In Debt We Trust

[serryjw]

quote.....
This Danny Schecter expose uncovers the immediate burgeoning crisis presented by the emerging financial industrial complex that is creating a culture of debt servitude in America.

With consumerism the second biggest moneymaker of the US economy after the military industry, Americans must be forced to consume, or else that economy might just collapse. And luring people into consuming by promising them easy loans, has become not only an effective tool in this process, but yet another exceedingly profitable capitalist venture. How so? By locking an increasingly alarming number of Americans into a lifetime of debt and concurrent foreclosures and homelessness, by those greedy banks, credit card companies, financial corporations, and essentially government approved loansharks.

end quote......
http://www.wbai.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=8852&Itemid=2

Video preview
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8816019997709201699

[Union Thug]

1. I call it Credit Card Capitalism.

And I don't think it's happened by chance. If you can get the majority of the people living in debt - owned by the very things that they believe are indicators of prosperity - and then you weaken bankruptcy protection across the board (after destroying the usery laws that protected citizens from predatory lending), you get a population of people who are much more willing to work for declining wages and benefits for fear of the consequences of defaulting on their debt. After all, the credit rating has become the ultimate measure of a person's worth in the US.

The myth of the prosperity in America is based in the credit system. Most people can't afford to buy things, so they put themselves into debt to pretend like they're rich. We've been sold a life-style by the marketers, rather than by forming our own opinion of what a meaningful life is all about. If people purchased what they needed and dropped their addiction to stuffing shit into boxes, the economy of the US would very likely drop into deep recession.

I've always thought that the next revolution will not be violent. Rather, it will be the result of an organized, large cross section of america taking advantage of easy credit, consuming every penny of it, and then systematically, purposely defaulting on it.

[serryjw]

2. I agree 100% with what you say but let me add a few items......

Home equity loans are evil. People take the one asset and throw it away for another toy

TOO expensive cars....For me( I don't have one for the last 7 years)cars were always simply transportation and not an expression of my financial worth or some ego booster.
I have previously made a nice living and lived well. After getting sick everything changed for me. I now see how easy it is to live on little money if you don't buy into the marketing scams. I was speed walking the other day in the park and realized I was the only one carrying a cassette player!!!!! Everyone else had a IPOD!

[Union Thug]

3. Great points...

I try not to, as much as possible, play the game. It is truly the sickness of America.

I have two points of reference - first,I grew up in a blue collar family and am acutely aware that circumstances can change at any given moment. I do my best to prepare for such changes. Second, I went through a period in my life where I was suckered into the scam, and later, when the ugly divorce came along, it arrived arm in arm with a bankruptcy. Since that time, I've tried to remove myself as much as possible from the system that set's people up to live on the edge of economic ruin.

Like yourself, I see marketing as a scam but I take it one step further. Because of the wealth and power that produces it, I see marketing as the purest form of propaganda. It is designed to serve two specific functions - to frame reality and set expectations for what it means to be successful and 'normal' and to provide the products from which to construct that reality.

[serryjw]

4. The funny part is I spent most of my adult

life in the scam. I was in the Apparel Industry for 20 years. As soon as the election is over I am going back to sales but I hope to live in a world of contribution, however small.
http://www.vendpink.com/

As a survivor I am working on developing another (better, I hope) breast prosthesis and a few other little projects. I live a simple life. IF the sh*t hits the fan I can can live on $800/month, few can say that.