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I was aware of Quinn, and he is spot on correct and a much superior writer than me. I never claimed to be gifted in the literary realm (85 - 90% percentile only on standardized test, 99+% percentile in the abstract realm).
He and our comments have also missed the fact that even those not suffering from those impulses, are financially complicit (and historically bound) in the decadent system and thus also biased towards not recognizing this reality.
As the USA was expanding as an industrial powerhouse, with the Mississippi river and the canals and rivers from the East coast, along with coasts on both the East and West hemispheres giving it a geographical advantage in physical trade over Europe, Asia, and Africa, then we needed this low education workforce. Now the low-IQ melting pot has become an albatross, and especially as we move into the Computer Age where tangible goods are devalued.
Even very smart Americans have not accepted that geographical fluke has reached the end of its utility, and that the ideals they were ingrained with (e.g. pay your fair share for a better society) is exactly what is going to cause the spiral into the abyss (until they wake up due to pain and start the shooting wars to break up the USA into non-productive 3rd world and productive regions).
When Google moves its main office to Asia or is superseded by an Asian internet company, that will be a watershed event that confirms the end of the USA empire. One of the founders of Facebook already gave up his USA citizenship and attained Singaporean citizenship. And he paid a huge tax penalty in order to do that sooner rather than delaying.
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I bet a lot of those guys in the video served in Vietnam. They were most likely upstanding young men who came back PTSD'd and shunned from their families. They fell in with some bad folks and here they are 20-40 years later.
Automation may wipe these people out from the job market, but most of America is not actually producing anything anyway. Money is being made on the transferring of money around and through its exportation to the World which is demanding USD. In years long ago, the US actually manufactured lots of things. Today it still does that, but on a very limited scale. People today are getting rich on the backs of others through financial markets with large lumps of cash and uneven odds.
B.A.S. again I detect an undercurrent of hatred (envy) for the wealthy in your writings (i.e. Socialist or Communist ideology). I am asserting we get wealthy by being productive and not associating with those losers who blame their problems on others (e.g. blaming the 1%). Yeah government, finance, and fiat money systems are corrupt. So what? It still doesn't change the fact that self-discipline is what makes success. The founders of Google didn't get there by whining, hiring losers, and farting around on the beach all day! They worked hard long hours. It doesn't mean I don't have compassion for their plight and bad luck. And I surely wouldn't try to exacerbate their suffering. But I also know I can't invest in fixing their morass because it will drag me down with them. P.S. I would not have served in Vietnam! No way I will be a slave of the corrupt who run governments. Sorry but those weak people lack a backbone! And you can see that in the video. They don't have the capacity to stand up and fight their way out of their hole. |
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I watched the film. It's a very good look at what drugs and alcohol can do to people as well as what a simple life outlook and philosophy looks like. Nothing wrong with the latter. The characters may not be the 'perfect' people, but I can assure you all that separates these people for many in the upperclasses is a higher level vernacular and better clothing. I've seen both and the sad part is they both end up looking more alike from a holistic perspective. Rich and poor people like drugs/alcohol equally.
Similarly and growing up in poverty in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and later the Philippines, I've experienced this life to some degree. Yet I also managed to have a 4.0 GPA from middle school through college (except for first semester in 10th grade of high school when I transferred from LA to CA, and was drunk many of the days of that semester yet still managed a 3.2 GPA for the semester and won JV League Champion in XCountry with a time of 16:40 for 3 miles). Also I took Calculus at night college while I was a senior in High School. In college I stopped going to class and was scoring in the high 90s for grades and for example I place in the top 3 out of 3 sections in Chemistry 101 at a major university (300 students). What I see in that video is people who are playing out their life emotions, yet haven't been able to have the self-discipline to rise above their emotional issues and achieve. I've been so near to the top (as mentioned above, then creating million user software that impacted the world) yet also I've fallen into holes that have squandered much of my ability similar to how these people in the video have. The difference is I am recognizing it and determined to get back to the top and this time all the way to the top and stay there. One of the key elements for achieving this, is I must not associate with people who do not have self-discipline. That is one the primary mistakes or factors that separates great success from mediocrity. OTOH, I will say that these people are very interesting and colorful, and I actually love to interact with these people in short bursts. But I don't want to live with them and let my self-discipline slide into the abyss. And yes, this is exactly the gang banger shit that teens drift into because they have no self-discipline and don't have the role models and environment to teach them how to have self-discipline. And yes, America will decline severely after 2016 and a big washout of this underclass will ensue. I don't plan to be there for that. |
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http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/01/31/gold-the-desirable-object-can-it-survive-as-the-alternative-to-electronic-money/Gold – the Desirable Object – Can it Survive as the Alternative to Electronic Money?
Our greatest problem is government’s hunt for money. Now 29% of American households are starting to hoard dollars. As this increases, government can eventually close the door by simply cancelling the currency. The USA has never done that yet other than the transition from the Continental dollar to the US dollar. But every other currency has undergone just cancellation. The advantage of precious metals historically has been they are universally acceptable around the world so that is where they stand a chance if we can transport wealth anymore. The problem metals face is stringent tracking of who buys and sells what. Storing in a bank is now quietly considered to be money laundering (read fine print when renting safe deposit box). Of course, then there is the problem of transportation. You can’t hop on a plane any more or load it in the trunk of your car and drive across country. You will run the risk highway-robbery by the police under ruthless civil asset forfeiture laws.
The question becomes, what kind of a future do we face? Can precious metals serve as a medium of exchange without hiding in the shadows of dark alleyways? This is the hunt for money that the government is engaging in these days. They simply declare they own x-% of your wealth and if you do not voluntarily hand it over you are a CRIMINAL who they they can justify killing on the spot. Indeed, every person already commits 3 felonies a day and do not know it.
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Just like Civil Asset Forfeiture, they pretend you have done something to justify them somehow profiting from their own ruling. Is it any wonder the US Federal courts have a conviction rate over 98%when even Adolf Hitler’s rate was 90%? It is always about money and only a FOOL thinks there is any kind of justice. From the government’s perspective, it is always JUST-US not “justice” and the mainstream press allow this to happen by their failure to ever expose the truth.
We face a whole new world. Historically government could not hunt down money with such efficiency. The question becomes in all honesty, just how far down the rabbit hole are we going? Can society stop this insanity before it is too late? In these respect, I must admit, there is no such period in history that holds the answer I can recall. You could have packed up your gold and just left town. That is not possible today. Will shares and diamonds become the international means of capital preservation that can be moved? This is something we will have to experience perhaps for the first time in history. If we go all the way, the only thing that has value is food. Scary thought. I sure hope 2016 shakes up the political world. We really need a “change” for real. This is the PUBLIC v PRIVATE eternal battle. It is always driven by the eternal sea of politics. Can we ever break this repetitive cycle and take that one small step for human kind? http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/01/31/vancouver-conference/So $5,000 gold is not $5,000 as we know it today. Everything is relative. Gold cannot rise just yet until the dollar finishes rising blowing the world up. As a Canadian, I made a lot on my US investments as the loonie collapsed but to an American, he just lost the last few years worth of profits in Canada because of the US dollar rise. http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/02/01/germans-are-spying-on-everyone-in-europe-and-gives-to-nsa/Germans Are Spying on Everyone in Europe and Gives it all to NSA
Germany’s spy or intelligence agency, the BND, has been revealed to be gathering some 220 million pieces of metadata from foreign phone calls and text messages per day. They are handing all this info over to top US spy agencies the NSA and the CIA. The problem is, all this data is being cataloged per person so guess what – they are really looking for money. 
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How the USA will force you back to the USA... (you won't be able to have a bank account or get any funds abroad) http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/02/02/how-to-run-a-government-for-dummies/COMMENT: My wife took our 4-year old Alex to the bank today to open a savings account for him with his piggy bank of about 10k baht ($333.00). The teller noticed he was half Thai and asked if he was American, to which she said he was both Thai and American.
The teller: “We won’t open an account for him because we have to report him to the IRS.”
So my wife said “open it as a trust account as a Thai citizen.” The teller: “Can’t do that. It’s evading U.S. regulations.”
End result: Alex can’t open an account here.
Amazing, simply amazing. |
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If dollar and USA stocks are rising after 2015.75, then perhaps it means the collapse won't be visceral in the USA until later? http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/02/03/great-depression-the-correlation/As long as the stock market does not make a spike high into September, then we should see the rally unfold AFTER 2015.75 As the market rallies, the Fed will break ranks and raise rates becoming more concerned about a domestic bubble. Of course raising rates will only draw in more foreign capital and the rise in the dollar will set in motion more sovereign debt defaults in emerging markets who borrowed in dollars. They will find themselves in the same position as Greece, Unable to repay loans that have appreciated.
The wave formations and lot more are explained in the new version of the Greatest Bull Market in History. We hope this will be out by the end of the summer. |
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Armstrong admits that most Americans can't migrate to Asia (with its very low crime, death penalty for drugs, strong families, and erudite youth) and suggests Central and South America (I also investigated these options, but drugs, laziness, and personal security is a problem in Latin America[1]): http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/02/03/where-can-we-flee-to-this-time/One question a lot of people ask – where can we go this time? America was the place people fled to from Europe and the economic abuses. This is why the American people were such isolationists for World War I and II distinct and apart from its politicians. The politicians did everything to get Americans to support a war. Roosevelt even went to Boston to promise their sons would never go to Europe, just arms. The Irish were not very tolerant of defending Britain when they saw the English as the oppressors of the Irish that sent them fleeing to the States.
Asia may present some problems for any kind of a mass exodus. That really leaves Africa and South America. One of the best kept secrets was the fact that many Southern Confederates fled the USA upon losing the war and they took off to Brazil. To this very day they still celebrate the American Confederacy in Brazil.
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So perhaps the only place left will be south of the border. Where American’s called Mexican’s swimming across the Rio Grand “wet backs”, they may apply the same term to Americans fleeing the new draconian America if the direction we fall is authoritarian rather than freedom – cómo está. |
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I do not believe the current system is sustainable, but some of the Obamacare enactments will help forge a new direction for healthcare. A fundamental mind set change needs to happen (AKA a few generations need to die off with the newest generations begin taught a new way of thinking towards their health). What's troublesome for me is that the US healthcare system is not universally organized for set pricing. I don't get a larger salary because pricing increases. A heart surgery can run on the low end of $50K at a less known hospital to upwards of $150K at the best hospital with the most well known surgeon. In both cases, the docs know how to do the surgery, were trained identically; yet the price is different.
Healthcare is competitive in the US. Not only do they want you to pay for it, but on top of it; you have to pay TOP dollar to get expected care in these situations. This is not sustainable or dare I say 'fair' in a country where basic care is an unalienable right. I don't blame either side, but sometime long ago someone said basic healthcare was a right and now we are finding out how hard it is to live that statement when the "basic" component has been stretched to include everything from a routine physical to diabetes.
Massive overhauls need to happen with respect to surgeries, cancer, expensive treatments, ER visits, etc. This is where the money is being lost because the majority of Americans who get these procedures don't have a penny to pinch in regards to paying it off. If America operated like Singapore today, we would most likely have a healthier population who value their health more, but this is not the American mindset right now. Necessity is the mother of all invention.
B.A.S. not only that but you won't have a penny to pinch after the system expropriates everything you have, including your job, savings, pension, and home. There won't be any new direction. The society will crash and burn, until some sectors organize and fight to break away from the rest of the USA. But that won't happen until after you have been expropriated. You and your like minded brethren won't get motivated to use guns to break away from the morass until you have been expropriated and are desperate. Collectivized systems are not anti-fragile[1]. They don't adapt. They waterfall collapse. [1] Taleb. http://longplayer.org/letters/to-stewart-brand/ |
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Their system is awesome because very few are utilizing the services that cost real money because they can't afford it so they die instead of being treated. Perhaps you think this is the way it should be?
Yes that is the ONLY way it IS. People have to be incentivized to save for their end of life. And to put effort into healthy living. Else suffer the outcome of their choices and priorities. Society can attempt to change reality by expropriating with collectivized systems, but these INVARIABLY crash and burn. There are no exceptions since Mesopotamia. The bankrupt universal health care systems of the West will end up killing everyone (when there is no more capital remaining to steal). We can't escape financial reality. Math is inviolable. Water flows downhill. The path of least resistance wins. We don't live forever. Efficiency wins because life can't exist without friction. We can't live forever, because we couldn't exist if we did (try to figure that one out  ). Westerners are being taught the propaganda that they don't have to do self-responsibility because of the wealth disparity (high Gini index). This along with incorrect propaganda such as feminism, racism, anthropogenic climate change. M-O-R-A-S-S F.U.B.A.R. |
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China will unleash its massive social capital onto to SE Asia and the countries which are aligned with Asia: Asia is not trapped in the downward spiral of the coming Economic Devastation.
Huge amount of capital of every form here (stored money, strong family values, obedient erudite youth, brand new infrastructure, abundant youth seeking opportunity, low wages, low government liabilities, small governments as a share of GDP, etc).
http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/02/11/australia-a-crisis-in-confidence/The confidence in government is collapsing around the world. Politicians have been so used to bullshitting the people and doing as they like just raising taxes as the standard of living continues to decline. When we turn 2015.75, this is going to be one of the deepest economic turns because government has simply reduced the disposable income of the masses. There is a collapse in investment in the West and we are seeing China where its investment externally will exceed internally. This will turn the heads of everyone to China as the West continues to see rising taxes as governments try so desperately to hold on to power as their empires crumble. The West has no more capital (it will destroy or chase away what remains productive). As B.A.S. has admitted, the thinking (attitude and circumstance) of Westerners is aligned with spiraling the abyss. I have observed such attitudes in my own family in the USA. CoinCube has an exceptionally erudite nuclear family and a high quality career path, so afaik he probably doesn't associate with the lowlife underbelly of our society in the USA (thus I think he may not be aware how widespread the underbelly is and how intractable the ingrained attitudes are). I am intimately familiar with the lowlifes. I should send him a link to a facebook profile with 100s of "gang banger" attitude Likes. B.A.S. you want to think this is not doom, because you don't want to be depressed because apparently you are trapped. Reality is a bitch. Maybe you could get out if you made it one of your high priority goals. Instead you (and perhaps CoinCube also) will waste 5 years attempting to organize a morass, and end up drowning in the flood of the end game contagion. Remember as empires die, they WATERFALL collapse in chaos, then it is too late to plan and act. Normally I try to take the balanced view that the cup is half empty. But one thing I can see clearly that we can't reorganize a collective morass. Collective morasses invariably crash and burn. I covered that in the Petri dish analogy in the "Undertand Everything Fundamentally" essay linked from the OP of this thread. As the medical costs of the boomers entering end of life accelerate, the WATERFALL economic+societal collapse will be approached with increasing acceleration. |
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Everyone in the USA is going to pay for themself or perish. That is how the end game of socialism works. Study Nazi Germany. Read my post again, I expanded it. If a citizen of Singapore needs more than basic care, they have to pay extra.
Exactly. Element of self-responsibility. Solvent insurance can't be actuarially structured to be open ended to pay for $million end of life strategies. And that is not the only point of corruption in the USA system. P.S. Filipinos die of cancer without even morphine. Not $50,000 medical bill. Just death and rejuvenation of youth. Maybe Boomers would spend more time exercising and change their diets if they knew they were responsible for the cost of their end of life. |
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B.A.S. I learned not to argue with socialists. Rather watch you crash and burn. And no, I am not paying for your mistakes. You will die in poverty. I will cast aside my USA citizenship instead of agreeing to expropriate my (limited remaining) productivity for your mistakes. The Boomer generation was so selfish and didn't even raise our X-generation with close families. We had to look to our grandparents for that. And now we've struggled our entire life and you expect us to pay for your retirement which you squandered on the high life of debt? I will care for my mother, but not everybody else's mother and father via taxation (expropriation) because for one it is a terminal downward spiral of corruption and mismanagement of funds. Read... http://armstrongeconomics.com/2013/10/01/what-socialism-destroyed-govt-shutdown/What Socialism Destroyed
What must be stated openly is that the “New Deal” of Roosevelt has actually destroyed the very fabric that formed society that nobody wants to look at no less discuss.
For centuries, people had children to provide for their own retirement. Family units were the social structure. The sad part of socialism is how this family unit was fundamentally destroyed by socialism. Once social security was created, children were relieved of the burden of taking care of their parents – that became government’s job. People were told to save conservatively. They salted away money often in government bonds. Now government has been so fiscally irresponsible, they have to keep interest rates low not to stimulate the economy, but to control their own perpetual deficits.
The retired can no longer live off of their savings. Their home has proven to be anything other than the savings for retirement as annual property taxes alone approach the cost of the house in the 1950s. Pensions are insolvent and taxes only rise perpetually. It now takes two incomes for a family to survive. The New Deal has failed on every level. CoinCube already explained to you that in Singapore the system has an element of self-responsibility and the government is still a small % of the GDP, i.e. lower level of corruption and not so fat cats. For example, in the USA the insurance companies are raking in the corruption. And because the population is younger, less sick (Asian diet instead McUpSizeIt and with immigrants from SE Asia that eat native foods), and not able to choose extremely expensive medical procedures charged to every body else (Westerners are so entitled they think they deserve a $million spent on end of life medical care...as I said, eugenics and assisted suicide will come once the system is bankrupted). http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/02/11/pensions-big-bang/ What he fails to address is that the taxes are rising on the Middle Class to pay for funds that were outrageously set up to begin with.
I work without pay back in the 1990s to try to save Social Security by privatizing management. Had we simply invested when the Dow was 3500 back then, we would not be in the dark crisis we now face. What Taibbi fails to appreciate is there are places worse than Wall Street – it is call Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC. |
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Armstrong chimes in about my recent post about the rise of Asia and the decline of the West. http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/02/11/china-moving-to-replace-usa-as-financial-capitol-of-world/China Moving to Replace USA as Financial Capitol of World
A vital step in the shift of the Financial Capitol of the World moving from the West to the East, is becoming visible if you pay attention. Our model has revealed that the Financial Capitol of the World moves with the rise and fall of nations. China on the verge of becoming a net exporter of capital, it has already overtaken its Western counterparts as a primary source of credit for the developing world. And from this financial prominence, China will gradually exercise political influence that will shadow the United States in the decades ahead. We are at the dawn of a new era – the rise of Asia.
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China will become the new Financial Capitol of the World as the West destroys themselves with raising taxes to fund impossible governmental consumption of wealth. The simple math shows the West cannot possibly survive the conclusion of this Private Wave in 2032. China uses and believes in cycles. The West believes only in a straight line. |
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On the subject of AI, if biological intelligence is possible, what would preclude machine intelligence from being possible? I think it's rather early to suggest that strong AI is impossible, considering that we don't even fully understand how the human brain works. Sigh. You are entirely missing the point of entropy. How the brain works has nothing to do with the fact that every human brain is unique, because it's creator (procreation) was unique. We can program a computer to emulate any task we can define. But we can't give a single computer the same collective entropy of the human race. In other words, each computer program will be a reflection of it's creator and thus not omniscient. Computers can't become all knowing any more than one human can't become all knowing, because each human is unique and will do random actions, thoughts, emotions, etc.. It is this entropy which gives the human race resiliency for there is one or more humans able to adapt to each unique situation. Think about this. That evolution is slow and humans are slower than computers, is what enables the entropy to be greater. The smorgasbord has to simmer in the pot to produce the high entropy offspring of not only the genome but also the environment. Think about this. Because the speed-of-light is not infinite, it is impossible to be omniscient because remote information can't transfer in real-time to a single observer, i.e. an omniscient computer is impossible (incongruent with the fundamental structure of the universe). I made this point numerous times in my blog (<--- must read) and my other past writings. My blog explains why without friction (non-infinite speed-of-light) the past, present, and future would collapse into a single point in time, and we would not exist. Cycles (periodic waves) are a required outcome of friction. I cover that in my linked blog. This is why Armstrong's cyclical models are possible (the fundamental matter of the universe is periodicity). I (as AnonyMint) had a debate about this in the "No Money Exists Without Majority" thread. |
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NotLambChop, there is USA border control on our (I am USA citizen) side of the border and the TSA or border control in the airports (trains and other mass transportion). There are "do not fly" lists. The infrastructure is set up for a massive ramp up as explained below. Also the USA won't only go after wealth at borders, it is also using FATCA, unseen sky high lethal drones (no court order required for executive branch to execute a USA citizen), and other means to take out those who try to escape the expropriation. CoinCube and B.A.S. it is impossible for the USA to fund what will be an egregiously spiraling socialism (as the USA economy turns down after October 2015 then the number of people dependent of the government will skyrocket, Armstrong is projecting 25 - 50% unemployment in the USA no later than 2023) without expropriating the middle class and pensions. Throughout history this is the way empires die. Please remember that it got so bad in Rome that the population of the city was reduced from 1.3 million to 30,000, and owners abandoned their land because the taxes were higher than the profit they could earn. This time around the USA is planning to not let any citizen escape. A USA citizen is the property (slave) of the powers-that-be which run the country. Sooner or later you will realize this is true, hopefully not too late to act. What debt giveth, it taketh back in the end. Middle class (or higher) income earned now in the debt system is not yours. It will be expropriated. It must be. Just study the math, factoring in the fact that as the USA expropriates the wealthy they flee with their capital which drives investment and the economy down and then the expropriation creeps down to expropriate the middle class. This downward spiral for example reached genocide in Nazi Germany, because Hilter's Universal Health Care couldn't be funded, thus Goebbels created the propaganda excuse to exterminate the Jews, handicapped, etc.. The very wealthy can escape to alternative citizenships and position their investments and capital outside of harm's way. The middle class is trapped. (Note the USA will break up once the stage of violence is reached, and will not proceed to the abyss of genocide for those who have guns and/or organization. Those who don't have guns and remain within the bankrupt socialism cancer may experience eugenics, especially assisted suicide will probably become an option in the Obamacare at some point) Note my salient point (in my prior post) that the USA has a large productive private sector yet also a large underbelly. This implicates the USA is the most dangerous in terms of what is coming because it has to expropriate to fund that underbelly and it has the military and NSA might to do so...a wounded Godzilla is more dangerous than a healthy mouse... The USA is inundated with blacks and Latinos (Filipinos and other non-white cultures) which lack self-discipline and are not erudite. Even most or many of the whites are copying the gang banger, low-life culture. For example, note the high percentage of youth in the USA that do some drugs, or that smoke in Europe. The high quality social capital in the West will be hunted down by these parasites via the socialism. ... The worst possible citizenship to have now is USA, because the USA has the strongest government, military, and a large tax base to expropriate. If you have this citizenship, try to get out of it while you still can. Europe at least doesn't tax its citizens who reside abroad. Europe may collapse into the night without hunting its citizens abroad and its has a withering tax base unable to fund a military, but the USA is going to be hunting its citizens even with unseen stealth drones from the air. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/21/bradley-manning-leaks_n_3788126.htmlThe politicians start with the propaganda "tax the rich", but then the laws actually shaft the middle class up the ass. We already have numerous examples of this transition underway. Here are a few... - http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/02/06/tsa-to-arrest-anyone-charged-with-any-crime-trying-to-come-or-leave-including-taxes/
First it was FATCA hunting Americans with any assets overseas whatsoever. Now just two days after taking charge of the committee chairing the House Homeland Security subcommittee hearing, U.S. Rep. John Katko introduced two bills. He is looking to effectively close the borders using terrorism as the excuse as always to hunt down Americans. Katko is a former federal prosecutor. So he knows precisely what he is doing writing a law that is so broad, that anyone suspected of a crime cannot leave the country. This is any crime [no matter how petty]. Keeping gold in a safe deposit box is money laundering carrying up to 25 years in prison.
Katko’s bill will direct the TSA Office of Inspection Accountability Act (H.R. 719), requiring TSA to now conduct criminal Investigators spending at least 50% of their time “investigating, apprehending, or detaining individuals suspected of committing a crime.” This bill will now result in the arrest of anyone for any alleged crime whatsoever and that will [also] apply to taxes. Katko is constructing a highly dangerous version of the Berlin Wall around all American citizens. He is converting the TSA into a police force less concerned about air safety and focused more on catching anyone the government can argue violates some law federal or state. It is so broad, this would apply to domestic disputes as well. - http://armstrongeconomics.com/2014/04/22/the-cadillac-tax-obama-will-all-your-benefits-as-part-of-obamacare/
The Cadillac Tax – Obama Will TAX All Your Benefits as part of Obamacare ...the greatest fraud these lawyer-politicians pull off every time is tell you they are doing something good for a poor shmuck and the real agenda is to get the rest of the people. In Australia they called it the luxury tax that they would go after the fur coats, French wines, and Ferrari sports cars. The dumb people cheered – ya – go get ‘em. The tax passed and what was included? All electrical products.
OBAMACARE was perhaps the most toxic enactment ever to be implemented by the Democrats using the poor to raises taxes on the working class – not even the “rich”. The left-wing press that ridicule the Republicans for trying to repeal it deserve what they are going to get – much higher taxes and the future of their children will be destroyed. Not only will OBAMACARE cap small business from expanding due to its massive penalties, but it will soon begin to tax benefits employers give workers - ALL WORKERS. That is correct. At the discretion of the government, they will be able to move the line at which any benefit that exceeds some arbitrary number not adjusted for inflation will become taxable income. The Obama secret agenda has been to raise taxes in every possible manner and OBAMACARE was the typical political way to get people to cheer for raising their own taxes. Obama wants to personally raise taxes back to 70% but without the deductions and to include ALL benefits as income. - https://www.google.com/search?q=site:armstrongeconomics.com+Civil+Asset+Forfeiture
Civil Asset Forfeiture Police Corruption Exposed The police have become outright criminals and can confiscate people’s property and keep it for themselves. This is one of the best explanations I have ever seen. It correctly states that the legal action is against the property – NOT YOU!
Civil Asset Forfeiture Scam – State Legalizes Marijuana Feds Confiscate your Home for Possession of just $10 worth
The government position in Civil Asset Forfeiture is they do not have to prove you did anything. In fact, even if you are charged with a crime and are acquitted by a jury, they still confiscate your property for legally people are never found “innocent”, they are found “not guilty.” This gives government the moral justification to just take your stuff.
The real interesting development is that states may legalize marijuana, but it remains a federal crime. They do not prosecute the people in those states, but for $10 worth of marijuana they can confiscate your house and never have to charge you. Police are pulling people over leaving states where they sell marijuana and if the police find marijuana in the car, there goes the car. They get to confiscate your car for it is the marijuana that constitutes a crime – not you personally. What is yours, is really theirs.
BureaucratsGovernments Have Been Corrupt Since the Start
The greatest problem with government is how it consumes capital until it kills the private sector. This has been the course of every government – power corrupts universally. The bureaucracy has also gamed the private sector for personal gain. They currently are exploiting of the people through Civil Asset Forfeiture which is reminiscent of the Roman legions who just began to sack their own cities to pay themselves.
Pictured above are “Fouree Denarii” or Claudius (41-54AD) a member of the Julio-Claudian line just prior to Nero. These are genuine coin dies struck on copper planchets silver plated. The people inside the mint were pocketing the real coins and producing a small quantity of debased coins illegally. This demonstrates that corruption within Rome was systemic and it kept growing. This is like the missing $2 trillion from the Pentagon budget that Rumsfeld promised would be investigated 1 day before 911 attack where the missile or whatever struck the only room in the Pentagon where the evidence was stored. What amazing coincidence.
- http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/01/28/cops-going-after-kids-shoveling-snow-they-want-their-cut/
Cops Going After Kids Shoveling Snow – They Want Their Cut
Ok – believe it or not, this really shows how the new younger generation of police are anti-society and just insanely pro-government beyond common sense. With cities and municipalities dead broke, confiscating cash from people pretending it is somehow tainted without any proof under Civil Asset Forfeiture was bad enough. Now they are really going over the top. This is not an isolated incident. Towns in the North East are targeting teenagers who traditionally made money during winter shoveling snow.
The police even in Philadelphia are targeting kids as they are in New Jersey. Many towns demand a license with paperwork and fees of $50+ to be paid to shovel snow. These corrupt politicians are hungry for money and any possible piece of loose change they want to grab. Just how far will society allow this type of corruption go before they throw-the-bums-out?
From FATCA to targeting teenagers shoveling snow, these people are destroying everything that held society together. They look upon us as the great unwashed – just scum to be exploited. This is really going way too far.
CoinCube I have a different model of what is fundamentally changing, which is why I see China continuing to rise and Shanghai become the new New York of the financial world by 2032. You are modeling top-down metrics, e.g. the quality of the governance. I assert that we are moving into peaking government and top-down, debt-driven economies. What is rising to take it's place is the chaotic, leaderless, bottom-up Private sector. This is Armstrong's 51.6 year Private wave which will complete by 2033. Asia has governments which are 15 - 25% of the GDP versus 50 - 75+% in the West (and the West is in a cancerous spiral that will drive that figure closer to 100% before violence and break up of government ensues). http://armstrongeconomics.com/2014/12/04/china-surpassed-usa-as-largest-economy-by-output/ China has transitioned from a fully state micro-managed economy to a predominantly (75%?) decentralized bottom-up economy with the Communist Party only about 20 - 25% of GDP versus the Communist Party in the USA (Democrats and Republicans) being 50 - 75% of the economy (as I had extensively documented in prior posts). In the new China, you don't raise your head above the poppy seeds, and you are left alone to do bottom-up capitalism. Singapore is rising to be the London of the new financial world after the West collapses. Meaning more on banking and a haven for the wealthy. Singapore's population is small and it's domestic economy is not as significant as it's role as a banking and transshipment hub (to hide profits from the Communist Party). The top-down Communist Party is withering. The bottom-up (decentralized) capitalist economy is rising in its place. Decentralized crypto-currencies can rise along with this process if they are targeted to the correct expanding markets (not overtly[1] to anonymity which is probably unrealistic and targets those who want to store static capital that doesn't move and expand the GDP). Here in the Philippines the government is small and underfunded (only 16% of GDP), so you do what you want, even drive on the "illegal" side of the road and ignoring building permitting process if not in the city center, etc.. Don't miss the boat (or airplane or train). Trajectory is important. Don't stay stuck in the decadent West too long. Milk it while you can, but formulate a plan for the future and your children. The transition in the USA to a break up into productive and unproductive sectors is going to be lethal and impoverishing. Better to leave and come back after the fireworks. That is my plan. Singapore has very highly rated schools. If prefer a more Western culture that is aligned with Asia, then Australia and New Zealand come to mind, but emigration is expensive there. There is actually another option for emigrating to some other countries which doesn't require any money. PM me if you want to know. I won't be answering others who ask me, sorry. Example of Chinese research: http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/02/09/we-may-now-live-for-200-years-omg-we-really-need-political-reform/[1] Anonymity by default (and optional) in crypto-currency that is not touted as its main feature might be tenable, and actually may be necessary to avoid the debilitating issue of tainted coins (destroys fungibility which is a critically required property of currency). I am still analyzing this from a technical, political, and marketing perspective. |
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China is not entirely a false economy. They are the manufacturer for the entire world, and their people have gained much knowledge. The white Chinese are very erudite. China is transitioning from a top-down to a bottom-up economy. These debt excesses exist in the top-down economy which eventually is going away (along with the Communist Party). The government is still very small % of GDP as compared to the West (e.g. 25% in China, 15% in the Philippines, versus 50 - 75% in the West). But it will require until 2032 to complete the transition and for Singapore and Shanghai to replace London and New York (respectively) as the financial capitals of the world. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2944974/How-s-magic-kingdom-Stunning-shots-Disney-s-theme-park-construction-Shanghai.htmlThe West is at the stage of peaking government and the world is moving towards the bottom-up economy. Note the social capital that Asia has compared to the West, which I enumerated in my prior post. The USA is inundated with blacks and Latinos (Filipinos and other non-white cultures) which lack self-discipline and are not erudite. Even most or many of the whites are copying the gang banger, low-life culture. For example, note the high percentage of youth in the USA that do some drugs, or that smoke in Europe. The high quality social capital in the West will be hunted down by these parasites via the socialism. The USA is closing the door and throwing away the key: http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/02/06/tsa-to-arrest-anyone-charged-with-any-crime-trying-to-come-or-leave-including-taxes/Russia has wisely aligned towards Asia (USA is failng as Athens did by alienating it's allies and forcing all to align with Sparta): http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/02/06/putin-seeks-to-divide-conquer/http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/02/06/eastern-ukraine-to-fall-to-russia-sanctions-failed/http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/02/09/kerry-exposed-as-a-liar/The worst possible citizenship to have now is USA, because the USA has the strongest government, military, and a large tax base to expropriate. If you have this citizenship, try to get out of it while you still can. Europe at least doesn't tax its citizens who reside abroad. Europe may collapse into the night without hunting its citizens abroad and its has a withering tax base unable to fund a military, but the USA is going to be hunting its citizens even with unseen stealth drones from the air. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/21/bradley-manning-leaks_n_3788126.html
Update: I see Armstrong wrote a similar post as mine: http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/02/04/optimism-v-pessimisim/ |
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