3 replies to this topic

[nimblebear]

According to Zogby, who tracks this sort of stuff, many more American's are living 'below their means' (if you can believe it) than ever before. Apparently, according to Zogby, this trend began more than 15 years ago, but gained traction during the past decade of economic turmoil. So what Zogby fails to mention is that the median income for ALL Americans is less than $50,000. Basically, most Americans dont have a choice. Its either live below your means or go into debt. There isn't any in between, where any substantial numbers actually do make a lot of money (I'm talking at least 6 figures) and are still 'living below their means' by choice at least. One certainly couldn't tell that here in my little 'neck-o-the-woods' outside Chicago, in a relatively affluent town of 160,000. More and more people are driving Audi's and Hybrid Highlanders (at $50k a pop), and a 'beater car' is something like a 5 year old Camry. There are many towns like this in and around Chicago, so obviously if people are 'living below their means' they have a heck of a lot of 'means' if you get my drift. Also, according to Zogby, 36% of 'adults' between 18 and 31 are living with their parents. Thats a LOT of free rent and utilities and not much in the way of taxes per se, for those young adults to spend on stuff, or pay off student loans. My takeaway from all of this is the following: 1) Americans are by and large still profligate spenders. 'Consumerism' or materialism is a bad habit that will die hard here in this country. 2) Those so called 'living below their means' haven't likely lived in ANY other country or culture where their 'living below means' standard of living is 10 to 20x greater spending than a vast majority of the population centers on this planet. 3) Americans are so far removed from what it truly means to be poor, that even the poor here who EASILY get EBT cards, welfare, SS disability (even when they are perfectly well and able to work), live better than the middle classes of 75% of world's nations. There is as such, no 'new materialism' or spiritual awakening here in the US by any stretch of the imagination, and won't be until the consumer here dies hard, which won't come until our currency collapses, other countries stop buying our debt, and the government becomes too broke to even print money. This WILL happen at some point. When ? I do not know. But it will happen.

[AChartist]

your point 3 is intentionally, systemic cannibalism. When they start picking a choosing who lives and dies ( at least figuratively) which they do in the control systems already, those that live will be cheering for more of others to expire, thus improving their odds at the welfare lottery. This is the total intentional destruction of society, and it ain't going to be pretty. This pig is done, just a matter of time, matter of destroying the currency. I really detest the spending, it is well I live in a low end town and not alot of jones's to be inferior too, people really need to choose an austere location, that can be a personal point of control. When I see the new car model you can see the mind control involved in the peer marketing and I makes me ill enough not to want one, just a matter of values. The other point of control, use the whole life dividend life insurance I like, this is the real deal to change everything about self destructive mass mind control behavior. And here to you understand that you had to labor 35k gross to save 20k and will not be willing to waste that. Becuase all of the saving came from the margin that lives in the top tax braket. Now this is a small enough forum I wouldn't want alot of people to know about it, it works as long as it stays under the parasite radar. So taking 30k of your own money out of your policy to buy the new gizmo model, is a different animal, than borrowing from fiction. The other way to change behavior is price everything in gross income, that 30k car, try 50k of labor. Now you know why the federalized the de-education so no one figures this stuff out.

[AChartist]

It a huge myth of 6 figures being good money. Using the understated Federal Reserve Calculator, I remember my father's income when I was a kid, he was a Sears Roebuck salesman, his income is worth about 70k now. So it would be more like 90-100k with legitimate math. His 1980 basis income when I was in college is worth 85k now. Never graduated high school, lied at age 16 to get into the Navy and support his widowed mother. And he had a great pension, moved it to a third party and it exploded during the 1990's with my mother living well on it now. There use to be real men in this country, pharma zombie pussies now. The W2 slaves today are so screwed. Now some things like product deflation helped but really I spend nothing on product because the inflation everywhere else forced it all the way out of the budget toward zero, the only retail I spend is gas, food, clothes for my wife.

Edited by AChartist, 26 August 2013 - 06:37 PM.

[AChartist]

my x-father in law's 1982 basis income is $130k now. He was a US Steel Corporate engineer in the Pittsburgh building. Not so much really same that a senior corporate mechanical engineer makes now but here is the rub. His house mortgage in the tippy top high rent district was, $145/mo. , or $351 no on the Fed calculator. I pay $760 rent now for reference. w

Edited by AChartist, 26 August 2013 - 06:58 PM.