Nothing For Something

Every 26 seconds in this grand nation of ours another mortgage foreclosure occurs. Another investor hoping to earn 20% by flipping a unit...another South Sacramento family who thought that if they didn't get in, they'd never be able to get in.

All victims of the American culture of getting something for nothing.

And this culture is growing. Note that there are 21% more applications for social security disability these days than two years ago. Tell me...did something change here? Did we somehow return to icky, icky manufacturing jobs where people are becoming maimed in sheet metal presses? Are there still a few thousand people falling off roofs of those millions of new housal units being built? Did I misunderstand something here?

I didn't get a fax. Didn't get an e-mail. Didn't get a page. Didn't get tweeted or twatted or a facebook update. Didn't get a phone call. Didn't get a telegram. Didn't get a wire. Didn't get a voicemail. Didn't get a text. I didn't get the memo that somehow there are more people becoming disabled and becoming unable to work when there are 7 million fewer of us working.

Understand that once a person gets on social security disability, their odds of returning to the workforce is 1%. As soon as they are approved, they effectively retire.

Look. There are cases where, say, a 56 year old unemployed janitor simply cannot find work...where existing disabilities that he was able to work through keeps him marginalized while competing against 5 other janitors applying for that one job opening, and perhaps it's time to leave work behind. What can I say about his plight?

I don't quite know what to say. I blog from my little ivory tower here, well employed with little debt and a lot of savings. It would be rather shameless of me to assume that I wouldn't also apply under the same circumstances. I've been a juvenile diabetic for sixteen years now! Don't you think I could ride this fucking disease all the way to an early retirement? As Sarah would say, "You betcha!"

I do things somewhat different than you, I believe. I leave 20% tips instead of donating a whole lot to charity. I don't go to the doctor for every sniffle. I try to tread lighter. I don't think I would sue for a bona fide car-bicycle accident. I highly enjoy my craft. These are actions that determine my character, whatever that may be...and I think that I provide a positive net value to our culture as a consequence. I am not a believer in getting something for nothing.

This ethos is why casinos and gambling are now considered normal features of our American culture, why they are sprouting up on every supposed reservation and tribal unit. Sure, they've taken a hit during this slowdown like any other business modeled around wanton consumption, but stroll into the Tropicana at 2:45AM on any Thursday night and witness the volume of people 'at leisure,' gaming for 'fun.' There are still quite a few.

This ethos is why we had programming such as "Flip This House," where the supposed addition of a few gallons of paint and new toiletries were considered the equivalent of the craft of home building, where the return on the investment was measured in triple digit percentages, where any schmuck with a two-dollar paint brush can do the same level of work as any skilled craftsman.

This ethos is why "free" and "all you can eat" are the two most profitable phrases in American advertising.

This ethos is why we were willing to lend to anyone with a pulse, including some without a pulse, to keep our hallucinated FIRE economy running at any cost, while everyone knew that if they were the last holding the bag they were going to get really fucked.

This ethos is why it is political suicide to raise the use tax on car dependency, i.e., the gas tax, and why we mask it through the spending of trillions of general taxes to achieve the same result. If we don't pay for it at the pump we think we are getting it for nothing and we treat it as a free good. We use more of it as a consequence.

This ethos is why I've been told, to my face, that I'm an idiot for paying down my mortgage instead of investing it elsewhere, why I was an idiot for paying the capital gains on my rental sale instead of like-exchanging it for another 20% flipper.

This ethos is why, today, several million of us have received nothing for something, why several million of us have spent a fair portion of our one-time allotment of life energy and received nothing...why several million of us will spend a fair portion of tomorrow's life energy (something) and will still receive...nothing.