The Pay-Out State and the Played-Out Individual

Did you know in the last 3.5 trading days (its 2p now), the Dow has risen 351pts?

Based on..

Well as usual, really nothing...

Emasculated cowards (the traders and Investors are composed mostly of men) who felt 'brave' enough to put their precious money back into stocks as it looked like Obama wouldn't get his war resolution passed...

And really nothing else..

Not improved jobs picture.. or improved manufacturing... or sales increasing for corporations domestically and/or abroad..

Nope.. nothing real.. 4.5 years of this and counting.

We wondered as terrible as the US economy is, why people don't pick up their symbolic pitchforks and rise up like they did in say 1783 France?

Was it that their situation was dramatically worse off than today?

On the surface, it seems a simple answer..  'Obviously Yes'

But we're going to delve a little deeper because that's what makes A&G so unique and special..

Currently 1/3 of all Americans for whatever reason do not have a job--   The specific percentage is around 36.2% or thereabouts

There are basically two reasons we haven't morphed into Revolution and Chaos:

1)  Government payouts

6.5 million receive unemployment benefits..  It would be higher but there's a cap as to how many weeks someone can get living assistance before kicked off...

Over 46 million people receive food stamps..  Many do not know this but you can use that $ to buy shit like cheese puffs and grape soda but can't use the cards to buy prepared food that is already heated like a rotisserie chicken.

Around 60 million Americans receive Social Security benefits due to age and/or disability..  For the vast majority, this isn't a 'handout' because they worked for decades to put into the system, but we include this figure because its still a government payout..

Without those meager monthly funds, many people would collapse and go bankrupt or worse..

Some of these numbers overlap, like people getting food stamps who also get welfare so we won't add them all to present as a total, but that's a lot of people..

And its not the fault of the education system or this nonsense that a certain percentage are always destined to fall between the cracks..

Its due to the decimation of the manufacturing base which provided good paying jobs for many millions of Americans without needing a college degree and its debt load to generate a living..

Its also due to the expansion of personal credit cards in the 1980s that gave everyone easy access to 'buy now and pay later'.  As prices went up and salaries stay stagnant or fall, credit cards or 2nd mortgages filled in the gap

That's why 64% of all American workers have less than $1,000 in true cash savings accrued for a rainy day or emergency...

2)  Communication and Presentation

Allow us to explain this one-- its in two parts but blend together..

Today people communicate via internet or cell phone or text/tweets with people all over the country and the world..  Often they do this while purposely and spitefully ignoring the living breathing human beings 12 inches away from them...

So people bury their noses in these shit devices on buses or trains, or walk around to/from work with iPod buds in their ears and make absolutely no effort to socialize or exude any friendliness towards others in their worldspace...

Not only is it deeply anti-social and a sign of mental disorder, but what happens is there is a dramatic weakening around the nation and world of 'community'.

Back in the late 1700s there weren't all these technological marvels to escape reality.  For entertainment people communicated with each other.  They pretty much lived their life in the same place and expressed hardships and struggles to one another without shame

If someone was starving, they would tell others and would receive similar tales.

Today we are a deeply vain people...

Everything is name brand.. Status..  Got to look better than your peers..

Its all about showing off; style over substance.. Even something as trivial as people walking around town with their Starbucks cups in hand... Status.   Is Burger King coffee 'that' bad'?  Or just pour something from home into a thermos?

Nope.. need to show off that cup..

So few to none ever admit or can admit their in a very bad economic place..

People ask 'what do you do for a living?'.. The rudest, most intrusive question a human being can ask another..

Sorry but, what Fucking business is it of yours to ask if someone is a doctor, lawyer or stocks shelves during the dead hours of the night?  Are we looking to network?   Or just seeking who to bug for a loan?

Bad enough when strangers do it.. Worse when its family..

In France and other cultured nations, people never ask it.. It matters who you Are more than what you do..

If you are a "somebody" because someone hires you and works you harder than what you get back in paycheck, do you become a "nobody" when the same bastard lets you go??

We Americans have yet to grasp it...

A population in the US where 1 on 3 do not work yet 100% always lie and say they have a job title handy to spew out to get the nosy off their backs..

So you have this society where people are suffering badly but don't want to openly admit it to each other, preferring to keep up false fronts while doing everything humanly possible to avoid talking to people 3 feet away in order to text someone 3,000 miles away..

So everyone thinks their problems are isolated or worse, of their own making..

There's no opportunity to share stories... to organize... galvanize..

We are not united as a nation by our personal life experiences... we are united by contrived TV 'events' like Breaking Bad or MadMen..  united by sports teams winning...  united by going to blockbuster comic book movies when they are released..

United by pretending Miley Cyrus' twerking offended our sensibilities so bad it turned the skank into ratings gold.. enough Saturday Night live is having her host and sing next month..

We're united by nothing consequential..

And because of it, we're all lobsters in the pot... slowly boiling but not the least bit boiling over in anger.. and with no one close by to express the melancholy to..

Easier to talk to someone in Seattle or Singapore than right down on 2nd St..

We're not exceptional.. many nations have it worse.. They do nothing..

Spain and Portugal have teen to twenty-something unemployment over 50%  They march on occasion then go back to watching their La Ligue football (soccer) teams...

Japan has been in economic malaise for decades-- Their people escape into anime cartoons really meant for children and quirky porn where their woman squeak and squeal as if they were infants..

In other nations, the populaces just drink into stupors..

Even Greece-- can't mount a serious rebellion against their government for completely destroying their future first and now their present.. They just go on 48 hr strikes and throw rocks at heavily geared riot police with batons and tear gas canisters.

So we Americans take the handouts, seek out escape via movies, tv, drink and/or drugs, and that's that..

No socialization skills.. No unity.. No public admittance of struggle

No clue..

And every year our quality of life is deteriorating more because of it..