It's A Big Crap Cake

Wow, how could I have forgot? And Ted has also recommended walking, from his experiences as a monk.

Let me add one more caveat, if you are going into the Army with a bachelors in Anthro, in keeping with the Army's long-standing tradition of matching officer candidates with specialties befitting their civilian experience, training and interests, you will be going into...THE INFANTRY!

Yes! That's right! You can join the INFANTRY...travel to distant, exotic lands...meet exciting, unusual people...and KILL them!

And how will you travel about in these wonderful places? With all the modern technology at our command...you will, of course, be WALKING! With about 80 pounds of gear on your tortured, dehydrated, sleepless frame.

So, start getting in shape now. Basic training is no picnic, advanced specialty training (remember, INFANTRY!) will make that seem like a picnic, but OCS is where you will REALLY eat it. HOO-WAH!

(Steps aside and waits for the blast of wind as the eager young man rushes to the recruitment office.) :thumbsup:

 

Libertarians are usually those guys that have a shack out in the woods with a yard full of land mines waiting for the government to show up so they can shoot at em. But, I guess what I'm getting at is someone who is politically all the way to the right and anti government to boot. An extreme example would be anarcho-capitalism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho_capitalism

Yeah ...I'm already working on getting in shape. I need to drop some pounds anyway. I also signed up for a gym membership today. I'm hoping to drop about 60 lbs. in 3 months.

But, thx everyone for the words of support. It is easy to get depressed around these periods. That is why I try to find something everyday that I can laugh about even if they are punny.

For example:

Q: What is in a Libertarian Salad?

A: Lettuce Alone

 

Join the GA. A lot of the kids stay in for a couple of years, then go service. They are already in shape.

When you let your gym membership lapse, go out the front door, and run. Do it 3 times a week. Work the distance you run, without stopping, up to to 3 miles. Don't worry about the time. You will get into good shape, whether you go in the service or not. And, incidently, you will reduce your depression.

On the other hand, gym chicks are HOT, and painful. :love:

 

I served in the military and went in to Iraq. Granted things are better for me now but I had to pay for it with my future. Anyways if you choose to join the military, join the Navy or Air Force. For the most part neither branch really works that hard and both branches will gurantee a job. Whatever you do don't be a marine, they couldn't promise me the job I wanted but could gurantee me the field. I ended up being more or less a cable/phone guy. All the "training" I received ended up being for a $10.00 an hour job I had before I joined. Someone already stated it earlier make sure you get it all in writing. And if they can't gurantee you a field you want in to walk away.

 

Hello everyone - I'm new here. I've been a AD&D player for many years now, and really enjoy computer AD&D RPGs, particularly when I can't play live. In fact I bought a new computer just so I could play ToEE (the wife thinks it was so that we could watch streaming video online - that was just a secondary benefit!).

Anyways, I registered here because I took great interest in this particular post and I wanted to share something with everyone here. I've felt for a long time that there was something wrong with the world: justice and fairness were rare, life was much harder than it needed to be, and I just couldn't apply myself to a world that seemed so crappy. So I've read quite a bit, and I think I am coming closer to understanding how the world works. I will admit right now that I don't know much, but here's my impression so far:

We live in an economy, a word that makes people think of jobs and manufacturing and services. When you think about it, our economy touches nearly every facet of our lives. And we all know that the grease that allows our economy to work is money. But very few people (me included, until recently) understand that all-important thing called money. Of course this is the case: how many high school classes (or college, for that matter) did you take on U.S. monetary policy? The same that I did, ZERO. Yet money is the reason we get educated, get a job, even give our lives to the military (in many cases).

So, what's the big deal? Money is just something we trade instead of bartering. Where does money come from? The U.S. government prints our money, you say. Well, yes, but that is only a small part of the story. Did you know that the VAST MAJORITY of money in circulation now was CREATED OUT OF THIN AIR by bank loans? Did you know that banks are private institutions that are only minimally regulated by the U.S. government, and in fact mostly respond to the Federal Reserve, which despite its name is NOT connected to or answerable to the federal government in any way?

What does this mean, you say? Well, that stuff called money that we all go to work for is not controlled by our government, rather a private banking cartel called the Federal Reserve. What's their motivation? Certainly not the well-being of the populace - they're a private entity, they don't have to care about "we the people". So they enrich themselves and those associated with them, and try to keep the money-making scheme going without attracting too much attention. Slowly they have tightened the screws on the rest of us. Have you ever wondered why only one adult per household had to work in the 1950's, but today both adults usually have to work in order to make ends meet? Why average wages, adjusted for inflation, peaked in the 1970's? Why consumer debt has skyrocketed in the past few decades? Why the sub-prime mortgage fiasco was allowed to happen? Did you know that, despite hundreds of billions of U.S taxpayer dollars injected into financial markets recently, the credit crunch has not loosened one bit? Did you know that U.S. Treasury Bills, long considered to be the safest long term investment, have just recently begun to give NEGATIVE returns? That has not happened EVER before. Things are getting scary now, and it seems that it will get much worse before it gets better.

So my point is that we can no longer afford to be ignorant about monetary policy. Sorry about the long post, but I really want people to understand this. If you don't believe what I have said, please look into the matter yourself. I highly recommend these three items:

1) watch the video "Money As Debt" by Paul Grignon. It's an animated, 47 minute introduction to money. Very good and relatively easy to understand. See it here:
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=money+as+debt&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f#

2) check out this website by an educated guy who used to be in the financial business. It's got a great set of instructional videos on money called the "Crash Course". Here it is:
www.chrismartenson.com

3) once you get an idea of what's going on, get active! This website focuses on the main source of our monetary woes, the Federal Reserve. Check it out:
www.endthefed.us

Again, sorry for the loooong post. If any of you out there are like me and need to know the real reasons why things are the way they are, then you'll appreciate educating yourself on this matter.

Rushman

 

Hi Rushman.

At first I thought your post was about returning to the gold standard which I've heard from other places and don't really agree with. But, it is good to see that it was something different. Overall, I agree with you. Banks really are parasitic in nature as the charging of interest is a nasty habit. I've known about these things loosely since my days in college. My anthropology of economics professor once described our current system as "untenable and unsustainable" as this world is not a bag of infinite resources. However, getting to a sustainable economy may be a rather painful process for the world. Simply, those in power wish to remain in power. A willing surrender of power rarely occurs in history. Like a mad captain Ahab, they will probably continue chasing their white whale at everyone else's expense. But, maybe that is the pessimism in me. But, as for myself, I plan to never take out a loan or spend money that I don't have. Living beyond my means is not how I do business.

 

Hello, I'm Mister Bringdown!

The choice is usually to get a loan or for your business to die or stagnate. "Not me!", you say. Every time you spend money, some of it goes to service those very kinds of loans. If not directly, then at the next level. The game you are in was rigged before you were born. This can be avoided, of course, by being born a winner (parasite).

The economic collapse required to change this little game (under way?) might also include a major die-off of human beings before the intensive agriculture and interwoven transportation infrastructures that keep most of alive are reestablished. Wanna guess what else will be reestablished at the same time?

All we hag-ridden toadies have to do prevent this collapse is to run even faster.

No wait! I'm wrong. The television just told me everything is just fine. :thumbsup:

 

Well, I think a big part of moving beyond our current "big crap cake" is to grow local economies and communities. Every time you use the dollar you have linked your transaction to the entire global economy. That is why some people have started local currencies. Now, some people (including my mom, a semi-retired bank teller of 30+ years) see this as tantamount to treason, but I think those people just don't really understand the financial world and what is happening to it.

Keeping it local is a good idea - it reinforces community bonds, and creates a backup plan in case the global economy collapses. Not to sound too outrageous, but these things, although unthinkable years ago, are now nearing the realm of possibility: hyperinflation of the dollar, or all foreign countries cashing in their dollar-based reserves because the U.S. devalued its currency too much.

Anyways, I appreciate your comments. I am still just learning about this stuff. It helps to know what others think.

Rrrrrushmannnn

 

I think the internet made the world too small for anything to be local anymore.

I don't like banks but I don't think they are contributing factor in our economical woes. America's economy is one based on consumerism. When prices of necessities get higher people tend to spend less. When companies are losing profit margins the "haves" go in to a panic. If we had gotten away from consumerism I don't think the problem would be quite so bad.

What's worst is that too many companies outsourced too many jobs and it has gotten to the point that we can't even afford our own labor. So an economy based on consumerism has a low employment rate. The only solution at this point is to create jobs. Not even sure that can be done because that would drive prices because we can pay people elsewhere to do the same thing for only a fraction of the cost. Tis a kenedrum it is.

 

RANT WARNING: :raving:

Speaking as one of the exploiters of the masses (I own stock), when a company lays off staff, I think it's time to sell that stock. The price (as you said) is high, and they are making a BIG mistake.

Contrary to what they apparently teach in business schools, workers are NOT interchangeable units. The guys were just laid off WERE the business. They were the ones who did whatever was done to have that business exist. A business loses money on new hires (really!) until they learn how to do the job. FROM WHOM? The experience is already out the door and gone. You now have to reinvent the wheel, again. And that COSTS, if it is not fatal, too.

This is related to a previous rant I did where I claimed that education was the basis of civilization. By education, of course, I mean the passing on of knowledge and experience, NOT the "education" you get in "school". You have to have the experienced (expensive) people to teach the new people, often by example, or the knowledge is lost.

I try to invest in companies that exploit their employees efficiently, not treat them fairly and decently. It just so happens that those things are the SAME thing.

 

System does need to change. The problem lies in the fact is how can it be changed. Or more to the point at what cost?

 

The exciting part for me is that I'm sure the system will change soon, one way or another. An economy based on infinite growth, based in turn on infinite debt creation, must stop sometime. And I think that time is coming soon...

Rushman

 

True enough about how change "should" be coming.

It's sad though, that we let things get SOOOO bad before we even attempt to fix them. I guess pro-activity is something we lost when we evolved.

On the other hand... you could all be with us in Illinois! Count your blessings!