Yeah you've got it 99% down man. For me, I was able to get a pretty inexpensive degree from a reputable college because of military benefits and later, job benefits paying for my degree. Took me a very long time, but didn't go into debt. And ended up landing a dream job because of it.
The debt thing is very near / dear to my heart. But for me, more than the user level usury, is the systematic fuckery that goes on at the Fed level and now worldwide. One example is how banks have a very small requirement for actual cash they must have in reserve vs. how much they can lend out.
We are pretty much fucked regardless if we ever borrow a dime since they constantly devalue (through "inflation") the value of existing hard earned dollars.
Its a sad thing to think about.
I know -- it is! And when I try to educate people on very basic principles, I often get that blank stare. People have too much going on to dig into things like HOW inflation really works and WHY? All they know is if it goes up, bad. Down, good. But WHY!?!?! Why do prices need to constantly increase? Why does no one ask that? You know?
Makes me angry that banks get away with it with protection from the very top and no one even knows. Except when the fucked up in 2008. Then we have Occupy Wall Street etc raising SOME awareness. But they are back at it again already. Selling shit mortages at prices people can afford short term, but will default on long term.
And I will never forgive Obummer for bailing them out. Bailed them out, but left homeowners high and dry. Not just Obummer but all of them are to blame.
Not to take away from your points, but the inflation thing is kind of a necessary evil that I'm still trying to work out.
The problem is that if you don't create ANY new currency, and your GDP increases, you get deflation. If people know that they can wait a few weeks to a year, and their money will be more valuable, they won't purchase anything while they save up. This is bad at an individual level, but it gets even worse as you go up, because corporations with lots of money will just hold onto it as it rises in value. With a little inflation, they would rather invest it into the economy to gain a return, rather than let it devalue into nothing due to inflation.
Again, I haven't had the time to thoroughly go through the argument, and see if it's actually true, but at face value, it seems to be.
This doens't mean we need the fed though. I'd rather that the government just print its own cash, in lieu of any and all taxes, fees, etc. but only to the extent that inflation is increased by 1-2% a year, and no more; no increase in GDP = zero money to fund the government. But again, I'm not sure how that works out.
(post is archived)