the debt based economy

[SpiritoftheGael]

I posted this in response to someone talking about how billionaires are a problem in the US. https://workableeconomics.com/the-de...Ip1pN5F-_qVZR8
The gist of my response was most billionaires aren't the problem, but the banks (which have powerful billionaires involved) are definitely a huge problem in the US, because they've created an economy that is based off of debt. I have no clue how we would even get off of this system without a lot of pain, hence why the mainstream media loves to tear into millenials because they are pulling out less loans and saving more money than prior generations. They say millenials are killing the economy because of this. Well they are likely right, but we aren't the idiots/evil people who created this system. Currently, we have colleges over the US going out of business, because they were artificially propped up by debt for years and people aren't playing in anymore. I'm not really very sad about it, because some will survive and the model is moving towards businesses running their own training academies for employees anyways; however, it does mean a loss of jobs, which will hurt a lot of people, so again I'm not sure the collapse can be avoided without continuing to prop them up, which makes the mess worse. What are people's thoughts on these issues? Do you think the mess can be avoided someway or is the collapse inevitable?

[Riki Jane]

The government is trying to keep us dependent. As long as we find government less fearsome than our fellow citizens, we will give more money to campaigns and allow more government employees to be elected, even if it costs more in taxes and bogs us down in red tape. The government will keep expanding and getting richer. Allowing us to have autonomy would threaten their survival.

So the government imposes taxes and regulations, which force the small companies out of business because they can't afford to stay open, and they get bought out by huge companies who keep getting bigger. So a few banks own us all, and they make sure to keep us dependent through loans. If we actually own our own money, then what do we need them for?

The culture has developed such that people think "take out loans" and "go on welfare" instead of thinking "earn my own money." It's not that people are lazy idiots, it's that this society has made it difficult to be independent. Between red tape, banks, insurance and working 2 jobs just to pay the rent... people are drowning. No one is taught any useful skills in school, like car maintenance, nutrition, or how to manage our finances. Some would argue that school has always been about academics, but historically, school was for specific people, like the rich - while others learned skilled trades. Today, everyone spends their childhood learning about concepts but they don't learn how to think or how to survive. This is not an accident. School has become a government-owned brainwashing mechanism, just like the media. And this is why we have a generation of dependents, and why banks are able to keep us under their thumb.

[SpiritoftheGael]

The government is trying to keep us dependent. As long as we find government less fearsome than our fellow citizens, we will give more money to campaigns and allow more government employees to be elected, even if it costs more in taxes and bogs us down in red tape. The government will keep expanding and getting richer. Allowing us to have autonomy would threaten their survival.

So the government imposes taxes and regulations, which force the small companies out of business because they can't afford to stay open, and they get bought out by huge companies who keep getting bigger. So a few banks own us all, and they make sure to keep us dependent through loans. If we actually own our own money, then what do we need them for?

The culture has developed such that people think "take out loans" and "go on welfare" instead of thinking "earn my own money." It's not that people are lazy idiots, it's that this society has made it difficult to be independent. Between red tape, banks, insurance and working 2 jobs just to pay the rent... people are drowning. No one is taught any useful skills in school, like car maintenance, nutrition, or how to manage our finances. Some would argue that school has always been about academics, but historically, school was for specific people, like the rich - while others learned skilled trades. Today, everyone spends their childhood learning about concepts but they don't learn how to think or how to survive. This is not an accident. School has become a government-owned brainwashing mechanism, just like the media. And this is why we have a generation of dependents, and why banks are able to keep us under their thumb.

The saddest part is that there are a lot of skilled trades in the US right now that pay pretty well that cannot find anyone to hire: truckers, electricians, plumbers, security guards, welders etc are all in high demand currently. For some reason everyone is out competing to work at Target instead which pays shit anyways. I mean I get it. People want to do what they love, but they're not anyways. Who LOVES to work at Target? The problem is that a lot of those jobs, like being a trucker or a security guard require you to be able to pass drug tests, which unfortunately is difficult to find. If you can't pass drug tests you are basically stuck with the low of the low. That's the honest truth. You can't get security clearances for high paying jobs in cybersecurity and you can't work as a firefighter.

And don't even get me started on the public school system, which is almost nothing but a toxic waste dump at this point, and now they're charging children with felonies for making finger guns. But nothing will change, because a lot of parents are too busy working to properly pay attention to their kids. Either that or they're too busy doing drugs.

And then the divide between people with a poverty mindset and other people gets larger and larger, because people like me are like no way in hell would I ever put my child in a regular school to get charged with a felony, not learn anything, get knocked up, become a drug addict, or get killed from bullying. Meanwhile single moms are forced to put their children there, and don't have time to teach their kids things like how to deal with money, which the schools don't teach. So the chasm gets wider and wider and wider, because those kids are coming out with zero basic skills. And then it's very hard for them to catch up. What's the solution? I have no idea. How do you stop people from setting themselves up for failure from the start and keeping up cycles of poverty? I mean they don't know anything else.