Is Camelot over?

[davinxtk]

has it occurred to anyone that these credit crises aren't really rooted in credit at all?

i mean, they keep saying that sub-prime mortgages failed because they never should have been signed in the first place-- but doesn't that argument seem spurious, considering that it's in a bank's best interest to get effing paid? they're saying that car loans are defaulting because they were extended to people who couldn't afford them -- yet when i got my jetta in '06 i had to submit pay stubs from a job i had for more than two years that showed that i could clearly afford the car in addition to my rent and incidentals. that's not a faulty asset check, and i really am living close to the poverty line (and for the record i'm still making my car payments on time.)

i honestly believe that we'll find out in short order that these crises are more rooted in the fact that wages have been almost stagnant for the past ten years or more, when the cost of living has been steadily climbing due largely to fuel prices and corporate greed.

i mean how can consumer spending, employment, and gdp all be on the decline and at the same time have posted profits be in the rise? that, combined with stagnant wages, should make it clear that at least on some level these credit crises are being caused by those who directly benefit from profits (executives, investors, bankers, etc) literally choking the life out of the people who are supposed to be lifeblood of the economy (worker consumers).


i make this post during the sixth hour of my third job. i'm able to keep myself afloat because i solve problems and don't sleep. people should be able to work an honest 40 hours a week and have a car and a home and a television and not worry about putting food on their table or how they're going to feed their kid when they finally knock their girlfriend up. instead i'm pulling something more like 75-80 and scraping by, while some douchebag crunches numbers with just a day job, making a six-figure salary and having three weeks paid vacation a year.

i don't even have fucking health insurance, and i live in a state where it's required by law and supposedly "affordable."

before this turns into my blog i'll post it and do my security rounds, but i find AChimp's comment about being "uneducated" and having no "employable skills" surprisingly ignorant for him. employers need to own up to the fact that if someone puts in 40 hours a week they need to have more than $25,000 a year coming to them. unfortunately the way this economy is structured it will have to start with corporations (good fucking luck, right?) and perhaps complimenting the minimum wage with a maximum disparity.

and now i not only sound like a rambling loser but a filthy red.

have at, boys.