Don't Think the Status Quo Will Save You

Many hold a touchingly naive faith that the Status Quo will save them even as the current system unravels. Why is this faith naive?

Let’s start with this key question: does the Status Quo strike you as being even remotely competent?

If you answer “yes,” we have to ask: what planet are you on? Mars? Here on Earth, no one that isn’t a bought-and-paid for-shill of the Status Quo would even make the risible claim of Status Quo competence, except as a bitter joke.

The Status Quo assumes we can’t deal with the truth like adults, and so it sugar-coats every unsolvable problem with lies and false assurances. The Status Quo assumption is the Great Unwashed 90% will shoot the messenger, i.e. toss out our public leadership should they be foolish enough to tell us the truth: the promises issued to you cannot possibly be fulfilled.

Not because of an evil cabal, but because the demographics and financial realities render the promises impossible to keep, regardless of who’s in office.

I’m going to get my Social Security, right? I wuz promised! Don’t be a chump, man. You’ll get something that’s called Social Security, but it will either be taxed to the point it only buys a loaf of bread or will only be worth a loaf of bread. So yes, you’ll get Social Security, but not the one you were promised or the one you’re imagining.

I’m going to get my Medicare, right? I wuz promised! Sure, you are, pal. Just not the Medicare you’re imagining, you know, the one that pays for everything.

The stock market will never crash, right?

Does this look like a stock market that will never crash again, or a stock market that’s poised to crash again? Your answer is a measure of your gullibility and faith in the Status Quo’s false assurances.

Does this chart of federal debt look remotely sustainable to you? Don’t be a chump, man–it’s clearly not sustainable, no matter what rationalizations the Power Elites’ shills are bleating.

Here’s a chart that shows how the Status Quo “fixes” every problem: it transfers more debt and more losses to the taxpayers. Student loans out of control and poised to implode? No problem–just transfer all the uncollectible debt (i.e. losses) to the taxpayers.

If you believe that’s an actual solution, I have a little 3-Card Monte game over here I’d like you to play until you have no more earthly (or Martian) possessions. Alternatively, just sink all your money into the stock market that’s poised to crash. That will wipe you out just as effectively as the rigged 3-Card Monte game.

Don’t think the Status Quo will save you, or make good on its vast multitude of promises. Naive faith in promises and fantasies isn’t helpful in the real world.

Regards,

Charles Hugh Smith
for The Daily Reckoning

P.S. Ever since my first summer job decades ago, I’ve been chasing financial security. Not win-the-lottery, Bill Gates riches (although it would be nice!), but simply a feeling of financial control. I want my financial worries to if not disappear at least be manageable and comprehensible.

And like most of you, the way I’ve moved toward my goal has always hinged not just on having a job but a career.

You don’t have to be a financial blogger to know that “having a job” and “having a career” do not mean the same thing today as they did when I first started swinging a hammer for a paycheck.

Even the basic concept “getting a job” has changed so radically that jobs–getting and keeping them, and the perceived lack of them–is the number one financial topic among friends, family and for that matter, complete strangers.

So I sat down and wrote this book: Get a Job, Build a Real Career and Defy a Bewildering Economy.

It details everything I’ve verified about employment and the economy, and lays out an action plan to get you employed.

I am proud of this book. It is the culmination of both my practical work experiences and my financial analysis, and it is a useful, practical, and clarifying read.