Post: #1

I watched this video today, and being a veteran and a small business owner it really hit home!

At one time I was probably one of the most patriotic Americans around, today I hate my country and what we have become.

I have had my web design company for 7 years now, starting in 2006. That year I did quite well, and in 2008 by October I had brought in $240,000.00 in business.

From then until today my gross sales amount to less than it did in the first 10 months of 2008! In the last 44 months I have not brought in as much money As I did when my business was still a startup.

I haven't brought in a single new client in almost 5 months now, which means that I have had zero income and I've come to realize that my future in the web design business has come to an end, at least if I want to be able to eat, drive a car and live anywhere but under a bridge.

And, I am not alone. Every web design company I know in Dallas is in the same boat. Other parts of the country don't seem to be affected as greatly, but are probably still impacted.

I see businesses shutting down every week here, and until earlier this year I considered myself lucky to still be surviving.

The recession we were in is not over, and I'd bet dollars to dimes that we've not even seen the worst of it yet, thanks to our fucking corrupt politicians and the fucking heartless corportions they represent.

If murder were legal, I would hunt down and slit the fucking throats of every bankster with every major bank and most politicians, with a fucking butter knife, and a dull one at that!

I am not really mad, I'm fucking PISSED!!!

Sen. Bernard Sanders tells it like it is in this video. Its kind of long, but he has a solid feel for the pulse on U.S economics and although I don't agree with everything he says, he is one Democrat that I can get onboard with!

Post: #2

What this country has become and what we once were, and why I used to be a patriot and hate what we've become, and once loved America but would give almost anything to get the fuck out of it now!

Jeff Daniels says it better than I ever could in the first episode of the new HBO show "The Newsroom"

Post: #3

The Newsroom is worth the hour of your life. The drama captures a "what if" scenario if syndicated news covered actual news. I hardly watch television and when I do, I skip over the most things. Celebrity gossip, shock entertainment and reality television is just there to dumb down the masses. I actually remember the times of growing up in the 90's as a kid and thinking how Amerikkka was the greatest country in the world. Now with information readily available within a blink of and eye, American exceptionalism is dead and it has been for a long time.

Post: #4

I've never made anywhere close to $240k in a year, I admit, but for what it's worth IT seems to have made a full recovery out in California. I wouldn't want to be a lifelong assembly line worker right now, but there are certainly cities where one could use their IT skills to do a lot better than living under a bridge. $35-$40/hour or better is an entirely attainable wage in Cali if you're willing to work for another company. I don't know what you could make freelance.

I've been hit by the economic downturn as much as anyone. I lost about 80k on my house, which I sold to move to a better area.

But web development skills are still in high demand. Recruiters local to an area are a good source of information on local demand for particular skills. I'd say that IT folks are among the lucky ones, even. Is pulling up roots an option?


Sen. Sanders seems like he's trying to blame Grahm Leach Bliley for the financial crisis. I've heard this repeated 100 times, but I've never seen good support for that. The logic behind that argument seems to be;

"GLB was sold as fostering financial innovation. New financial innovations were involved in the mortgage crisis. Therefore those instruments were the result of GLB."

But I can't see any clear chain of causality there. More diverse companies were more resistant to the mortgage crisis, which supports GLB and contradicts Saunders. GLB didn't promote the creation of Mortgage Backed Securities.

As I see it, the problems were manifold; (I may be missing some parts, but we have to make things specific if we want to correct anything. )

1. Clinton era amendments to the CRA (NOT the original Carter-era CRA) allowed for the sale of mortgage backed securities.
2. Short term strategies used by Angelo Mozillo, head of Countrywide, which were catastrophic in the long run resulted in large numbers of precarious and occasionally fradulent loans.
Countrywide itself suffered horribly from this strategy, but Mozillo was able to sell out his shares at an inflated peak. If you're wanting to hire assassains,
I hope he's first on your list. Justice is individual and I hope that people's anger is focused on particular individuals and their specific crimes.
3. A lot of people were willing to take on mortgages that they simply couldn't pay for. They deserve to be held responsible for this as much as
bankers do for their actions. If it's irresponsible for a bank to give an interest-only loan then it should also be irresponsible for an individual to take one.
4. There was a lot of fraud in the banking industry. People were sold loans which were mislabeled or otherwise fraudulent, rates misrepresented, etc. Bank of America has been horrible in this regard. Appraisers overestimated the values of homes due to conflicts of interest.
5. The government mandated ratings agencies failed to appropriately rate MBSes, possibly due to conflict of interest.
6. Investment money looking for a safe haven contributed to the bubble, there was massive 'flipping' of houses, etc. I'm not sure this can be avoided, though., without making things worse.
7. European pension funds, looking for high yields, poured their money into Mortgage Backed Securities based on the assurance of the American Government's ratings agencies.
8. Improper forms of ID, including Matrícula Consular ID cards were accepted as forms of ID, even though Mexico doesn't consider them to be reliable.
9. People were not required to verify income based on tax records, resulting in government assisted fraud of investors due to "liars loans."
10. Goldman Sachs engaged in risky behavior and was protected from the consequences of their behavior via their government connections. Due to GS's high profile, other institutions copied their behavior.


Sen Saunders is excoriating the banking industry for not providing loans to help grow the economy (2:50 in the video), but it was exactly this kind of thinking which contributed to the current crisis. The fed lowered the reserve rate to try to prevent deflation. Should they not have done that? I'm open to that argument if anyone wants to make it.

Re: Citizens United; You can't control money without controlling speech. What's the alternative? That those corporations which own news outlets can say whatever they want but everyone else is restricted? That seems to favor massive corporations.

I'll agree with Saunders that Bush's wars were horrible on the economy.

I'd like to see some documentation for his assertion that we're spending more on weather problems per person. Crop productivity hasn't suffered as some have claimed.

The "50 million people without insurance" quote is misleading. The number of citizens who can't get insurance is around 30 million based on Pre-2010 #s plus or minus a few million.

The newsroom isnt' very critical of its statsitics. For example; if calculating infant mortality you need to consider that many nations which consider a baby who lives 18 hours to be 'stillborn.' America considers it to have lived 18 hours. Because of this, America saves more premature infants, but those infants are less healthy and American statistics are worse. Even then America still isn't the best place for infant mortality, granted, but America has more immigration over a longer term, which leads to greater wealth disparity. (And also a larger drug problem than some nations.)

Post: #5

Senator Sanders (I - Vermont) is a proud and self proclaimed socialist; that's all I can contribute to this thread.

Post: #6

Yeah, I had this on my facebook wall when I still had a facebook

Post: #7

1. Believe 400 Americans are capable of buying and selling the government.
2. Give more power to the government.
3. Profit! (but not for you)

(I'm 110% in favor of government enforcing mandatory disclosure laws and consent. But people have a limited attention span. The more complex and obscure that legislation is, the more we get really horrid special-interest riders hidden away somewhere inside them.)

Post: #8

As a Australian, I can tell you that most non-Americans are sick of hearing about how the USA is the greatest country in the world. It's been drummed into the media so much that it became the default line of thinking. I will hand it to them that they've been very successful in convincing the general public about being the greatest nation, and keep them completely clueless and ignorant about the reality in a way that keeps them content about struggling through life, because frankly, to them, it doesn't get any better.

Some people I know want to move to the States simply because it's 'better'. I clue them in about your healthcare system and mandatory holidays (none) and they gasp. On the other end of the spectrum we got Aussie patriots who think Australia is the greatest country in the world and 'fuck the Yanks'. I remind them that their life encompasses around American R&D and Asian manufacturing.

I don't hate America, I love it for its accomplishments. But I don't think that it's the greatest country in the world. Nor would I be inclined to elect 1 single nation as the greatest in the world. The USA is the most powerful without a doubt, but not the greatest to live in. I just dislike blind patriotism & loyalty.
Discontent brings about progress, content leads none.

Post: #9

(07-11-2012 1:19 AM)lemmiknox Wrote:  Some people I know want to move to the States simply because it's 'better'. I clue them in about your healthcare system and mandatory holidays (none)

I'll agree, jingoism is pointless and I wouldn't vote any country "#1" or whatever. But.... we DO have holidays. They may not be legally enforced, but people still get them.

American medicine sucks for the little stuff and it's more expensive than many countries (in part because places like Canada free-ride on American innovation, in part because Americans are litigation happy with huge settlments, in part because doctors make more money here than in other places and there's an artificial doctor shortage... and also other reasons I'm not really covering... )

Those people who have the cash frequently come to the States for medical treatment, though. America is one of the better countries for crisis medicine and the really life-threatening stuff.

Post: #10

My current problem with this country is that we've become so divided, a good deal of the population feels that the country's going to go to hell in a handbasket if their side isn't in charge.

We need to go back to thinking that if the side we're against is in charge, things may not be as good as they'd be if our side was running the show, but there would still be hope and oppurtunity out there.