No no, this isn't a rant about my life is a mess and I'm going to die and shit. I'm way too awesome to ever think a life with me in it could suck (because I am that awesome), well unless maybe you're horrifically disfigured or paralyzed or some shit, but let's hope that doesn't happen anyime soon.

This IS, however, a rant on the current state of affairs in the political spectrum of things, and more generally the socio-economic one. Now, as we all know we've been hopping from a 'crisis' to a 'crisis' for years and are teethering on the brink of another one. I say 'crisis', because let's be honest, does anyone really feel like shit is really that much different compared to 5-10 years ago? I sure don't, and I'm freaking unemployed. I don't think almost anyone with a normal, middle class lifestyle actually notices anything. Maybe if you've taken out gigantic loans on credit you could never really repay, but in that case you were a retard to begin with obviously.

Anyway, that's only part of my point - my point is that I think it's a fucking outrage that while this financial panic has been caused by large players with hugely deep pockets (investments groups, incredibly rich private investors, banks, etc) and CLEARLY not by at the very least 80% of the population who don't speculate and/or don't have the financial means to do so, the costs or even just the IDEA of a crisis is being used to:

a) pressure workers into doing more for equal or sometimes even less pay
b) pressure countries into dismantling social security, either from the IMF's orders (they lend you money, but only if you implement generally speaking very corporation-friendly rules, bad for workers) or because the government itself enforces them (because they are all in bed with the corporate world)

So basically, the consequences of the financial spooking are almost ALL put on the heads of those who did not have anything to do with it in the first place. Meanwhile, banks are getting bailouts paid by tax money. I know the governments can't afford to let major banks go bust, but that doesn't mean it isn't an outrage when next year they turn a profit and their CEO gets a massive bonus. Of course, only a fraction of the money actually flows back to the state.

And what's worse is, you can't do anything about it. Over here, it doesn't even matter who you vote for. The Christian Democrats, the Social Democrats, the Liberals (duh), the Nationalists...they are ALL in bed with major corporations. They have short not-so-lucrative political careers and then they take up positions on the boards of several major banks and corporations, and get rich from the money that comes with it. So, obviously they have no incentive to protect the citizens. The only party in Belgium that I'm certain isn't ok with this is the PVDA, aka the communists. But I don't want to vote for them either, since they are tiny and probably completely incompetent for any sort of government.

Sigh. It's all one massive scheme. I'm long done getting angry over it, but it's still disheartening. And the fact that there absolutely nothing you can do about it is probably even worse. The world is run by corporations, and that's it. We should be lucky of our particular overlord is a bit more benevolent than the other ones.

P.S. And no, I'm not gonna shoot up people at some island park or something.

I don't know if there's a design behind the crisis. But then, I don't really know how it all started anyway. Something to do with the removal of mortgage lending regulation, followed by a frenzy of poor quality mortgage lending, followed by banks selling on mortages, combined with a general economic downturn (oil prices?), resulting in people defaulting on their mortgages en-masse, followed by the banks failing. Don't know how all of that results in economic recession though.

I would say definitely middle class people do not feel this. Working class, definitely so. For a start, there are fuck all jobs available compared to 5 years ago. 20 years ago, you would go to the job centre to find machining jobs and you'd come home with pages of listed vacancies. Nowadays graduates struggle to find bar work.

I'm not the dismantling of social programs is the aim, or consequence either really. Our last government in the UK was socialist flavoured, and lost to conservative. But I very much doubt this was down to the crisis. The party was simply leaderless.

Let's pretend I know a thing or two about economics. I might argue that the US and Europe are less competitive than 20 years ago. There are many emerging economies now that may be taking business from the west. Pretty understandable if you consider that the last world war is long over. Isn't the west concentrating on finance? They fucked around with it a bit too much this time.

I think greed is the underlying problem. I'm not going to slam the freemarket economy because that's just an excuse. I just think that we lack a little morality when it comes to wealth. Extremely comfortable lifestyles aren't that expensive. The distribution of wealth is still too uneven. I hate the thought of my company's CEO earning what... 350k a year when 90% of his workforce are struggling with their mortgage and petrol for their car. My question is, does someone REALLY need that much money? If not, couldn't they share it some more?

Same goes for those working in banks earning X million a year. Why need that much money?

Agreed with the majority of what you both say, particularly Derf's comments on the spread of wealth. I'm currently on about ~£15,000 a year and feel rich coz it's double what I've lived on the past 4 years or so. I know it's not fantastic but if I can live on that and save money people then that's pretty damn good, I'm not exactly living in poverty. Ok, it's only a flat rather than my own house, and I can't just go and buy a TV/car/whatever coz I want to but I can easily afford a couple of games or books randomly when I feel like it and can easily save up for bigger purchases over a couple of months. By my reckoning if I added another £10,000 to that a year I could easily have a house and still save plenty for rainy days/frivolous luxuries. So I've said it for years... why does anyone need to earn more than 100k? And I mean each, so you have 2 parents, you can earn £200,000 a year. You'd still be earning way more than you need, could easily afford a couple of kids, take holidays etc.

One positive turn to this is that, despite it usually being a case of "omg my company isn't making enough money, the lowly workers must take cuts/get fired so I can keep making my millions each year", the head of Nintendo recently took a 50% cut voluntarily and his senior executive types all agreed to take 10-20% cuts on their wages. Ok the guy is still earning the equivalent of $5,000,000 but it makes a change

Politicians love power
It takes money to get elected to office
Corporations have lots of money
Corporations want specific laws passed to further their own agendas
Politicians and corporations get in bed, money changes hands, and the country gets raped. Again.

It's been going on for many, many years. Occasionally the rabble gets mad and a the politicians stand up to make an example (antitrust cases being the most prominent examples of that). then it goes back to the same old thing. Just speaking about the US, but I'm sure Europe's in the same boat.

BTW, the bailouts were a loan (at least in the US). Not saying it's not a loss for the US and its people, but it's not a 100% loss. Some of the big banks paid back their loans (ref: http://projects.propublica.org/bailout/list). We're about $300 billion in the hole.

Yeah I know they're loans (or participation buying by the government), but still. Like you say it's never gonna be profitable for the state and the people.

@ Derf: it doesn't really matter whether there is a design behind it, or that the dismantlement of social programmes was started by the conservatives or labour...they're all the same by now. Maybe there used to be a time when labour was a workers' party, or even a party interested in socio-economic equality, but those days are long gone (not just in the UK, in all of Western Europe). Now they're just another shade of the same colour.

I think the entire mess is designed, but not by some sort of grand conspirational scheme or whatever. It's just something that happens naturally because of a fucked up logic of the elite (money men, political leaders). They speculate and keep taking risks on the financial market to increase their profits, until the thing goes bust. The only natural reaction of the government is to bail them all out and bring the burden on the normal citizens to pay for it all. It's not even that they're malicious - they honestly believe that the only way to save the state is to save the asses of the big money, because the big money savew THEIR asses, and they are the state (in their head).

Corporations have become states of their own, with no responsibility or accountability to anyone except to their already rich stockholders. And the states are run by all sorts of crooks of (supposedly) differing ideologies that only think in short-term measures to secure their own image and position.

I got half a mind to just move away to a chill country and do a shitty job, instead of actually trying to make a career and money. I can't pay for shit anyway, and I'm (was) on a very decent to good wage. I have no idea how people who make close to minimum wage here AND do things drive/own a car, buy gadgets or fancy clothes even make it to the end of the month without being in the red. I'm pretty sure they don't.

Of course not. That's why everyone's in debt.

It's ok...it's just a matter of time before shit explodes. Either the world economy collapses and we're all screwed, or there's a major change in governance due to the average person finally getting annoyed enough to get motivated. It's all a critical mass thing. Hopefully the country changes before we all start to starve.

I kinda rather would like to see things being evened out and straightened out before we get to that point, tbh. The critical mass point you describe could very well mean the total disintegration of modern society, which is not something I'm looking forward to.

The consumer debt thing is not equal for every country btw - it's a much bigger problem in some than others. The Anglosaxon countries for example, and states like Greece in much deeper than most of Western Europe. I strongly believe that a wildgrow of personal debt (and the banks and credit card companies allowing it to people who are not credit worthy) is one of the most fundamental problems of an economy. Again, a perfect example of short-sighted economic thinking by companies who want to make more and more cash on the backs of equally shortsighted consumers...with the idea being to get in as many customers as possible, give them the cash they want to loan and then try and charge massive interests on their debts. Needless to say, this only works when people can actually pay those interests (and if they could, why would they be spending large sums with a credit card in the first place). Sigh.

I personally don't know anyone who's in credit card debt. Most people just use it for stuff like online buying or going out to dinner (ie that can't be done or are more complicated by regular bank transfer). And pay the debt at the end of their monthly overview. The whole phenomenon of buying off debt on one card with the other etc etc or even having more than 1 or 2 credit cards is pretty alien to most people here, even the less...fortunate parts of society. They usually just get scammed by stuff like monthly payment schemes for cars and washers and tv's.

I'm guessing it can't be as bad as it is on TV, but no harm in asking: the whole image of the "perma-debt" American with 5 credit cards balancing payments over them, does that actually exist? I mean if it's anywhere near 'normal', then how the hell did the economy survive until now? (well, I know the answer...China buying US debt)

The simple answer is yes... it really does exist. I'm not in it, but I'm smart enough and make enough money to live well, but within my means. I carry credit card debt over months, usually, but it's not like it's mounting... I pay it off regularly, then just accrue more... or accrue a bunch and then take a couple months to pay it off (vacations come to mind). The difference is I actually have a decent savings account... I never have more credit debt than I have funds in my account, so, in my opinion, I'm never really in debt.

That and carrying over debt and whatnot is great for your credit rating, which factors in greatly for buying cars and houses and whatnot. At least, that's my reasoning.

However, a lot of people in the US really live paycheck to paycheck, including plenty of people that make as much or more than I do. Not that I make a ton, mind you, but I'm doing ok. At any rate, there really are a lot of people that have numerous credit cards, all maxed, and just get new credit cards to transfer balances over so it's 0% interest for a year or whatever. I guess it works, but when you're $6000 or more in debt, you probably need to just quit spending. Transfer the balances, sure, to keep your interest rates low, but don't spend any more. then again,if they were smart enough to figure that out, they'd probably be smart enough not to be so far in debt in the first place.

+ 1 penniless bum breaking even every month here.

I find that government is largely interested in serving itself rather than the people.

Itself, and those who serve them best (big money). That's why we're seeing this massive global spree of reductions of social security and tax cuts for corporations/the rich.

@ Satis: if people who make a decent enough wage like you are still struggling with debt, they're probably spending really irresponsibly yeah? Or being careless wth their credit cards. I mean, it's not like you're a cheap bastard like me and you still manage to save.

I think this is all connected to the entitlement society...everyone thinks they should be able to get stuff like a car, a fancy TV, new phone etc. The reality is that it's just not really a viable option for a large part of the population. If I check my own spending, I could buy a new 100-150 € phone every month if I don't go crazy on other stuff- but I'm hardly the bottom of the wage pool. And don't have any dependents. But obviously that would be a retarded investment.

Yet every time I walk down the city's main avenues, I see scores and scores of 15-17 year olds wearing really expensive clothes and carrying the newest Mac BS and phones, sure to cost a pretty penny. Wtf? All those morons buying the newest shit every few months, for the 'just new' prices of 300 € +when you know it's gonna drop in only a month's time, just so they can be cool and show their friends...ughh.

The reality is, when you have to, you gotta be prepared to give up all the fancypants options. I'm talking economizing your food buying (take no brand stuff instead of expensive brands), completely stopping any non-essential buying (games, books, DVD's, electronic hardware you don't really need), cancelling subscriptions, keeping your bar visits in check (limit yourself to a certain X of money beforehand), don't go out to eat, save on gas and water, don't buy new clothes you don't need, etc etc. It's not that hard at all. But it seems that there are many people with priority issues...

yea, most people just seems to have serious financial planning difficulties. I dunno. When I was making about half of what I'm making now, I was making ends meet. Not putting away a ton, by any means, but I had an ok buffer. And I wasn't making much, i promise. People making less than $25k / year, yea, it's tough. If you have dependents, it's nigh impossible. But just 5k more and it's doable. So when someone making $80k+ can't make his bills, I don't really care.

It's just as Ox says, people are retarded about OMG newest thing, must have! Yeah, I wouldn't complain if I had all the new stuff asap, but I know better than that.

I used to earn about £600 a month; after necessary bills went out if I really wanted, I could save £100 - £200 a month. I now earn about £1000 a month and if I really wanted could save about £500 - £600 a month. I don't, because I know I can spend some and not have to worry. Yet people moan about earning way more than I do. Ok I don't have a car or a mortgage but with that £600 a month spare, I probably could

I remember one story about some old woman complaining she was only given £100 a week for her food budget. I budget that for a month just for me, maybe £150 if I actually cook for my bf. And most old people eat less than everyone else. Wtf was she moaning about?!

Somehow if felt like this video fits into this topic.

I just hope that if it all comes tumbling down, I'm there to witness it.

I hope I'll be in a self-sufficient bunker somewhere in the middle of Siberia, sitting out the first few years.