Posted on 02/08/2026 4:37:01 AM PST by MtnClimber
It's a question that I had not put too much thought into until recently, but in light of the revelations over the past year from DOGE, the current fraud investigations in Minnesota, Oregon, Maine, and California (and I hope that will soon expand to all 50 states), it really has struck me that a huge proportion of our economy is probably just money laudering.
Of course, we all understood at some vague level that there had to be a large amount of money laundering going on. The illegal drug trade alone is worth hundreds of billions of dollars, and that is just one portion of a large black market.
Most of that money has to be washed somehow, so it stood to reason that a lot of cash businesses were used to wash it.
But now that we are learning that hundreds of billions—at least—of government expenditures go to fake nonprofits and businesses, and that likely a similar amount is sent out in inflated costs attached to legitimate government contracts, it has been dawning on me and others that some significant fraction of our apparent economy amounts to storefronts that provide little to no actual goods and services.
I've written about this before, but I often wonder how much of our "economy" is fake.
Back in the day in Los Angeles there was a prevalence of "Cell Phone Accessory" stores. Sometimes several per block.
We'd film on these dumpy commercial streets, and be working in front of these shops for days. But we wouldn't see a single customer enter or exit.
The off duty cops we hired for traffic control explained that it's all money laundering. Same with the bodegas, the vape shops, and most of the restaurants.
In Los Angeles, and many other cities, there are miles and miles of streets full of businesses with no customers. And yes, most of them are owned by immigrants.
Another story, this time from San Francisco...
A new asian hotdog place opened in my neighborhood. It looked cute from the outside. Thought it might have good food (sometimes these places do). So I went in and ordered a hotdog....
The cute asian girl disappeared into the kitchen. Doesn't come out for a long time. After 15 minutes I walk to the counter and ask "How's it going in there?" but I got no answer.
So I peeked into the "kitchen". And to my surprise there was no kitchen--it was just an empty room. No fridge, no stove, no food.
And there was no cute asian girl.
She'd left.
She had my money so I stuck around to see what the ---- was going on. A few minutes later she returned with a hotdog. I have no idea where she got it from. (I asked but she pretended not to understand English👍)......SNIP
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I bet they all vote democRAT too.
We really are learing a lot!
In my lifetime it seems like America has only added layers of countless agencies and bureaucracies to vacuum up and turn into pay, pension, and payoffs and destructive exploitation of the lower and needy classes, the wealth they take from the productive core base of the economy.
I am for ending all nonprofit status of NGO‘s and “nonprofits“. Not only should the government not be forcing taxpayers to send them money, but they should lose all the special deals they get by being a “nonprofit.“ Just imagine if our country returned to being a meritocracy with far lower taxes for the productive Tax paying workers of the country.
Easy: 100%.
People think and act like the dollar is money, that it’s wealth.
The dollar is an instrument of debt; the wealth of the world is held by a small group of elites that “own” all the dollars.
Totally agree. End/repeal/abolish the 501(c) laundering loophole.
If you want to see the world squirm, print new $100 bills and force a replacement. You can bring your old ones into any bank and convert them to new ones.
The economies of Mexico and North Korea would collapse.
“What Percentage of Our Economy Is Fake?”
90% or more in my book. Otherwise the math would have worked and Russia would be on their knees begging for mercy, due to our ‘killer sanctions’.
Specifically, most government spending, but also HUGE spending in healthcare, where they don’t even tell people how to prevent diabetes (don’t eat carbs, obviously), but rather SALIVATE at the prospect of more, very sick, ‘customers’ to bring into ‘their system’. Other stuff include the VAST over-regulation of cars (which shouldn’t cost more than $10k these days, but are forced to include insane things like air bags, lane centering, etc.). And then the regulations, like the one now in the IRC (International Residential Code) that REQUIRES sprinklers in all new houses (not universally law, but getting there). The list is endless.
(and, for those not zotted yet, please don’t give us the crap about Russia’s economy crashing next week - you know FULL WELL that’s not true)
tax on income is the real problem ... that is why non-profits exist ...
When Americorps was first set up, it provided each recipient about $5000 to do their “volunteer” work. I read the that it cost $17,000 in administrative cost for each “volunteer”. This means that, even in the case when the volunteer did something worthwhile (not always the case -much of it was woke) The big winners were the government employees who administered the program.
75%
I’m not a consumer or fan of illegal drugs. But at least illegal drugs are a real product. Someone has to work to produce and distribute it. And (to my knowledge) it does not get any government subsidies.
But what you see going on with Medicaid and grant fraud is totally fake. There is nothing behind it. Like the $2B green energy they tried to give Stacy Abrams. Nothing productive would have been done with that money. And a significant percentage would have found its way back into the coffers of the Democratic party and the pockets of its politicians.
“…it really has struck me that a huge proportion of our economy is probably just money laudering.“
Struck me as well. I’ve been wondering how all that fraudulent money going away would manifest itself with respect to the economy.
ping
I can’t see it clearly — and just about anyone will tell me I am both crazy and stupid — but with the level of waste in our multi-trillion dollar federal budget, the money-laundering, the tremendous disparity between top earners and basic workers, the rise of AI and automation, the $40T budget debt that can never be repaid, and the $300T derivative blackhole, I don’t think that “money” means anything.
I think that within 10 or 20 years, there will be VERY little work for humans, and I think we will all be issued the equivalent of welfare checks to pay for a basic lifestyle.
Kids in elementary school today? I’m not at all sure that anything matters for them. They won’t have careers, and AI will do all the “thinking”. Might as well plug in the VR headset because humans won’t really play a part in the world to come.
I’ve always suspected that NGOs and Non-Profits were employing the majority of college graduates who had degrees in “worthless” subjects (e.g., Womens or Ethnic studies).
I understand that Government FRAUD has now been listed on the NASDAQ 100.
By the way, the symbol is FRAUD.
Why I love the tariff. Everyone that buys imports pays it and the same amount. The school teacher, welfare queen and the drug dealer all pay the same.
Yes it takes a democrat to vote for a democrat.
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