Bread and circuses economy

[Wolf DeVoon]

Last year 158.2 million workers had payroll records and withholding taxes and earned $7.1 trillion in compensation.

Yet nearly 49 million or 31% if these workers earned less than $15,000 per year. In fact, this massive cohort of part-timers and gig based workers generated only $300 billion of wages or only 4% of the national total. On average they earned just $6,200 during the entire year.

What Jobs Friday is about, therefore, is the cycling up-and-down of part-time jobs and gigs on the margins of the economy. These undulations occur in the intervals between the serial financial market booms and busts which result from Fed policy. Without so much as a fleeting acknowledgement, bubblevision indulges in the farce of counting slots mainly in the bottom 48 million of payroll records.

These ain't your grandfather's jobs [Zero Hedge]

[moralist]

The economy is not uniform...

...and affects each of us in vastly different ways which are determined by the values we live by. In my opinion, the economic malaise an individual experiences can be directly linked to their choice to participate in the wrong economic system...

...for there are two.

Greg

[Brant Gaede]

The economy is not uniform...

...and affects each of us in vastly different ways which are determined by the values we live by. In my opinion, the economic malaise an individual experiences can be directly linked to their choice to participate in the wrong economic system...

...for there are two.

Greg

Not 330,000,000? Not 6 1/2 billion?

--Brant

some kinda screw up--mine or yours

[moralist]

American freedom is the choice to NOT go the way of the degenerate popular collective consensus.

Choosing to participate in the ethical independent private sector American Capitalist free market economy protects me from becoming a victim of the corrupt debt based/public sector economy...

...because it is a completely different system operating on completely different values...

...and so it sets into motion completely different consequences.

Greg

[Wolf DeVoon]

Choosing to participate in the ethical independent private sector American Capitalist free market economy protects me from becoming a victim of the corrupt debt based/public sector economy.

Dear Electrical Person,

It doesn't matter how far "off the grid" you think you are. Obviously, there are advantages to self-sufficiency, if you can swing it. I have five months of food in the freezer, several years of fuel, fat wild game nearby, rifle ammo, and good relations with the neighbors who produce cattle, hogs, chickens, and vegetables. By the nature of the work we do, it seems certain that future income is assured if we need it under any scenario short of global war or domestic martial law -- and in those worst of all possible scenarios being remotely located is good, compared to folks trapped in big cities.

I think I understand market principles and practical ethics as well as most people, including you. Trading value for value ain't rocket science. It pays to help a neighbor occasionally, within reason, to advance goodwill without being seen as a chump. The other day I drove someone a fair distance to help him transport three piglets in my pickup truck, in trade for which he's going to help me with chores at my place.

All well and good -- but now we part company, you and I. There are far greater, very subtle and highly technical issues pertaining to global economic health that affect our ability to source goods (of any sort) and obtain the most elementary and vital commodities, such as transportation fuel, auto parts, electric energy, pharmaceuticals and professional medical care -- unless you propose to go back in time to a pre-industrial age and live like a primitive hunter-gatherer.

I'm going to give you a link. You won't be able to make head or tail of it, but your property and survival are at risk.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-12-06/bis-warns-fed-rate-hike-may-unleash-biggest-dollar-margin-call-history

[moralist]

Wolf writes:

It doesn't matter how far "off the grid" you think you are.

I'm not... I'm on a different grid.

I think I understand market principles and practical ethics as well as most people, including you.

I'm certain you know more about market principles than I do because I don't gamble in the zero sum debt casinos. No stocks, no bonds, no futures, no options, no mutual funds, no pension funds, no CD's, no IRA's, no 401k's, no default swaps, no derivatives, no currency plays, no credit, and no debt. Because there are unethical sharks in the waters I remain safe from them on ethical dry land. So all I need to know about is what's right and wrong... and to act on what I know. Everything else takes care of itself. For me, economic apocalypse is just entertainment and amusement.

All well and good -- but now we part company, you and I. There are far greater, very subtle and highly technical issues pertaining to global economic health that affect our ability to source goods (of any sort) and obtain the most elementary and vital commodities, such as transportation fuel, auto parts, electric energy, pharmaceuticals and professional medical care -- unless you propose to go back in time to a pre-industrial age and live like a primitive hunter-gatherer.

I'm going to give you a link. You won't be able to make head or tail of it, but your property and survival are at risk.

I don't need to, Wolf... because I understand this moral principle:

Gain which is not derived from the loss of others cannot be lost to others.

See if you can make heads or tails of that.

Greg

[Wolf DeVoon]

Let's agree not to talk about it again. Next time you see an 18-wheeler, say hi for me.

[moralist]

Wolf writes:

Next time you see an 18-wheeler, say hi for me.

Thanks for your goodwill, Wolf.

You're affirming your view that there is no protection in ethical behavior, so your own experience must have proven that to you or you wouldn't hold to it. That happens to people who make the mistake of believing they're ethical when they're not.

Greg

[Wolf DeVoon]

Here's the punchline about 18-wheelers.

 

[Wolf DeVoon]

Why do I even try?

[Wolf DeVoon]

Economic joke of the day:

Things must be going well in the "war on terror," as the US Air Force just admitted that it is fast running out of bombs to drop on ISIS after "B-1s have dropped bombs in record numbers." As ZeeNews reports, Air Force chief of staff General Mark Welsh said as America ramps up its military campaign against the Islamist terror group, the Air Force is now "expending munitions faster than we can replenish them." [Zero Hedge]

That's why they had to call in the Navy. USAF worried about inventory, in case it's suddenly needed elsewhere.

[Selene]

Economic joke of the day:

Things must be going well in the "war on terror," as the US Air Force just admitted that it is fast running out of bombs to drop on ISIS after "B-1s have dropped bombs in record numbers." As ZeeNews reports, Air Force chief of staff General Mark Welsh said as America ramps up its military campaign against the Islamist terror group, the Air Force is now "expending munitions faster than we can replenish them." [Zero Hedge]

That's why they had to call in the Navy. USAF worried about inventory, in case it's suddenly needed elsewhere.

We should outsource the assembling of our bombs to our Iranian friends, what could possibly go wrong?

President Clueless Clouseau's question...

[Wolf DeVoon]

Economic joke of the day:

Things must be going well in the "war on terror," as the US Air Force just admitted that it is fast running out of bombs to drop on ISIS after "B-1s have dropped bombs in record numbers." As ZeeNews reports, Air Force chief of staff General Mark Welsh said as America ramps up its military campaign against the Islamist terror group, the Air Force is now "expending munitions faster than we can replenish them." [Zero Hedge]

That's why they had to call in the Navy. USAF worried about inventory, in case it's suddenly needed elsewhere.

We should outsource the assembling of our bombs to our Iranian friends, what could possibly go wrong?

President Clueless Clouseau's question...

-- or China

[Selene]

-- or China

Lol, that was my original choice, however since Muslims are on our mind this week, I deferred to the psychotic Persians.

A...

[moralist]

Wolf writes:

Here's the punchline about 18-wheelers.

(shrug) That does nothing to alter your view that there's no protection in ethical behavior.

Greg

[Brant Gaede]

Wolf writes:

Here's the punchline about 18-wheelers.

(shrug) That does nothing to alter your view that there's no protection in ethical behavior.

Greg

This protection is primarily psychological and can be described as constructive. It is not absolute when it comes to dealing with other people-- nor with yourself, frankly--especially through society as with the government doing affecting this or that. The government is insensate as it is literally non-existent except through its various bureaucracies and enforced laws. The bureaucrats are embraced and coddled by their legally defined responsibilities. They can do objectively monstrous things to people and not lose a wink of sleep. It's deference to authority. Real and pretend authority of/to the law and deference to the authority of a superior. The Attorney General of the United States can destroy almost anyone. The head of the IRS has almost as much power. The President can take the country to war and a dozen years later 3 or 4 million people are dead as a consequence. And I've hardly gotten started.

--Brant

[Selene]

The President can take the country to war and a dozen years later 3 or 4 million people are dead as a consequence.

--Brant

Major reason that the founders tried to insure a shrunken Executive branch. Congress is also empowered to do specific enumerated powers.

We, as a people, have permitted the status quo. That is not blame, it is fact.

We still live in a great country.

However, was it Eddie who shuddered at the clock with the number on the skyscraper.

Ayn's use of metaphor in Atlas is truly beautiful.

A...

[Wolf DeVoon]

I think government is a weak, often incompetent force, especially in America, despite the best efforts of our professional military, national security agencies, and local police. The thing that Greg can't digest is the market. That's why America is still a great country, as Adam observed. We have more private security officers than sworn LEOs. It's basically impossible to commit a terrorist act against hardened corporate centers. All the commercial buildings have alert lobby security with rapid response backup. Vulnerable soft targets are always government or nonprofit -- schools, community centers, a Federal Building in Oklahoma, an Army base in Texas, a county office maze in San Bernadino.

The market matters. 2016 total government outlays (Federal, state and local) is only 35% of GDP. The private sector generates 65% and pays the freight for all government and all nonprofits including Ed's salary and benefits and whatever Cato pays George. Fifteen years ago, I was alarmed because total government outlays exceeded 40% and when the full cost of Obamacare is factored we might be pushing 40% again covertly. The Dems are pushing hard to capture over 50% of the economy, because that's the tipping point when government finally crowds out the market. The U.S. did that on one previous occasion 1943-44, during a time when government seized every factory, drafted men for the Army, and rationed civilian food and gasoline. That's the Democrat goal, to gain total power over civilian life, liberty and property. They don't care if we're attacked by terrorists. It helps them make the case for more government and administrative or police power nullification of the 2nd Amendment. I'm not certain that the Republicans are any better. Bush and Cheney pushed hard for and got greater Federal power and costly wars of choice. The Federal Reserve has eviscerated the market with ZIRP and QE, to float an increasing load of Treasury debt. It's tragic that cheap HY paper funded preposterous shale plays and an array of impossible green bullshit like algae farms that DoD pays $50 gallon to make jet fuel. Let's not even talk about Affirmative Action.

But America's greatness is our financial, corporate, commercial, and small business competitive market -- without which we'd starve to death. Those 18-wheelers are a lifeline from farm to market. It doesn't matter whether some of them are hauling iPhones and TVs made in China, or Christmas decorations made in China, or buckets of nails and screws made in China. Most of the fleet is transporting food and capital goods. Which brings me to another plain fact Greg doesn't understand -- that a $200,000 tractor has to be financed. Nobody pays cash for a Peterbuilt, much less a new fleet of 500 to replace old rigs that have to be scrapped because a government bureaucracy says they have to. And if carbon emissions are bushwhacked, our national road transportation system is going to die.

It matters who governs, to the extent that we need our government to do less, i.e., to promote liberty.

The free market isn't ethical or pretty. It's sink or swim, the competitive business of survival. Bizarrely, most of it is conducted on a handshake basis, trading hundreds of billions every hour on verbal orders and keystrokes.

[moralist]

Brant writes:

This protection is primarily psychological and can be described as constructive.

That's where we each hold different views. In my view moral protection is literal.

It is not absolute when it comes to dealing with other people--nor with yourself, frankly

It can only be as absolute as you choose to make it, for it's your responsibility to set the moral tone in your dealings with others... so it's also your responsibility if you don't. For you are the only one who holds all the power over how the others or the government treats you.

--especially through society as with the government doing affecting this or that. The government is insensate as it is literally non-existent except through its various bureaucracies and enforced laws. The bureaucrats are embraced and coddled by their legally defined responsibilities. They can do objectively monstrous things to people and not lose a wink of sleep. It's deference to authority. Real and pretend authority of/to the law and deference to the authority of a superior. The Attorney General of the United States can destroy almost anyone. The head of the IRS has almost as much power. The President can take the country to war and a dozen years later 3 or 4 million people are dead as a consequence. And I've hardly gotten started.

The government does do those things... but my point is whether or not the government does any of those things to you... and that's totally up to you by how you choose to live.

So I will only speak for myself in that the government does NONE of those things to me. For it answers to exactly the same greater authority of moral law that I do. So that places all of the responsibility on me, as the government can only do what I sanction it to do by my own failure to do what's morally right.

Greg

[Brant Gaede]

Sure there are literal consequences. Like your post.

[moralist]

Wolf writes:

Which brings me to another plain fact Greg doesn't understand -- that a $200,000 tractor has to be financed.

You bought into the Creditist lie, Wolf. It's like saying my home has to be financed. What a fool.

Greg

[Brant Gaede]

"Has to be financed" if . . .

[Wolf DeVoon]

Greg's position is ignorant. Availability and cost of building materials are determined by total construction demand, not just a handful who build their own shacks and pay cash like I did. There is over $13 trillion in outstanding US residential mortgages (single family, multifamily, apartment buildings and farms). Another $10 trillion financed commercial property construction. The price you pay for a sink, a roll of wire, or a pallet of 2x4s is based on economies of scale and a huge distribution network, most of it delivered by intermodal 18-wheelers. I keep harping on the truck fleet because there are 300,000 of them on the road. Over half would screech to a halt without lending.

[moralist]

Wolf writes:

The thing that Greg can't digest is the market.

I'll never digest it because I won't eat it... so it'll never digest me.

I don't gamble in zero sum debt casinos. I only invest in my own business ventures and they pay off very well because I'm creating wealth that is not derived from the losses of others. This is because I operate in a system which is not zero sum.

I have nothing against you gambling on debt, Wolf. It's your own choice if you want your gain to come from someone else's loss. That's totally fine with me, for that predator/prey system has nothing to do with me, my values, or my life.

Greg

[Wolf DeVoon]

Honest injun, Greg, you have no idea of what you're saying. Your "zero-sum" mantra is a cartoon fantasy.