I’ve been keeping up with twitter, but no so much on my blog. It just seems like such a futile time to be writing much of anything.
The world economy is dying. We have (er…had) a super-optimized consumption machine going, with a supply-line stretching from the third world (where stuff was made) through the first world, where stuff got consumed and thrown away. The consumers bought the stuff with their white-collar paychecks funded by the 100,000+ people per year who became finance majors, because only suckers become engineers or scientists (too hard, involves math, can’t BS your way to the top).
Only…the reality of it was, keeping up with the Jones’s destroyed the Jones’s as well. Like a vast game of Liars poker–everyone saw what you had, but you didn’t know yourself. If everyone else could afford a 4000 square foot house, 3 new cars, 2 vacations per year, why shouldn’t we? I mean, THEY could make it work, why not us? Looking successful became all-important. Leverage (e.g. debt) is what corporations and the government used. It’s OPM, baby (other people’s money).
So, now it’s all correcting. People with no real net worth can’t escape. Housing prices are crashing. Pensions don’t exist anymore and 401(k) principle balances are off anywhere from 25% to 75%. People fear desperately for their jobs.
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Still, spring is coming, my house has 1 working toilet (infinitely better than 0!), and everyone at my house is healthy. It’s the little things you’ve got to be happy about.
Also, my Dad’s thinking of buying a motorcycle again. w0000t!!!