it's all about debt

"it is curious how people take it for granted that they have a right to preach...over you as soon your income falls beneath a certain level." down and out in paris and london.

a run-in with the bureaucrats was an inevitability...it is a part of the institutional structure because the clavinist state hates charity passionately because it makes the proles lazy and dependent when they should be out working for the favor of god...and every reason that can be brought to bear towards the end of charity is a valid one...certainly the hoosirer state subscribes to that belief...i went back to work last week...however i filed an unemployment voucher yesterday because my working hours have been curtailed by the covid-19 virus and the limitations the governor of this fine state has placed on "re-opening"...in response the state has clearly decided that $143.19 ( gross ) represents a living wage and i am not entitled to any sort of charitable stipend...that, on their own, they were prepared to pay me a stunning total of $136.00 a week for 26 weeks is another clear indication that they have a distorted vision of what "living" is...but again, the clavinist state hates charity and, if the dogma is to be believed, wants us all at work...that structural unemployment is something of a necessity to capitalism to keep the downward pressure on wages that full employment would negate in place goes unmentioned in the drive to "get people back to work" and the political mantra about "jobs"...the good news ( for me ) is that i am not destitute and not receiving a stipend this week will not see me starve or lose my place of residence...i am at an age when i have very little in the way of outstanding debt...stuff's paid for ( and, oddly, "the system" seems unhappy about this...i get warnings about my credit rating from my banking institution [ who want me to take out a home equity loan to bolster it ] and credit card offers have begun to reappear in my junk mail...those i shred )...there are, unfortunately, people i know for whom denial because they worked what can only be described as a lightly paying week will present difficulties and, no doubt, push them deeper into debt..and the calvinist state hates debt too, right? they used to throw debtors into prison, right? well..not quite..they used to imprison people for not paying their debts, not for being in debt ( unless you were a noble...everyone knew that nobles were "good for it" and would never stiff a prole merchant )...from a capitalist viewpoint debt is a good thing...it is what creates "new money" ( interest ) and as long as the proles can pay something towards their debts ( how much of the stimulus was retaken almost immediately in the form of mortgage payments or some other deferment to creditors? i know people who did exactly that ) the "new money" keeps rolling in..so much of capitalist/government thinking is geared towards finding a balance where debtors can survive. but never get out of debt...think ideological payday loans...stifle charity and force the proles to work for just enough so they can survive and pay something towards their debt...adjust the systemic demands so that increased status includes demands for increased consumption ( veblenize them ) allowing levels of debt to rise to meet income so the money continues to trickle upward to to those of true wealth who own the debt...when mcconnell and his cadre of whores talk about killing medicare and social security it isn't because they "cost too much"...it's because they want to drive the elderly into debt penury along with the millennials who have already been fucked over by student loans...debt is the key to creating a framework to analyze the political/economic thought of both wings of the national party...they are hampered in this by the democratic ( or, rather, republican ) forms the framers burdened them with when they gave the constitution the appearance of being a guarantor of government "by the people" which the authoritarians among them would happily ignore, given any chance at all, ( and this could in part explain the trump presidency ) in their pursuit of more wealth...they are convinced that their interests are the "national interest" and that they have a right to whatever they can take...elections are coming up...sort of...have a close look at the newbies that want to get "into the game"...ponder whether their interests reflect yours.