busy world where they don't have (or choose not to take) enough time to read beyond the headlines, it will inform their worldview.

I've already heard this elsewhere, and it's not the first time.

The government spends trillions on making sure the bankers and other high finance people have a market for them to steal from.

Defense employees, too.

There is virtually no market that can stand on its own without federal support.

We are a Socialist nation in most aspects. Only idiots are blind to that fact.

Then What?

I have no idea. Do you know what we could do?

would have been a good start. Carter said we are spending too much, need to cut back - and he, and Volcker, were correct. Reagan sold the myth to people that all their hard work, the conditions they had created by borrowing and spending too much were the fault of black people and needed to be stopped. Too many Democrats agreed and flushed the New Deal down the toilet, leaving it to become a program of maintenance, eventually to be whittled down as the corps and thugs got stronger. Reagan tossed Volcker and gave us Alan Greenspan, who gave us, along with a lot of his co-conspirators, the financial crisis that has hurt so many people, and may eventually destroy the country.

You can read a better outline by Joan Walsh here: http://www.salon.com/2013/10/01/the_real_story_of_the_shutdown_50_years_of_gop_race_baiting/print

They are the ones who made where we are today possible.

We are so far in the hole that is most likely the Democratic Party will never be the party to fix it, given their support of the FIRE sector. (No? Look who has the money.) It will take a whole new coalition, and probably not within your (or my) lifetime. Our lot will be to work until we are 75 and then drop dead. (Maybe 40-60 years down the road, in a much less prosperous America, and a party headed by mainly Latinos and Black folks, who decide enough is enough, something may start up again. Or maybe never.

Then again, I may be too optimistic.

change ...given the direction the country and economy are going. Oh...I know ...Wall Street is looking "recovered" and on a roll.

But the economy is not good. Small Business is not doing well. Out here in many parts of the US..things are not looking up at all. They focus on NYC/Silicon Valley and Hedge Funds buying up real estate (homes) to rent out to people who can't afford homes or were thrown out of original homes because of Bankster Mortgage Fraud and Deregulation of standards for both Lenders and Borrowers.

There's a Game A'Foot to cover it up. But, the rot is still there. They might pull off another Bubble or Swindle...but, don't think the "next time" it will go their way because many people are wise to them. That's my hope that they implode on another crooked scandal much sooner than later.

But...I try to be an optimist. Your scenario is maybe closer to what will happen.

>my hope that they implode on another crooked scandal

Problem is, the people are un-armed, in an intellectual sense. I hear people calling for raising taxes on the wealthy, which is fine, but then we just get their dollars back. That's like supplying a rebel army (in this case the people) with all the bullets they can use, but no guns. We get all their dollars back and then what? People aren't prepared to fight them on Wall Street, and in the banks. They know diddly-squat about finance, nothing about off-shoring business deals, jack about manufacturing, nothing about programming (else there would be a sustained roar of laughter over the architecture of the health insurance web sites), and they don't even have the phone numbers of the carloads of attorneys who do nothing all day but look for ways to screw jo and jane worker-bee and avoid taxes while doing it. Nor are they prepared to live in the world of no-growth, which is exactly what we are living through. They rejected it in 1980, and ran up debt to live on. Now the people who own the debt are being paid back in our freedoms.

The government is doing NOTHING to help people understand what kind of world they are facing, nothing about finance, they aren't telling people it's ok to call bullshit on the schemes and quasi-legal crap that goes on. Instead they backstop the criminals, cover for them, and rake in donations.

Remember what happened in France when they got out the guillotines? They lopped off a few tyrants heads, then the wealthy took over, and before they were through killing they lopped off the heads of thousands of people who started the original revolt, and the wealthy remained in control.

Without massive training of and a whole new set of concepts by the people, we could have a revolution here tomorrow, Jamie Dimon and a few others could get what they have been protected against, and the next thing that would happen would be the killing and imprisonment of thousands of the people revolting. Within 20 years the banks and wealthy would likely own it all again.

Which is why, when I am asked by younger folks, I tell them to learn a second language, get a passport, and find another country you can live in, because they may seriously need a Plan B very soon, if they hope to have much of a life at all.

international banksters who owe no real duty of loyalty to any country.

..has a Book About it...and is incredible in his Blog.

Also Recommend Yves Smith's "Naked Capitalism Blog" .......for Market Watchers and Dems who Market Watch.

K&R!

Let's NOT invest in jobs or education; and let us completely get rid of the minimum wage! Because deficits or grand bargains or seven mountains or something. For fuck's sake!

Can someone please explain where the straps on boots actually are because I have no damned idea!

I found this on Wikipedia

The phrase appears to have originated in the early 19th century United States (particularly in the sense "pull oneself over a fence by one's bootstraps&quot , to mean an absurdly impossible action, an adynaton.

Sounds about right to me!

/sarcasm off

Trade agreements, the more the merrier! And let's not worry about a jobs bill or put any thought into how to get the economy going and people back into homes and well-paying jobs. I mean really, there are women out there who think they should control their own bodies! There are Muslins and wars on holidays! Baby Jesus just shed a tiny tear! Priorities people!

Doesn't matter if a big percentage is things like the Earned Income Tax Credit or Mortgage Deduction.

it was tacitly accepted that government assistance programs were part of the price paid for not having a full employment economy. Over time the understanding became that government assistance was a subsidy to capitalism for low wages and a slowly increasing structural unemployment rate. Big business has wanted to renege on this arrangement since the 70s when the off shoring of American manufacturing, union busting and assaults upon the social safety net began in earnest. The global corporate business model stands or falls on ever and ever cheaper labor as the scarcity and hence the cost of resources increases along with the human labor pool, which drives labor costs down as standards of living decline. Eliminating or drastically reducing public assistance not only generates cheaper labor and reduces living standards but also transfers wealth up the income scale and facilitates the advance of plutonomies.

Quote from you:

The global corporate business model stands or falls on ever and ever cheaper labor as the scarcity and hence the cost of resources increases along with the human labor pool, which drives labor costs down as standards of living decline. Eliminating or drastically reducing public assistance not only generates cheaper labor and reduces living standards but also transfers wealth up the income scale and facilitates the advance of plutonomies.

We are going to be fighting against this for a loooong time. IMHO.