The Looting Of America

[Heruka]

dear dharma brothers and sisters, this is part 5 of 5 very informative videos of the great scam/con/matrix you are under. the most studied animal in history is the human animal.
As buddhists we have an obligation to understand the nature of the ties that bind ourselves and others into serfdom, servitude and economic slavery.
If you have time to watch all 5 vids, away from your busy manipulated, modern metrosexual/contrived lifestyle, or the meditative, self bliss, indifferent induced, isolation and ego driven solitude

[Indrajala]

America is experiencing the destruction of its middle-class.

The same can be said of other first world countries, but America is the prime example.

I was surprised to learn that the average income hasn't really increased since the 1970's. The net family income has definitely increased, but that's only because Mom went to work to pay for increasing costs.

It used to be that the common worker -- even the guy stocking the cans at the grocery store -- could be a home owner and cover all his expenses plus enjoy savings. This isn't really the case anymore. Even if you want to live a relatively simple lifestyle, owning property in many places now means you either have to suffer severe long-term debt or have access to some kind of wealth such as inheritance.

Slavery as an institution might have died out, but the idea is still active. When you have a large amount of the population in debt that will never really be paid off, you keep them working and productive. If the common man and woman did not have to suffer debt, they would be less inclined towards working endlessly and more inclined towards leisurely activities. When most common folk were rural people they had their farms and cottage crafts which meant working at their own pace. There was no strictly scheduled work pattern.

Nowdays if the debtor fails to make payments they are punished severely for it. They might not break out the cane and whip, but making someone fear where the money to buy groceries is coming from is just as psychologically punishing.

It is so disgusting how society has devolved.

[Mr. G]

The Phantom Left

By Chris Hedges

The American left is a phantom. It is conjured up by the right wing to tag Barack Obama as a socialist and used by the liberal class to justify its complacency and lethargy. It diverts attention from corporate power. It perpetuates the myth of a democratic system that is influenced by the votes of citizens, political platforms and the work of legislators. It keeps the world neatly divided into a left and a right. The phantom left functions as a convenient scapegoat. The right wing blames it for moral degeneration and fiscal chaos. The liberal class uses it to call for “moderation.” And while we waste our time talking nonsense, the engines of corporate power—masked, ruthless and unexamined—happily devour the state.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the ... _20101031/

[Individual]

The New World Order sent me to deliver this message:

• This is "talk about kings and robbers, ministers and armies, danger and war"
• Take a college-level econ course

[Luke]

The New World Order sent me to deliver this message:

[*]Take a college-level econ course[/list]

Ah, you mean the introductory economics courses in which one learns highly simplified economic models which completely disregard any environmental, social, or ethical factors?

I suggest that you take college level courses in environmental science and sociology. And better yet, go visit your local homeless shelter. Not everyone is there because they were "stupid." Sometimes circumstances arise which are just more than people can handle, and it's important to be able to feel compassion and empathy for those people.

I think the present world is evidence enough that unrestrained greed does not produce the best possible outcome for society as a whole. How many Enrons or Blackwaters are needed before people will see this?

[Indrajala]

I think the present world is evidence enough that unrestrained greed does not produce the best possible outcome for society as a whole. How many Enrons or Blackwaters are needed before people will see this?

What's real ironic is when some people have the bullocks to say all other systems but capitalism (capitalism being imperfect but optimal in their intentionally humble sounding remarks) failed or will fail, so we have no choice but to work with capitalism.

I mean look at the world today to see how ironic such foolish remarks are.

The real kicker is when people who are oppressed by such a system actively advocate and support it. Kind of like the feudal serf who is stepped on by his lord but professes loyalty to him and condemns anyone who would say otherwise.

[Pema Rigdzin]

The real kicker is when people who are oppressed by such a system actively advocate and support it. Kind of like the feudal serf who is stepped on by his lord but professes loyalty to him and condemns anyone who would say otherwise.

I think it may have to do with their lingering belief in the almost entirely mythical "American Dream"... They refuse to oppose or regulate or appropriately tax those whose shoes they hope some day to fill, but almost certainly never will.

[Indrajala]

The real kicker is when people who are oppressed by such a system actively advocate and support it. Kind of like the feudal serf who is stepped on by his lord but professes loyalty to him and condemns anyone who would say otherwise.

I think it may have to do with their lingering belief in the almost entirely mythical "American Dream"... They refuse to oppose or regulate or appropriately tax those whose shoes they hope some day to fill, but almost certainly never will.

As time goes on more people are made aware of how if they play by the rules they inevitably will be exploited and stolen from only to watch the upper echelons walk away from any disaster well compensated and treated to luxury.

The younger generation (under 30) in America and Europe have little to look forward to. The old dream of constantly foreseeable economic growth is being shown unrealistic. A lot of the promises that used to be deliverable in past years are now entirely undeliverable. Factor in environmental problems and the future looks quite uncertain and bleak.

Actually here in Japan many many young people graduating university, who were told from youth that they would follow in their parents' footsteps, are finding it impossible to secure some kind of suitable employment and end up working at convenience stores while continuing to live at home. As the years pass and job interviews fail, and even labour is impossible because it was all moved overseas, people will get angry.

[Individual]

The New World Order sent me to deliver this message:

[*]Take a college-level econ course[/list]

Ah, you mean the introductory economics courses in which one learns highly simplified economic models which completely disregard any environmental, social, or ethical factors?

I suggest that you take college level courses in environmental science and sociology. And better yet, go visit your local homeless shelter. Not everyone is there because they were "stupid." Sometimes circumstances arise which are just more than people can handle, and it's important to be able to feel compassion and empathy for those people.

I think the present world is evidence enough that unrestrained greed does not produce the best possible outcome for society as a whole. How many Enrons or Blackwaters are needed before people will see this?

Environmental science, sure. But it doesn't contradict economic factors. Psychologically, people can go either way: either rape the environment for personal gain at the cost of the common good, or environmental regulations themselves arise in dependence on economic factors. You can't assume that protecting the environment has economic gains (or no economic losses) or that developing a strong economy is environmentally sustainable.

As for Sociology, that stuff is a joke. It really needs to be renamed Opinion-ology. If physics and math majors are like the bakers of human knowledge, Sociologists are like dogs scrambling for bread-crumbs.

[Luke]

Environmental science, sure. But it doesn't contradict economic factors. Psychologically, people can go either way: either rape the environment for personal gain at the cost of the common good, or environmental regulations themselves arise in dependence on economic factors.

This is the problem with removing ethics from economics... Yes, people are free to choose, but Buddhism teaches that the ethical way of doing things will be the most beneficial in the long run due to karma. Of course, in the short-term, all kinds of unethical things look incredibly clever and wise.

You can't assume that protecting the environment has economic gains (or no economic losses)

And you can't assume that protecting the environment has no economic gains either. Both the global ecosystem and the global macroeconomy are such immensely complex systems that no one fully understands either of them completely. Given the advent of ideas like chaos theory and complex dynamical systems, which show that small initial changes can make a huge difference in the final results of complicated systems, I don't think it's possible to say with certainty that even apparently insignificant variables have no effect.

By improving the environment in one small area, it might set in motion a whole chain of causes and effects which might benefit people enormously economically the whole world over. For example, people might preserve a small area of the rain forest in a remote part of Brazil, and find out later that that area of land contains a very rare plant with medicinal properties which, after being analyzed, will give scientists the idea to create a great new drug which will cure a deadly disease. This will create profits for one pharmaceutical company and will reduce global medical costs by curing the disease, so people don't have to spend money on lengthy treatments.

or that developing a strong economy is environmentally sustainable.

Most economic courses all hold very biased, right-wing, capitalist assumptions. Sure, developing an environmentally sustainable strong capitalist economy might not be possible because capitalism requires continuous growth and development which will eventually use up all the natural resources. Perhaps what is needed is to revert back to some zero-growth tribal economies. The Native Americans were doing just fine until the Europeans came and stole their land and murdered them.

As for Sociology, that stuff is a joke. It really needs to be renamed Opinion-ology. If physics and math majors are like the bakers of human knowledge, Sociologists are like dogs scrambling for bread-crumbs.

Well, I have a math degree and I would guess that sociologists are better at baking than I am...

Sure, some sociology is just fluff, but some of it is right-on. Whatever one's opinions, the effects of human culture, social relations, and social networks can't be denied. Culture influences one's work environment and reproductive habits. Social connections allow one to find a job and advance economically and socially more easily. Social class is a very real phenomenon, even if most people don't like to talk about it. If you explore the interaction of language and culture, things get even more interesting. I could go on and on...

Math and physics majors may be very smart, but they know little about human social relations and culture simply because they haven't spent years focusing on those things. Good sociologists and anthropologists have, so they can say many intelligent things about these matters. Most theoretical mathematicians "bake" things which no one wants to eat... How many people get excited when a new algebraic topology research paper is published? Not too many...

I majored in math and know many very useless things (or should I say I know many things which could probably be useful, but my course of study never taught me how to use them in a useful way). If I would do it again, I would major in a foreign language or anthropology because I like those subjects much better and they couldn't be any more useless than my math degree already is.