Topic: Dissecting the Parasitocracy - page 2. (Read 2583 times)

The interesting thing here is that all the information and knowledge are freely available.  All you have to do is connect the dots.

The way I connected the dots could theoretically be problematic, but this has gone through a lot of debate online with knowledgeable experts and insiders (who don't hesitate to pounce with their expertise!) and so I'm fairly confident.

My sense is that quite a few of the top people know, but won't talk about it on their own.

There's one big problem with the public waking up. That is, they don't want to because that would require them to start taking responsibility themselves.Most of the people I've talked to simply don't want to do it; whether it was an option within the broken system that would allow them to still ignore much of the responsibility or not. I don't think many are going to wake up until something happens and they're forced to, However, by then, it will be too late and it will take a lot more effort to get out of the hole they find themselves in.

I should know, I found myself in such a hole after telling the "wrong" groups of people where to go, and it seems I'm still a very long way from getting out of it.

This points to why the elites almost can't stand the current state of affairs.

The way the system was designed, bank interest was always significantly positive (and of course inflation was even higher,) so people were pushed to put money in the bank while the system was stable (and the state would bail out some banks, provide deposit insurance, etc. to prop up public confidence in the banks.)

With bank interest at zero, the whole scheme is not working as designed.  The longer this lasts, the more chance of a financial cataclysm that will further expose the system to public opinion.

True, it's not a secret.  While it's one thing to know the system is manipulated, the knowledge is useful only if we understand precisely how it's manipulated.  That is the only way to undo the manipulation without ending up with something even worse than before (such as socialism or fascism, etc.)

That was what I tried to accomplish.

Politicians should be put on minimum wage.


Sadly, most people nowadays are stubborn and misinformed about many things.

And they also think 'conspiracy' is synonymous to 'batshit crazy theory'. While some conspiracy theories are retarded, doesn't mean all conspiracy theories are made up (or at least, not entirely untrue).

People think they're doing fine. But they're not fine. It's like the frog in hot water, that's turned a few degrees hotter very gradually, until it eventually boils.

Thanks.  I do have to improve my style a bit!

IMO there really is no way around it -- people have to wake up and demand that the theft stop.

Well, here is another way to look at the matter, Wind_FURY.  If you just hold on to your CA$H, not depositing it in the bank nor buying Bitcoin, you accomplish the same main purpose -- keeping your money out of the bank.  BTC does have certain advantages (and disadvantages) that make it a different asset, IMO.

The same could be said for gold.  Gold does have one other feature, namely that once you have receive your gold, you already have been paid!  That's not really true with US$, in that you still must spend them in order to get something you want.  If you want gold, then any gold you own is free of "counterparty risk" (other than thievery).  Buying gold also keeps your money out of the bank.

I think I just had an epiphany. This is what bitcoiners have been saying all along! If you want to disrupt the banks then do not make deposits to them. What you should do is "deposit" them where you have total control of your money! Buy BTC. Well it is not really "buying", what you are actually doing is converting fiat to BTC. So do it now and encourage the people around you to do it too. Enough with the BS of the banks.

Totalitarianism is always a worry, but a fundamental force that has been working in our favor is that modern empires (as opposed to pre-modern ones) must use a combination of hard and soft power to keep their empires alive.

If you need people to, essentially, trust in your debt, you have to appear to respect classical liberal values and institutions, and to keep your promises.

Even though promise-breaking sits at the heart of the system, most people don't know that.  In fact, the imperial elites have always been allying themselves with, shall we say, less classically liberal rulers around the world (helping keep them in power in return for their states' support for imperial assets,) but will also expose the lesser rulers' even dirtier politics and finances to the public, at the right times.  This is all part of the stage management to portray the imperial center as a desirable place to invest.

The important thing is that the imperial system mechanically requires investor confidence -- it couldn't become a full military dictatorship if it wanted to.  Its delicate task is always to maintain a facade but profit from a very different reality.

As for the end game, I'm not sure if you read my other thread about the Spanish Inquisition.  What the imperial elites want is a smooth transition of power to the next global empire, populated by a people who have yet to experience their economic explosion, and keeping that country friendly to the existing order, so the old empire can be eased into gradual decline.  This transition has been achieved by the Dutch and British empires, and I'm sure is the holy grail of the American elites today.

Wow,pretty long post.You have to write a book about this topic.

The post is nice,but you sound a little bit like a communist. Just kidding.

Elites really use the governments to gain more power and more profits.This isn`t a secret.

"Parasitocracy" is a nice term by the way, i like it.

Now that we know the government is controlling fiat to its own advantage, what is the way forward?

Even if the whole world start spending bitcoins, the elites can still create a controlled inflation.

At this point in the financial inflation cycle, the elites must try to keep what remains of the bubble afloat.  This just means more financial stimulus and/or repression (e.g. with zero interest rates and printing money to buy Treasuries), which will increase the distortions and malinvestments (not to mention adding to the incentives for some among the elites to destabilize the system) and set us up for a bigger crash down the road.


I absolutely agree that we have better chances, the more we understand the system.  What I was referring to, however, was the fundamental feature of the system, that everyone must gamble with significant risks, most of the time.  The elites can't really afford to allow even a few people to win so predictably that more and more people start taking notice.  (The biggest act of financial repression, so far, IMO is still forcing gold and silver to have a return of zero under the metallic standards.)

There is just no way to say, I want to be left alone; I only want to preserve the value I have earned and retire safely.

Now apologists for the system (and especially the professional economists) are going to come back at you by saying, money in *any* form is merely a claim on future real wealth.  And the future is uncertain no matter what, so what the claim will buy you is always uncertain.

While this is true, we must also acknowledge that state-driven financial inflation has drastically worsened the natural instability.  When you force people to spend and lend by eating away their savings automatically, you can't be surprised that much of the spending and investment will be frivolous or wasted.  When demand collapses, everyone's wealth will shrink.

...

Corruption is so deeply embedded in many parts of our system.  That is one reason I looked into Bitcoin, flawed as it is (14% at an "BTM" for example, few spending outlets, etc.).

Slowly, some of this corruption is becoming more visible.  I am on vacation now bought some BTC at a BTM, the FIRST BTM) in Vancouver, no ID needed...  That is a small strike at the parasites.

A worry mentioned above is what happens when things go too far.  The totalitarian hammer comes down.  We may get to see that in Europe re immigrants.  I do NOT see how the Parasitocracy ends comfortably for us, at least in America.  There are too many beneficiaries of the parasitical/corrupt system we have now to be easily disentangled.

Your analysis is convincing. The symbiosis between banks and governments was significantly tightened after the 2008 Lehmann collapse. Now debt is bought indirectly or even directly by the central banks, because there is no sufficient demand for it in the public market. So apparently some market actors understand what's going on here. Which brings me to my small disagreement with your assessment: I don't think that the statement "it doesn't matter if you understand it, you still must gamble" is correct. Instead, I think that all market actors do always gamble, but the probability of a positive outcome is much higher if you are well informed.

This holds true for banks and the average Joe in the same way. If you know that fiat money, bonds, and bank deposits are a gigantic debt-fueled scam, you can buy assets (like precious metals and Bitcoin) that will protect you from the system's inevitable downfall. Of course that only holds true on an individual level - it is impossible to save everyone. On the other hand it is somehow fair, because the less ignorant you are the better your chance of escaping the disaster.

ya.ya.yo!

Thank you.  But think about it... why are banks allowed to 'make money out of air?'

Most people will think it's because bankers 'contribute' to politicians.  A much larger and more fundamental force at work is that banks provide support for the public debt issued by top politicians, by buying it and treating it as money.  As long as bank assets hold their values in the 'market,' public debt will hold its value.

The world is run by an alliance between the political and financial elites, with the central bank as the stabilizer of the alliance.

You know, I always thought that BTC's price is recently too stable and smooth over long stretches of time.  Call me paranoid, but if the authorities suppress gold, I'm suspecting they're 'managing' BTC too.  It has the potential to be something that state currencies can lean on, when they need support, and I think that is why the US is currently embracing it.


One of my main issues with politics today is gerrymandering (oops, I mean 'redistricting') of Congressional seats.  Another is the close relationship between mainstream journalists and powerful office-holders who are their sources.  The quip-pro-quo is that, you print what I want to see aired in public, and don't print what I don't want aired, and I'll give you good stories from the inside from time to time.  The reporting has gotten so uniform and bland (and especially not touching any land mines that might blow up the imperial asset bubble,) that I am turning to ZeroHedge as my main source of news.


That question was what I tried to address in the original posting, and I would of course welcome debate on the points I raised.  My main idea was that the market power of a big entity (the state) is being used to distort markets to favor the top politicians and their banking allies.  While leveraging the market power of size happens daily in the private sector, and probably has no easy cure, when the state does it, the problem is of a different scale altogether, partly because of the legal and military tools available to the state for supporting its asset bubbles.

And I understand that the market 'feels' free to 99% of the people.  The competition between Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton is real.  But a competitive economy is not necessarily a free-market economy.  The size of the luxury hotel business comes from demand that is distorted from day one by monetary and financial manipulation at central banks and governments.  So when asset bubbles crash, the loss of jobs and wealth won't have been caused by free markets either.

Mmm-hmm.  But, defining how the system is rigged is rather more difficult than it might seem.  Part of the problem might be a semantic issue: "Rigged", what exactly does that mean?  I like the term "narrative" that seems to have gotten popular say a year ago, and it seems to describe the propaganda that we all must bear.  But, I agree, there is a "consensus reality" that seems to be shared by The Elite and the MSM (Mainstream Media).

This go 'round re president is not very promising.  BOTH will likely spend lots & lots of money, that is one of a few shared positions (but spend on different things).

I will leave the words "democracy" and "representative republic" alone, further discussion of those two might resolve your comment re democracy.

However, "free markets" are an ideal, it could be argued that on-and-off the USA has come pretty close.  Clearly we are not very close to the ideal now.  And both Trump and $hillary (ahh, whom would I be for?) would hinder free market activity, the former by his opposition to the TPP (which may be a bad treaty, especially if that is the one that is secret).  Hyena Rodent is a proven liar, and has been for 30 years.  Trump would be a High Risk President, who might run us off the rails with a bad decision or two...

As a general rule, the more libertarian, the better.  Fewer restrictions on our economic and political freedoms, the better.  The contrary (bigger government, concentration of power, etc.), the worse.

I still the think the term "parasitocracy" that you introduced here is an excellent one-word summary of many flaws in our system.

*   *   *

Bitcoin's price crash today (which I just read about, "Mi Reina" and I were out running errands) is relevant here.  BTC is reasonably beyond easy control by The Establishment.  And so takes another black eye.  I do feel a little better having spent some BTC for gold when BTC was at $690 and $660.  Maybe the time has come to buy again?

Though here's the thing...  it's one thing to think (and even 'know') the system is rigged, but it's important to understand exactly how.

Without knowing how, people tend to demand solutions, like electing a socialist or a Trump, which will likely make things worse.

The powers that be have a narrative (propagated by the educational system and conventional media) that we in the West live under true democracy and free markets.  So those who 'have' deserve everything they get, because others either voted for them or voluntarily bought what they have to offer.

It's imperative to destroy this myth by phrasing the problem in a succinct but rigorous fashion.  Otherwise, the prevailing view will be that free markets aren't working, so let's give even more power to the elites.

OROBTC, thank you for your thoughtful remarks.  It's nice to be taken seriously!

I would agree that the top rung people have sought to take advantage of their power, and pass their privilege to their offspring, for millennia.  I see part of the problem being that we must have law and order, so we have to grant a monopoly on violence to some entity.  And once mortal humans have power...  But the trend of modern history is to constrain the use of this power further and further.  (Hegel said the march of history is towards more freedom.)  I'm hoping the next step of Enlightenment will be the breaking of the chains of state money.

The only way really to attain more freedom is more public awareness, and the Internet will be helpful.  No less than elite mouthpiece David Brooks has openly complained about the effectiveness of online forums!

There is also a distinction between older leveraging of power and the monetary-financial variety.  In the old days, you might have murdered your way to the throne, but once there, you generally wanted peace and justice throughout your realm, even if you took your relatively bigger share of the spoils.  The unique thing about abuse by financial inflation is that you are incentivized to destabilize the very system that you rely on for support, and that's why every single dominant modern global empire (Spain, the Netherlands, and Britain) has collapsed from issuing too many financial assets.  This is another cause for optimism, in the long run.

More later...