My over-arching theory of the whole mess

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

Back in the day American business had a vested interest in the overall well-being of America.

With the rise of multi-nationalism that faded.

America went from being a carefully tended ant farm of compliant worker-consumers to a smash-and-grab looting opportunity.

A healthy America would have been better for the money monsters overall, but the game became, "Let somebody else feed these slobs. I have an extra 0.3% to wring out of this situation."

Tragedy of the commons.

Business-world had done such a good job of convincing Americans to side with business that our government is politically unable to manage the country, even as our corporate overlords lose all interest in the task.

As long as some corporations could make money by wrecking this place, rather than maintaining it, then there is competitive pressure for everyone to get in on the looting.

[Renew Deal]

1. Well said!

:thumbsup:

[Odin2005]

2. There is a lot of Game Theory stuff on this.

'Always Defect" and all that jazz.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

3. Hence regulation

A set of rules that makes smash-and-grab the optimal strategy will always produce smash-and-grab.

In games theory you change the game by re-weighting the outcomes. Same for governments.

[leveymg]

10. Failure to regulate is a signal to the free-riders to get into the game. This is only going

to get much worse. I think Obama and the Blue Dogs just blew our last chance to reverse this cycle.

I admire the systems approach, but think a naturalistic model might also be appropriate. The jackal pack now swarms over the kill, and the vultures after them, until finally the ants will be left to clean the bones.

In relative terms, by the end of this process, the former United States will have declined much further than the former Soviet Union. We just had that much further to fall.

[CoffeeCat]

11. The banksters are anything but "Game Theorists"...

In order for Game Theory to work--you must have someone at the top
who has the group's best interest at heart. The whole "everyone wins
if we all cooperate" means that someone has to give a rat's patootey
about someone other than themselves.

These banksters view everyone who is unlike them--as objects. They
grab what they can for themselves and never turn back.

If it was a bankster in the bar, they would have grabbed the most
attractive woman and never looked back--never giving the remaining
friends a second thought.

"I got mine. Who and what you get is none of my concern."

And actually a lack of Game Theory perfectly illustrates why everything
is crumbling. Those at the top are making decisions that benefit them--
but only in the short run. These people are like toddlers. They don't
see beyond the end of their own noses and they don't see past next week.

So the banksters can get theirs--and dry up the middle class--which, in the
long run will hurt their interests. But they don't think that far into
the future. Just like BP--who wanted to hide the enormity of the oil spill
and use poisonous Corexit to cover their butts. They win in the short run,
but in the long run--our entire species loses.

We've got stunted sociopathic toddlers running the show and controlling our
government--through stunted, sociopathic politicians.

The results are horrible in the short run, and disastrous for the long run.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. I have come to realize that we ordinary people are just farm animals.

But it used to be that we were reasonably well cared for farm animals, like dairy cows. We'd be fed and looked after properly so we'd produce lots of milk for the owners. But the owners have lately discovered that they can make more money by sending us to the slaughterhouse.

[wuvuj]

18. Around 50% of the profits...

...of the S&P 500 come from outside this country.....they just found easier to pay farm animals.

That is why main street sinks and the markets rise.

The top 2% use the military to protect and further their interests and HS to keep the local herd in line.

Some cows wave flags and believe in the BIG COW IN THE SKY.

[wuvuj]

25. reality?

"Gauged according to underlying sales, after all, the S&P 500 isn't a domestic-stock index. It's an international benchmark, one whose companies streamed in 46.6% of their revenue from foreign shores last year, according to S&P's estimates. Approximately a third of that sum, moreover, was rung up in emerging markets."

[leveymg]

5. Succinct, accurate, and sadly very true. Every word.

A gem. Submit it as a LTTE to your favorite establishment newsprint of record: the NYT, WaPo, etc. Bet the Editorial Assistant sends it upstairs to her boss, the Assistant Editor, and from there, who knows.

Might actually be read and (possibly) understood by one of the professional apologist class. They should know that we know.

[T Wolf]

6. You nail it. The analogy I use is that the economy has been turned from a mechanism for "investment

into a casino where the insiders (the house) makes the rules and greedily grabs the greatest percentage of the drop as possible.

No longer is actual investment happening. The money goes, not to back a promising (or even already-successful) enterprise (see, even we lefties can use some of their terms without gagging), but where ever a miniscule percentage can be wrung from the total arrangement.

Add in all the dishonesty and outright fraud and you have Economics and Finance 2010.

The elite have turned our economy into one big game of Texas Hold 'Em - to the detriment of the other 99% of us.

[The2ndWheel]

7. I don't want to be in an ant farm either

I think Arthur Jensen sums up your theory nicely...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BVqIjKyJh0

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

23. From speculative satire to documentary in a few short decades

[edhopper]

8. I agree with everything but the first line

Business never had a vested image in the well being of America or Americans.
Whatever benefits and security the workers got was from years of bloody fighting
and a Government willing to stand with them against the corporations.

[cilla4progress]

9. Right on analysis!

AND ... since the tea partier types (and the rest of us who are "angry") have no control over the corporate warlords, we take out our wrath on government leaders, where we do have some control ... thus the retaliation against working class HEROES such as Feingold, Boxer, Murray, even Obama.

[Javaman]

12. As long as corporations still maintain person-hood..

the government will always be forced to make the choice between who produces more, us or the corps, and because the corps fund the political machine, the government will always side with the corps.

[hunter]

16. A "death penalty" for corporate "person-hoods" is the only death penalty I support.

A guillotine of nationalization ought to be built in the public square.

[Javaman]

17. I completely agree, but...

given the fact that the right wing nuts on the supreme court flung open the door on unlimited private donations, we the people are left holding the bag. The concept of person-hood for corporations was further cemented into place with that ruling.

because even if person-hood is removed, corporations now can freely donate whatever they want without any paper trail or repercussions. They basically retain their person-hood via private channels even if their public face of person-hood is removed.

The right wing is just pouring more cement into the foundation of fascism.

[unblock]

13. exactly! the connection is an emerging middle class in china and india

ever since henry ford (of all people!) american business treated american workers relatively well because they doubled as consumers, heavily returning their wages back to corporate america.

now that there's a burgeoning consumer class in china and india (thanks to the cheap imports and then to the outsourcing) they're on the verge of shifting their reliance from america to asia as their prized consumer base. the american worker has served its purpose and is soon to be discarded.

soon we will be left with nothing but mega-rich owners of overseas corporations serving overseas consumers, and serfs to handle the industries that can't be offshored, like restaurants and salons and yardwork.

[European Socialist]

14. The Ruling Class dumped the American Worker back in the 70's...

and cheap labor has been King ever since--with the predictable result.

[Romulox]

15. And our political class has set its mission at preserving the wealth of the richest

and preventing the so-called "creative destruction" of capitalism from disturbing the status quo.

[leftstreet]

19. One day consumers in china will bitch about cheap American-made crap

"But whaddya gonna do? They pay their workers pennies over there..."

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

20. I think it's because American corporations have become too short-sided.

It's about the quarterly and annual earnings. Everything else is secondary. The quick buck is all that management thinks about.

[PufPuf23]

21. Lots of truth in the OP. Sad for my generation.

The attack is on the Commons (as are most Big Business / Finance / Authoritarian efforts of convergent interests against dDemocracy and the General Welfare).

Don't be mislead.

A mixed economy is the obvious and has been proven to work in the 20th century by FDR. Equal rights and personal security for all is moral and fosters a stable society.

[Raksha]

22. K & R - a very succinct analysis of the situation.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. My only bone to pick...

This way of thinking precedes the country...alas it is mercantilistic.

Oh and the worker bees accept this almost on religious grounds.

[Tsiyu]

26. All of this has been aided by unceasing propaganda

issuing forth from the six media conglomerates.

In my mind, the US the corporations have created and encouraged is FUBAR on many levels:


*Mcmansion communities punctuated by strip shopping centers accessible only by automobiles.

*Limited public transportation, health care, affordable housing.

* Destruction of natural resources, historic sites, water sources, air, mountains, wildlife.

*Resources that are trucked in from many miles away, courtesy of Big Ag and Big Box Stores.

*The death of community identity - many communities look exactly the same courtesy of those subdivisions and strip malls. Many inner cities are seeing infrastructure crumble away. Many small towns are boarded up and near dead.

*Isolation and Polarization rather than working together for the good of the community at large.


It seems if we see this as a chance to rebuild the US in a better way, rather than lamenting a structure that couldn't hold, we could use this moment for a lot of positive change.