* Drawings, Charts, And Videos That Explain The Recession

44 Replies to “* Drawings, Charts, And Videos That Explain The Recession”

1. * 25 Bitter And Painful Facts About The Coming Baby Boomer Retirement Crisis That Will Blow Your Mind (2011-11-23)
   http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/25-bitter-and-painful-facts-about-the-coming-baby-boomer-retirement-crisis-that-will-blow-your-mind

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2. Owen-

   You are correct, I neglected to include the $200 billion in unfunded prescription drug benefits for seniors. But you can see the numbers in the charts above and make your own conclusions. Perhaps it should have been the “Big Five.” But arguing against any benefit for seniors – or against any health benefit in general – is political suicide. Wars and windfalls for the rich and bankers should be EASY to argue against.

   -Erik

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3. Amazing Erik. You missed that Bush also added unfunded medicaid prescription plan. But you need to look at the motivation and think outside the box. Basically it’s spend as if there is no tomorrow. And perhaps there isn’t. Perhaps that’s what those in power know that we don’t. That due to the consequences of climate change and peak oil, the planet can’t support more than 1% of the existing population. And if you follow the money in everything you cite above (and even in the financial crash where money was redistributed, 99% lost it, 1% picked up bargains and made a fortune all under Obama’s watch)–it’s clear that they have written off the other 99%- they (we) are really no longer needed. What’s needed is oil and unpolluted land to sustain the 1%. We may laugh at the camel jockies and Afghanistanie’s living in the 17Th century, but they have resisted cars, factories, chemicals etc leaving them with perhaps the only place the “survivors” can ride out the storm. Where they already have their toys, but need water, food and golf courses to spend their days bragging to each other how they had pulled off the perfect crime. Deciding who will live and who will die is very much like Hitler. Perhaps the 99% of us are already in a concentration camp where we will be exterminated slowly by lack of food, water, medicine, fuel, services and shelter all while we experience nature’s wrath. Most reading this will call me crazy, but what’s crazy is watching a useless political system do nothing that has made life better for you or I. To accept leaders at their word and get us into a mess fighting a war none of us understand the benefit to us.

   The simple fact that we only have one planet with finite resources for which to sustain human civilization. No amount of human ingenuity or technology will change that reality.

   Go back to Reagan’s inaugural speech which is on YouTube for all to see. Sounds like Obama could read that same speech today and if you compare texts, he has simply cut and pasted a lot of it with a different spin.

   Reagan had basically told us that infinite growth was not sustainable on “sharing of scarcity”. The folk idea of unlimited good prevents Reagan and the dominant culture from understanding that natural resources are finite, that increasing scarcity, not income distribution and regulation, are reducing the increase in our standard of consumption. As Dundes claims, the folk idea of unlimited good is tied to the folk idea of dominating nature, of expecting nature always to provide an undiminishing store of energy and raw materials. And so Reagan asserts — against all ecological evidence — that “prosperity is a fundamental part of our environment.”112 For Reagan, believing in the New World’s exceptionalism, natural resources are infinite, and so too is America’s ability to increase its standard of consumption: “Our hemisphere has an unlimited potential for economic development and human fulfillment.”ll3 Where Carter learned that America must conserve resources, use them more slowly so that the United States can change over to non-fossil fuels before they run out, Reagan calls for extracting more energy from fossil fuel, using it faster, as if it will replenish itself: “Those who preside over the worst energy shortage in our history tell us to use less, so that we will run out of oil and gas a little more slowly.” “America must get to work producing more energy. The Republican program for solving economic problems is based on growth and productivity.” 114 When Reagan rejects “an energy policy based on the sharing of scarcity,”115 he rejects reality in favor of his folklore.

   Capitalism, at least as we know it, requires infinite growth. For-profit companies have to continue to grow in size and increase their profits year after year or risk losing investment money. Many people have gotten very wealthy with this economic model and the rest of us, at least in industrialized countries, have benefited greatly as well. We have many modern conveniences and most of us are quite disconnected from the natural world in a way that would have been unimaginable to people only a few centuries ago. This is certainly good from the standpoint of making our lives easier but it’s not good when you look at the long term picture.

   The problem in the long term is that an economic model of infinite growth requires the use of natural resources at increasing rates. The most obvious of these natural resources is petroleum or oil. But many other resources like water and coal are being used at increasing rates to sustain growth in population. This growth in population is fueled by the continued increase in use of natural resources. It’s a cycle of infinite growth that is simply unsustainable on a planet of finite resources.

   Hardly anybody in the government or the media is talking about this problem because it’s unimaginable to most people living in modern, industrialized countries that the only way of life they’ve ever known is simply unsustainable in the long term. It’s as if people have either (a) buried their heads in the sand or (b) hope that the shit doesn’t hit the fan until they are long gone. Unfortunately neither position will stop what is inevitable. It really is up to us to realize this now and attempt to build an economic model that is sustainable. This is not possible without major changes. What is apparent is that these changes are going to happen one way or another either by choice or by force as we begin to hit the peaks of supply with regard to some of our most valued natural resources.

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4. Hi Erik – Although you are preaching to the choir sending this to me, thank you for the effort of pulling together all this material. What I have never understood is how so many of our fellow citizens can be so gullible to the deceptions that politicians spout. Johnson:”Guns and Butter”, Reagan:”We’re past the peak of the Laffer curve”, Bush1: “No new taxes”, Bush2:”The best way to grow jobs is to cut investment related taxes and lower the tax rates (on people who already have more discretionary income than they know what to do with)”, etc. And they punish politicians who tell the truth: Mondale:”we will both raise taxes – the only difference is that he won’t tell you and I just did.”

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5. Love what you’ve put together with one (non-political) overarching, oft-neglected and critical component-demographics and life-cycles and our aging population.

   These cycles can be traced back centuries in the U.S. and Europe. When this is factored in it presents a situation last seen in the roaring 20’s and depressed, warring thirties. The other huge difference is back then wealthy class re-invested in the U.S. because it was the only economically realistic game in town. Now we have 3 billion newbie capitalists in Asia and opportunity costs have never been better.

   Money has no heart or patriotism.

   So we have politicians through these past decades with no memories or experiences of the 20’s and 30’s and only short-sighted party-driven unsustainable ‘fixes’.

   Start reading some of Harry S. Dent’s books about demographics and life-cycles. It will give you even a broader perspective of what’s happening and how to work with some inevitabilities which no political party can fix. (IMHO)

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6. Jane, I agree that the policies of past presidents also played a part. (See “A timeline of events” link above.) But I had to start somewhere, and most of my readers don’t remember President Carter (or Clinton, for that matter). I agree that Clinton’s housing policies contributed to the 2008 housing collapse. But the “Big Four” are what put the country in the current hole it is in. The tax cuts, in particular, only 2 months after the second 9/11 war, were irresponsible.

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7. Amazing work — thank you for sharing!

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8. Excellent work Erik

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9. Erik,

   I think you have to look to the community re-investment act begun under Carter which was expanded under Clinton if you want to understand the current recession. The whole thing was perpetuated by the housing bubble which Bush actually warned about in his 2006 SOTU address. Congress simply ignored the warning.

   Everything else was incidental.

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10. Brilliant Erik! This is the best history book of the last decade that I’ve ever seen. Thanks for compiling this.

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