After watching a movie called “Margin Call" with Kevin Spacey, reading some comments at the VA and watching political shows and reading today's wonderful article titled "Why we need better nonsensical talk “by Tom Purcell, I’m convinced that we live in a BS world. I don't see us improving our situation until we go back to calling “a spade a spade."
We are still at a stage where we have decided that “parenting" and ridding the teachers union are the answers to our education problem. That's BS, they may be the major components but real problem solving has to be a work around the perceived problems and not just continue to throw up our arms and quit. I think the answer is revising the outdated system we are using but this is just a small example; I won't dwell into the details at this time.
The movie “Margin Call" wasn't what I expected because the theme was more like the movie " 12 angry men" because it was about a Wall Street firm, its managers and employees, and it all took place at the firm's location. It was about Wall Street recruiting the brightest people and turning them into used car salesmen, selling worthless securities with a passion and using money to ease their conscience. Those of us who are in the market cheered them on but when we found out that their actions caused a financial meltdown, we wanted to crucify them. It went onto show that a Wall Street firm or a corporation does not have the soul or a conscience. After one of their analysts showed them a computer model analysis where their junk assets had run its course; they decided to pass the junk off to their competitors, creating a free fall liquidation of many firms. The firms paid their top employee's lucrative bonuses before liquidation. Then came the taxpayer lending them funds at 1% interest; they in turn charged 3% interest pocketing a 2 percent gain; yet, we applauded them for paying back their taxpayer loans. That's the BS society we live in; as long as they paid us back, we forgave them for the financial meltdown causing millions to be unemployed, mortgages going under water and a further mistrust of our Financial System. We still don't have regulations in place to prevent another financial crisis and not one CEO went to jail because in our BS society, what they did was legal.
I agree with Tom Purcell's assessment" We want to be lied to in America. Whereas the truth can be painful, costly and time -consuming, we're suckers for a skillfully told yarn, and it puts us at ease and helps us sleep better at night.” Do we honestly care what a policeman does to arrest a suspect at 3:00AM? Have we explored the difference between preventing voter fraud and voter suppression? Do we seriously expect to solve our racial problems without exploring the past? This past weekend, the words of my unrealistic niece could have been an example of the point Tom Purcell was trying to make. We were having a discussion about the unemployment rate and how difficult it was for those that became accustomed to making over $80,000 a year and then having to face a layoff. She said that they could work three jobs instead of staying at home collecting unemployment and being picky about their job offers. First, the laid-off people would have to face mortgage and vehicle payments larger than the wages they would get from those three jobs; that's if they were available. And that's just a start. The county city and local businesses would have to deal with $800,000 of revenue if a mere 10 people were laid off. The people making $80,000 bought products that people working at Burger King could never afford. That's the type of BS country we live in; simple answers for complex problems. You could make a full circle and we would get back to reason parents may not have time to help their children with their home work.
2 comments:
This is what I mean ... And for those that don't recall my $250 phone- tag- like experience with the Internal Revenue over a 2009 issue I'll give the details again.
A couple years ago I correctly Filed my 2009 return.... Several months later, I received a refund for $250(Making Work Pay Credit) that I did not think I was entitled to, so I called them up and they insisted that they were right. About two weeks ago, I received a letter saying that I owed them $250 with no interest. I said fine and mailed them a $250 check and I thought we were back to square one. Yesterday, I received a Internal Revenue refund for $250.25 in an envelope minus a letter.... If you have an important question don't bother the IRS for another two weeks or so. This morning I called them but to my surprise, the clerk said she could not answer any questions nor could she adjusted my account on the computer.... What was she there for, and why did I have to wait 20 minutes to hear that response ,when a recording would have been sufficient?
In other news, I was the recipient of one of the 8.6 million emails sent out in error by the New York Times to their subscribers... I'm not a subscriber.
Mitt Romney surges in Iowa and currently has a lead over Ron Paul and Rick Santorum came out of nowhere, and is now in third... The caucus is six days away and the talking heads will analyze all this with their BS.
Newt Gingrich has a plan to create one million jobs right now but it will have to wait until after the election..BS
I can't believe only two candidates, Ron Paul and Mitt Romney gathered enough votes to be placed on the Virgina GOP primary ballot.
The BS of the evening award goes to Rick Santorum.
He said "Do you know if you do two things in your life -- if you do two things in your life, you're guaranteed never to be in poverty in this country? What two things, that if you do, will guarantee that you will not be in poverty in America?" he asked the crowd.
"Number one, graduate from high school. Number two, get married. Before you have children," he said. "If you do those two things, you will be successful economically. What does that mean to a society if everybody did that? What that would mean is that poverty would be no more. If you want to have a strong economy, there are two basic things we can do."
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