Smashing Capitalism
Aug 21st, 2007 at 11:48 am by Susie
Yes, it was all a clever plot. Barbara Ehrenreich in The Nation:
Somewhere in the Hamptons a high-roller is cursing his cleaning lady and shaking his fists at the lawn guys. The American poor, who are usually tactful enough to remain invisible to the multi-millionaire class, suddenly leaped onto the scene and started smashing the global financial system. Incredibly enough, this may be the first case in history in which the downtrodden manage to bring down an unfair economic system without going to the trouble of a revolution.
First they stopped paying their mortgages, a move in which they were joined by many financially stretched middle class folks, though the poor definitely led the way. All right, these were trick mortgages, many of them designed to be unaffordable within two years of signing the contract. There were “NINJA” loans, for example, awarded to people with “no income, no job or assets.” Conservative columnist Niall Fergusen laments the low levels of “economic literacy” that allowed people to be exploited by sub-prime loans. Why didn’t these low-income folks get lawyers to go over the fine print? And don’t they have personal financial advisors anyway?
Then, in a diabolically clever move, the poor–a category which now roughly coincides with the working class–stopped shopping. Both Wal-Mart and Home Depot announced disappointing second quarter performances, plunging the market into another Arctic-style meltdown. H. Lee Scott, CEO of the low-wage Wal-Mart empire, admitted with admirable sensitivity, that “it’s no secret that many customers are running out of money at the end of the month.”
Fortunately, the way was prepared for this with the new bankruptcy laws.
Many of us don’t have any money at the BEGINNING of the month…
So times are tight, and ‘ya gotta’ get while ‘ya can - I took a gig treating cars as cattle last week for a big PGA tournament. I had given thought to blogging it, but just can’t bring myself to be that negative [OK, g'da said anyone can make it go; it's my observation that anyone driving anything newer than a '89 Mazda MPV doesn't know how to drive, period]. Had I blogged it, it would have been under the headline: This is Rich - The Poor Getting Paid to Stop The Rich.
I now heart Ehrenreich more than ever.
And by the way, eat the rich.
Lucky Duckies, every one!