You know, this whole idea of financial institutions being too big to fail? Well, aren't we doing every fool thing we can to ensure that every other industry or institution we have is also too big to fail?
Increasingly, the distribution of cheap imported shit comes from only a handful of large companies. (WalMart, Target)
Increasingly, the distribution of pharmaceuticals comes from only a handful of large multinationals. (Pfizer, Glaxo)
Increasingly, the distribution of military hardware comes from only a handful of large multinationals. (Colt, Raytheon)
Increasingly, the distribution of all our food comes from only a handful of large multinationals.
Focus on that last one for a minute. Suppose instead of Goldman, Cargill was on the verge of failing. Instead of Lehman, Archer Daniels Midland went bust. Or instead of AIG, Monsanto needed $150,000,000,000. You think we'd allow any of these to fail?
At the same time, it's salmonella this, salmonella that. Don't eat peanut butter, bypass the spinach, avoid all pistachios. Do you possibly believe that food safety could be any more elusive due to our increasingly concentrated food industry? Do you really think that when our basic needs can be traded off for profit to a diminishing number of power brokers that we are better off?
Tell me how easy it is for FDA to trace the source of an "outbreak" from tainted polenta when wheels and wheels of it come off some centralized processing line and distributed to all four corners at all four seasons. Tell me that agribusiness isn't in the business of trying to eradicate and eliminate every diverse microbe culture that might be the cause of this "outbreak," eliminating competitive cultures from preventing any one pathogen from dominating. Superbugs rejoice. And tell me that, next to the financial sector, ADM and Cargill weren't right up there in lobbying expenditures, successfully pushing reams of legislation "favorable" to business and "unfavorable" for you...with the exception of cheap prices.
Trade off basic rights for profit. Yeah, go fuck yourselves, Americans. Get sick and die from food poisoning you can't source because of our 'concentrated distribution networks.' You are too small to matter. That's your comeuppance for demanding cheap products produced through cheap energy. Pretty soon, there will only be one provider for everything, because that's ultimately the most efficient, cheapest solution, right? and that's all that matters. Happily motor to the centralized warehouse to collect all your pre-arranged purchases -- quality of living at its finest.
This is my simplistic view of things, but I've said it before -- as we allow the Home Depots and the JoAnns and the WalMarts and the J.R. Simplot's of the world to collect, to aggregate, to control an increasing share of our lives, we lose far more that they can possibly return to us. We lose job and product diversification, we lose quality for quantity, we lose non-renewable resources, and we lose the dignity of work when we focus on line-speed, quotas, and the dogged pursuit of more.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
ADT
Here's another classic example of how my Elk Grove has done things completely wrong (actually, every city in America for that matter). After spending the last eighteen years doing everything it could to fuck up its historic town center, to intentionally destroy it, Elk Grove is priming itself to "revitalize its core."
Old Town is right on Elk Grove Blvd., an east-west street dating back to the 1860's, and this road (dirt at first, then a two lane for many, many years) was more than enough to service the town core. Elk Grove was always something of a very small city, but (wouldn't you know it) people a century ago decided that a human scaled, walkable, tree-lined, compact community would provide for most everyday needs for its residents who lived both on the main street as well as close adjacent streets.
For over a full century, there was never a need for "redevelopment," or "revitalization." The city core organically adjusted to the new conditions of living during the earlier decades of this century.
Today, within a span of less than twenty years, we are shuttling 22 thousand cars per day (ADT, or average daily traffic) through the intersection of Elk Grove Blvd. and Elk Grove Florin Rd, a half mile west of the Old Town. To preserve the core "character," Elk Grove Blvd. became a zipper street, necking down from a four lane 'freeway' to a two lane 'expressway' straight through the heart of the town core, slicing it in half with commuter traffic from Highway 99 to the 8,000+ housal units (we'll call this development) to the east. The city has no intention of stopping further development to the east...although our "tough economic times" has sorta squashed any recent growth. Once Elk Grove is back to 15% growth and 20% annual housal unit price increases then Elk Grove will expect (and rightfully deserve) suburban sprawl all the way from Old Town to the Consumnes river, with all these new "happy" citizens gleefully commuting through Old Town to get to the freeway and to all those jobs elsewhere in other cities. They represent all the future potential spenders in the core.
Having already spent north of $6 million to "revitalize" the core with sidewalks and vehicular amenities that (wouldn't you know it, it made traffic worse!) was a complete failure, businesses are dead and dying. And guess what all the council members, business owners, and historic preservationists are suggesting as the "antidote" to this fucking fiasco?
A Parking Structure!
Wa-hey! That will cure it!
Strip retail success in our great, grand America is predicated on one thing, and one thing only: ADT. The only bit of information any developer needs is "how many cars will drive by, because that defines the pool of potential 'hits.'" Hmmmm....somehow, eight thousand vehicles a day commuting through Old Town, somehow, hasn't managed to spur Old Town spending. So let's build vertical parking and lure thosecitizens consumers in. And make it free! Yes! Free parking, subsidized by all of Elk Grove.
"Some type of parking structure [is] vital, vital for the area." -- Elk Grove Mayor Pat Hume
You know, my fair city is going to spend hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, studying, planning, examining, reviewing, and recommending options that won't do, that can't do, anything to rectify decades of bad civic design. The only thing that works is correct urban design from the beginning or correct infill afterwards. Unfortunately, with suburban sprawl proponents funding 87% of our elected officials' coffers and re-election campaigns, Elk Grove will never be in the business of doing things correctly. It can never recommend solutions that work for an old city core atop a framework of car dependency and single use zoning.
Why do you suppose nearly every original city core in America also needs "revitalization?" If our suburban sprawl model is so fucking superior, then why is anyone concerned with "preserving" these cores? Why don't we just raze them all down, all of 'em, and erect more efficient large format retail and acres of parking to shuttle in all our superiorcitizens consumers?
Old Town Elk Grove is doomed to fail.
Old Town is right on Elk Grove Blvd., an east-west street dating back to the 1860's, and this road (dirt at first, then a two lane for many, many years) was more than enough to service the town core. Elk Grove was always something of a very small city, but (wouldn't you know it) people a century ago decided that a human scaled, walkable, tree-lined, compact community would provide for most everyday needs for its residents who lived both on the main street as well as close adjacent streets.
For over a full century, there was never a need for "redevelopment," or "revitalization." The city core organically adjusted to the new conditions of living during the earlier decades of this century.
Today, within a span of less than twenty years, we are shuttling 22 thousand cars per day (ADT, or average daily traffic) through the intersection of Elk Grove Blvd. and Elk Grove Florin Rd, a half mile west of the Old Town. To preserve the core "character," Elk Grove Blvd. became a zipper street, necking down from a four lane 'freeway' to a two lane 'expressway' straight through the heart of the town core, slicing it in half with commuter traffic from Highway 99 to the 8,000+ housal units (we'll call this development) to the east. The city has no intention of stopping further development to the east...although our "tough economic times" has sorta squashed any recent growth. Once Elk Grove is back to 15% growth and 20% annual housal unit price increases then Elk Grove will expect (and rightfully deserve) suburban sprawl all the way from Old Town to the Consumnes river, with all these new "happy" citizens gleefully commuting through Old Town to get to the freeway and to all those jobs elsewhere in other cities. They represent all the future potential spenders in the core.
Having already spent north of $6 million to "revitalize" the core with sidewalks and vehicular amenities that (wouldn't you know it, it made traffic worse!) was a complete failure, businesses are dead and dying. And guess what all the council members, business owners, and historic preservationists are suggesting as the "antidote" to this fucking fiasco?
A Parking Structure!
Wa-hey! That will cure it!
Strip retail success in our great, grand America is predicated on one thing, and one thing only: ADT. The only bit of information any developer needs is "how many cars will drive by, because that defines the pool of potential 'hits.'" Hmmmm....somehow, eight thousand vehicles a day commuting through Old Town, somehow, hasn't managed to spur Old Town spending. So let's build vertical parking and lure those
"Some type of parking structure [is] vital, vital for the area." -- Elk Grove Mayor Pat Hume
You know, my fair city is going to spend hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, studying, planning, examining, reviewing, and recommending options that won't do, that can't do, anything to rectify decades of bad civic design. The only thing that works is correct urban design from the beginning or correct infill afterwards. Unfortunately, with suburban sprawl proponents funding 87% of our elected officials' coffers and re-election campaigns, Elk Grove will never be in the business of doing things correctly. It can never recommend solutions that work for an old city core atop a framework of car dependency and single use zoning.
Why do you suppose nearly every original city core in America also needs "revitalization?" If our suburban sprawl model is so fucking superior, then why is anyone concerned with "preserving" these cores? Why don't we just raze them all down, all of 'em, and erect more efficient large format retail and acres of parking to shuttle in all our superior
Old Town Elk Grove is doomed to fail.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
The Uninsured
I've been reading about how, in these "tough economic times," California is approaching an 18% uninsured motorist rate.
My predictions for 2009 said that there would be more unregistered drivers in the state, and this prediction is holding true. However, I failed to also account for the correlation between the unregistered and the uninsured and the unemployed, which all rise and fall together.
By some accounts, this percentage is set to rise to almost 1 in six drivers. And indeed, there's also those who, instead of dropping their coverage, decide to take on minimum coverage.
Even so, I don't carry uninsured motorist -- but I am considering a change. Considering a change, because I recently found out that uninsured motorist insurance covers me (in California) for any roadway accident where contact was made by the uninsured vehicle. Read: as I ride my bike along Franklin Blvd., my auto uninsured motorist policy would cover me for any motor vehicle accident, even if my covered vehicle is in my driveway.
However, I do have medical insurance. My own medical insurance should cover the costs to fix me up, but it won't cover lost wages or other forms of compensation I could be entitled to. I will weigh the cost of this supplemental coverage against its benefits.
So here's my plan of attack, and I'm wondering if you agree: I will drop my liability coverage by half, to 50/100, from 100/300, to account for the fact that I'm an infrequent, small car driver. I will offset this with a 50/100 uninsured motorist policy.
I will assume all the risk of causing more than a $50k accident with my little Honda car, offset by the more likely possibility of getting hit by a hit and run motorist on Franklin Blvd. on my bike.
First of all, I follow the Smith Driving principles. One of the best mandatory training courses my employer has ever enrolled me in. It drives my wife fucking nuts, but hey, at least I got a better chance of not causing an accident than your average moronic NASCAR crazed driver. I drive to work on average only once every two weeks, so I'll take my chances on that day. Weekends and holidays, I'll also take my chances. And, I drive a small car. I'm not likely to total that Yukon Denali or cause too much damage.
Second of all...I ride my bike through economically and employment depressed Elk Grove and South Sacramento. What, you think these drivers are statistically below the 18% statewide uninsured rate? Not fucking likely; in fact, I'd bet the number approaches 25% where I ride. And consider that these sorts of drivers are also predisposed to alcohol abuse, also fail to maintain their vehicles correctly, and simply don't take responsibility for their actions or inactions (such as texting, cell phone use, eating while driving, speeding, running red lights, inattentiveness, etc).
When Lupe Romero Rodriguez, the immigrant with an expired visa from Tabasco hits me from behind in his unregisted red Chevy beater truck on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., drunk on Tecate after another unsuccessful attempt to secure day labor, you think he's gonna stick around "exchanging information" or "assisting the police in reporting?" Right...
My predictions for 2009 said that there would be more unregistered drivers in the state, and this prediction is holding true. However, I failed to also account for the correlation between the unregistered and the uninsured and the unemployed, which all rise and fall together.
By some accounts, this percentage is set to rise to almost 1 in six drivers. And indeed, there's also those who, instead of dropping their coverage, decide to take on minimum coverage.
Even so, I don't carry uninsured motorist -- but I am considering a change. Considering a change, because I recently found out that uninsured motorist insurance covers me (in California) for any roadway accident where contact was made by the uninsured vehicle. Read: as I ride my bike along Franklin Blvd., my auto uninsured motorist policy would cover me for any motor vehicle accident, even if my covered vehicle is in my driveway.
However, I do have medical insurance. My own medical insurance should cover the costs to fix me up, but it won't cover lost wages or other forms of compensation I could be entitled to. I will weigh the cost of this supplemental coverage against its benefits.
So here's my plan of attack, and I'm wondering if you agree: I will drop my liability coverage by half, to 50/100, from 100/300, to account for the fact that I'm an infrequent, small car driver. I will offset this with a 50/100 uninsured motorist policy.
I will assume all the risk of causing more than a $50k accident with my little Honda car, offset by the more likely possibility of getting hit by a hit and run motorist on Franklin Blvd. on my bike.
First of all, I follow the Smith Driving principles. One of the best mandatory training courses my employer has ever enrolled me in. It drives my wife fucking nuts, but hey, at least I got a better chance of not causing an accident than your average moronic NASCAR crazed driver. I drive to work on average only once every two weeks, so I'll take my chances on that day. Weekends and holidays, I'll also take my chances. And, I drive a small car. I'm not likely to total that Yukon Denali or cause too much damage.
Second of all...I ride my bike through economically and employment depressed Elk Grove and South Sacramento. What, you think these drivers are statistically below the 18% statewide uninsured rate? Not fucking likely; in fact, I'd bet the number approaches 25% where I ride. And consider that these sorts of drivers are also predisposed to alcohol abuse, also fail to maintain their vehicles correctly, and simply don't take responsibility for their actions or inactions (such as texting, cell phone use, eating while driving, speeding, running red lights, inattentiveness, etc).
When Lupe Romero Rodriguez, the immigrant with an expired visa from Tabasco hits me from behind in his unregisted red Chevy beater truck on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., drunk on Tecate after another unsuccessful attempt to secure day labor, you think he's gonna stick around "exchanging information" or "assisting the police in reporting?" Right...
Beat the Increase
Only four days left!
Californians need to go out, now, and buy that new car, lest they get hit with that 1% sales tax increase set for April 1st. Sacramento county sales tax rises to 8.75%, while in some parts of the state, with city and/or district taxes, the sales tax is 10.25%.
Yep, save $220 on that $22,000 new car purchase. And, and! you'll get to write off that $1705 tax bill on your federal taxes. What a stimulus! New Hyundai buyers are also "protected," in that if they lose their job anytime in the next 12 months, the dealer will be gracious enough to buy it back from you. This unprecedented level of compassion and human understanding sets the bar much higher for all car dealerships, doesn't it?
Lastly, Big O tires is having a special sale -- if you trade in your "used" tires, you'll be credited against the purchase of a new set of tires. Oh! Such charity! Big O's on our side, fighting for the dignity of the destitute! Although...the level of the rebate is dependent on how much tread is left. So...if you have any tread left...why the hell should you replace your tires, huh? I'd bet there were hundreds of Merikans who did just that. Buying things they didn't need, simply for the sake of buying. Perhaps they thought it was a "safety" issue. Hey, with more tread, little Tina and Charlie will be safer in the minivan, right? Always looking out for the safety of our children, we are.
Californians need to go out, now, and buy that new car, lest they get hit with that 1% sales tax increase set for April 1st. Sacramento county sales tax rises to 8.75%, while in some parts of the state, with city and/or district taxes, the sales tax is 10.25%.
Yep, save $220 on that $22,000 new car purchase. And, and! you'll get to write off that $1705 tax bill on your federal taxes. What a stimulus! New Hyundai buyers are also "protected," in that if they lose their job anytime in the next 12 months, the dealer will be gracious enough to buy it back from you. This unprecedented level of compassion and human understanding sets the bar much higher for all car dealerships, doesn't it?
Lastly, Big O tires is having a special sale -- if you trade in your "used" tires, you'll be credited against the purchase of a new set of tires. Oh! Such charity! Big O's on our side, fighting for the dignity of the destitute! Although...the level of the rebate is dependent on how much tread is left. So...if you have any tread left...why the hell should you replace your tires, huh? I'd bet there were hundreds of Merikans who did just that. Buying things they didn't need, simply for the sake of buying. Perhaps they thought it was a "safety" issue. Hey, with more tread, little Tina and Charlie will be safer in the minivan, right? Always looking out for the safety of our children, we are.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
19 MMBPD
The United States has dropped from 21 million barrels of oil consumed per day in 2005, 2006, and 2007, to 19 million barrels per day in 2008 and today. A ten percent drop. That really isn't a significant drop in consumption. We are still burning oil at the rate we did in the earlier part of this decade, while our domestic production is continuing to drop.
Tell me something. Is there any Republican out there still chanting Drill! Baby! Drill!? No? Now, why would that be, huh? How come these cretins aren't now trying to take a $50 barrel down to $10...to spur "economic recovery?" How come they aren't crying for all the new jobs this new drilling would create?
I believe that at $50 a barrel, not a single drop of ANWRian oil could possibly be extracted, because the lifting cost is higher than the going price. If ever there was a time to start investing in our domestic oil infrastructure, it'd be now, to stem higher prices a decade from now. But no. We live in a crisis and complacency Merika. Oil is in a complacent place right now.
Tell me something. Is there any Republican out there still chanting Drill! Baby! Drill!? No? Now, why would that be, huh? How come these cretins aren't now trying to take a $50 barrel down to $10...to spur "economic recovery?" How come they aren't crying for all the new jobs this new drilling would create?
I believe that at $50 a barrel, not a single drop of ANWRian oil could possibly be extracted, because the lifting cost is higher than the going price. If ever there was a time to start investing in our domestic oil infrastructure, it'd be now, to stem higher prices a decade from now. But no. We live in a crisis and complacency Merika. Oil is in a complacent place right now.
Landscraper
Having returned from a week long visit to northern Colorado, I come to the sad conclusion that our wretched suburban experiment has metastasized into every corner of our America. Greeley, CO has become identical to Inglewood, CA, to Elk Grove, CA, or to XXXXX, XX. Every city in America has become every other city in America...and what used to be a someplace, Greeley has become a noplace.
Driving through Greeley is identical to driving through Elk Grove, CA in every respect. The exact same chain stores, sporting the exact same architectural "embellishments" such as false fronts and useless cupolas, the exact same parking arrangements, layouts, and lighting. Single use zoning, leapfrogged residential tracts, car dealerships, fill stations and fast-food shacks. Why we all believe that this is the best possible use of our talents, our wealth and our energies, only demonstrates to me how utterly fucked up Americans are. We are collectively smitten with the same belief that razing grazing lands for low-density development is what we should be, what we ought to be doing.
Greeley is so sprawled out that I had a hard time imagining how a worker in one of the last remaining grain mills in the city could use any public transit to get to his job from his house twelve miles away. Indeed, he can't. So into his single occupant car he goes, along with every other Greeleyian. A large portion of the population commutes to Denver each day, too, and they wonder why I-25 is in such bad shape, or why incessant construction to expand capacity is required. For ninety five years the two lane highway 34 was more than adequate to serve the town. Now, in less than a decade of unmitigated sprawl they've decided that four lanes were required, and one can only predict that this won't be sufficient come 2019, when six lanes to service its commuters will be required.
Greeley has become a landscraper, devouring all the regional farmland that was used for the last two centuries. Somehow, they've decided that duing the last 200 years they've squandered its potential and that TJ-Maxx, Target stores and oceans of parking lots are a superior use of this resource. Never mind the fact that it might be marginal land -- it is still land, and it was used as a local resource for generations, providing hardscrabble crops, pasture, or simply open space.
Nope, the water rights were sold off, the farmers sold off to buy condos in North Carolina, the landscrapers were erected, new residents flocked in from southern California and New Jersey and they all think "Wow! We live in rural America!" while the original town core is rotted out, manufacturing and factory jobs disappeared, replaced by insurance adjusters, theater attendants and retail sales positions, where mandatory driving is the law and where his-and-her SUVs are compulsory instruments of daily living, indispensable for all those twin commutes required to support fantastic mortgages on starter mansions in the rural countryside.
Having a hard time imagining how some wage-earning underclassman would use a non-existent transit system, I also had a hard time imagining how Greeley would manage in any fossil fuel crisis, in any possible scenario of sustained high gasoline and diesel prices, or how Greeley could possibly support itself with PHEVs when the average commuter probably drives forty seven miles a day. Green Greeley? More like Browinsh-Ochre Greeley, what with its expanding auto-emissions and laced storm water runoff from several square miles of pavement. Do any of us really, really, imagine windmills, solar cells, PHEVs and a smart grid all working seamlessly to keep Greeley sprawl going, to continue exurban commuting, to allow us each a 5,400 sq ft housal unit loaded up with electronic gadgets and other time-saving devices, to provide for perpetual leisure?
I can't imagine it.
Driving through Greeley is identical to driving through Elk Grove, CA in every respect. The exact same chain stores, sporting the exact same architectural "embellishments" such as false fronts and useless cupolas, the exact same parking arrangements, layouts, and lighting. Single use zoning, leapfrogged residential tracts, car dealerships, fill stations and fast-food shacks. Why we all believe that this is the best possible use of our talents, our wealth and our energies, only demonstrates to me how utterly fucked up Americans are. We are collectively smitten with the same belief that razing grazing lands for low-density development is what we should be, what we ought to be doing.
Greeley is so sprawled out that I had a hard time imagining how a worker in one of the last remaining grain mills in the city could use any public transit to get to his job from his house twelve miles away. Indeed, he can't. So into his single occupant car he goes, along with every other Greeleyian. A large portion of the population commutes to Denver each day, too, and they wonder why I-25 is in such bad shape, or why incessant construction to expand capacity is required. For ninety five years the two lane highway 34 was more than adequate to serve the town. Now, in less than a decade of unmitigated sprawl they've decided that four lanes were required, and one can only predict that this won't be sufficient come 2019, when six lanes to service its commuters will be required.
Greeley has become a landscraper, devouring all the regional farmland that was used for the last two centuries. Somehow, they've decided that duing the last 200 years they've squandered its potential and that TJ-Maxx, Target stores and oceans of parking lots are a superior use of this resource. Never mind the fact that it might be marginal land -- it is still land, and it was used as a local resource for generations, providing hardscrabble crops, pasture, or simply open space.
Nope, the water rights were sold off, the farmers sold off to buy condos in North Carolina, the landscrapers were erected, new residents flocked in from southern California and New Jersey and they all think "Wow! We live in rural America!" while the original town core is rotted out, manufacturing and factory jobs disappeared, replaced by insurance adjusters, theater attendants and retail sales positions, where mandatory driving is the law and where his-and-her SUVs are compulsory instruments of daily living, indispensable for all those twin commutes required to support fantastic mortgages on starter mansions in the rural countryside.
Having a hard time imagining how some wage-earning underclassman would use a non-existent transit system, I also had a hard time imagining how Greeley would manage in any fossil fuel crisis, in any possible scenario of sustained high gasoline and diesel prices, or how Greeley could possibly support itself with PHEVs when the average commuter probably drives forty seven miles a day. Green Greeley? More like Browinsh-Ochre Greeley, what with its expanding auto-emissions and laced storm water runoff from several square miles of pavement. Do any of us really, really, imagine windmills, solar cells, PHEVs and a smart grid all working seamlessly to keep Greeley sprawl going, to continue exurban commuting, to allow us each a 5,400 sq ft housal unit loaded up with electronic gadgets and other time-saving devices, to provide for perpetual leisure?
I can't imagine it.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Hyperopic
After eleven days in Colorado I will temper down my earlier thoughts on our economy.
Having spent some time outside my Elk Grovian confides, I am becoming aware that this "recession" is most certainly worse here than elsewhere across my America. Sure, Aurora, CO home values have dropped, but not anywhere near what Elk Grove has seen, along with unemployment and all other economic activity. Our national economy appears better outside Elk Grove and California -- these two are not an accurate barometer of our nation's overall economy. Not all communities and cities fucked themselves over like Elk Grove has.
I am cheering on our recession. Still, I'm convinced, now even more so, that a depression is highly unlikely. While I personally believe we'd find ultimate value in total collapse, I grudgingly accept that we won't make any headway towards stemming our complete rout of the independent American farm family and accept that we will continue to pave over of all our countryside with strip malls, low density suburban tracts and fried food huts, even in the wake of taxpayer funding of Wall Street bonuses for abject failure. We collectively think this is the best of all possible outcomes and we passively accept it. This is our Merika. Love it or leave it.
I will never accept it, but then again, I hold an extreme minority opinion. I happen to think we could do better. This is my opinion, but clearly it's not going to be actively accepted by anyone else. OK.
To that end I will strive to keep to my own hyperopic view, that I can do well during any long term feast or famine, and fuck whatever else might rise or fall around me. I personally will do fine regardless of how you do, or how the nation does.
Having spent some time outside my Elk Grovian confides, I am becoming aware that this "recession" is most certainly worse here than elsewhere across my America. Sure, Aurora, CO home values have dropped, but not anywhere near what Elk Grove has seen, along with unemployment and all other economic activity. Our national economy appears better outside Elk Grove and California -- these two are not an accurate barometer of our nation's overall economy. Not all communities and cities fucked themselves over like Elk Grove has.
I am cheering on our recession. Still, I'm convinced, now even more so, that a depression is highly unlikely. While I personally believe we'd find ultimate value in total collapse, I grudgingly accept that we won't make any headway towards stemming our complete rout of the independent American farm family and accept that we will continue to pave over of all our countryside with strip malls, low density suburban tracts and fried food huts, even in the wake of taxpayer funding of Wall Street bonuses for abject failure. We collectively think this is the best of all possible outcomes and we passively accept it. This is our Merika. Love it or leave it.
I will never accept it, but then again, I hold an extreme minority opinion. I happen to think we could do better. This is my opinion, but clearly it's not going to be actively accepted by anyone else. OK.
To that end I will strive to keep to my own hyperopic view, that I can do well during any long term feast or famine, and fuck whatever else might rise or fall around me. I personally will do fine regardless of how you do, or how the nation does.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Voltaire
As I'm nearing the end of my mortgage, I'm planning ahead what to do with a $2400 per month surplus.
I'm not into American-style consumption anymore. Don't need an HDTV, Durango, Stainless Barbecue, 25" computer monitor, X-box 360, Vulcan stove, satellite TV, newer furniture, car stereo, DVD burner, or a garage full of power tools I buy but won't use, only to show up the neighbors.
You know what I'd like? A charming house.
This would cost me an arm and a leg here in Sacramento, however. Unfortunately so, because no one can build one here anymore, for it's illegal. Note that this house doesn't have 2/3rd's of its facade sporting a blank 3-car garage door. Without a frontal garage, shit! How would Americans park their mandatory 2.3 vehicles? All of our American cities think this exact same way, so they outlaw the alley (can't get those big fucking fire trucks down 'em), enforce 45-foot wide street widths, and won't approve subdivisions without sufficient parking in garages in the front.
The only way to buy a Craftsman Bungalow here is to buy one in the most expensive areas, because that's the only place where they were allowed to be built in the 1920's and 30's.
Does anyone, anyone in this fading Republic, have any idea what sorts of prices a new subdivision of small bungalows would command? If they could build them with alleyways so trash cans, vehicles, and underground utilities can hide? If they would provide sidewalks ending at T-intersections, with formally planted Red Oaks lining them and sufficient space for parallel vehicular parking? With corner groceries?
I just can't believe that all of you, every one of you, think that by building the exact same cookie-cutter tract-home subdivision in Dayton or Fayetteville, with no character, no charm, no vibrancy, that "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds." I am positive that almost all of us yearn for something different, something better, but instead we accept shitty architectural abortions in unsustainable, energy-squandering suburbia because we don't know anything else.
If we don't accept Elk Grovian style suburbia, we accept the northern Colorado model: build a 3,700 sq ft abominable piece of shit as a totem of success in the middle of a 3/4 acre spread, land that's now unfit for anything else other than displaying nostalgic farm implements, pink plastic flamingos, garden gnomes, or propping up comedic full-sized plywood cutouts of a woman bending over weeding, exposing her polka-dot ass crack, or the leaning cowboy, or kissing Dutch children, or a small child peeing in the bushes.
Then aside from these ignoble assaults on our dignity, a four car garage is built fronting the roadway, to house all those motorized accessories required for life twenty four miles away from everywhere and everyone.
I'm not into American-style consumption anymore. Don't need an HDTV, Durango, Stainless Barbecue, 25" computer monitor, X-box 360, Vulcan stove, satellite TV, newer furniture, car stereo, DVD burner, or a garage full of power tools I buy but won't use, only to show up the neighbors.
You know what I'd like? A charming house.
This would cost me an arm and a leg here in Sacramento, however. Unfortunately so, because no one can build one here anymore, for it's illegal. Note that this house doesn't have 2/3rd's of its facade sporting a blank 3-car garage door. Without a frontal garage, shit! How would Americans park their mandatory 2.3 vehicles? All of our American cities think this exact same way, so they outlaw the alley (can't get those big fucking fire trucks down 'em), enforce 45-foot wide street widths, and won't approve subdivisions without sufficient parking in garages in the front.
The only way to buy a Craftsman Bungalow here is to buy one in the most expensive areas, because that's the only place where they were allowed to be built in the 1920's and 30's.
Does anyone, anyone in this fading Republic, have any idea what sorts of prices a new subdivision of small bungalows would command? If they could build them with alleyways so trash cans, vehicles, and underground utilities can hide? If they would provide sidewalks ending at T-intersections, with formally planted Red Oaks lining them and sufficient space for parallel vehicular parking? With corner groceries?
I just can't believe that all of you, every one of you, think that by building the exact same cookie-cutter tract-home subdivision in Dayton or Fayetteville, with no character, no charm, no vibrancy, that "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds." I am positive that almost all of us yearn for something different, something better, but instead we accept shitty architectural abortions in unsustainable, energy-squandering suburbia because we don't know anything else.
If we don't accept Elk Grovian style suburbia, we accept the northern Colorado model: build a 3,700 sq ft abominable piece of shit as a totem of success in the middle of a 3/4 acre spread, land that's now unfit for anything else other than displaying nostalgic farm implements, pink plastic flamingos, garden gnomes, or propping up comedic full-sized plywood cutouts of a woman bending over weeding, exposing her polka-dot ass crack, or the leaning cowboy, or kissing Dutch children, or a small child peeing in the bushes.
Then aside from these ignoble assaults on our dignity, a four car garage is built fronting the roadway, to house all those motorized accessories required for life twenty four miles away from everywhere and everyone.
Recession's Over!
Back to back DJIA increases! GM says it doesn't need money for March! The recession is over!
Finally. I can get back to blogging about Elk Grove's bad urban design instead of macro economics. March 12th will go down in history as the day the Great Recession ended.
Here in Elk Grove, this recession hasn't impacted anyone. Aside from the several odd thousand foreclosed housal units, the average Elk Grovian isn't employed in the boom or bust industries of manufacturing, strip retail or construction. No, manufacturing jobs don't exist in Elk Grove. No one who works in Elk Grovian retail can afford to live in Elk Grove. Retail jobs are farmed out to the poorer South Sacramento, Rancho Cordova, Valley Hi, and Rosemont residents. Let all those fuckers commute in to service us, as they do with every other disparate community like Rocklin, Folsom, and Serrano, and let all of us commute to other cities where the real jobs are. Lastly, construction workers can't afford Elk Grove housal units. What, you think some tract-home lathe and plaster guy's gonna plunk down $280,000 for the housal units he builds? No way.
So Elk Grove residents are doing quite well, working in sectors that weren't impacted by our ending recession and who, like me, work in another city altogether.
Things are looking bright and beautiful for my Elk Grove.
Finally. I can get back to blogging about Elk Grove's bad urban design instead of macro economics. March 12th will go down in history as the day the Great Recession ended.
Here in Elk Grove, this recession hasn't impacted anyone. Aside from the several odd thousand foreclosed housal units, the average Elk Grovian isn't employed in the boom or bust industries of manufacturing, strip retail or construction. No, manufacturing jobs don't exist in Elk Grove. No one who works in Elk Grovian retail can afford to live in Elk Grove. Retail jobs are farmed out to the poorer South Sacramento, Rancho Cordova, Valley Hi, and Rosemont residents. Let all those fuckers commute in to service us, as they do with every other disparate community like Rocklin, Folsom, and Serrano, and let all of us commute to other cities where the real jobs are. Lastly, construction workers can't afford Elk Grove housal units. What, you think some tract-home lathe and plaster guy's gonna plunk down $280,000 for the housal units he builds? No way.
So Elk Grove residents are doing quite well, working in sectors that weren't impacted by our ending recession and who, like me, work in another city altogether.
Things are looking bright and beautiful for my Elk Grove.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
The Mellitus Blues
Does anyone find it odd that about the only sector projecting future job increases is health care?
Right. Double digit annual premium increases aside, now we'll be hiring more health practitioners to service the rising millions of those without access to health care, uninsured, or under insured. More nurses will be needed to help fewer patients.
Well, I should qualify that. Fewer paying patients.
I've oft mentioned how my family and I are a total, complete drain on the health insurance system, me being diabetic and all. I should be made to pay more, but I don't have to. There really isn't any way I would pay more, come on. I'm not that philanthropic. Make me pay more for my services, and yes, I'll do so; but I'm not asked to.
I'm on an insulin pump, and the supplies (the reservoirs, the tubing, the infusion sets) are $30 bucks every three days. Not including all the other shit that's needed to keep a pumping diabetic going, $300 a month is impossible for a great many juvenile diabetics and their parents.
But, I just happen to not change out my infusion sets as often as legally required. Our FDA has approved each infusion set and reservoir for three days. But I wear it for about 5-6, and I reuse the reservoirs. As a consequence, I have developed a stockpile of supplies.
So I donate my excess stash to ipump.org, which is someone working out of her garage trying to distribute supplies to those who need them. She is the real workhorse of charity. I'm donating because my insurance subsidies it. If I didn't have insurance I'd keep those infusion sets in for 7-10 days, risking all sorts of complications, trying to save cash. And I know that's exactly what the under insured or non-insured are doing. They are the ones truly at risk. So I'm doing what I can to donate, as I do blood...whenever my hematocrit cooperates...
Again. I mentioned our worth as humans, as a people, as a culture, can be defined how we help others who can't help themselves. I personally think I do very, very little. I strive to change that.
Right. Double digit annual premium increases aside, now we'll be hiring more health practitioners to service the rising millions of those without access to health care, uninsured, or under insured. More nurses will be needed to help fewer patients.
Well, I should qualify that. Fewer paying patients.
I've oft mentioned how my family and I are a total, complete drain on the health insurance system, me being diabetic and all. I should be made to pay more, but I don't have to. There really isn't any way I would pay more, come on. I'm not that philanthropic. Make me pay more for my services, and yes, I'll do so; but I'm not asked to.
I'm on an insulin pump, and the supplies (the reservoirs, the tubing, the infusion sets) are $30 bucks every three days. Not including all the other shit that's needed to keep a pumping diabetic going, $300 a month is impossible for a great many juvenile diabetics and their parents.
But, I just happen to not change out my infusion sets as often as legally required. Our FDA has approved each infusion set and reservoir for three days. But I wear it for about 5-6, and I reuse the reservoirs. As a consequence, I have developed a stockpile of supplies.
So I donate my excess stash to ipump.org, which is someone working out of her garage trying to distribute supplies to those who need them. She is the real workhorse of charity. I'm donating because my insurance subsidies it. If I didn't have insurance I'd keep those infusion sets in for 7-10 days, risking all sorts of complications, trying to save cash. And I know that's exactly what the under insured or non-insured are doing. They are the ones truly at risk. So I'm doing what I can to donate, as I do blood...whenever my hematocrit cooperates...
Again. I mentioned our worth as humans, as a people, as a culture, can be defined how we help others who can't help themselves. I personally think I do very, very little. I strive to change that.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Forget the Debt
To stave off a depression, we shouldn't, at all, concern ourselves with running tremendous deficits. And we're not.
My little national debt clock at the bottom of this page is set to hit $11 trillion sometime tomorrow. Seems like yesterday when we hit $10 trillion. $11 trillion, and by the end of this year, $12 trillion. Meh.
No one cares about this number, no one knows what it means, and no one has ever been affected by it. Just some number, it could be millions, it could be quadrillions, meh, who cares. My favorite line is "well, we just owe it to ourselves..."
And so it is that my parent's generation didn't care about this debt, my generation doesn't care about this debt, and my kids won't either. In fact, all we ever hear is "What about our Children? Save the Children. Help the Children. Don't indebt our Children."
Know what I say? Fuck the Children. They ain't special. They're just like any other group of Americans -- a few winners, and a whole lot of losers. My parent's kids turned out fine, even in the face of all that 1970's yammering about passing that debt to our children. Turned out fine. Just fine.
An interesting documentary, I.O.U.S.A., tries to scare me, to convince me that I should care about the debt, how it's a ticking time bomb, BOOM! and how our children are going to suffer from our unsustainable spending.
Meh.
My little national debt clock at the bottom of this page is set to hit $11 trillion sometime tomorrow. Seems like yesterday when we hit $10 trillion. $11 trillion, and by the end of this year, $12 trillion. Meh.
No one cares about this number, no one knows what it means, and no one has ever been affected by it. Just some number, it could be millions, it could be quadrillions, meh, who cares. My favorite line is "well, we just owe it to ourselves..."
And so it is that my parent's generation didn't care about this debt, my generation doesn't care about this debt, and my kids won't either. In fact, all we ever hear is "What about our Children? Save the Children. Help the Children. Don't indebt our Children."
Know what I say? Fuck the Children. They ain't special. They're just like any other group of Americans -- a few winners, and a whole lot of losers. My parent's kids turned out fine, even in the face of all that 1970's yammering about passing that debt to our children. Turned out fine. Just fine.
An interesting documentary, I.O.U.S.A., tries to scare me, to convince me that I should care about the debt, how it's a ticking time bomb, BOOM! and how our children are going to suffer from our unsustainable spending.
Meh.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Transmission Tents
Oprah Winfrey recently came around my fair burg, highlighting the homeless population explosion due to the economy. Sacramento has a growing tent city, and is even being portrayed in articles across the pond....a "how can there be such want amidst plenty?" question.
The second picture in the article...most people see the stillness, the tents lined up neatly along the waterline.
Of course, all I see are my four 115kV transmission lines overhead. North City to Elverta, North City to Hurley 1&2, and the fourth line, while energized, doesn't terminate anywhere. Beautiful photo, isn't it?
Transmission line right of ways, railroads, highway overpasses, grade separations; all these have been where our homeless gather, then the Sacramento PD comes in and rousts up the tent city, the homeless move on, and later the PD comes in and rousts them up again elsewheres. A never ending cycle. I bicycle along MLK Jr. Blvd. on my way to work past a former tent city near 40th Ave. The po-po came in and razed the city and cut back all the vegetation.
I remember in Peru and in Costa Rica entire districts of cities whose people reside in shantytowns. Most lived halfway decently, even without running water or power. Here, you've got no option. Your shantytown will be bulldozed if it becomes more than just a tent. Sacramento is exploring the option of allowing a semi-permanent tent city, but hasn't yet figured out how to do it.
I will reiterate that I doubt, seriously doubt, we will enter a depression. Come on...California unemployment is at 10.1%...a rate the European Union can barely manage in the best of times. This isn't even close to any plausible definintion of a clinical depression. It would have to get a lot worse than a few thousand chronically unemployed tent dwellers.
The second picture in the article...most people see the stillness, the tents lined up neatly along the waterline.
Of course, all I see are my four 115kV transmission lines overhead. North City to Elverta, North City to Hurley 1&2, and the fourth line, while energized, doesn't terminate anywhere. Beautiful photo, isn't it?
Transmission line right of ways, railroads, highway overpasses, grade separations; all these have been where our homeless gather, then the Sacramento PD comes in and rousts up the tent city, the homeless move on, and later the PD comes in and rousts them up again elsewheres. A never ending cycle. I bicycle along MLK Jr. Blvd. on my way to work past a former tent city near 40th Ave. The po-po came in and razed the city and cut back all the vegetation.
I remember in Peru and in Costa Rica entire districts of cities whose people reside in shantytowns. Most lived halfway decently, even without running water or power. Here, you've got no option. Your shantytown will be bulldozed if it becomes more than just a tent. Sacramento is exploring the option of allowing a semi-permanent tent city, but hasn't yet figured out how to do it.
I will reiterate that I doubt, seriously doubt, we will enter a depression. Come on...California unemployment is at 10.1%...a rate the European Union can barely manage in the best of times. This isn't even close to any plausible definintion of a clinical depression. It would have to get a lot worse than a few thousand chronically unemployed tent dwellers.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Still In Denial
When things are good, when we're living grandly, richly and high on the hog, we are more willing to accept diesel emission controls, climate policy, mercury limits, clean air provisions, what have you. But now we're in a cratering economy. Now, if any of these purport to reduce or eliminate jobs, holy shit. The sky's falling. The environment plays second fiddle when Merikan jobs are on the line.
Nonetheless, the EPA held its first hearing on the California waiver denial last Thursday. And as I understand things, the car manufacturers didn't even send their henchmen to testify at the hearings.
I had written earlier that a depression is not the time to be suing for pay discrimination. That might sound harsh, but if you're willing to lose your job due to "performance issues" (code for get-the-hell-out) over the failure of your company to give you that 5% raise, well, go for it.
It looks like our auto manufacturers aren't going for it. Instead, now that they are on the public dole, they suddenly don't find it politically expedient to challenge EPA as they've been doing for the last thirty years. Only two auto industry trade groups were present, and both touting themselves as being "part of solutions that work."
Ha!
Thank God we find ourselves in the worst recession since WWII, because otherwise we'd be up against an industry with immense political clout that would still be fighting tooth and nail against more efficient regulations, as they did with the seat belt and the catalytic converter. Now they are nothing but political Nerf balls, subjected to an Obama administration intent on creating a cleaner industry. What are they gonna do? Fight the EPA and continue to ask for billions of public dollars? No way.
Look. I've never been much of an advocate of climate change. I've always held the position that if we cleaned up our local environments, the global environment will follow. The California Clean Cars program will help my local environment. Immensely. I would get to ride my bike alongside thousands of vehicles who produce less toxic emissions; as a consequence, my lung cancer might only take hold when I'm sixty instead of fifty five. I've got a personal interest in this outcome so you know where my biases lie.
Nonetheless, the EPA held its first hearing on the California waiver denial last Thursday. And as I understand things, the car manufacturers didn't even send their henchmen to testify at the hearings.
I had written earlier that a depression is not the time to be suing for pay discrimination. That might sound harsh, but if you're willing to lose your job due to "performance issues" (code for get-the-hell-out) over the failure of your company to give you that 5% raise, well, go for it.
It looks like our auto manufacturers aren't going for it. Instead, now that they are on the public dole, they suddenly don't find it politically expedient to challenge EPA as they've been doing for the last thirty years. Only two auto industry trade groups were present, and both touting themselves as being "part of solutions that work."
Ha!
Thank God we find ourselves in the worst recession since WWII, because otherwise we'd be up against an industry with immense political clout that would still be fighting tooth and nail against more efficient regulations, as they did with the seat belt and the catalytic converter. Now they are nothing but political Nerf balls, subjected to an Obama administration intent on creating a cleaner industry. What are they gonna do? Fight the EPA and continue to ask for billions of public dollars? No way.
Look. I've never been much of an advocate of climate change. I've always held the position that if we cleaned up our local environments, the global environment will follow. The California Clean Cars program will help my local environment. Immensely. I would get to ride my bike alongside thousands of vehicles who produce less toxic emissions; as a consequence, my lung cancer might only take hold when I'm sixty instead of fifty five. I've got a personal interest in this outcome so you know where my biases lie.
The Good Depression
I'll continue my list of 20 things I'd cherish from an economic depression. My first six are posted here, and I'll again ignore all the really bad shit that would also occur in my America -- I want to focus on the positives, the social and developmental positives a depression would create. Instead of the Great Depression II, I'll call it a Good Depression.
Truthfully, what this list represents, what these are, are facets of the World According to Me. What I would like to live in. I personally believe a depression would facilitate many of the things I long for.
7) We would likely find more value in the bicycle and light rail. Following a depression, where increasing numbers of people would be priced out of vehicle ownership altogether, we might actually develop a healthier respect for non-car transportation.
8) We would likely lose a host of consumer-excess related businesses -- U-Stor-It facilities, Quik-e-Lubes, car stereo shops, BowFlex home gyms, auto detailing companies, cigarette & smoke shops, junk haulers, ATV and personal watercraft stores, bouncy-house rentals, monthly pest exterminators, real-estate "specialists," shooting ranges, pool and spa dealers, horse boarders, pool builders, tax preparers, mobile premium meat salesmen, tanning salons, cell phone outlets, 4X4 truck accessory shops and paper shredding services. Obviously they won't go away, there will just be a lot less of them, and in my opinion, good riddance. People employed in these fields will find different work, in areas better aligned with dignified labors.
9) Families would grow stronger. Many more relatives, sons, and daughters will be living with parents and grandparents. Provided the leeches are weeded out, family ties might be strengthened through shared hardships. Children might take care of aging parents, or at a minimum, might be willing to live closer.
10) There will be fewer leeches. We will become much less tolerant of those able but unwilling. Prior special grievances will pass away. People will value those who contribute and will find renewed compassion to help those who truly cannot contribute.
11) We might respect the power of petroleum and our unique, one-time allotment. Concurrent with our inability to establish a police station in the Middle East or elsewhere around the world's oil-fields, perhaps we might enforce domestic policies that preserve our own resources. This might result in more compact living environments that don't squander so much energy to begin with. We only briefly, very briefly, dealt with high energy prices and our overall habits and conditions haven't changed a bit. A depression would be a real game-changer. We would lose our collective ignorance towards energy.
12) People will begin to barter for things they need and things they have. Neighbors might become important again. Perhaps neighbors might co-opt into a single lawnmower, sharing it amongst themselves.
13) Perhaps people might garden again. This is a small issue, I know, but bear with me. I remember walking around Germany in 2005, around neighborhoods, and found that nearly every home carried a garden; very nice, well kept, and they provided their residents with varieties of food that have been lost in America, because the Pak-N'-Save doesn't carry variety. If people's economic situations get to where they question their ability to feed themselves, people might take some efforts to grow their own. Now, this leads to all sorts of better outcomes -- neighbors have collective goals, they share foods, tools, and knowledge, agriculture becomes a culture again. Then they might create local value-added products that can be exchanged for other goods...cheese, stews, chilies, wines, tamales. And those who have the ability to grow substantial quantities, say, tree nuts, stone fruits, or sheep, can provide local food and enrich the lives of everyone around them. This is not insignificant.
14) Desuburbanization might occur. As suburban cities without an economy of their own, like my Elk Grove, can't function without growth, a sustained period of flat or negative growth would likely result in more public services eliminated due to stagnant revenues. The "safety" of suburbia would be exposed as the fraud that it is. People desperate for work will find themselves forced into commuting to all corners of their region, and collectively we'll realize how utterly fucked up that arrangement is. Almost all of their income will be spent to support their vehicular needs.
15) When pushed towards delayed gratification, people will make better choices, and they will value things more if there are fewer things available to them. Today we suffer from the paradox of choice; decisions have become increasingly more complex due to the overwhelming abundance of choices available, and we waste time having to choose. We also collectively set too high an expectation and are miserable when we think we made a bad decision. The elimination of choice will greatly reduce the stresses and busyness in our lives. This is not a trivial matter.
16) We will become a tougher people. Earlier depressions forced people into conditions they'd rather not be in, but were capable of taking. They could walk if need be. They could perform manual labor if need be. They weren't too far removed from pre-mechanized society. Shit, look around today -- air-conditioning, perpetual motoring, 24-hour streaming entertainment in private environs, overweight, out of shape, over medicated dolts. We've witnessed the complete pussification of our inhabitants with 50+ years of "prosperity." This might change.
17) We might, just might, realize the value of American manufacturing again. We might be willing to find value again in local production. This, unfortunately, is something I find highly unlikely. In our current recession only the biggest, most globalized institutions are flourishing, and the way Americans act they're likely only going to get bigger, leading to the complete death of American production. A depression could make our world smaller. Let the Chinese suffer from their own poorly made shit, and let America prosper from her own laborers again.
18) The thrifty and responsible would gain at the expense of the profligate and reckless. I put myself in the former category...
19) This nation's trade deficits, federal deficits, and national debt would be worked down or would be forced down. We would never again (in our lifetimes, anyway) spend money we don't have for shit we don't need. This would lead to a whole generation of people who value not being mired neck-to-nuts in debt. Personal financial responsibility would be markedly improved.
20) Lastly, I think a depression would force a total restructuring of our industries of auto manufacturing and finance. A car produced here might actually be cheaper, better built, and more economical. A loan or other financial endeavor might actually be removed from the myriad entities who's sole purpose is to fuck you out of a portion of it. Banks will return to responsible lending, with responsible depositors; we'll forget about the tranching of debtors into risk pools, fictitious credit ratings, fictitious leveraging...
In my hypothetical depression, I don't see lines of citizens in ragged clothing lining up outside Starbucks for their daily frappuccino's. I don't see bread lines. I see a clarity of living that would serve to make us better, if at the expense of having to endure real hardships.
Truthfully, what this list represents, what these are, are facets of the World According to Me. What I would like to live in. I personally believe a depression would facilitate many of the things I long for.
7) We would likely find more value in the bicycle and light rail. Following a depression, where increasing numbers of people would be priced out of vehicle ownership altogether, we might actually develop a healthier respect for non-car transportation.
8) We would likely lose a host of consumer-excess related businesses -- U-Stor-It facilities, Quik-e-Lubes, car stereo shops, BowFlex home gyms, auto detailing companies, cigarette & smoke shops, junk haulers, ATV and personal watercraft stores, bouncy-house rentals, monthly pest exterminators, real-estate "specialists," shooting ranges, pool and spa dealers, horse boarders, pool builders, tax preparers, mobile premium meat salesmen, tanning salons, cell phone outlets, 4X4 truck accessory shops and paper shredding services. Obviously they won't go away, there will just be a lot less of them, and in my opinion, good riddance. People employed in these fields will find different work, in areas better aligned with dignified labors.
9) Families would grow stronger. Many more relatives, sons, and daughters will be living with parents and grandparents. Provided the leeches are weeded out, family ties might be strengthened through shared hardships. Children might take care of aging parents, or at a minimum, might be willing to live closer.
10) There will be fewer leeches. We will become much less tolerant of those able but unwilling. Prior special grievances will pass away. People will value those who contribute and will find renewed compassion to help those who truly cannot contribute.
11) We might respect the power of petroleum and our unique, one-time allotment. Concurrent with our inability to establish a police station in the Middle East or elsewhere around the world's oil-fields, perhaps we might enforce domestic policies that preserve our own resources. This might result in more compact living environments that don't squander so much energy to begin with. We only briefly, very briefly, dealt with high energy prices and our overall habits and conditions haven't changed a bit. A depression would be a real game-changer. We would lose our collective ignorance towards energy.
12) People will begin to barter for things they need and things they have. Neighbors might become important again. Perhaps neighbors might co-opt into a single lawnmower, sharing it amongst themselves.
13) Perhaps people might garden again. This is a small issue, I know, but bear with me. I remember walking around Germany in 2005, around neighborhoods, and found that nearly every home carried a garden; very nice, well kept, and they provided their residents with varieties of food that have been lost in America, because the Pak-N'-Save doesn't carry variety. If people's economic situations get to where they question their ability to feed themselves, people might take some efforts to grow their own. Now, this leads to all sorts of better outcomes -- neighbors have collective goals, they share foods, tools, and knowledge, agriculture becomes a culture again. Then they might create local value-added products that can be exchanged for other goods...cheese, stews, chilies, wines, tamales. And those who have the ability to grow substantial quantities, say, tree nuts, stone fruits, or sheep, can provide local food and enrich the lives of everyone around them. This is not insignificant.
14) Desuburbanization might occur. As suburban cities without an economy of their own, like my Elk Grove, can't function without growth, a sustained period of flat or negative growth would likely result in more public services eliminated due to stagnant revenues. The "safety" of suburbia would be exposed as the fraud that it is. People desperate for work will find themselves forced into commuting to all corners of their region, and collectively we'll realize how utterly fucked up that arrangement is. Almost all of their income will be spent to support their vehicular needs.
15) When pushed towards delayed gratification, people will make better choices, and they will value things more if there are fewer things available to them. Today we suffer from the paradox of choice; decisions have become increasingly more complex due to the overwhelming abundance of choices available, and we waste time having to choose. We also collectively set too high an expectation and are miserable when we think we made a bad decision. The elimination of choice will greatly reduce the stresses and busyness in our lives. This is not a trivial matter.
16) We will become a tougher people. Earlier depressions forced people into conditions they'd rather not be in, but were capable of taking. They could walk if need be. They could perform manual labor if need be. They weren't too far removed from pre-mechanized society. Shit, look around today -- air-conditioning, perpetual motoring, 24-hour streaming entertainment in private environs, overweight, out of shape, over medicated dolts. We've witnessed the complete pussification of our inhabitants with 50+ years of "prosperity." This might change.
17) We might, just might, realize the value of American manufacturing again. We might be willing to find value again in local production. This, unfortunately, is something I find highly unlikely. In our current recession only the biggest, most globalized institutions are flourishing, and the way Americans act they're likely only going to get bigger, leading to the complete death of American production. A depression could make our world smaller. Let the Chinese suffer from their own poorly made shit, and let America prosper from her own laborers again.
18) The thrifty and responsible would gain at the expense of the profligate and reckless. I put myself in the former category...
19) This nation's trade deficits, federal deficits, and national debt would be worked down or would be forced down. We would never again (in our lifetimes, anyway) spend money we don't have for shit we don't need. This would lead to a whole generation of people who value not being mired neck-to-nuts in debt. Personal financial responsibility would be markedly improved.
20) Lastly, I think a depression would force a total restructuring of our industries of auto manufacturing and finance. A car produced here might actually be cheaper, better built, and more economical. A loan or other financial endeavor might actually be removed from the myriad entities who's sole purpose is to fuck you out of a portion of it. Banks will return to responsible lending, with responsible depositors; we'll forget about the tranching of debtors into risk pools, fictitious credit ratings, fictitious leveraging...
In my hypothetical depression, I don't see lines of citizens in ragged clothing lining up outside Starbucks for their daily frappuccino's. I don't see bread lines. I see a clarity of living that would serve to make us better, if at the expense of having to endure real hardships.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
The Bets
I've got two bets going this year with my Bangladeshi co-worker: 1) that none of the domestic autos (the big three) will have declared bankruptcy by Jan 1, 2010, and 2) that the Dow will be at or below 10,000 on July 1, 2009.
Loser buys lunch on each bet. Not a happy-meal or a-la-carte Taco Bell, but a lunch of the winner's choosing. It could potentially be expensive...but that's not our point. We want the bragging rights of being correct.
I personally thought at the beginning of the year, and still think, that our government would never allow GM, Chrysler, or Ford to fail. We've been pumping billions into those black holes and I don't see our government changing course and somehow deciding not to extend more billions to their aid. Look...GM lost over $100,000 per minute last quarter. Doesn't fucking matter. My opinion is that our Democratic leadership will prevent their failures at any cost. And our Republican leadership, too.
There's something all-American about car building. We started it, we developed it, we became masters of it, but more importantly, our nation's entire collection of dreams, hopes, and aspirations revolve around multiple car ownership. Car building defines America. Without it, we lose something of our own identities, and our government representatives and senators know this. They are as car-dependent as any of you; in fact, more so...a third of them are chauffeured around in American built luxury vehicles and all of them likely vacation about in uber-expensive American shuttle craft.
This is why I don't see us allowing any of them to fail. A nation accustomed to filling their homes with cheap imported shit shouldn't be forced to fill their driveways with imported shit. I think we will find a way to keep them all on life-support, at any cost to you or me.
And that cost! Tens of billions? Wa-hey! I get to pay a substantial tax premium to support an industry that can't make a saleable product, with labor costs a third higher than anywhere else and that funds unsustainable and unrealistic retirement programs negotiated by unyielding labor unions. Thank god I live in America and not Soviet-era Estonia! At least now I can say that I am funding the continuation of free enterprise instead of socialistic mandates.
Timothy says we can't let AIG fail just like Ben says we can't let GM fail. Does it give you any consolation that they too feel "angry" over this whole situation? It should. A heptillion dollars, plus or minus, thrown at an American instiution, the Detroit car industry...you should feel boastful and proud for having done your part to support our American ethos of private, perpetual motorization for all.
Loser buys lunch on each bet. Not a happy-meal or a-la-carte Taco Bell, but a lunch of the winner's choosing. It could potentially be expensive...but that's not our point. We want the bragging rights of being correct.
I personally thought at the beginning of the year, and still think, that our government would never allow GM, Chrysler, or Ford to fail. We've been pumping billions into those black holes and I don't see our government changing course and somehow deciding not to extend more billions to their aid. Look...GM lost over $100,000 per minute last quarter. Doesn't fucking matter. My opinion is that our Democratic leadership will prevent their failures at any cost. And our Republican leadership, too.
There's something all-American about car building. We started it, we developed it, we became masters of it, but more importantly, our nation's entire collection of dreams, hopes, and aspirations revolve around multiple car ownership. Car building defines America. Without it, we lose something of our own identities, and our government representatives and senators know this. They are as car-dependent as any of you; in fact, more so...a third of them are chauffeured around in American built luxury vehicles and all of them likely vacation about in uber-expensive American shuttle craft.
This is why I don't see us allowing any of them to fail. A nation accustomed to filling their homes with cheap imported shit shouldn't be forced to fill their driveways with imported shit. I think we will find a way to keep them all on life-support, at any cost to you or me.
And that cost! Tens of billions? Wa-hey! I get to pay a substantial tax premium to support an industry that can't make a saleable product, with labor costs a third higher than anywhere else and that funds unsustainable and unrealistic retirement programs negotiated by unyielding labor unions. Thank god I live in America and not Soviet-era Estonia! At least now I can say that I am funding the continuation of free enterprise instead of socialistic mandates.
Timothy says we can't let AIG fail just like Ben says we can't let GM fail. Does it give you any consolation that they too feel "angry" over this whole situation? It should. A heptillion dollars, plus or minus, thrown at an American instiution, the Detroit car industry...you should feel boastful and proud for having done your part to support our American ethos of private, perpetual motorization for all.
Cash-Only -- The Eternal Lake Of Fire
You would think, really think, based on all the latest advertisements, that knowing your credit score is tantamount to knowing whether God is going to accept you into the Kingdom of Heaven.
What is this all about? Some entity named FICO, an entity shrouded in mystery, develops a credit scoring formula that's proprietary (read: you are not authorized to know it and will never know how it's developed) that's used to determine your worthiness.
You apply for credit (die), and you become subjected to the whims of a spooky, all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise Credit Bureau (God) as to whether you are granted said credit (allowed into heaven) or banished to a sub-human cash-only existence (the eternal lake of fire).
The commercials for freecreditreport.com...what a piece of advertising brilliance. They've actually convinced Americans...that there's an invisible bureau (God), that monitors everything you do, every second, of every day. And they have a list of ten things (the Commandments) you are not supposed to do, and if you do any, any! of those ten things (default, 30 days late, too many inquiries, not enough history, close an account, up a credit limit, too many open accounts, 60 days late, failure to pay), they have a special place full of fire, and smoke, and burning, and torture, and anguish, where they will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry, for ever and ever, until the end of time (with all those other creditworthless saps)...but they love you! They love you as a consumer, and they need your money! There's nothing free about freecreditreport.com, they fuck you over with a required monthly subscription to their monitoring bureau to gain access to your "free" credit score.
The freecreditreport commercials deride and chide a waiter in a pirate-themed restaurant (a noble enough job, in my opinion) as the end-result, the end game, of what you'll become if you fail to send money to them so they can send back your credit score.
Another example of how Americans fail to recognize the valuable contributions of workers, of work, of the dignity of work. How we've come to denigrate the mechanic, the laborer, the gardener, the homemaker, the waiter and the busboy.
Think...what do most Americans believe would be the worst public humiliation? A shoe thrown at them? Asking for money on the side of a road? A wardrobe malfunction? Nope, it's trying to pay for goods at a store with a credit card in front of a line of other consumers and the minimum-wage clerk telling you your card's been denied. The worst posssible form of American humiliation -- you might as well take your own life with a shotgun if that happens.
What is this all about? Some entity named FICO, an entity shrouded in mystery, develops a credit scoring formula that's proprietary (read: you are not authorized to know it and will never know how it's developed) that's used to determine your worthiness.
You apply for credit (die), and you become subjected to the whims of a spooky, all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise Credit Bureau (God) as to whether you are granted said credit (allowed into heaven) or banished to a sub-human cash-only existence (the eternal lake of fire).
The commercials for freecreditreport.com...what a piece of advertising brilliance. They've actually convinced Americans...that there's an invisible bureau (God), that monitors everything you do, every second, of every day. And they have a list of ten things (the Commandments) you are not supposed to do, and if you do any, any! of those ten things (default, 30 days late, too many inquiries, not enough history, close an account, up a credit limit, too many open accounts, 60 days late, failure to pay), they have a special place full of fire, and smoke, and burning, and torture, and anguish, where they will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry, for ever and ever, until the end of time (with all those other creditworthless saps)...but they love you! They love you as a consumer, and they need your money! There's nothing free about freecreditreport.com, they fuck you over with a required monthly subscription to their monitoring bureau to gain access to your "free" credit score.
The freecreditreport commercials deride and chide a waiter in a pirate-themed restaurant (a noble enough job, in my opinion) as the end-result, the end game, of what you'll become if you fail to send money to them so they can send back your credit score.
Another example of how Americans fail to recognize the valuable contributions of workers, of work, of the dignity of work. How we've come to denigrate the mechanic, the laborer, the gardener, the homemaker, the waiter and the busboy.
Think...what do most Americans believe would be the worst public humiliation? A shoe thrown at them? Asking for money on the side of a road? A wardrobe malfunction? Nope, it's trying to pay for goods at a store with a credit card in front of a line of other consumers and the minimum-wage clerk telling you your card's been denied. The worst posssible form of American humiliation -- you might as well take your own life with a shotgun if that happens.
The Banner Boy
I was thoroughly surprised this afternoon, riding my bike south on Franklin Blvd. at the intersection of Mack Rd., to find new home construction.
Yep. At the exact same corner that held this sign, the Villa Terraza compound:
I had mentioned before how I predicted this sign would shred in the winter winds, and it already did. After a few months of it being torn up and folded over, the banner boy took the banner down last Fall.
But the banner boy was employed this last weekend, yeah, coincident with the new $18,000 tax credits offered when buying new construction. The banner boy was busy putting up new banners that say "S360 New Construction." I have no idea what that means. But apparently, they wasted no time in trying to lure in new buyers into new construction, nevermind the fact that there must be 30,000 vacant foreclosed homes in the greater Sacramento region.
You get an $8,000 credit for first time buying, and a $10,000 credit for buying new. Think about this...this isn't just $18,000 off the top of a thirty year mortgage, it's $18,000 in today's dollars, in dollars now. That has so much more appeal to the tens of thousands of new homeowners because you're not talking about thirty years, you're talking about now. Ask any American about where they expect to be in thirty years, and you'll get a glazed, blank stare. They don't give a fuck about the future, and they never have. They only care about now, and now is King.
To give you a sense of what my America is like, let me tell you about a guy who called into the Hanson McClain weekend AM radio talk show this last weekend. After 14 months of failing to pay on his mortgage, the caller's now interested in working with his lender to stave off foreclosure. When queried, he indicated he has no savings at all, at all, with which to use as an additional down payment, to pay for any loan restructuring fees, he's got nothing.
Where, exactly, did all of his money go that would have been sent to pay his mortgage for the past 14 months? He's got no savings? And now he's expecting a personal bailout?
He's the reason why I hope this nation fails, falls straight on its ass. He represents a growing volume of entitlement-dependents, Americans who think and know they deserve more than they do. A perfect example of why I root for a game-changing depression. What we're doing, what we've been doing with all these bailouts, capital injections, loan modifications, is only exacerbating the same culture of unearned riches that got us into this fucking mess to begin with.
Yep. At the exact same corner that held this sign, the Villa Terraza compound:
I had mentioned before how I predicted this sign would shred in the winter winds, and it already did. After a few months of it being torn up and folded over, the banner boy took the banner down last Fall.
But the banner boy was employed this last weekend, yeah, coincident with the new $18,000 tax credits offered when buying new construction. The banner boy was busy putting up new banners that say "S360 New Construction." I have no idea what that means. But apparently, they wasted no time in trying to lure in new buyers into new construction, nevermind the fact that there must be 30,000 vacant foreclosed homes in the greater Sacramento region.
You get an $8,000 credit for first time buying, and a $10,000 credit for buying new. Think about this...this isn't just $18,000 off the top of a thirty year mortgage, it's $18,000 in today's dollars, in dollars now. That has so much more appeal to the tens of thousands of new homeowners because you're not talking about thirty years, you're talking about now. Ask any American about where they expect to be in thirty years, and you'll get a glazed, blank stare. They don't give a fuck about the future, and they never have. They only care about now, and now is King.
To give you a sense of what my America is like, let me tell you about a guy who called into the Hanson McClain weekend AM radio talk show this last weekend. After 14 months of failing to pay on his mortgage, the caller's now interested in working with his lender to stave off foreclosure. When queried, he indicated he has no savings at all, at all, with which to use as an additional down payment, to pay for any loan restructuring fees, he's got nothing.
Where, exactly, did all of his money go that would have been sent to pay his mortgage for the past 14 months? He's got no savings? And now he's expecting a personal bailout?
He's the reason why I hope this nation fails, falls straight on its ass. He represents a growing volume of entitlement-dependents, Americans who think and know they deserve more than they do. A perfect example of why I root for a game-changing depression. What we're doing, what we've been doing with all these bailouts, capital injections, loan modifications, is only exacerbating the same culture of unearned riches that got us into this fucking mess to begin with.
Just Before It Goes Black
Riding the bike home today, I noticed the unusually large number of vehicles with expired registration. Just think -- the registration fee in California went from 0.65% to 1.15% overnight, so imagine how many more people will be failing to scrounge up the money in time. That means, you guessed it, more penalties due to the state. I bet that the state figures penalty payments when they figured out how many billions more will be coming into them.
Of course, I'm personally inconvenienced by this measure, if only because I own three used cars but hardly drive any one of them. The good news is that my cars are all [mostly] depreciated, so the increase is marginal. The bad news is that I hardly drive any one of them, so instead of taxing gasoline as a users fee, well, now I get to triply support our grand expansion of roads and bridges due to our stimulus spending.
And wouldn't you know it -- the very first recipients were road crews in Maryland, used to repave and add safety features to a highway. Just as I expected. Obama plans on combating global warming by building more roads from oil-derived asphalt or coal-derived steel and concrete, driven on by car owners who don't pay use taxes for their gasoline and who won't be paying state sales tax on their new rigs.
Look...I understand that even if I don't use much of the road, I do use it indirectly, everyday. My food gets to me over the roadways, and I am more than willing to pay the incremental cost of delivery by taxing diesel. But the only reason we're repaving and adding safety features to a road in Maryland is because they beat the hell out of it, they drive, drive, drive, and they drive in such fucked up conditions and manners that we're compelled to add safety features. So they can drive 85? Great. The bad news is that these drivers aren't removed from the gene pool, either. A lose-lose proposition.
Well, I'm of the opinion that we've further to go down before we go back up. I think we've got a string of additional quarters of negativity in front of us before we see the light. Things are always darkest just before they go black.
Of course, I'm personally inconvenienced by this measure, if only because I own three used cars but hardly drive any one of them. The good news is that my cars are all [mostly] depreciated, so the increase is marginal. The bad news is that I hardly drive any one of them, so instead of taxing gasoline as a users fee, well, now I get to triply support our grand expansion of roads and bridges due to our stimulus spending.
And wouldn't you know it -- the very first recipients were road crews in Maryland, used to repave and add safety features to a highway. Just as I expected. Obama plans on combating global warming by building more roads from oil-derived asphalt or coal-derived steel and concrete, driven on by car owners who don't pay use taxes for their gasoline and who won't be paying state sales tax on their new rigs.
Look...I understand that even if I don't use much of the road, I do use it indirectly, everyday. My food gets to me over the roadways, and I am more than willing to pay the incremental cost of delivery by taxing diesel. But the only reason we're repaving and adding safety features to a road in Maryland is because they beat the hell out of it, they drive, drive, drive, and they drive in such fucked up conditions and manners that we're compelled to add safety features. So they can drive 85? Great. The bad news is that these drivers aren't removed from the gene pool, either. A lose-lose proposition.
Well, I'm of the opinion that we've further to go down before we go back up. I think we've got a string of additional quarters of negativity in front of us before we see the light. Things are always darkest just before they go black.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
A Good Depression
My Bangladeshi co-worker, who has lived in conditions I have only ever read about, questioned me the other day as to how I could look forward to a depression.
His perspective is shaped by his history, and to be sure, his living conditions in Bangladesh were certainly better than most of his comrades -- but consider Bangladesh compared to Elk Grove. Come on. No comparison. He was sincere in asking if I really thought that an economic implosion would be something to relish. It is nothing he relishes, considering his background -- living in an impoverished nation with 25 coups in 40 years, unstable currencies and unstable governments; he has no interest in seeing that here. Owning two cars and a new Natomas home, he's heavily invested in our consumer culture...but he hasn't forgotten his roots. We freely discuss politics, his religion (Islam) and our economy, and truthfully, he is much less absorbed in frenetic, wanton consumerism than are most other Americans, I think, because of where he came from.
I'll produce a list of 20 items I think would improve our people and our nation if we actually had to go through a depression. I will intentionally ignore the really bad shit that would likely happen during. I want to focus on the afterwards.
1) We'd become a nation with a common purpose again. We'd have the courage to rally, to protest, to force reform. Today we mindlessly and helplessly go about our consumer lives and can't force action on anything -- on our wars, on the economic bailouts, on any other social imperative, because we've completely lost our ability to question authority. A depression would spark outrage, and we'd force real reforms. The legislature of California wouldn't be fucking around with budgetary ideology and maintain their inability to govern if people en-masse were calling for their heads from the steps of the capitol.
2) Minimize our prowess for war. Good luck waging "wars on terror" when we're broke. Maybe we'll even stop our "war on drugs." Perhaps we'll realize potheads are nothing more that just potheads and not unrehabilitatable [sic] criminal felons. We'll save what remains of any wealth we might possess by not squandering it incarcerating a record number of people and fighting battles we can never win.
3) Maybe we'd offer sufficient reforms to stop this all this bubble bullshit. Oil bubbles, housing bubbles, tech bubbles, gold bubbles. Now I have no idea, not one, about what these reforms might look like, but if the end result is an economy that isn't entirely predicated on 4% growth at any cost, well, my gut feeling tells me that the bubble mentality would disappear. Along with this disappearance would be some of our American consumer lust for instant profits and rewards without effort.
4) You would actually have to save to buy...a brilliant concept! Perhaps we can forcibly remove ourselves from the shackles of consumer credit and perpetual debt. In my humble opinion, most of this current economic malaise was due to our culture of instant gratification. Change the culture, and you cure the major source of bubbles and busts.
5) Perhaps things might be built better, as if, say, they were intended to be used more than once before being shit canned. We might actually fix stuff again, and build stuff so that it doesn't have to be fixed.
6) We would again develop respect for the public realm, instead of all of our little private ones. We would again find value in public concerts, in meeting halls, in libraries, at the parks for barbecues and at the diamonds for pickup ballgames. We might even begin to realize that these things are more available to those who happen to live in correctly scaled human environments, not environments suitable for traveling by automobile.
I'm going to stop here, and develop the next 14 items during a follow-on post.
His perspective is shaped by his history, and to be sure, his living conditions in Bangladesh were certainly better than most of his comrades -- but consider Bangladesh compared to Elk Grove. Come on. No comparison. He was sincere in asking if I really thought that an economic implosion would be something to relish. It is nothing he relishes, considering his background -- living in an impoverished nation with 25 coups in 40 years, unstable currencies and unstable governments; he has no interest in seeing that here. Owning two cars and a new Natomas home, he's heavily invested in our consumer culture...but he hasn't forgotten his roots. We freely discuss politics, his religion (Islam) and our economy, and truthfully, he is much less absorbed in frenetic, wanton consumerism than are most other Americans, I think, because of where he came from.
I'll produce a list of 20 items I think would improve our people and our nation if we actually had to go through a depression. I will intentionally ignore the really bad shit that would likely happen during. I want to focus on the afterwards.
1) We'd become a nation with a common purpose again. We'd have the courage to rally, to protest, to force reform. Today we mindlessly and helplessly go about our consumer lives and can't force action on anything -- on our wars, on the economic bailouts, on any other social imperative, because we've completely lost our ability to question authority. A depression would spark outrage, and we'd force real reforms. The legislature of California wouldn't be fucking around with budgetary ideology and maintain their inability to govern if people en-masse were calling for their heads from the steps of the capitol.
2) Minimize our prowess for war. Good luck waging "wars on terror" when we're broke. Maybe we'll even stop our "war on drugs." Perhaps we'll realize potheads are nothing more that just potheads and not unrehabilitatable [sic] criminal felons. We'll save what remains of any wealth we might possess by not squandering it incarcerating a record number of people and fighting battles we can never win.
3) Maybe we'd offer sufficient reforms to stop this all this bubble bullshit. Oil bubbles, housing bubbles, tech bubbles, gold bubbles. Now I have no idea, not one, about what these reforms might look like, but if the end result is an economy that isn't entirely predicated on 4% growth at any cost, well, my gut feeling tells me that the bubble mentality would disappear. Along with this disappearance would be some of our American consumer lust for instant profits and rewards without effort.
4) You would actually have to save to buy...a brilliant concept! Perhaps we can forcibly remove ourselves from the shackles of consumer credit and perpetual debt. In my humble opinion, most of this current economic malaise was due to our culture of instant gratification. Change the culture, and you cure the major source of bubbles and busts.
5) Perhaps things might be built better, as if, say, they were intended to be used more than once before being shit canned. We might actually fix stuff again, and build stuff so that it doesn't have to be fixed.
6) We would again develop respect for the public realm, instead of all of our little private ones. We would again find value in public concerts, in meeting halls, in libraries, at the parks for barbecues and at the diamonds for pickup ballgames. We might even begin to realize that these things are more available to those who happen to live in correctly scaled human environments, not environments suitable for traveling by automobile.
I'm going to stop here, and develop the next 14 items during a follow-on post.
Our Glorious Burden
Our president requested that we now go out and buy some stocks. A question -- which ones should we buy?
GM? With expectations that shareholders are going to be left holding nothing if sales continue the way they are continuing, and with a potential for bankruptcy? Hmmm...I should seriously consider GM.
AIG? After having posted the largest corporate loss in U.S. history on the heels of yet another $30 billion thrown at them this past Sunday afternoon? Hmmm...I should seriously consider buying shares of AIG. You should too.
You know, it's nice that I have a job and the disposable income to be throwing it into stocks...I wonder, does Obama envision the 4-plus million unemployed to cash in their unemployment checks and wire the money to their brokers? How about the 45% of all Nevadans who owe more on their mortgages than they're worth...should they borrow more non-existent equity to fund their stock purchases?
Seems to me that in deflationary times, one should be selling everything they can. Values in the future will be less. Doesn't seem to me to be to be a good time to be buying, certainly not until we're closer to the bottom, and I don't think we're there yet. Personally -- I hope for home values to fall another 40%. That way, when I finally get around to buying that small East Sacramento home close to work and close to everything else, my long term property taxes will be about what I pay today. This alone will save me scores of thousands over the long run.
Last week Obama declared that we "need to arrest the decline in home values." What the fuck for? So that hundreds of thousands of future Americans who buy artifically overpriced homes pay hundreds of millions in additional interest to banks too big to fail? They need to fall, or at a minimum, they need to reset to the historical point of where the median income buys the median house. We ain't there yet.
GM? With expectations that shareholders are going to be left holding nothing if sales continue the way they are continuing, and with a potential for bankruptcy? Hmmm...I should seriously consider GM.
AIG? After having posted the largest corporate loss in U.S. history on the heels of yet another $30 billion thrown at them this past Sunday afternoon? Hmmm...I should seriously consider buying shares of AIG. You should too.
You know, it's nice that I have a job and the disposable income to be throwing it into stocks...I wonder, does Obama envision the 4-plus million unemployed to cash in their unemployment checks and wire the money to their brokers? How about the 45% of all Nevadans who owe more on their mortgages than they're worth...should they borrow more non-existent equity to fund their stock purchases?
Seems to me that in deflationary times, one should be selling everything they can. Values in the future will be less. Doesn't seem to me to be to be a good time to be buying, certainly not until we're closer to the bottom, and I don't think we're there yet. Personally -- I hope for home values to fall another 40%. That way, when I finally get around to buying that small East Sacramento home close to work and close to everything else, my long term property taxes will be about what I pay today. This alone will save me scores of thousands over the long run.
Last week Obama declared that we "need to arrest the decline in home values." What the fuck for? So that hundreds of thousands of future Americans who buy artifically overpriced homes pay hundreds of millions in additional interest to banks too big to fail? They need to fall, or at a minimum, they need to reset to the historical point of where the median income buys the median house. We ain't there yet.
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