A Very Brief History of the United States: Keys to Increasing the American Standard of Living, by Soot & Ashes:
Step 1: Industrialize
Step 2: Increase productivity
Step 3: Send the women to work
Step 4: Work longer hours
Step 5: Go into massive debt
Step 6: Create massive speculative financial bubbles
Step 7: There is no Step 7
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63 comments:
It's true that we have been making our society up as we went along, according to our wants and needs and the resources available at the time. And with natural human tendencies being what they are, there was no other possible outcome. I also believe there is no Step 7 for this scenario. We don't have that concept in our mentality. We have run out of gas and options.
Keith, you know what Step 7 is, so stop being so coy:
Step 7: Revolution
Step 7: Elect a "Messiah" to save us all. But he turn out to be Clinton v2.0 as he hires nothing but tax cheats. Some change. 2 weeks. That didn't take long.
Step 7, Socialize the country.
Take out all steps related to work as all meaningful jobs were outsourced to the third world slave labor camps. We ca thank the Clintons for that. Obbbammmmyyyyy will do nothing to stimulate real job growth in this country as his new world order masters would not allow it. You will not see any jobs coming back until the global elite has achieved global wage parity. The American people will of course destoy this corrupt government long before their goals are achieved. The Americans that are left that is. The nwo has flooded this country with 3rd world scum. Thin out the percentage of real AMERICANS. Socialists in bed with the nwo, a target rich environment.
Keith,
There is a step 7. America becomes (is) a 3rd world, Latin American style country.
I just spent 45 minutes, in vain, trying to get tech help from AT&T, just so I could upload a little family website up to my supposedly "free" 10 mb of domain space.
None of the tech people could help. One didn't know what "FTP" was and had never heard of the FTP application "Fetch".
This is the "new" AT&T.
We are so screwed as a nation. And don't anyone blame Obama. We were screwed up long before he came on the scene.
Did you guys seen the 150k tax mistake by tom dashle?Why cant these dummies file an honest tax return?No wonder the country is broke.how many phd's does it take to file a 1040?
Standard of living is measured in CASH FLOW.
The objective is supposed to be increasing NET WORTH. But no one suggests MANDATORY ACCOUNTING in the schools.
step 7 consists of electing a president that is the distilled representation of all that was worse in steps 1-6. a president who poses for the cover of vanity fair.
does anyone see the irony of a vane president on the cover of vanity?
we truly have reached the peak and it is all down hill from here.
Did you guys seen the 150k tax mistake by tom dashle?Why cant these dummies file an honest tax return?
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Yep. and that ass clown will be declared "too important" to not confirm. his tax indiscretion will be over looked. how can it not when we have the head of treasury who can't figure out how to pay his taxes? Dashcel's job is much less important, he only has to reform the industry that has paid him millions in "consulting" fees.
but hey, BO stays true to is lobbyist promise as daschel was never a properly registered lobbyist.
what a crock of sh*t.
tax cheats and lobbyists for a BO administration.
DEC 2008
6(a): Eliminate the middle class.
The comment by anonymous at 2:58 PM says it all. However, every American idiot economist will say that protectionist policies will wreck the American economy. Ahem. What is happening now to the American economy without protectionist policies?
Smoot-Hawley! Smoot-Hawley! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
Real wages are falling, just as planned by Wall Street to jack up corporate profits. Except Wall Street forgot what Henry Ford remembered: for every worker you raise up to the midle class, you gain another potential customer. For every worker you push down to a wage slave, you lose a customer.
But our American elites will keep on saying that there cannot be any intervention by the US govt to protect the American worker. There can only be intervention to protect Hedge Funds, Banks, Private Equity Companies, etc.
step 7: repeat
STEP 7.
Feel compelled to empower a precieved victim of Racial Inequity, by voting a Black Marxist/Socialist into power and then worshiping him through the eyes of the Progressive Liberal Main Stream Media.
As he fails to deliver, blame past administrations for his ineptness.
As Hyperinflation takes hold, riot in the street and rail against conservative values.
As the country implodes, finally wonder why you voted for Obama in the first place.
We will likely be a nation of chambermaids and bellhops. . .hosting rich Chinese, Japanese and Arabs on holidays to USALand (tm). . .I once stood around Las Vegas Blvd. and marvelled at the "New Economy" - it will be a different world for us - at least we have great National Parks that people around the world want to visit. . .guess we better learn a foreign language and get used to 10service workers to a house!
Any serious ideas on how America can increase median (real) incomes and also standard of living?
Serious question.
Here's some ideas (ideas - not that I'm for them, but I bet people are thinking about)
1) Throw open the borders - get 500 million total people by 2025
2) Default on all debt, kill the dollar, introduce the Amero currency
3) Reindustrialize and become a net exporter again
4) Massive green investment, make the US the world leader in green tech and green jobs
5) Eliminate all trade barriers worldwide
A few for starters. But I'm not sure even bad ideas can save America at this point. We feel maxed out, unless productivity soars, exports soar or there's some new invention or initiative that produces millions of good jobs
America has done four things well in its History. The first is agriculture. The second is entertainment. The third is big technological events (the bomb, going to the moon, smart weapons). The forth is our university system.
We don't do defense based economies, finance, and empire well.
Let's get back to growing food, making good movies, going to mars and lots of exploring, and having a kick-ass time getting educated well.
Screw 401ks, resource devouring transportation and living conditions, proxy wars/real wars, and trying to tame the world.
If you can't pay cash for it ... you can't afford it!
Don Payne
step 3 Send the women to work?
I feel they need to be home barefoot a pregnant.
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Interesting Eurotard view.
There really is only
Step 1: create an environment where ‘Everyone’ can innovate and produce.
Leverage natural greed in a smart way so there is a level playing field.
Europe will not survive
Anyone see "Revolutionary Road" yet?
One thing that struck me was the idea of a guy going to work and being able to live in a great house, great neighborhood, wife stayed home and baked cookies.
Man, that seems like 1000 years ago.
But now, two people need to be high-earners to afford even a hell-hole in some cities, they both have to work 50 hours a week plus, with barely any vacation, and it's hard to find a good neighborhood, or good public schools.
Doesn't seem like progress, even on the surface people seem "better off"
One more idea for Step 7:
Eliminate the United States income tax and IRS, and replace with a consumption tax
Step 7: Checkmate
The king is toppled and it's game over for America.
Step 7.
We build a pyramid to create jobs and preserve the body of Obama.
The tomb will be erected on the east bank of the Mississipi to honor the Sun God Ra.
After passing Obamas spirit can travel from the crown of the pyramid through the St. Louis Arch and off into eternity.
Depending on the time zone, most Americans will be able to tune into the finale of American Idol after the event.
DOPES!
"Take out all steps related to work as all meaningful jobs were outsourced to the third world slave labor camps."
Translation: I am unable to get a decent job myself based on skills and general ability, and even if I could, I lack the initiative to go look for a decent job. So I come on S&A and hatespew, because there are some real idiots there that buy anything you tell them.
There have been many different ideas thrown around about how to change the US tax code or abolish it all together.
It would be ignorant to say that the "Law of Unintended Consequences" wouldn't rear its ugly head for years if a major overhaul to this system was made. Fine. However, I don't know that I've ever seen a real salient solution presented mostly because it's been people like Steve Forbes and Ron Paul who have been the biggest proponents of a major change and their ideas simply don't get the attention of the Republicrats.
What exactly would a United States with out income tax look like and how could we get there?
"I just spent 45 minutes, in vain, trying to get tech help from AT&T..."
With an Indian, what does that have to with American jobs?
Don't interaction with Indian call centers make you more sure of the USA each time? I know I don't feel threatened in my job when I deal with them.
30 years ago they as a society were in the dark ages. Their minds have not evolved as ours have to think technical matters through. 30 years ago they were trying to keep Shiva happy by eating rats or whatever and slogging around in mud farms. Now they are trying to debug code? Give me a break.
boy, BO's nomination confirmations have become a 3 ring circus.
yet another nominee has tax problems.
That now makes 3. at least this one had the common sense to withdraw herself from consideration.
daschle would too if he had any morals.
"Tom Daschle backed the patron who paid him a million-dollar salary and supplied him with a free car and driver for a job inside the Obama administration, two Democrats said Monday."
well, this is becoming a joke.
it is clear that washington is filled with corrupt political inbreds. obama's administration if chuck full of them.
DEC 2008
I am waiting... waiting... waiting... for the Credit Card bubble and Commercial Real Estate bubble to burst. This is the only way to educate the sheeple... so that we can have a smarter next generation...
I want to see a systemic collapse... domino collapse... pulling down everything with it... so that it can be rebuilt again... And this time, we'll do a better job...
But now, two people need to be high-earners to afford even a hell-hole in some cities, they both have to work 50 hours a week plus, with barely any vacation, and it's hard to find a good neighborhood, or good public schools.
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people don't understand that the bottom rung of the economic ladder will always be the bottom rung. if you raise the lower rungs by increasing minimum wage or by putting both spouses to work all that happens is that the whole ladder raises up. sure, the first families to send both spouses to work saw an improvement in life style, but that quickly deteriorated once everyone started sending both spouses to work.
The only way to move up the ladder is to add more value than those around you who are on the same rung.
DEC 2008
"But now, two people need to be high-earners to afford even a hell-hole in some cities, they both have to work 50 hours a week plus, with barely any vacation, and it's hard to find a good neighborhood, or good public schools."
Wow. I am glad I'm not in with a bunch of losers like you are. Me and my friends are all working dads and husbands whose wives choose to stay home with the kids. Me, I have my kids in private schools because you know anything from the government is going to suck. We live in a little townhome in the suburbs where it's safe, but cheap.
I get 5 weeks of vacation a year and work over 40 hours a week once in a while. It's all about priority. Sure, if the wife worked we could take trips and move into a place bigger than 1000 sq. ft. but we don't need that. What we need is 1. Water 2. Food 3. Shelter 4. Clothing
What I read from a lot of your posts is some kind of weird bitterness because you can't be just like everyone else without working a regular job. That's called Keeping Up With The Joneses, and is dangerous thinking. Maybe if you could replace that phrase with Live And Let Live, and minded your own business, you wouldn't be so bitter. But then you also have those loser friends that you need to shed.
"1) Throw open the borders - get 500 million total people by 2025"
WTF? How with that increase the median wage and overall standard of living? You're talking about downward wage pressure, adding supply to decreasing demand.
7. Rinse and repeat.
Is anyone excited about idol tonight?
Oh did you see tom dashle withdraws after he cannot file a 1040 correctly?Oops I didn't pay 100k in taxes.Why is all this dirt coming out on peoples taxes all of a suden.I think 3 high profile people have been caught cheating on taxes.No wonder we are broke.
Step 7, rinse can repeat.
Step 7, nominate every politician for a post in the Obama admnistration and expose there corrupt way of life.
3 DEM, 1 GOP down, 100's to go.
PAY YOUR TAXES SUMBAGS!
But the rich don't spend as much of their income as the middle class and the poor do -- after all, being rich means that you already have most of what you need.
Not only that, the wealthy from Hollywood and other music stars, usually get everything free because vendors want them to wear to brainwash the sheep. Remember the outrageous gift baskets from the Oscar's? Then you have people like Paris, Lindsey, and Jamie Foxx getting paid big bucks just to show up for an hour in nightclubs in Miami and Vegas, with hotel + first class air free of charge. These people don't pay for anything; you're the ones supporting their arses!
That's why I keep telling you all to stop being a serf and start boycotting these high school dropout-leeches, especially rappers. Stupid people barely can make ends meet but buy overpriced products these leeches promote or sell. It's time to change the game and level the plain field. Don't be a slave!
That's a real revolution. Close your wallet and let the wealthy starve. We can grow a vegetable garden and work with tools, they can't.
Step 7 is to marginalize the Fascist Republican Party, marginalize anyone who is too stupid to realize that several important things changed on Jan 20. In short, marginalize don't realize that "socialism" (i.e. a non-profit fire department paid for by taxes instead of cash when they arrive at your burning door) is MUCH TO BE PREFERRED over the last eight years of Christo-corporate-FASCIST destruction of the Constitution, the rule of law and the middle class.
Then, find ways to AVOID giving ALL the middle class wealth to the richest 1% of Americans. Find ways to avoid spending ALL our wealth on the profitable business of killing people who might someday think about planning to try to somehow someday kill a few of us. Also learn how to avoid CREATING MILLIONS MORE OF THESE TYPES OF PEOPLE EVERY YEAR, due to our own policies of U.S. sponsored terrorist aggression.
Find ways to stop giving ALL our wealth to foreigners who don't like our freedoms, in order to buy natural resources that we already squandered our own supply of and which are slowly killing us, our fish, our rivers, our oceans, and our trees.
Lastly, figure out that being DUMB JOCKS, REDNECKS, and illiterate Faux News-watching idiots is no longer cool, no longer civilized, no longer a viable ticket to a good life.
PROBLEMS SOLVED.
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MESSIAH CAN DO NO WRONG. IT'S ALL PELOSI'S FAULT NOW. NEW SCAPEGOAT TO FEEL ALL FUZZY AND WARM INSIDE, LIKE FRANK'S PEE DOWN THE LEG OR AL GORE'S CUTE POLAR BEARS.
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Oh yeah, why don't you Al Gore b!tches wear t-shirts and shorts in Paris right now, since it's supposed to be soooo hot! Pfff...some global warming. Oh, my bad, I forgot your new cover, "If it's hot is global warming; if it's cold is global warming, too." Geniuses! Crooks!
Thousands stranded by snow at Paris airport
Hundreds of air passengers spent a second day stranded in Paris Tuesday, after snow forced the cancellation of dozens of flights, officials said.
The Eiffel Tower, which was closed Monday because of the snowfall, reopened Tuesday afternoon after ice and snow was cleared from its decks, operators said.
Air France was on Monday forced to cancel 150 of its 400 scheduled flights out of the capital's main international airport, Charles de Gaulle, leaving some 5000 passengers stranded.
Northern, central and western France were hit Monday by snow and freezing rain, causing difficult conditions on roads across the country and pushing power consumption to an all-time peak.
Weather services are forecasting temperatures were expected to plunge to between minus five and minus 10 Celsius (23 and 14 Fahrenheit), with the cold snap set to last until the middle of the month.
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Keith censors free speech. He must be a gov disinformation agent.
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Here's some ideas (ideas - not that I'm for them, but I bet people are thinking about)
1) Throw open the borders - get 500 million total people by 2025
2) Default on all debt, kill the dollar, introduce the Amero currency
3) Reindustrialize and become a net exporter again
4) Massive green investment, make the US the world leader in green tech and green jobs
5) Eliminate all trade barriers worldwide
You're definitely working for the New World Order.
Translation: I am unable to get a decent job myself based on skills and general ability, and even if I could, I lack the initiative to go look for a decent job. So I come on S&A and hatespew, because there are some real idiots there that buy anything you tell them.
February 3, 2009 5:16 PM
Hey dumb fuck, I saw this coming ten years ago. I see whats coming in 2 years. Look at any third world country, who has money and who doesn't. I will have money because I have positioned myself to service the only industry in 3rd world countries the overlords care about. Food and raw materials. To be where I'm at you better have millions not in junk paper currency or other paper holdings but in equipement and human resorces that will keep raw materials and food flowing to the slave pens that have meaning to the rulers. Ignorant day trading foooooollllll and toooooolllllll.
consultant,
The tech support person probably wasn't gay and hence had no experience with Apple Mac software.
Here's some ideas–with my answers
1) Throw open the borders - get 500 million total people by 2025
ANSWER: The democrats and Republicans are ahead of you on this. Check–it’s being done.
2) Default on all debt, kill the dollar, introduce the Amero currency
ANSWER: The democrats and Republicans are ahead of you on this. Check–it’s being done.
3) Reindustrialize and become a net exporter again
ANSWER: Under the John McCain Doctrine, manufacturing industries and manufacturing jobs can only be exported from the USA, and can neither be imported into the USA nor created in the USA. Remember those fond, hopeful words of McCain: these industries and these jobs are never coming back. McCain could never explain why this was so. I guess its some mystical-magical thingy–he wasn’t really sure himself. But, boy, would McCain ever get mad if anyone claimed that America could become a manufacturing giant again. By the way, didn’t you know that Smoot-Hawley caused the Great Depression; WWII; the Korean and Viet Namese wars; AIDS; herpes; disco; the Osmonds; the Tech bubble and burst; the Housing Bubble and burst; etc, etc.
4) Massive green investment, make the US the world leader in green tech and green jobs
ANSWER: Isn’t American investment in American industry just another form of protectionism? Haven’t we learned from Smoot-Hawley? We should invest in exporting American jobs and industries to India, China and Mexico– Now that would be in the spirit of free trade!
5) Eliminate all trade barriers worldwide
ANSWER: The democrats and Republicans are ahead of you on this. Check–it’s being done-unless you mean that China, India, Korea, Japan, Mexico etc should have to also drop their trade barriers. Now that’s racism.
Step 7: Wholesale destruction of Washington, D.C. politics and the current form of gov't.
Federal Gov't 2.0 ... the "Lite" version. Subsequent debt defaults and trashing of the old USD.
Step 7: Large spike in crime rate.
"Whenever the economy shrugs and throws off people it doesn't need, the underground economy finds a place for them."
--David Simon, Writer-Producer,
HBO's 'The Wire'
FYI moron, the Democrats controlled the house and senate when we slipped into the abyss. Luckily Obama is going to rid us of the corrupt Democrats by nominating them to his administrations. Hopefully he will help rid the GOP of the religious fanatics.
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STEP 7: OBAMY GONNA GIT ME CHECK FOR RIMS.
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Any serious ideas on how America can increase median (real) incomes and also standard of living?
1) Throw open the borders - get 500 million total people by 2025
2) Default on all debt, kill the dollar, introduce the Amero currency
3) Reindustrialize and become a net exporter again
4) Massive green investment, make the US the world leader in green tech and green jobs
5) Eliminate all trade barriers worldwide
As an ultra-globalist type, I vote for (1) + (5) with self-regulation wherever achievable. Shock therapy, that sure is. But someone should set an example in times when protectionism and brain-dead bureaucratic contrivances are back in vogue.
High nominal income means nothing when you can only spend it on domestic, "it's all about jobs" boondoggle products. Think of Russia considering a taxpayer-funded plan to deliver 1960s technology cars via railroad across the entire country to the Pacific coast when there's an extreme oversupply of similar, across the borders of Asian producers.
Anon 5:30 said...
"Wow. I am glad I'm not in with a bunch of losers like you are. Me and my friends are all working dads and husbands whose wives choose to stay home with the kids."
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While you and your friends are at work, me and my friends are banging yours & your friends' wives.
"One thing that struck me was the idea of a guy going to work and being able to live in a great house, great neighborhood, wife stayed home and baked cookies."
"Sure, if the wife worked we could take trips and move into a place bigger than 1000 sq. ft. but we don't need that.
******
First off, love this thread Keith--well done.
I have to agree with Anonypussy 5:30. It can still be done in a "regular guy" job. My sister and her husband do this (yes, she even bakes!) on ~60K yr.
Rarer than some awesome job that allows you to do this and keep up with the Joneses, is the family brave enough to make the commitment to that kind of life, i.e. live truly modestly, frugally, and with some higher priorities than collecting toys and a trip to Cabo.
Unfortunately, most of us have corporate America's twin fangs of debt and celebrity worship buried into our necks before we even know what's hit us. Once you're on the hamster wheel, it's tough to get off.
7. While clearing brush 'at the ranch' in crawford, Bush goes out on limb and saws it off, falling and breaking his neck, killing him instantly...
Wake up, wake it;s only a dream...
Step 7: "Discover" New Continent
Step 8: Force inhabitants off their land
Step 9: Enslave people from lesser developed continents
Step 10: Repeat
Time for a REVERSE STIMULUS PACKAGE. That's right. Everyone in the US needs to send $10.00 to the US govt. to help bailout the government and stimulate the government to spend even more money.
I figure if everyone chips in $10.00, that's good for about $3 billion.
Then we wait for the magic to happen. If necessary, we send another $10.00 until the stimulus kicks in.
That makes as much sense as anything else I've seen.
While you and your friends are at work, me and my friends are banging yours & your friends' wives.
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and if you live in portland oregon, the mayor may be banging your sons.
consultant,
The tech support person probably wasn't gay and hence had no experience with Apple Mac software.
---------------------------------
reminds me of a joke:
what is the most difficult thing for a mac user to do?
Tell their parents that they are gay.
Wow. I am glad I'm not in with a bunch of losers like you are. Me and my friends are all working dads and husbands whose wives choose to stay home with the kids. Me, I have my kids in private schools because you know anything from the government is going to suck. We live in a little townhome in the suburbs where it's safe, but cheap.
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what city do you live in? any "openings" for "pool boys"?
Keith,
How would opening the borders improve income and standard of living? More people means lower incomes (see any overpopulated country as an example) and more costly public services.
Great posts and Stimulating debate !
7. We will all wake up, change our course, and attitude towards the weak and those we killed, start respecting others, be just and kind, work smarter not harder, innovate, be modest, eliminate interest, have reasonable expectations, love, care about the community, raise our families...I see a positive change coming... thanks,
Well, businesses could save money on employee costs,by going to a 2 1/2 hour lunch like France, where everything closes down. They only need one employee in a place because no one has to cover lunches.
The only trouble then, is that you have a lot more unemployed people and no one can afford anything.
There is the dillemma. If you work at Walmart but you can't afford to buy at Walmart, then what kind of economy do we have?
Me and my friends are all working dads and husbands whose wives choose to stay home with the kids.
Is that what MILFS have been telling you? bwahahaha
You really do need to earn a lot to live well. I'm 35, married with no children. The wife & I live in a 900 sq foot condo that we bought in cash, about $175K. I'm a millionaire but not a multi-millionaire.
I'm the CEO of a small company, we just laid off 500 people today. That was a bummer.
Point is I bank all the money we make. If I were to get the axe, not only would I walk away with a few months salary but our living expenses are so low that we could effectively retire. Unless we have children... then we'd have to budget for their development.
I'm thinking about throwing in the towel from time to time but the experience is quite interesting.
I really feel bad for the FB'ers and the hamster wheel spinners. I feel bad for people like Nick. People like Nick were among the 500 who got laid off today!
Even if a step 7 existed, would we take it?
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