Posted on 07/24/2023 10:31:41 AM PDT by anthropocene_x
Jane is a junior doctor working several extra locum shifts to make ends meet. Burnt out after the pandemic, and struggling with her physical and mental health, she would really like to take unpaid leave, but she cannot do so. Last month, her landlord hiked up her rent, then served her with an eviction notice when she said she couldn’t afford it. She now has to move for the fourth time in three years, and is back in a flat-hunting market where rents are higher everywhere.
Trapped in her job, with her accommodation options diminishing and her time permanently constrained by balancing long work hours with the demands of looking for a home. There is no space for socialising or relaxation, only for a fleeting sleep, from which she wakes up to go back to work, to look at places to live that are almost certainly out of her reach.
All that people like Jane and others have the time or energy to register is a set of invisible oppressive economic forces that simply must be weathered because they are facts of nature. The result is a sort of ambient autocracy, where personal choices are increasingly dictated by forces that you had no say in creating and have no means of overthrowing.
Bereft of the support and proximity of family and community, people are deprived of the social safety net that was supposed to replace it, increasingly having to fork out funds for childcare, subsidising boomeranging single children and elderly parents while paying tax, or fretting about their fates in a cutthroat housing market and a scandalously underfunded care system. Anything that disturbs this tenuous balance cannot be contemplated, so the shackles to partners, employers and imperfect domestic arrangements grow ever tighter.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Understood. One of my great personal frustrations is how torn I am about that issue. It's safe to say that "If I were in Charge", I'd screw things up. On the one hand, as a Conservative who admires the Constitution, I generally like a small, weak federal government (as my initial comment suggested). But on the other hand, given how messed up our current situation is, I (frankly) wouldn't necessarily mind Trump as the head of a military dictatorship where all sorts of wrongs are righted without worrying too much about "the law". As I say: "If I were in Charge", I'd screw things up.
But, yes, I see the point that a weak government would not be able to fix the Deep State.
“ A weaker government is a good government.”
That is exactly the communist position - before the weak government lets them seize power. After that - not so much.
“ wouldn’t necessarily mind Trump as the head of a military dictatorship where all sorts of wrongs are righted without worrying too much about “the law”
I’m not sure based on his appointments record that Trump is your guy for that job.
History suggests that a colonel whose name nobody knows will probably be the right guy.
Fair enough. My feeling is that we have squandered our inheritance and now have nothing of great significance to give to future generations. I’m willing to toss the dice and take risks and go scorched earth. The Second Republic of the United States might even last longer than this first one did. But getting there won’t be pretty.
I didn’t read the article but being the Guardian it’s fairly safe to assume she’s agitating for socialism in a “you have nothing to lose but your chains” kind of way.
That said, free trade has wrecked the USA and free trade is dogmatic for many with a liberal economic bent. And by liberal I mean influenced by the Austrian school, not soft leftist.
The 1913 generation was told they needed the federal Reserve to issue and manage our currency to eliminate boom/ bust cycles ( we saw/see how THAT worked out, it didn’t ) with a debt based fiat currency what fed res notes were borrowed into a distance and disappear wheen repaid.
If you eliminate the debt on our economy you litteraly eliminate all the Fed resnote ‘ dollars’.
To payoff the debt is to extinguish the dollar.
It was an unworkable con job then and remains one to this day that most have no idea of.
with a debt based fiat currency WHERE fed res notes were borrowed into a EXISTENCE and disappear when repaid.
Hi folks, I have a great idea you’ll really like.
Give me control of all your assets and finances and I’ll provide everything you need for life (and death).
All you have to do is work from age 16 to 65.
Any takers?
Well, if you won’t trust me to take care of you, why would you trust the government?
The government is not a faceless entity. It’s full of people with all the failings of humanity and they’ll be getting paid along w/lavish benefits like “cadillac healthplans”.
What makes you think there’s any money left for YOU?
I agree with you 100% aboutvdebt cancellation - all of it.
Yes personal responsibility is an important virtue. But (in another example of weak government) - allowing private money creation through unsecured debt (credit cards) to displace Congress and the Treasury has ruined millions of lives and created an overclass not suitable for a republic.
Now “conservatives” whose minds are infected by libertarianism will say, “they took the money, now make them suffer, that doesn’t affect ME ME ME” - but of course it does, as our cities crumble, the uninhabitable areas of the country grows, the birth rate of the native population falls and things stop working.
I have seven kids and I don’t drive around with a bumper sticker that says “I’m spending my kid’s inheritance”. Those people, in my mind, betray the nation.
Because now we have a system that combines the worst aspects of both liberal capitalism and a command economy. Capital is free to move around the globe seeking the lowest wages. Production in advanced countries is now increasingly following a command economy: nothing can be produced except what follows thousands of rules and regulations. Take cars for example: nothing can be produced that does not meet stringent safety, environmental and fuel economy standards. Several years ago NHTSA ruled that all new cars must have a minimum number of inches between the hood and the engine, supposedly to curtail pedestrian fatalities. That required a redesign of basically ever car sold in the US, costing billions. Look at the engines: many models have variable timing and fuel injection systems that were once only seen on Formula 1 cars.
So as wages decline, the regulatory stranglehold commands fewer and fewer goods be produced at ever increasing costs.
The working class in both Europe and the US is being whipsawed between global capital and Soviet style regulation of the economy.
In hindsight now, and in adulthood and parenthood, having experienced both in the new world, I can see that gilded cages come in many forms. Political freedoms are precious metal, but when they come with economic restraints, they are a shiny enclosure.
Concluding paragraph.
I could think of better ways to say it.
Aint Socialism fun?
When The Guardian speaks of “liberal economics” they mean capitalism - and are blaming Margaret Thatcher for throttling their beloved ollectivist agenda in the 80’s.
How old is Jane? Your first years of working aren’t exactly retirement.
It’s not libertarianism at all. It is crony capitalism transitioning to totalitarian fascism.
Nobody is coming to save you.
Save who needs to be saved.
Kill who needs to be killed.
Never stop working.
The sooner each of us accepts this, the better.
Completed the Rules for Survival for you.
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