Working Fer The Man

The Denial Economy

I’m tired of people giving me the “wink,wink” about the economy and the government/banks plan to “fix” it. I was talking to some dude recently and at first he was like, “We have to spend this money to get things going again.” 

 

“Like hell we do,” says me.  “Let these banks fail.  We need a new economy.”  As the conversation continued, I began to see this dude really didn’t think this increase in the transfer of wealth to the rich bastards that caused the problem to begin with was a good idea, but he was afraid to lose his stake in the economy.  Wink, wink, “I know it’s screwed up,” he says.  “But I’m afraid to lose what I got.”   

 

Reality is we’ve all been sold a bill of goods, and many folks know it. We’re already losing. These toxic assets are and have always been worthless.    It’s only our tax money that gives the “assets” any value now and that’s the rub. It’s a value “added product.”   The value was added after we bought into the product and found out it was junk.  These barons of Wall Street collected the money when we bought into it, and now they’re collecting again as we add the value that was never there to begin with.  We’re rewarding the swindlers and covering all their risk.  We can’t win.  It’s like piling up shit in our living rooms and painting flowers on the pile so we can call the stench a garden.  Even though our nose is telling us the truth, our brain rejects the sensory input.  It’s the denial economy, pure and stinky denial.

 

So it all comes clear now.  All my years in a 12 step program have not been wasted.  The majority of people in this country are addicted to an unsustainable lifestyle, and they don’t want to change.  They’d rather conspire to recreate a fictional economy then do the work and make the sacrifice to build something that has real value – a sustainable economy. Most of us prefer to continue sucking energy and resources out of the planet like alcoholic frat boys with their mouths on the beer tap.  We are headed for a rude awakening.  I guess we haven’t hit the bottom yet.  We can dig it deeper or we can overcome our denial and grow some insight.  Not all addicts end up in the gutter.  We need to get honest about the situation so we can begin to change.  It’s not too late, but the clock is ticking.