On Aug 13, 9:09*pm, Jack wrote:
Joe gets up at 6:00am to prepare his morning coffee. He makes it with
a machine he could not possibly have made himself. He does not know
where it was made, or how it works, and may not care.

it was made in china because the company he was laid off from sent
his job overseas so the owner could make another buck.

He does not know
the people that planted, cultivated, harvested, dried, roasted,
packaged, freighted, warehoused, distributed, marketed, or retailed
his coffee, and may not care

the people that planted the coffee were central americans working for
slave labor wages because their govts, supported by far right
americans, ensured they had no protection at all


.. The company that insures the
manufacturer of the coffee machine required that it meet certain
safety guidelines, as established by the private insurance-company-
funded Underwriters Laboratory. Joe has seen the UL mark, but is not
really sure what it's for or how it protects him.

conservatives opposed having companies put UL on their products,
fearing that people would get too much knowledge, just like they
opposed legislation forcing chemical companies to publish MSDS's
detailing chemical safety

He doesn't clearly
understand why greedy businessmen might be interested in a safe
product. All of this was made possible by libertarians who fought for
and won the legal right to free trade.

with, of course, no protection at all for the safety of working
people.



Joe begins his work day; he has a good job with excellent pay,
medicals benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because the
accumulation of capital over centuries has now brought the discounted
marginal value product of a schmuck like Joe to unimaginable heights

ROFLMAO!! what jack doesn't tell you is that UNIONS won medical
benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacations, NOT the company
owners. if it wasn't for unions, joe would still be working 7 days a
week, 12 hours a day for slave labor wages, being beaten by pinkerton
guards if he disobeyed company rules



Joe's employer pays these standards because if they don't, his
employer's competitors will.

and, of course, company heads have colluded with each other to set
prices and wages so they maximize their own profits while minimizing
worker safety and wages. joe doesn't realize his real salary, after
inflation, is less today than it was in reagan's time 30 years ago


It's noon time, Joe doesn't need to make a Bank Deposit so he can pay
some bills - he uses online banking and direct deposit. He has no idea
how these systems work, or what a banking clearinghouse is, but he is
able to use these services at the lowest cost practicable because
banks compete for his business.

and the banks convince people they compete, but they dont in reality,
knowing that if they make bad loans, conservatives will raid the
federal treasury, and the retirement plans of middle class workers to
ensure bank owners still get their $40 million dollar bonuses, just
like wall street is doing this year with our TARP money


Notwithstanding the massive
interventions to the business of banking, such as the creation of
central banking and the Federal Reserve system and the repudiation of
the gold standard, he is able to weather the government-induced
business cycles and inflation by investing in mutual funds, annuities,
stocks, bonds, REITs, real estate, and other investment vehicles.

all of which have plummeted in value, destroying joe's retirement,
while the owners of these instrument ran to the federal govt saying
they were 'too big to fail', ensuring the bank owners would receive
their handsome salaries while joe has to work until he's 75.




Joe is home from work, he plans to visit his father this evening at
his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive to
dads; his car is not among the safest in the world because he chose
not to buy a Volvo. His brother has a Volvo, but he has a gas-guzzling
muscle car. He has this choice because nationalization of the auto
industry was prevented.

and since it's in private hands it went bankrupt, and needed a govt
bailout, courtesy of middle class taxpayers, to ensure the rich owners
would stay rich



He arrives at his rural boyhood home. The house didn't have any good
programming choices until DirecTV offered an array of programming and
high-speed internet, too. His dad uses a VCR, which only became
affordable to him after lots of rich people bought the early,
expensive versions and the manufacturers improved the designs and cut
costs. In fact, his dad has a cell phone, TiVo, refrigerator,
microwave oven, and a CD player - all of which became affordable to
him because they were first the toys of the super-rich, and the
crackpot schemes financed by the wealthy entrepreneurs willing and
able to risk their money in such endeavors.

and all of these products, along with the computer chips that drive
them, are made in china because the rich company owners decided they'd
rather pay slave labor wages in china to a dictatorship rather than
give joe a living wage...after all he's going to work until he's 75.
he's got plenty of time to find a job when he's 67.


He is happy to see his dad who is now retired. His dad lives on a
reverse mortgage - a recent market innovation.

along with collateralized debt obligations which mushroomed from $920
billion in 1997 to sixty two TRILLION in 2007 and caused the collapse
of the US economy

and so the libertarians spin their fairy tales of market efficiencies,
evil unions and other fables that enable them to sleep at night, like
children, unafraid of monsters under the bed