10 March, 2010

BANK BAILOUT BINGO: "Socialize the losses, but quietly Privatize any gains".


When wealthy people and CEOs stuff up, they can expect cushy government (tax-funded) handouts. When poor people stuff up, it spells stress and poverty, plus offers lucrative new opportunities for lawyers, Real Estate tycoons, trauma and marriage counsellors. It appears that taxation revenue flows mainly uphill, towards the big end of town.

Now that the Big Bailout Bucks have topped up the coffers of the financial giants again, I note with cynical sideways glance that corporate fat-cats are (once again) slyly receiving their millions in bonuses and perks, just like before. This is symptomatic of the underlying purpose of Capitalism (a.k.a. Compassionate Conservatism's Poignant Concern for the Extremely Wealthy). Hey city hall, bail me out too! All I want is less to do, more time to do it, and higher pay for not getting it done. My point here is this - I'm not personally ready yet to dive back into the stockmarket big-time. It's not over till the fat CEO sinks. The other elephant in the room is the Yuan/Dollar stand-off... something's gotta give, and when it does, whoa, stand back!

Some facts:
* in the West, about 1% of the population of wealthy countries control 95% of the wealth; and
* in those wealthy countries recovering fastest from the 2009 economic meltdown, there is now a significantly increasing proportion of people falling below the poverty line...


Conclusions:
Capitalism is not only achieving its goal of making the Very Rich even richer, but now it's even causing increased poverty within wealthy countries themselves! Wealth and power are concentrating in the hands of fewer and fewer people, to no-one's advantage but their own:




According to the present Rules Of Capitalism, disadvantaged people are expected to lose in order to make those profits possible. Observe, for instance, how rich folks are quickly moving in to buy up thousands of cheap "bank-owned" homes which have sadly flooded the real-estate market (do I sufficiently conjure up the image of tears?)


...and how the corporate sector expressed such unbounded glee (behind closed boardroom doors) that Copenhagen was such a successful failure... Their anti-Climate lobbying cost them millions, but hey short-term corporate profits should be maintained at all costs...
...um... shouldn't they?



...and now, HOURS of fun for all the family ...even better than The Simpsons!!


Presenting Fat-cat FunkyPix2's
Dictionary of Right-wing/Conservative Terminology
is sure to assist you to win your next game of Bailout Bingo:
* alternative energy sources /n./ New locations to drill for gas and oil.


* bankruptcy /n./ A means of escaping debt available to corporations but not to poor people.


* class warfare /n./ Any attempt to raise the minimum wage.


* God  /n./ Senior Pentagon adviser (war is Her way of teaching geography to Americans)

* growth /n./ 1. The justification for tax cuts for the rich. 2. What happens to the national debt when policy is made according to Definition 1.


* healthy forest /n./ No tree left behind.


* honesty /n./ Lies told in simple declarative sentences (e.g., "Freedom is on the march.").


* House of Representatives /n./ Exclusive club; entry fee: $1 million to $5 million (See: Senate.)


* insanity /n./ See: staying the course. May also apply to otherwise sane liberal presidents.


* laziness /n./ When the poor are not working.


* leisure time /n./ When the wealthy are not working.


* liberal(s) /n./ Followers of the Antichrist. (Note that in Australia, the major conservative right-wing party named itself the "Liberal Party". For starters, how's that for a Big Fatcat Lie? The party's now led from behind by that God-bothering Catholic fanatic, Mr Rabbit (See: 1. pro-life, and 2. woman.)


* No Child Left Behind /riff./  There are always jobs in the military.


* pro-life /adj./ Valuing human life up until birth.


* Senate /n./ Exclusive club; entry fee: $10 million to $30 million.


* staying the course /interj./slang./ Continuing to perform the same actions and expecting different results (See: insanity.)


* shit happens /interj./slang./ I don't have to live in Baghdad.


* voter fraud /n./ A significant minority turnout.


* woman /n./ 1. Person who can be trusted to raise a child but can't be trusted to decide whether or not she wishes to have a child. 2. Person who must have all decisions regarding her reproductive functions made by men she wouldn't want to have sex with in the first place.


FunkyPix2's Thought of the Day
And those who were seen dancing were thought
to be insane by those who could not hear the music.
(Friedrich Nietzsche)


Here's Michael Moore's entertaining trailer to his film Capitalism: A Love Story. Often, I find Moore's jargonistic style annoyingly American, but gee the guy's heart is in the right place when it comes to supporting the underdog against exploitation by the Super Well-Heeled. He keenly laments that whatever hits the fan will probably not automatically be distributed evenly (eg health care) so he's taking active steps to improve things... I can only respect that.

PS: note the dramatically gloating manner in which George Dumbya Bush announces the words "global meltdown", as if he were somehow pleased about the crash... Um, was he? Could it all have been manipulated deliberately? The principal beneficiaries of a financial spring clean are always going to be the already-wealthy classes.





...and lastly, here's FunkyPix2's footnote to the foolishly fatal financial fuzziness of federal fiscal fantasy. Apart from stuff like "the cheque's in the mail", here's ALL you need to know about Stimulus payments, Bailouts, Tax rebates etc:

Q: What is an Economic Stimulus Payment?
A: It's money that the federal government will send to taxpayers.

Q: Where will the government get this money?
A: From taxpayers.

Q: So the government is giving me back my own money?
A: Only a little of it. Just the part you overpaid to start with.

Q: What's the purpose of this payment?
A: The plan is that you'll use that money to buy a high-definition flat screen TV set, thus stimulating the economy.

Q: But isn't that stimulating the economy of China?
A: Shut up.

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