Really, my point for making this thread was to highlight the student loan debacle in the making as the indisputable example that clearly illuminates who is to blame; a system designed and manipulated for debt-serf enslavement ... on purpose and by design. The "students" didn't design that.
While the Student Loan situation is a particularly egregious form of Debt Slavery which emerged over the last 40 years or so, it really just follows on the heels of the Home Mortgage Biz which encouraged every GI coming back from WWII to take ona Federally Guaranteed Mortgage for a Tract House in Levittown.
In the case of the Mcmansions, you really just were Second Class if you were a Renter in the post-WWII years. Only "failures" didn't "own" their domiciles. I made the mistake once of buying a Condo while I was married, what a fucking headache! Getting it sold off when we got divorced was a pain in the butt.
For the Silents who did pay off these mortgages in the ever expanding economy of the Boom years, they lucked out for sure there. Just about anybody who took out a Mortgage though from say 1990 onward who didn't get out by 2006 or so at best has not done any better than Renting for the same period. Many are still actually underwater, and owe more than the McMansion is now worth.
In order to become a participant in Gatekept Professions which pay the Big Bucks, any kid who was NOT the Scion of an elite family that could pay the Tuition out of Pocket Change hadda take loans out up the Kazoo here as time went by. Again, early on in this game it Paid Off in many cases. When I went to Columbia, the total debt I hadda take on was not all that huge, and had I not been spending the megabucks I was making on Wall Street in the first 2 years in other ways (stuffing the noses of Joffrey Dancers with Coke), I could have paid it off then easily. Instead, it haunted me for a decade after that, until I finally wised up, used my income to pay off the College Loan while running up the Credit Card. So I traded Secured Debt I could never escape from into Unsecured Debt I could.
Then when things really went South for me, I declared BK and got out from under all of it. Never went into debt again after that, always lived beneath my means. never bought anything ever again on Credit, CASH only. No new cars, only Used Ones. My 1987 Toyota Tercel 4WD I bought in 1996 for $1500 lasted me about 7 years. The 1989 Jeep Wagonneer LTD I bought after that in PRISTINE condition with only 50K miles on it from a Little Old Lady friend of my mom's at the Senior Center for $3500 I STILL OWN, it sits in my Storage Unit in Springfield, MO.
When arrived by Airplane in Alaska with 5 Bags of my Carry-with-you Possession from my Trucking Years, I bought another 1980s vintage vehicle, a 1987 Toyota Pickup Rustbucket for $500. Lasted me a year, then I bought a 1989 Mazda MPV 4WD minivan which I STILL OWN for $900. I finally got out of the 80s with vehicles a couple of years ago and bought another PRISTINE 2002 Ford Explorer SUV for $5K. My BIG Bugout Machine, the Tioga RV is another 1980s Vintage Vehicle I picked up for $5K with only 45K original miles on it.
Anyhow, the Automobile was yet another way of expanding debt to the general population, which expanded the money supply and made all the Waste possible, as well as making it possible for the Financial Class to sieve off ENORMOUS wealth from the ever expanding Industrial Economy. Remaining OUTSIDE this debt system was difficult to impossible for most people, at least if you wanted to Bootstrap yourself up into the "middle class" from Poverty. Without the Sheepskin, ya can't get the High Paying Job. Without the nice McMansion in a "good" neighborhood, your kids go to crappy warhouse schools. Without the nice NEW car, ya can't hang with the other Up & Comers or attract the Quality Female of your dreams. Only if you were willing to give ALL of that up could you stay out of debt, and so I did. Most folks did not of course, because the Ads PROMISED them, for everything you ever wanted but could not afford, there was VISA!
Are the people who ran UP those Credit Cards the RESPONSIBLE ones? NO. the people who ISSUED them are. They KNEW this money could never be paid back, just as they knew Subprime Mortgages never could be. By encouraging people to take on this debt though, they made themselves RICH beyond all measure, more than any Pharoah or King ever was.
A Bil of Goods was SOLD to the general population, that Infinite Growth and Infinite Wealth was possible for all. EVERYONE could live the Lifestyle of the Rich & Famous. Here is your VISA to Prosperity! Typical J6P, DUMBER than ROCKS believed it. Who is responsible when SMART people PREY on the STUPIDITY of others? Rhetorical Question.
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Topic: An Old Argument in Collapse Space - Who is to Blame? (Read 10909 times)
April 12, 2017, 09:19:19 PM