The rich threw a wild party. We weren’t invited. Why should we pay for the damage?
The Roommate From Hell
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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Will the responsible roommate ever kick the ass of the irresponsible one? Nah. He’ll just keep bending over, again and again. The only variable is whether or not the irresponsible roomate will use vaseline or gravel as he rams it in.
Whenever I see one of these anti-Kulak propaganda cartoons (sure, the “rich” threw a wild party: not the Fed, not Fannie & Freddie and notvarious federal boondoggles and their political enablers), I wonder when you’re going go back to the real news of the day. Like: is Anna Ardin a CIA mole? Is Assange going to be extradited from the puppet state of the United Kingdom to the client state of Swden, and from there to be shoved in the Empire’s dungeons in Guantanamo, never to see the light of day? Are most of the companies that provide internet infra-structure worldwide going to be made to play ball under the iron fist of the Imperial Government of the US?
bucephalus is the typical “big government” moron. Yeah, bucephalus – fannie and freddie are the one’s that caused Bear and Lehman to leverage themselves 80:1. Yeah, bucephalus – the fed caused AIG to write insurance policies for which it had 0% cash to back up. And on and on ….
Yeah, bucephalus – dream on all you want. Ignore the facts all you want. Go on living in your fantasy land where everything is the “big bad gubmint’s” fault. You’re pathetic. You really are. It must be nice to live in such a fact-free fantasy land though …
Because of gay marriage and gun control laws, not to mention those queer commie college professors brainwashing our on their lush $40k/year salaries….and the FRENCH….don’t forget those cheese eating surrender monkeys!!!!!
By the way Ted….you shouldn’t keep calling this a depression….there is a specific definition for an economic depression which doesn’t fit. The economy is doing JUST FINE for the people in charge, we are not in a recession anymore even. The fact that Billions around the world are condemned from birth to live deprived lives, and that millions of Americans work intensely hard and still drown financially because of things like a medical emergency….this is all OK…because the MARKET IS SERVED, and therefore it is JUST and GOOD.
So stop lying about the economy. It is perfectly fine….the problem is a system of values that says it’s ok for some people to live at the top while the rest suffer. That’s a moral issue, not a technical one.
If this isn’t a depression can we instead call it the era of Corporate Feudalism? It seems apt – a few “lords” controlling all of the wealth while the “serfs” work the cubicles for the benefit of their masters.
Yes, Seth, it is absolutely corporate feudalism! In fact some of my colleagues at Michigan State were doing quite a bit of examination of American society from the perspective of feudal society. . .it’s creepy.
I wasn’t insisting that Ted shouldn’t use the term depression because I think things are better than that, but because I think calling it a depression explains this away as just a cycle in an economic system that is supposedly balanced, where it will simply swing back. As though we are all bound by this system as a natural order of things, rather than slaves to it by force.
I refuse to discuss economics on the turf of economists, using their terminology. Doing so is like trying to use the bible to argue with the Pope.
exkimo, I really appreciate the gratuitous insult, thank you very much. Notice I do not exempt Lehman (or Merrill, or BofA, or Goldman, which strangely are still around) from blame, but if you think the whole meltdown is due to “greed” you’re being naïve, and sadly misinformed. Let me ask you, how come banks down here operated with a typical leverage of a fourth of their American counterparts (still reaping handsome profits, and being lambasted our local lefties for it)? What was different about the US “environment” that let American banks to be walking that tightrope? Are Fannie and Freddie really so free of blame, not even of mismanagement? Was Greenspan really doing a “great” job during the boom? You answer me that, in your fact-loaded reality. In the end, it doesn’t matter for the middle manager at Lehman, who despite his “greed” still got the boot in the end, unlike, mysteriously, his counterpart at Goldman.
In the meantime, Big Bad Government (the one at DC and its lackeys in London and Stockholm) is trying to frame a real hero for a broken condom.
Aggie, we’re still in a depression, and you guys in the US (and soon, most of Europe) haven’t seen the worst of it yet, probably. That doesn’t mean rich people will stop partying, though. Even middle class people will trudge along.