,one consumes an amount of resources superior to those spent since we started.
