generation zero

[wufwugy]

For example, I was just watching Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story, and while I agree that its pretty fucked up that people got tricked into losing their homes, I still feel like they were ultimately to blame for their own plight. There's one scene where this heavy set bumpkin chick is boohooing about "why do they do this to the hard working people?", and I was just like dude, you were the fucking one who took out a massive loan on your fucking house that there was no way you could pay back. I also have an extreme disdain for the obsession with homeownership we have in this country.

While this is true in particular contexts, it's a mistake to put much emphasis on it in the scope of the real problems. Also, blaming the commoner has been a popular conservative/corporate propaganda tool for several decades now.

Blaming the commoners for systemic problems handed down by the powerful is like blaming the serfs for the problems created by the lords or blaming the unruly child for the problems handed down by the shoddy parents

Without getting into it, I'll just state that when you get into the details of our economic/financial issues, greed and stupidity from the consumers is barely a blip on the screen of relevancy. In fact, the existence of an abundance of consumer greed and stupidity is even a tough position to argue. The numbers just simply do not support placing almost any of the blame on consumption. Many will be surprised to learn that this 'consumer greed' thing has dramatically decreased over the last several decades, not increased. The problems are all coming from the top and the highway robbery they've been dishing out

[Renton]

Without getting into it, I'll just state that when you get into the details of our economic/financial issues, greed and stupidity from the consumers is barely a blip on the screen of relevancy.

I'm not learned enough to have a strong position opposite this, but I really disagree. Maybe not so much greed and stupidity, but definitely fiscal ignorance has to play a big factor in the problems we have. The fiscal problems in this country are strongly pushed for by the top 1% and the government that serves primarily them; the treasury department primarily consisting of goldman-sachs people, the huge subsidies on homeowner credit, the advertising campaigns pushing for homeownership and refinancing. But people choose to fall for this stuff don't they?