Signs of a Dying Empire

[pbrower2a]

(09-19-2017, 11:48 AM)X_4AD_84 Wrote:

(09-16-2017, 02:42 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: I'm tempted to see the debasement of currency as a symptom more than as a cause.

1. That people are living off the past, including the reputation of the currency from better times?

2. The overall fraudulence of the system?  Inflation can be a way of cheating workers and savers.

3. The extinction of thrift as people are unwilling or unable to save.

I am tempted to believe that inflation could work to destroy the thrift necessary for creating capital that might compete with extant firms by forming competitive businesses. People who cannot save are unable to establish collateral for starting a business of any kind. Thus is inflation the best friend of the monopolist and crony capitalist?

It's the dumbed down masses who are the real drivers of debt fueled commerce and dovish monetary policy. You start to tighten credit and go for hawkish monetary policy and they all squeal like stuck pigs.

Of course it is possible that consumers who identify themselves mostly by what they are capable of buying who are vulnerable to 'easy credit rip-offs' are at fault. This said, Big Business is pushing such stuff and the dealers who sell the stuff.

The office chair on which I sit has been showing signs of wear. So what do I do? Buy a new one? Not when my income is shaky. I went to a thrift store, bought a used blanket for about $4, and put it upon the seat. That's a good way to avoid spending about $106 dollars on a new office chair (sale price + tax).

When the 4T is fully underway and at its most dangerous time then the consumer economy collapses. The pipeline of cheap stuff from China gets cut off, and when an electronic gadget fails we will just have to do without or buy something used at a thrift shop. Maybe obsolete, like a TV with a CRT.

The wheelers-and-dealers want the masses to be uncritical consumers -- until they can no longer make and sell (or, as is they really do now, import and sell).

We'll likely be back to cash-and-carry in the next 1T. The word d--t may be in the same category with other words referring to elimination and fornication, but it will be close. Maybe if we handle this 4T well we will have set ourselves  up to solve many of the problems that we have as the result of bad behavior in the 3T that has persisted to today. Maybe it will harder to be elected if one avoided the war (Clinton, Dubya, Trump) than if one made at least some effort to serve.