Doug Casey on the New American Dream: "You'll Own Nothing and Be Happy"
Posted by freedomforall 2 weeks ago to Economics
International Man: According to a recent study by Investopedia, the classic middle-class American Dream now costs over $3.4 million.
That's the estimated lifetime cost of marriage, two children, cars, homes, healthcare, education, and retirement. It's now entirely out of reach for many Americans.
What do you make of this? How did this happen?
Doug Casey: The fact is, despite the fact that his standard of living has been slipping over the past 50 years, the average American today lives much better and longer than a king during pre-industrial times. There were never any guarantees that Americans would live in the lap of luxury for their entire lives.
We got to this high standard of living for two reasons. One, people tended to produce more than they consumed and saved the difference. And two, technology has been improving at almost the rate of Moore's law for the last 200 years.
However, there's no guarantee that either of these fonts of progress will continue, especially since savings are being wiped out by the destruction of the dollar. A lack of savings means there won't be a capital pool to finance further advances in technology.
But there are other serious things at work, termites eating away at the foundations of civilization. It's become customary for Americans to think that it's okay for some people to live their entire lives without producing at all and to live at the expense of others. A lot of the country is on welfare. And many more are buried in consumer debt, which means they're either living off the capital others have saved in the past, or they're mortgaging their own futures.
On top of that, since about 1980, the main export of the US hasn't been Boeings or soybeans; it's been dollars. Foreigners have accepted those paper dollars in exchange for real wealth. They're really just another form of debt. At some point—soon—they'll repatriate them in exchange for titles to land and companies.
Capital is also being destroyed by the constant wars that the US fights against trivial countries on the other side of the world.
The fact is that our institutions, from corporations to academia to government, have become corrupt, ineffectual, and bloated. The Second Law of Thermodynamics tells us that, in the physical world, things inevitably degenerate over time. That's also true in the world of human action. In general, as any institution gets old, it winds down. That's true of the US, and it's apparent to everyone—at least anyone outside of the Washington Beltway.
International Man: As the American middle class continues to shrink, it seems the "New American Dream" is to merely get by and make ends meet.
People will have to rent instead of own. They may not be able to afford kids, pets, ribeye steaks, or retirement. They'll have to take on a lot more debt.
The "New American Dream" looks more like the WEF's "you'll own nothing and be happy."
What's your take?
Doug Casey: It's rather shocking that in a traditionally middle-class society like the US, that the "one percenters"—typically those wired to the State and major corporations—now own about one-third of the total wealth.
What's even more shocking is that the bottom half of society only owns 2% of the country's wealth. That kind of an imbalance makes for instability. No wonder it's said that the average guy can't lay his hands on even $500 cash if there's an emergency. No wonder a criminal like Klaus Schwab can promote his "You'll own nothing and be happy" meme and not be hung from a lamp pole—a lot of people now feel they'd be better off in that kind of world.
Increasingly, the wealth of the country is owned by corporations and their top management. It used to be said that "What's good for General Motors is good for America." I used to believe that because General Motors actually created cars, and that was good. But we've devolved. GM and other major corporations have become defacto arms of the State. Taxes, staggering regulations, subsidies, and bailouts have destroyed free-market capitalism.
The capitalist system in the US is long gone. We've devolved into classical Mussolini-style fascism, which is to say, State corporatism, where corporations and the State work hand-in-glove.
It's euphemistically called a public-private "partnership." The people in government and the people in top corporate levels scratch each other's backs and reinforce each other's positions. They feed each other power and money. This makes for a highly politicized society, where connections, not production, are what count.
For instance, in the last election, $14 billion was spent on campaign spending to get the hoi polloi to vote for one party or another. But only a fifth of that money came from small donors—the rest from the wealthy and corporations. Of course, the rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer as our highly politicized society degenerates.
International Man: Many people look back on how they viewed the future and how it was portrayed in movies. Many thought we would have flying cars by now, among other futuristic luxuries.
Instead, we have a declining standard of living, and people look back on the good old days.
Where do you think this trend is headed?
Doug Casey: We're heading in the wrong direction at an accelerating rate because there's been a breakdown of moral fiber in society. People, in general, no longer understand what's right and what's wrong—or what's good and what's evil. They're taking less responsibility for their individual lives and what happens around them.
We've gone from a high-trust society, where you didn't need to lock your car or your front door, to a low-trust society, where everybody is constantly observed, and security is of critical importance.
At the same time, the country has generally gone from having low time preferences and being future-oriented to high time preferences; "I want it all, and I want it now." They're not as future-oriented as they once were.
Going back to the question of moral fiber breakdown, the economic observer Thorstein Veblen coined the phrase "conspicuous consumption." People wanted to show off expensive cars and clothes to advertise to other people that they were more successful. But now, because of all the debt in society, anyone can have a nice car. And nobody even cares about nice clothes anymore; everybody wears the equivalent of T-shirts and jeans.
The trend setters have moved from owning and displaying frivolous goods to displaying frivolous ideas—like Wokeism. Everybody is adopting those ideas, to show that they're hip, in-the-know, and part of the cognoscenti. In the past, adopting the conspicuous consumption lifestyles of their betters would only make them poor. Adopting these degenerate ideas makes them stupid and immoral—which is much worse.
International Man: What advice do you have for struggling middle-class people who are about to be kicked down to the lower class?
Doug Casey: First and most important, don't go to college unless you need a STEM degree—Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math.
Going to college today does nothing but misallocate four critically important years of your life, permanently indebt you, and corrupt your mind with the idiotic ideas that Marxist professors and administrations cram down students' throats. Educate yourself. Read constantly.
Continued in post below
That's the estimated lifetime cost of marriage, two children, cars, homes, healthcare, education, and retirement. It's now entirely out of reach for many Americans.
What do you make of this? How did this happen?
Doug Casey: The fact is, despite the fact that his standard of living has been slipping over the past 50 years, the average American today lives much better and longer than a king during pre-industrial times. There were never any guarantees that Americans would live in the lap of luxury for their entire lives.
We got to this high standard of living for two reasons. One, people tended to produce more than they consumed and saved the difference. And two, technology has been improving at almost the rate of Moore's law for the last 200 years.
However, there's no guarantee that either of these fonts of progress will continue, especially since savings are being wiped out by the destruction of the dollar. A lack of savings means there won't be a capital pool to finance further advances in technology.
But there are other serious things at work, termites eating away at the foundations of civilization. It's become customary for Americans to think that it's okay for some people to live their entire lives without producing at all and to live at the expense of others. A lot of the country is on welfare. And many more are buried in consumer debt, which means they're either living off the capital others have saved in the past, or they're mortgaging their own futures.
On top of that, since about 1980, the main export of the US hasn't been Boeings or soybeans; it's been dollars. Foreigners have accepted those paper dollars in exchange for real wealth. They're really just another form of debt. At some point—soon—they'll repatriate them in exchange for titles to land and companies.
Capital is also being destroyed by the constant wars that the US fights against trivial countries on the other side of the world.
The fact is that our institutions, from corporations to academia to government, have become corrupt, ineffectual, and bloated. The Second Law of Thermodynamics tells us that, in the physical world, things inevitably degenerate over time. That's also true in the world of human action. In general, as any institution gets old, it winds down. That's true of the US, and it's apparent to everyone—at least anyone outside of the Washington Beltway.
International Man: As the American middle class continues to shrink, it seems the "New American Dream" is to merely get by and make ends meet.
People will have to rent instead of own. They may not be able to afford kids, pets, ribeye steaks, or retirement. They'll have to take on a lot more debt.
The "New American Dream" looks more like the WEF's "you'll own nothing and be happy."
What's your take?
Doug Casey: It's rather shocking that in a traditionally middle-class society like the US, that the "one percenters"—typically those wired to the State and major corporations—now own about one-third of the total wealth.
What's even more shocking is that the bottom half of society only owns 2% of the country's wealth. That kind of an imbalance makes for instability. No wonder it's said that the average guy can't lay his hands on even $500 cash if there's an emergency. No wonder a criminal like Klaus Schwab can promote his "You'll own nothing and be happy" meme and not be hung from a lamp pole—a lot of people now feel they'd be better off in that kind of world.
Increasingly, the wealth of the country is owned by corporations and their top management. It used to be said that "What's good for General Motors is good for America." I used to believe that because General Motors actually created cars, and that was good. But we've devolved. GM and other major corporations have become defacto arms of the State. Taxes, staggering regulations, subsidies, and bailouts have destroyed free-market capitalism.
The capitalist system in the US is long gone. We've devolved into classical Mussolini-style fascism, which is to say, State corporatism, where corporations and the State work hand-in-glove.
It's euphemistically called a public-private "partnership." The people in government and the people in top corporate levels scratch each other's backs and reinforce each other's positions. They feed each other power and money. This makes for a highly politicized society, where connections, not production, are what count.
For instance, in the last election, $14 billion was spent on campaign spending to get the hoi polloi to vote for one party or another. But only a fifth of that money came from small donors—the rest from the wealthy and corporations. Of course, the rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer as our highly politicized society degenerates.
International Man: Many people look back on how they viewed the future and how it was portrayed in movies. Many thought we would have flying cars by now, among other futuristic luxuries.
Instead, we have a declining standard of living, and people look back on the good old days.
Where do you think this trend is headed?
Doug Casey: We're heading in the wrong direction at an accelerating rate because there's been a breakdown of moral fiber in society. People, in general, no longer understand what's right and what's wrong—or what's good and what's evil. They're taking less responsibility for their individual lives and what happens around them.
We've gone from a high-trust society, where you didn't need to lock your car or your front door, to a low-trust society, where everybody is constantly observed, and security is of critical importance.
At the same time, the country has generally gone from having low time preferences and being future-oriented to high time preferences; "I want it all, and I want it now." They're not as future-oriented as they once were.
Going back to the question of moral fiber breakdown, the economic observer Thorstein Veblen coined the phrase "conspicuous consumption." People wanted to show off expensive cars and clothes to advertise to other people that they were more successful. But now, because of all the debt in society, anyone can have a nice car. And nobody even cares about nice clothes anymore; everybody wears the equivalent of T-shirts and jeans.
The trend setters have moved from owning and displaying frivolous goods to displaying frivolous ideas—like Wokeism. Everybody is adopting those ideas, to show that they're hip, in-the-know, and part of the cognoscenti. In the past, adopting the conspicuous consumption lifestyles of their betters would only make them poor. Adopting these degenerate ideas makes them stupid and immoral—which is much worse.
International Man: What advice do you have for struggling middle-class people who are about to be kicked down to the lower class?
Doug Casey: First and most important, don't go to college unless you need a STEM degree—Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math.
Going to college today does nothing but misallocate four critically important years of your life, permanently indebt you, and corrupt your mind with the idiotic ideas that Marxist professors and administrations cram down students' throats. Educate yourself. Read constantly.
Continued in post below
Doug Casey: First and most important, don't go to college unless you need a STEM degree—Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math.
Going to college today does nothing but misallocate four critically important years of your life, permanently indebt you, and corrupt your mind with the idiotic ideas that Marxist professors and administrations cram down students' throats. Educate yourself. Read constantly."
Well said! Having the skill(s) to keep things working in an increasingly dumbed down society will have enormous value. Having a PhD in X-Studies isn't going to keep the car running, the lights on, or the toilets flushing.
However, some of the value we place on jobs has me baffled. Actors? how did it get to that valuable to pretend to be someone else? CEO's? Many of them are paid far out of proportion to any value they can reasonably bring. Advertising? The prices paid for superbowl commercials - I don't think there was a single one that influenced my purchasing decisions.
On the other side: Teachers. (Full disclosure - my daughter is a teacher) MAYBE if we paid teachers better, we could hire better teachers. We also need to be able to FIRE the bad ones. For a position that is vital to our future, education of our children seems to take a back seat far too often.
With benefits many teachers are much better off than many vital employees in private businesses. Teachers retirement programs are helping to bankrupt some large cities.
imo, many high school students should have already learned enough in 9 years and should be learning a trade instead of being socialized and brainwashed by biased instructors.
Then it became more accepted for women to work, so families had more available income with which to buy houses, cars, etc. So the norm became bigger houses and two cars per family.
In order to pursue this new norm, it became NECESSARY for both spouses to work, to be able to afford a "nice house" and a car for each of them to get to their jobs. And pay for daycare, since both worked.
Not trying to call those changes good or bad, just noting the changes.
So ... the American Dream has been ratcheted up significantly in the last few decades. Inflation, of course plays a role as well, but comparing the American Dream of the 50's to today is not really apples-to-apples.
Perhaps not correct, though, by my understanding of the IRS. If you and I trade our labor, I rake your yard, you weed my vegetable garden, with no money changing hands, then (so I have heard) you and I both owe taxes on the imputed value of our labor.
Perhaps the goal was to emulate the Soviet system, where women worked in the fields harvesting turnips. "Wife strong. Lift ox." Oops, five year plan now has industrialization. "Wife strong. Lift traktor."
She says that the Rockefellers and the CIA--itself an extension of the Prussian system going back to 1870 or earlier--were behind putting women into the workforce. Remember John Dewey and his Progressive education system? Funded by Rockefeller around 1890. Next step was feminism. Then, putting children into daycare. Later, there was the daycare sexual abuse hysteria in the 1980s, necessitating government regulation of daycare.
Look at the control: In North Carolina if you care for more than two kids who are not related to you, you must follow governmental regulations. And pay taxes. There's a whole bureaucracy for it, and punishment if you do not comply.
Oh, and if you want to hire someone to take care of your house, you had better hire from an established and licensed firm.
Kill the fed. Deflation might be a good thing for everyone except the gambling banksters.
"Next, work to become self-employed, not to "get a job."
You don't want to rely on a job that somebody else gives you.
And save your money—but don't save in fiat dollars. Save in gold.
When you have sufficient savings, learn to speculate and invest.
International Man:
As you've noted, The Greater Depression is a period in which
there will be a significant decline in the general standard of living.
Is there any way to make lemonade out of these lemons?
Doug Casey:
We're well into what I've long called The Greater Depression.
But I'd point out that most of the real wealth in the world will still exist—
it's just going to be owned by different people.
The opportunity will exist for nimble entrepreneurs and speculators
to do well, even as most people's standard of living drops. But the
big question is: For how long will the societal trend that we're now
on continue going down?
When Rome collapsed over a period of several hundred years, living
well and peaceably got harder and harder as Europe entered the
Dark Ages. Even if you had a lot of money, it really didn't do you that
much good. That's why it's important to preserve what's left of the idea
of America."