jmoiron.net

I remarked to Amit the other day that my titles rarely make sense. In this case, it's probably illegible to you, although I've shown a tendency to title posts in IPA in the past. This time, the title of the post is very much relevant to the concept contained within. Unfortunately, you (the reader) has a homework assignment: you must read this nymag article first.

Last time a presidential election was coming up, I was knee deep in the NYC indie scene and listening to anything I could get my hands on, going to any show I could on any day I didn't feel like passing out for want of sleep. This time, we're knee deep in the biggest financial crisis since the great depression. People who are saying that this is "like that time in 1987" don't know what they're talking about; institutions that have been around since the civil war have dissolved overnight.

There's a real human consequence to this. There are a lot of people out there that are completely vested in the financial system for retirement, in the form of 401k's or other investments, that were made at the insistence (some would argue necessity) of financial planners. Since pensions are a thing of the past (and are themselves a "gamble" on something more concrete; more on this some other time, maybe), this is all people have. There are other human consequences, too, mentioned throughout the nymag article linked above. It's these that are the topic of this discussion.

The people mentioned in this article, who will no longer be able to take the helli in to Manhattan from Connecticuit, keep their high maintenance gold-digger bimbos, or have fresh flowers delivered daily, are the subject of possibly the most intense bout of Schadenfreude I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. Just about every language has a way to express this feeling, either in the form of an aphorism or borrowed word, and that's because this pleasure is universal. The only way I could feel better about this situation is if these people, who have by their very existence pissed and shit on hard working people (who are now, by and large, fucked) were made to have nothing at all.

Although Cissy works at Barclays Capital, friends of mine work for Lehman and Bloomberg and JP Morgan, and I've met a lot of fantastic coworkers of theirs, I can't help but upchuck the most concentrated bile when I hear about their problems. Maybe the brilliant economists, who think that economy is just money and percentages and you can create wealth by merely moving capital instruments, couldn't see this all coming. But while everyone on Wall St. was getting fucking ridiculous bonuses, and I heard people complain that their bonus was only 3 months because some peoples bonuses were like 18 months (of an already inflated, stratospheric salary when compared to any other industry), I just couldn't wait for the entire apparatus this was built on to burn to dust. And at long last, it's happened.

I have what many people in the US would consider "substantial" uninvested private savings which will also suffer as a consequence of this collapse. And make no mistake, it's a collapse; The DOW was down 777 on Friday and then up 500 on Monday, and the feds are running around in a panic trying to shoot it with a $700bn syringe of rhinoceros tranquilizer and assure people that its schizophrenia is cured.

Republicans voted down the most recent bill because they were worried about this being a way to introduce socialism. Considering the corporate tax handouts they've signed into law, and the way they've completely decimated safeguards and oversight in the name of lobbyists trying to cut wall st. costs, I'd say that's fucking hilarious. Some Democrats voted down the same bill because they know that despite whatever economic voodoo they want to spin around the situation the end result is that the other end of that rhino shot is a gigantic dildo poised behind the puckered asshole of the middle-class everyman.

And all the while, I get to watch this farce, this epitome of everything that's wrong with the ignorant and xenophobic right, be ridiculed in open play. And If the people of this country actually elect them, I can just leave! It couldn't be more delicious.