So who’s got the wealth?

Posted in Money on March 25th, 2011 by moody

I was looking at the Worlds GDP (Gross Domestic Product), and it is now at around 56 trillion dollars. Now, when all super-rich take their cut, when all Governments pay out for their programs, when all movie, sport and music stars get their cut, when all fund managers and wall street get their billions, when all banks and financial institution get their multi-billion dollar bonuses, when all real estate giants get their pay, when all insurance providers get their way, there will simply not be enough money left to go around. But what do I mean by “go around”? Go around to do what? To save of course. Think about this little bit. Some hedge fund managers make over billion a year. Rockefeller’s wealth alone has been estimated to be well in trillions. One family’s wealth is in trillions! World GDP is at 56 trillion now. No wonder middle class cannot save. You have to really fight in order to save. It’s not enough just to be smart with the money as it was 50 years ago when middle class was really strong and didn’t have super-rich. You have to actually really struggle and be inventive to save these days.

If every one of the lower and middle class had been saving 20% (proposed) of their salary, there wouldn’t be a super rich class. Simply because there wouldn’t be enough money for rich to accumulate from. The only way they would be able to accumulate would be to print more, but in that case one of their Yachts would cost 5 trillion dollars instead of measly 50 million. Instead, super-rich resorted to squeezing money out of the middle class via credit, 401k’s, investments, debt and other exotic crap they fill your brain with. They keep telling you how you should start investing at early age so you can be rich when you get old. Well, it will work for some, but it cannot work for all of us. It’s a simple math really. If all of us start saving early, we would NOT all get rich at the old age. Some of us would have to loose money along the way and gave it to others. It’s a zero sum game, regardless that they tell you that it’s not. Earth has finite resources and there’s limit how much money we can print before it becomes worthless. So there’s only so much resources to spread around. So it’s a zero-sum. Someone has to loose in order for others to gain. They might tell you that it is not zero-sum game because money is constantly being added by new investors. Yeah, but that extra money is not equally (not even close) distributed to those new or even old investors. River flow is always from low (poor) –> high(rich). And usual looser is low-middle class. Always.

Here are some stats:
Wealth distribution by type of asset, 2007
Stocks and mutual funds
Top 1 percent of our population own 38.9% of stocks and mutual funds
Next 9 percent own 42.9% of stocks and mutual funds
Bottom 90 percent own 20.6% of stocks and mutual funds

So top 10% of wealthy own 80% of all stocks and funds out there. So what is happening here is, money is getting shuffled between rich themselves. Like in a poker game. Once they run out of chips, they simply reach under their tables and dip into the middle-class accounts a.k.a 401k’s, stocks and real estate investments and they get on with their poker game. When they run out that money too, they will milk middle-class via taxes, or what is commonly called bail-outs. They simply bribe congress into giving them even more money from middle-class via bail-outs by giving them BS story about how middle class will recoup that money and then some.

Now, even sadder part is that this kind of machine has been in place for a while and it’s not easy to stop, and there’s simply not much you can do. This is not to say that there’s some big conspiracy or some kind of a new world order, but simply the super-rich are taking the advantage of the system that has been in place forever and keep tweaking it in their favor as they go along. So what to do? You can’t really change it from political point, because politicians have been bought and paid for well into the future. Now, this is not to say that rich don’t need or want middle-class. Oh they do. Who do you think makes all this stuff and produces everything? Lower and Middle-class. Labor class. That’s who. That’s how richest 1% get their wealth. Without middle-class spending, they would be just shuffling money between themselves until one of them accumulates everything and then poker game begins again, on and on. They need middle-class in order for their wealth to grow. Middle-class also spends a lot. They spend all money their earn in their daily jobs and then some. But it’s not just the money earned that they spend. It’s lot worse than that. It’s called “easy credit.”. Translated it means: “they got you by the balls.” What rich need from the middle class is an obedient worker. You. Do your job and don’t complain. Those words are considered good job ethic today. What a joke. Fuck that! Wake up middle-class!!!
My opinion is that super-rich are not like that because they want to be evil or because they’re conspiring in some evil scheme to cheat out the middle class. No; What I think it’s happening is that rich live in their own little bubble, up in the sky, detached from all that’s real. They are truly oblivious what is going on down on earth and what we mortals consider moral and ethical. To them: giving the same tax breaks to rich and low class is pretty moral; Raising retirement age to 69-70 is pretty moral; bailing out their wall street friends is moral; lowering minimal wage is moral; Squeezing every little ounce of blood from a common worker until he dies poor is pretty ethical while at the same time pushing bad asset into their hands. They don’t even think twice about it. It’s not that they’re doing in consciously on purpose. It’s all engraved into their subconsciousness since the early age, decade after decade, generation after generation.  But that is what makes it even more disturbing. That is why you cannot bargain or reason with people like that. They cannot be bought or convinced. It’s the same psych that Nazi had. They were convinced that what they’re were doing is good and moral.
I remember an interview with the Nazi officer who was visiting the Auschwitz death camp back in 1940’s. When he got there he spoke briefly with current commanding officer in charge and asked him how many prisoners can he currently dispose of in one day. Commanding officer replied that with the current system they’re were able to dispose about 1,000 prisoners a day. Visiting Nazi officer was shocked.  <I thought here, finally someone in that party with a glimmer of human digntiy>. Then he said that he was actually shocked how little they were able to process. He said that with his new system they could easily do 2,500 an hour!!! He was talking about inventing a more efficient way of disposing of Jews.That kind of disturbing mentality and detachment (call it lack of empathy if you will) is present in the wealthiest in our current world. Maybe not in that extreme but very similar.
So aside from dragging them out on the street and shooting them, here are the best thing you can do for yourself:

  • Pay off your debt and throw away your credit cards. Credit is your enemy. Don’t ever consider any kind of credit. Not talking just about credit cards. ANY type of credit.Period.
  • You HAVE to build up a big savings. And I mean big. Hold it in money market account or Treasury bonds. No regular bonds, stocks or funds here. Just pure savings. It has to be substantial to hold you (and your family) unemployed for at least 2 years (I would go for three personally). I know, it sounds drastic, but you NEED to have that piece of mind to function properly in society. Otherwise you will always have an anxiety in the back of your head. Remember: what you are saving for is not an investment or the retirement, but a piece of mind (which is even more important).
  • Strive to pay off your mortgage ASAP. 30 year mortgage is pure theft. If you cannot afford 15 or 10 year mortgage don’t buy the house until you can.
  • If you really need to invest in anything, buy land. I am not talking about real estate like condos or homes. Those things are worthless in the long run. I mean real land, as your much wiser grand feather used to advise you all the time. If you can find coastal land, it would be best. And then hand it down to your kids, and so on. As more of us start owning more and more land, it will be lot harder for small group of rich fucks to control large populations and shift the wealth in their favor.
  • Now, some are really poor and there’s really no way to save or do any of the above. I am not sure what you can do if you’re one of those. I really have no advice for you but I can tell you that America is really not the place for you then. There are no safety nets and system will treat you as garbage. It;s the grim truth, but I’ve seen it and experienced it first hand. What is also sad (even though it probably doesn’t matter anyway) is that the poor consistently keep voting against their own interests and keeps electing people who treat them as garbage. They vote for pro-life candidates even though that same candidate will cut their benefits, lower their wages and enrich their rich friends. If you;re one of those people, I have no sympathy for you. You got what you deserved. I just feel sorry for others who do vote for their interests and are getting screwed by you pricks who vote “family values” and not issues. I just wish I could find some piece of advice (beside move to Canada) for those who will never make it here. Maybe try to educate yourself little better or get a shot at some scholarship.
  • Probably the most important thing you can do is to stay healthy. I am not going into details here but use your head and common sense when it comes to being and staying healthy. If you’re one of the unfortunate ones who won bad genetic lottery, then you’re pretty much screwed. But there are people in this country who save, save and save. They do everything right and are ready for a nice retirement. Illness comes along and wipes everything clean. Number one reason for bankruptcies in US are medical bills. Next thing you know they are greeters at Wal-Mart. Need I say more?

I cannot stress enough how important is not to have ANY type of credit and have hefty savings to properly function; mentally and physically. Forget political process and dreamy ideologies of changing the system from within. That utopia is for hippies who never worked a day in their life. First, get rid of the credit and save up. You have to be able to do your current job without stress and with the proper attitude. Meaning, “I don’t give a shit if I loose this job” attitude. Only then feel free to pursue whatever fantasy of yours makes you happy.

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American economic paradox

Posted in Money on December 12th, 2008 by moody

This is just going to be angry rant, so I don’t rally care if you agree with me or not.

It’s funny how the media and the financial advisers all over the country had been preaching (more like shouting), how Americans are not saving enough; how we’re spending more than we produce; how average American has more that $16,000 in debt (not counting the mortgage). They have been shouting to us how we need to save more and spend less. They have been indoctrinating this religiously into our heads for the past 15 years. That’s all you‘ve been hearing in the papers and news. I think it’s a sound strategy. They were really onto something. And I mean this without a shred of sarcasm.

Well, what do you know. As luck would have it public is finally starting to listen and is starting to save while cutting back on consumption. Result? Whole fricking system is collapsing. Bottom falls out. Retail is hanging on a thread. Auto industry is probably going to collapse or go bankrupt. Banking has already collapsed (if you didn’t get bailed out by the Government of course) .Even gas prices are plummeting. Because of all this, people are loosing their jobs and cannot afford to go out and spend money on useless crap. Lot of them cannot even afford necessary things. It looks like a total collapse.

Now, the same people in the media and financial advisers are asking, in fact begging, Americans to start spending again to prevent economy from total collapse. They even talking about giving you another stimulus and tax cuts, which is essentially your money you earned, which it turn you will spend and will get circulated back to the stores and businesses, so they can keep their poor run and already failed operations going.

These are the same people that few months ago were bitching about Americans spending too much and not saving enough. Are you fucking kidding me? Two words to them: fuck you!

The fact is (and there’s really no way of getting around this) that the whole system got accustomed to the standard of living that was unsustainable for more then two decades or so. Now, when everything is getting back to where it should’ve been long time ago (back to living within or below means), analysts and media are talking about the collapse and how we need to start shopping again for the things you’ll never need, so retail and corporations can start making profit again. Again, fuck them. The only way these motherfuckers can survive is if you start spending more while getting deeper into debt. Otherwise they cannot exist. If most people in The United States lived below or within their means, and were trying not to get into debt, half of these corporations wouldn’t even exists. There’s simply not enough purchasing power without using borrowed money; which are credit cards and loans.

This is not the collapse. It’s a severe correction with justice. I say fuck them. Keep your money, don’t buy unnecessary things, build up your savings and let whoever was leeching off of you go under. That goes for banks, auto industry, retail and other bloodsuckers. Don’t give them a dime. Yes, it will be severe and lots of people will loose their jobs, but it will happen anyway. I’d say we bite the bullet now and start letting everything unsustainable fails. We will be much better off later. Not sure who said this but was right on the money: “If corporation is too big to fail (AIG anyone), it is too big to exists.”

Just think about this: auto industry has been making crappy products for years, and now when people are starting to turn to foreign cars, auto industry and media have nerve to call you unpatriotic for not purchasing their crappy product. They’re using patriotism to lure you into buying their crap. Short of going to people homes and making them purchase their product under the gun point, that is as low as they can go.

And more importantly: don’t ever let any financial analyst, adviser or media tell you what to do and how to spend/save your money. Use your good judgment and logic. These bloodsuckers care only about their ratings and making profit off of you. Not only that but they’ve been wrong on not only things that they predicted but on the things they were happening in the present. How stupid or dumb you have to be to accomplish that?

Strive for anxiety free life. That means: no debt, no mortgage and hefty savings. Only then, loosing a job that you don’t like will seems like blessing instead of hardship.

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