The Flim-Flam Men

[Shakespear]

A very interesting article

For the last 20 or 30 years the public has been reading and hearing increasingly dire warnings about fiat currencies, unfunded Social Security, Medicare and government pensions promises, never ending wars of empire and expansion, resource exploitation, corruption and so on. While the entire picture might have been deliberately obscured, it could not have progressed to this point without the mostly silent, but most assuredly the willing, participation of you and me.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/flim-flam-men

[astonas]

Re: The Flim-Flam Men

Great article, thanks for posting! Complicity's many layers are often under-appreciated, especially since it's much easier to be angry. I'm beginning to wonder if anger itself isn't a great indicator of denial.

[c1ue]

Re: The Flim-Flam Men

It is interesting, and points to a story I believe I have posted before.

The year is 2002.

I'm sitting at a blackjack table in Caesar's Palace.

Sitting around me are 4 (other) young men and women. The talk going around is about the Enron scandal, the Worldcom scandal, various Internet companies going down, etc etc.

I noted that perhaps part of the problem is that the CEOs of all these companies were paid so much that they were incentivized to cheat.

Dead silence.

A little more probing elicited responses like: These men were atypical. There's nothing wrong with executive compensation. It is un-American to limit executive pay. etc etc.

As it turns out most of these kids thought they would be CEO some day, and were unwilling to give up the theoretical perks of their dream.

Or as was noted in the article above: it ain't wrong if I get something out of it, or will someday.

[astonas]

Re: The Flim-Flam Men

Or as was noted in the article above: it ain't wrong if I get something out of it, or will someday.

I believe that precisely this optimism explains a good part of the appeal of regressive taxation among those who don't personally stand to benefit. As long as they hold the false belief (refuted by some very strong data several years ago) that America is the nation with the greatest class mobility, they will continue to believe in, and vote for, policies counter to their own interests.

It is not enough to have a system in which people are ABLE to act in their own self-interest. It is also necessary to have a population sufficiently well educated to set aside manipulative political advertising and objectively discern what policies are indeed IN their interests. This is why the evisceration of the education system (intentional or not) is fundamentally connected to sustaining the current power structure, and why many despair of seeing substantial improvement in the level of public discourse going forward.

[Shakespear]

Re: The Flim-Flam Men

It is also necessary to have a population sufficiently well educated to set aside manipulative political advertising and objectively discern what policies are indeed IN their interests.

This is the KEY.

Guess busing was dreamed up to make sure this happens , instead of making classes smaller and pay teachers better. There was no money left for this as the buses needed gas and maintenance.Imagine what would happen if a teacher tried to discuss this in a political science class in high school. At minimum the label RED would come out, at worst pink slip and a ban from the profession.

[bagginz]

Re: The Flim-Flam Men

It is not enough to have a system in which people are ABLE to act in their own self-interest. It is also necessary to have a population sufficiently well educated to set aside manipulative political advertising and objectively discern what policies are indeed IN their interests. This is why the evisceration of the education system (intentional or not) is fundamentally connected to sustaining the current power structure, and why many despair of seeing substantial improvement in the level of public discourse going forward.

George Carlin's epic rant on this subject from 2005(!)

(caution - language)

[flintlock]

Re: The Flim-Flam Men

I was surprised recently at a family reunion when my 80 year old, stodgy, stockbroker uncle mentioned George Carlin. He said " I never really knew who George Carlin was but he had some pretty good insight into our system". I imagine someone had recently sent him this same video. Really shocking coming from my uncle. Anyway, its a great bit.