Mayor Michael Bloomberg has unleashed another flurry of jabs on Washington, ridiculing the federal government's rebate checks as being "like giving a drink to an alcoholic" on Thursday, and said the presidential candidates are looking for easy solutions to complex economic problems.The third world analogy extends beyond the balance sheet.
The billionaire and potential independent presidential candidate also said the nation "has a balance sheet that's starting to look more and more like a third-world country."
Banks use the same predatory lending techniques, that corporations use in 3rd world countries, on American citizens. My sense of it was that banks decided they could turn American citizens into third world citizens when the threshold for obtaining credit cards was drastically lowered in the 90s.
One very simple experience that proved the Americans as third world citizens model for me happened about 3 years ago.
I went to look over a property that a friend was considering buying. This was a two family house on the cheaper side, maybe built around 1930 or so. The exterior was in fair condition. We went to look it over at noon time on a weekday.
On the first floor all roommates were at home, some were sleeping, some were lounging in the kitchen. The overall impression was one of utter chaos, clothes strewn everywhere, dirty, noisy TV on some laugh track based show, no cultural artifacts that lift the soul AKA artwork, etc. etc. There was a palpable impoverishment of the soul evident, and clearly no one was working a regular job. It was eye opening to say the least.
You could say I'm making a value judgment, but this was different. This was poverty, deep poverty.
Some people in third world countries can live with a simplicity that does not erase the soul. There is at the least a cultural connection between people.
What I witnessed was a vacancy of the soul, literally like watching death. In retrospect perhaps it is the result of generations of drug use, and generations of little education. I can't explain it completely, but its there, and its much closer than you think. I suspect the same scene is in every city, every minor city, every town, and outlying areas, millions of times.
3 comments:
U don't have to be poor to find yourself @ a dead - end job wise friend. Try being 59 and looking for work. Your to young to retire and your to old to be hired. So what do u do? Hold your breath for 6 yrs till u get SS and medicad?
This is true. Yet, you can be 59 and broke or unemployed and hurting financially and still have a glimmer of life that is rich or some inner wisdom or some history of accomplishments or a loving family and friends or cultural know how and articulateness. You could be 59 and broke and know that to go out and beat up somebody is morally reprehensible. In other words you can have a great internal world of great value.
The people I'm talking about have none of that. They are impoverished inside and out. There's no light. In fact the more money these people get, sometimes they get even more dangerous.
True. We have a perfect example as Pres. right now don't we?
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