Charles Hugh Smith
Business Insider
October 19, 2011
Trapped assets that generate no income streams in the present are not capital; the value of such non-productive assets is illusory. Strip away these trapped assets and the reality is revealed: most American households toil to service their debts.
The typical American household is insolvent: its debts exceed its assets. There is nothing fancy about calculating insolvency: if debts exceed assets, the enterprise is insolvent. By this measure, most American households are insolvent, if their real assets are marked to actual market.
For example:
Auto loan balance: $9,000
Actual market value of auto: $6,000
16 Responses to “Debt-Serfdom Is The New American Normal”
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A debtor is a slave to master of the one doing the lending. Taxes are a debt than can never be satisfied nor ever be paid in full. It is like the grave of mankind, that never gets satisfied, but, only keeps demanding more dead. When you buy a car, home, or purchase any commodity including Gas, Electric, water you are enslaved to the tax. You never own your home, car, or any commodity that a recurring tax is owed to the government. When governments turn to taxing the people based on the 9-9-9 philosophy of idiots like Cain, it will only work for the people who can afford to pay the tax. The rest of the people are enslaved. Taxes and corrupt politicians and sham governments are the problem.
Take for instance the OWS, THEY ATTACK wall street, the organizations the rich and powerful use to enslave the people. The people work and slave for the government through taxation and are paid with WORTHLESS Federal Reserve Notes that is a recycled worthless paper currency and in effect they are working for nothing and it has no real legitimacy as a currency. The reason our founding fathers had it written into the Constitution that all workers were to be paid in gold and/or silver. A ten thousand dollar reserve note is worth nothing if the person who has the gold or silver does not want to exchange for it. Why? Because it is worthless as paper. However, people who have gold and silver, are benefiting from the rise and fall of the value of the precious metals.
We the people must demand that our currency of silver and gold certificates and gold and silver be be our form of payment for our labor. At least you can exchange the silver certificates and gold certificates to the nations that will buy them. Oh, I know, we don’t have any gold and silver because the top 1% have it all, and those that own the FEDERAL RESERVE have it. Go ahead, OWS, the roots have to be pulled out with the weeds, or the weeds will grow again and live another day, maybe our children.
The banksters have engineered a New Great Depression, believing they can use it as an excuse to take total socio-economic control over the world of mankind. Yet, they are gambling that they will come out on top, because of their financial and technological advantages. Then what happens if their plan backfires so greatly that the advantages they now have dissappear?
Economic collapse would, in fact, provide for a fundamentally level playing field for humans on a raw survival basis. Precious metals, gemstones, money, and other trinkets will become worthless; fully removing any incentive the banksters’ followers have of remaining followers (when they could be ravaging the countryside freely).
And I would prefer the chaos to the slavery.
wow!, that picture says it all… welcome to apocalypto!
I AM NOT A DEBT SLAVE! I got out if the game years ago. No debt – 0. Granted I don’t have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of, but I AM FREE!
This is also further evidence of why, every single American should “opt-out” of their stupid little debt game, and go file for BANKRUPTCY.
Now, I’m not a christian. I am a pagan. However, I have nothing against any religious affiliation, and sometimes the bible has some damn good “lessons”, “advise”, whatever you want to call it.
This was a post on the article website:
this is what the bible said about debt 3000 years ago “The borrower is slave to the lender. When you are in debt to another, you enter into a slave/master relationship with your creditor. (Proverbs 22:7)”, itsonlyinevitable
Honestly, I couldn’t have said it better myself. REMEMBER, the only time the “they” can profit off the suffering of others is when others allow it. Get out of the game.
Really? All US citizens are debtors it matters not what you think you own you don’t. We use debt instruments for our currency. One cannot buy or pay anything but you may purchase and discharge your obligations. You are not even a man but are consider a Person/subject via the 14th amendment. You are nothing but chattel property owned by the International Bankers through and by your corporate master The United States Inc.
It’s the Money stupid for those who fail to recognize the facts.
DUMP THE FED repudiate the national debt. We have no legal or moral obligation to pay anything to these robber barons or treasonous citizens of this Country.
Senate Document No. 43, 73rd Congress, 1st Session, which states: “The ownership of all property is in the state; individual so-called ‘ownership’ is only by virtue of the government, i.e., law, amounting to mere user; and use must be in accordance with law and subordinate to the necessities of the state.”
Even today Congress does not sit by Constitutional positive law, [US Code Title 2] but by mere resolution, which is merely advisory, not compulsory. Resolutions only apply to those who make them, like New Year’s Resolutions. That is why the House and Senate are continually making resolutions. They merely indicate what public policy may be, but they carry no force of law with them, except on themselves and their propertyYou.
The sad part is most of the sheep have no idea. Sometime’s I think most of the population would walk over a cliff if they were told.
That is the way it is here in the good old USofA. No one wants to see the forest for the trees, they prefer to let someone else do their thinking for them. Most of us are not leaders, and that should be OK, but to knowingly pay taxes and vote for those who misrepresent us, now that is deliberate unacceptance of taking responsibility. This is the problem with America – NO ONE WANTS TO BE RESPONSIBLE! Its too hard. We have other issues to deal with, bills, family, and etc. If we ALL became involved, and accountable, then we could clean up most of these problems. Ufnortunately, many of us are very unaccepting as to what is going on and there will be bloodshed. The rich are not going to give up their assets, but they will die trying and so will we. We stand a lot more to loose than money, its our freedom and we need to FIGHT to keep what little we have left. Spread the word, we need to get our country back to what is rightfully ours. Bought and paid for by US!
They have walked over a cliff.
Its the Lemming mentality for sure.
You can not have honest government unless you have honest money.
Buy Gold and Silver.
Make the Elite Ruling Criminal Class eat their worthless paper.
Sic Semper Tyrannis !
DOnt forget water food and ammo.
There should be a McDonald’s sign above the people in the picture.
I thought you guys might find this information interesting:
Celebrities who’ve spoken out in support of Occupy Wall Street:
Yoko Ono: $500 million
Russell Simmons: $325 million
Rosie O’Donnell: $100 million
Roseanne Barr: $80 million
Deepak Chopra: $80 million
Kanye West: $70 million
Alec Baldwin: $65 million
Susan Sarandon: $50 million
Tim Robbins: $50 million
Michael Moore: $50 million
Danny Glover: $15 million
Talib Kweli: $14 million
Mark Ruffalo: $10 million
Congress:
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass): $188.37 million
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Ca): $160.05 million
Rep. Jane Harman (D-Ca): $152.62 million
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va): $81.50 million
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas): $73.75 million
Sen. Mark Warner (D- W.Va): $70.19 million
Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo): $56.49 million
Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla): 55.47 million
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ): $49.70 million
Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Ca): $46.07 million
Sen. Alan Grayson (D-Fla): $31.41 million
Rep. Harry Teague (D-NM): $25.52 million
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca): $21.74 million (supports OWS)
Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NY): $19.90 million
Sen. James Riche (R-Idaho) : $19.69 million
Rep. Gary Miller (R-Ca): $19.37 million
Rep. Kenny Marchant (R-Tx): $18.41 million
Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn): $18.21 million
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo): $15.73 million
Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY): $14.90 million
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine): $12.52 million
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn): $12.12 million
Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont): $10.90 million
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz): $10.52 million
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa): $10.45 million
The Media:
Rachael Maddow: $12.5 million
Matt Drudge: $15 million
Brian Williams: $30 million (networth); $13 million (annual salary)
Keith Olbermann: $35 million (networth); $10 million (annual salary)
Sean Hannity: $35 million
Diane Sawyer: $40 million (networth); $12 million (annual salary)
Katie Couric: $55 million (networth); $15 million (annual salary)
Jon Stewart: $80 million (networth); $15 million (annual salary)
Glenn Beck: $85 million
Anderson Cooper: $100 million (networth); $11 million (annual salary)
Barbara Walters: $150 million
Rush Limbaugh: $300 million (networth); $40 million (annual salary).
Oprah Winfrey: $2.7 Billion
Non-elected political figures:
Louis Farrakhan (leader of Nation of Islam): $3 million
Ralph Nader: $4.2 million
Chelsea Clinton: $5 million
Al Sharpton: $5 million
Joy Behar: $8 million
Ann Coulter: $8.5 million
Rev. Jesse Jackson: $10 million (supports OWS)
Henry Kissinger: $10 million
Eric Holder (U.S. attorney general): $11.5 million
Sarah Palin: $12 million (networth); $1 million (annual salary)
Hillary Clinton: $21.5 million
Arianna Huffington: $35 million (Forbes calls her the 2nd most influential liberal in the media)
John Edwards: $55.5 million
Al Gore: $100 million (supports OWS)
Mitt Romney: $250 million
Here are the networths of some of the Super-Rich, the Top 0.01% (from Forbes’ richest 400 in America list):
Steve Jobs: $8.3 Billion
Carl Icahn (leveraged buyouts): $12 Billion
Sergey Brin (Google): $15.9 Billion
Charles Koch (manufacturing, energy): $19 Billion
Michael Bloomberg (NY mayor): $20 Billion
George Soros: $22 Billion
Jim Walton (of Wal-Mart): $23.4 Billion
Lawrence Ellison (of Oracle): $27 Billion
Warren Buffet: $50 Billion
Bill Gates (Microsoft): $57 Billion
Raging socialist and President-for-life of Venezuela Hugo Chavez has an estimated networth of $1 Billion (!) — the same as Prince Albert II of Monaco. Another raging socialist, Fidel Castro of Cuba, has an estimated networth of $900 million.
Credit: ~Eowyn — fellowshipofminds.wordpress
If you don’t serve a good Guru , you end up as a slave to a tyrant …
P.S. The worst tyrant towards yourself could be … yourself !!!
They…
And the truth is, the majority of people are not debt serfs out of their choosing. Values have gone way down and interest rates have been hijacked upward (home, car, school). Just work, work, for The Fed. The produce money from nothing, wouldn’t you like that?