Too many people now make their living from govt largesse. Every city depends on it. Every politician gets elected with it. I fear It’s only going to stop now when the gravy train crashes and burns
“That was precisely the reason the System was created at Jekyll Island: to manufacture whatever amount of money might be necessary to cover the losses of the cartel. The scam could never work unless the Fed was able to create money out of nothing and pump it into the banks along with ‘credit’ and ‘liquidity’ guarantees. Which means, if the loans go sour, the money is eventually extracted from the American people through the hidden tax called inflation.”
—G. Edward Griffin, “The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve”
Additional relevant excerpts:
“The damage done by the banking cartel is made possible by the fact that money can be created out of nothing. It also destroys our purchasing power through the hidden tax called inflation.”
“The savings and loan industry, is really a cartel within a cartel. It could not function without Congress standing by to push unlimited amounts of money into it. And Congress could not do that without the banking cartel called the Federal Reserve System standing by as the ‘lender of last resort’ to create money out of nothing for Congress to borrow. This comfortable arrangement between political scientists and monetary scientists permits Congress to vote for any scheme it wants, regardless of the cost. If politicians tried to raise that money through taxes, they would be thrown out of office. But being able to ‘borrow’ it from the Federal Reserve System upon demand, allows them to collect it through the hidden mechanism of inflation, and not one voter in a hundred will complain.”
“Warburg’s revolutionary plan to get American Society to go to work for Wall Street was astonishingly simple. Even today, academic theoreticians cover their blackboards with meaningless equations, and the general public struggles in bewildered confusion with inflation and the coming credit collapse, while the quite simple explanation of the problem goes undiscussed and almost entirely uncomprehended. The Federal Reserve System is a legal private monopoly of the money supply operated for the benefit of the few under the guise of protecting and promoting the public interest.”
—Anthony Sutton, former Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution for War, Revolution, & Peace, quoted in “The Creature”
Instead of being on the "Road to Serfdom", I would describe it as being made to “Run the Gauntlet Toward Serfdom”.
We still ultimately arrive at serfdom, but in our case we are beaten, chastised, and humiliated along the way by those who would make themselves our feudal lords.
Is there anyone reading this who does not understand it at this point? But those who have chosen not to hear by now cannot be made to. I'm not ready to kiss prosperity goodbye, and yet, I know it doesn't really exist. This is borrowed time. We don't deserve our wealth; it's built on nearly nothing at this point.
Right now I am reading a book called "When We Walk By" by Kevin Adler and Donald Burnes about homelessness in America. It is a real eye-opener how various societal systems conspire and collide to create and perpetuate homelessness. Many of us here may be only one misstep, one medical crisis, one disaster, one accident, one job loss, even one rent or mortgage hike away from being homeless. I know I am, which is why I am vitally interested in housing issues. This is something that the well-off and housing secure cannot understand. I could go on and on about the stupid questions--and yes, Virginia, there ARE stupid questions--that I get on this and related topics. I am going to say that often the person that is going through a hard time is MUCH more aware of what is and is not available in terms of resources than the person who has never been through that particular battle yet presumes to know where this other person can go for help. The BEST thing you can do to help your friends and neighbors who are struggling is to become educated yourself, get FIRST-HAND knowledge of the resources available and what is needed to qualify for them (or conversely, disqualify). Don't just say "Go to legal aid" if a friend or a family member needs legal help and can't afford a lawyer. YOU make that call to legal aid and find out exactly how difficult, how time-consuming, and in the end, often inadequate that can be. It is SO VERY FRUSTRATING having to educate people; a simple yes/no question often turns into a nightmare interrogation that tells me the person I am speaking to hasn't a clue and often doesn't want to have a clue about how the system works or doesn't work for poorer people.
This book was an eye-opener even for me. If you've wanted to know why don't the homeless do this or that, this book will tell you. And there is a lot on how our current tax system contributes to the problem by giving tax breaks to people who really do not need them but taxes the people who can least afford it. And how the "poverty line" is set unrealistically low, so that many low-income working people can't qualify for help. So what happens is that a person who makes just enough to get by is penalized. They can't take oodles of deductions off on their taxes. They are forced to use the EZ form which doesn't allow for deductions. And because they are barely making enough to get by, all the tools available for those who are better off aren't available to them. No, they must pay their taxes and that's it. No loopholes, no getting around it.
I really believe that we are in a race to the bottom and that we are on the road to becoming what used to be called a "third world country". If you had told me 50-60 years ago that homeless encampments would be common, not only in the largest cities but even in the smaller ones, I would not have believed you. What I see around me reminds me of things I've heard about the Great Depression. There were people who were insulated from the worst of it back then, too. Both my parents lived through the Depression, but they were lucky, their parents had relatively good paying jobs. They never stood in a breadline, they never experienced unemployment, they never experienced homelessness or hunger. Things were tight, yes, but, they were well-off compared to many people. I do believe we are right now living in another Great Depression; but most people don't see it because it hasn't hit home to them.
An excellent post, and a good reason to own assets with a very long horizon to selling. Examples are index funds and gold. I own a stock that I bought in 1995, kept buying and never sold a share of, and have no immediate plans of selling.
* Regarding gold, it is not the greatest asset to hold, an almost-useless commodity that earns no earnings and pays no dividends. But it can easily be held long term and (as of now) selling one ounce can be done without IRS reporting
Remember, you can get a FREE Reader's Digest Copy of "The Road To Serfdom" here.
Send it to anyone you think might benefit from it. There's even a Road to Serfdom in cartoons as the back. Strangely, it was paid for by General Motors.
Ever noticed an increase in shops who will buy your silver and gold? Notice how they always seem to pop up when times are bad? Know what you should be holding, that's out of their system? I'm not going to keep saying it.
To summarise: Tax is theft. Those who say it is necessary to pay for all the wonderful things Government do for us, are just following the Mafia explanation why you have to hand over your money to Luigi and the boys when they visit, or get your liver cut out. Government = Mafia = extortion and protection racket.
16th Amendment established the ability to tax incomes; 17th turned senators from representatives of each state as a political unit to long-term representatives of the voters...
In truth, you can never have any government existing without the master-slave equation as its only foundation. Go ahead and try it. It is impossible. The nature of all governments is to promote serfdom to ensure it continues to exist. Ever know of a government that wanted to go out of business on purpose? Or admitting it is a failure and needs to be dissolved?
If there were no slaves, government would not be needed for much of anything and that is why government must constantly take care of us. We become dependent upon them and therefore we are now serfs and slaves.
After thousands of years of this nonsense, the slave class is more or less afraid of it's own shadow. It has no clue as to how to exist without a government controlling it. That does not mean it couldn't be done.
This is the first thing I’m reading this morning. It’s April, so the tax man has depleted the “I want to go to work so I can make some money “ feeling . Now this. I think I may just go back to bed.
Too many people now make their living from govt largesse. Every city depends on it. Every politician gets elected with it. I fear It’s only going to stop now when the gravy train crashes and burns
“That was precisely the reason the System was created at Jekyll Island: to manufacture whatever amount of money might be necessary to cover the losses of the cartel. The scam could never work unless the Fed was able to create money out of nothing and pump it into the banks along with ‘credit’ and ‘liquidity’ guarantees. Which means, if the loans go sour, the money is eventually extracted from the American people through the hidden tax called inflation.”
—G. Edward Griffin, “The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve”
Additional relevant excerpts:
“The damage done by the banking cartel is made possible by the fact that money can be created out of nothing. It also destroys our purchasing power through the hidden tax called inflation.”
“The savings and loan industry, is really a cartel within a cartel. It could not function without Congress standing by to push unlimited amounts of money into it. And Congress could not do that without the banking cartel called the Federal Reserve System standing by as the ‘lender of last resort’ to create money out of nothing for Congress to borrow. This comfortable arrangement between political scientists and monetary scientists permits Congress to vote for any scheme it wants, regardless of the cost. If politicians tried to raise that money through taxes, they would be thrown out of office. But being able to ‘borrow’ it from the Federal Reserve System upon demand, allows them to collect it through the hidden mechanism of inflation, and not one voter in a hundred will complain.”
“Warburg’s revolutionary plan to get American Society to go to work for Wall Street was astonishingly simple. Even today, academic theoreticians cover their blackboards with meaningless equations, and the general public struggles in bewildered confusion with inflation and the coming credit collapse, while the quite simple explanation of the problem goes undiscussed and almost entirely uncomprehended. The Federal Reserve System is a legal private monopoly of the money supply operated for the benefit of the few under the guise of protecting and promoting the public interest.”
—Anthony Sutton, former Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution for War, Revolution, & Peace, quoted in “The Creature”
That cartoon from 1934 is amazing.
Bad Cat...you just keep getting better.
Instead of being on the "Road to Serfdom", I would describe it as being made to “Run the Gauntlet Toward Serfdom”.
We still ultimately arrive at serfdom, but in our case we are beaten, chastised, and humiliated along the way by those who would make themselves our feudal lords.
Is there anyone reading this who does not understand it at this point? But those who have chosen not to hear by now cannot be made to. I'm not ready to kiss prosperity goodbye, and yet, I know it doesn't really exist. This is borrowed time. We don't deserve our wealth; it's built on nearly nothing at this point.
Ok, so when are we all agreeing to quit paying taxes??
Right now I am reading a book called "When We Walk By" by Kevin Adler and Donald Burnes about homelessness in America. It is a real eye-opener how various societal systems conspire and collide to create and perpetuate homelessness. Many of us here may be only one misstep, one medical crisis, one disaster, one accident, one job loss, even one rent or mortgage hike away from being homeless. I know I am, which is why I am vitally interested in housing issues. This is something that the well-off and housing secure cannot understand. I could go on and on about the stupid questions--and yes, Virginia, there ARE stupid questions--that I get on this and related topics. I am going to say that often the person that is going through a hard time is MUCH more aware of what is and is not available in terms of resources than the person who has never been through that particular battle yet presumes to know where this other person can go for help. The BEST thing you can do to help your friends and neighbors who are struggling is to become educated yourself, get FIRST-HAND knowledge of the resources available and what is needed to qualify for them (or conversely, disqualify). Don't just say "Go to legal aid" if a friend or a family member needs legal help and can't afford a lawyer. YOU make that call to legal aid and find out exactly how difficult, how time-consuming, and in the end, often inadequate that can be. It is SO VERY FRUSTRATING having to educate people; a simple yes/no question often turns into a nightmare interrogation that tells me the person I am speaking to hasn't a clue and often doesn't want to have a clue about how the system works or doesn't work for poorer people.
This book was an eye-opener even for me. If you've wanted to know why don't the homeless do this or that, this book will tell you. And there is a lot on how our current tax system contributes to the problem by giving tax breaks to people who really do not need them but taxes the people who can least afford it. And how the "poverty line" is set unrealistically low, so that many low-income working people can't qualify for help. So what happens is that a person who makes just enough to get by is penalized. They can't take oodles of deductions off on their taxes. They are forced to use the EZ form which doesn't allow for deductions. And because they are barely making enough to get by, all the tools available for those who are better off aren't available to them. No, they must pay their taxes and that's it. No loopholes, no getting around it.
I really believe that we are in a race to the bottom and that we are on the road to becoming what used to be called a "third world country". If you had told me 50-60 years ago that homeless encampments would be common, not only in the largest cities but even in the smaller ones, I would not have believed you. What I see around me reminds me of things I've heard about the Great Depression. There were people who were insulated from the worst of it back then, too. Both my parents lived through the Depression, but they were lucky, their parents had relatively good paying jobs. They never stood in a breadline, they never experienced unemployment, they never experienced homelessness or hunger. Things were tight, yes, but, they were well-off compared to many people. I do believe we are right now living in another Great Depression; but most people don't see it because it hasn't hit home to them.
An excellent post, and a good reason to own assets with a very long horizon to selling. Examples are index funds and gold. I own a stock that I bought in 1995, kept buying and never sold a share of, and have no immediate plans of selling.
* Regarding gold, it is not the greatest asset to hold, an almost-useless commodity that earns no earnings and pays no dividends. But it can easily be held long term and (as of now) selling one ounce can be done without IRS reporting
Remember, you can get a FREE Reader's Digest Copy of "The Road To Serfdom" here.
Send it to anyone you think might benefit from it. There's even a Road to Serfdom in cartoons as the back. Strangely, it was paid for by General Motors.
https://ogre.substack.com/p/free-readers-digest-copy-of-the-road
Demand originates with the state. Without state spending, the value of fiat currency is unspecified and there is no aggregate demand.
In othere words the state has to spend for fiat to have any absolute value; it is only at this point the market can "spend".
This all happens simultaneously while they are the arbiter of currency "supply"....hmmm....
If it sounds like a scam...you're not mistaken.
The ultimate fix that's left us with no "fix".
Ever noticed an increase in shops who will buy your silver and gold? Notice how they always seem to pop up when times are bad? Know what you should be holding, that's out of their system? I'm not going to keep saying it.
To summarise: Tax is theft. Those who say it is necessary to pay for all the wonderful things Government do for us, are just following the Mafia explanation why you have to hand over your money to Luigi and the boys when they visit, or get your liver cut out. Government = Mafia = extortion and protection racket.
16th Amendment established the ability to tax incomes; 17th turned senators from representatives of each state as a political unit to long-term representatives of the voters...
In truth, you can never have any government existing without the master-slave equation as its only foundation. Go ahead and try it. It is impossible. The nature of all governments is to promote serfdom to ensure it continues to exist. Ever know of a government that wanted to go out of business on purpose? Or admitting it is a failure and needs to be dissolved?
If there were no slaves, government would not be needed for much of anything and that is why government must constantly take care of us. We become dependent upon them and therefore we are now serfs and slaves.
After thousands of years of this nonsense, the slave class is more or less afraid of it's own shadow. It has no clue as to how to exist without a government controlling it. That does not mean it couldn't be done.
This is the first thing I’m reading this morning. It’s April, so the tax man has depleted the “I want to go to work so I can make some money “ feeling . Now this. I think I may just go back to bed.