This Carbon Based Life

By David Glenn Cox

Teach your children about the evils of prosperity. Warn them about the dangers of having a limo come get you for work each morning and take you home at night when you get tired of it all. I was watching a news clip about the Stock Market. When Goldie Gotrocks says, Most people have some stocks. Some people have a lot of stocks, and a few have (wait for it!) none. No, no, no, no, no.

This wasn’t even Fox News. This was one of the dim three. And she never lost her smile. And she meant it all in the very nicest way possible. Her heart was full of love, and she meant no offence by the remark. In her world, it was true! Most of the people in her world owned stocks and summer homes too. Some have a ski condo! And a few have a lot of condos and a yacht.

In real America, the one not shown on TV. Most people don’t own any stocks. A few have a few stocks through work or grandma. A rare few play the market with grocery or rent money. They present an image in Philo Farnsworth’s electron tube as a baseline America. The Average American lives in a large four-bedroom home with a big front yard. You know, somewhere to throw the football around with that boy of mine. My beautiful fashion model wife is out shopping for our beautiful perfect teen daughter. She took the New minivan and left the Lexus for me to drive.

But is it accidental? Do the affluent think we really live like that? Or is it intentional? See! You’re just a loser! This is how average Americans live. You don’t live in a big house like everyone else does and your car is old. Shame on you, shame! What’s wrong with you? It’s a sin to be poor in America where the streets are lined with gold. You need more pimple cream and hair gel and a ring through your nose. You need bubblegum and deodorant, a tattoo or a new car or an online University. According to Credit Karma the average American has $53,000 in their savings account. Is that you?

But the issue was the Stock Market and I own no stocks. Even in my days of warm prosperity, I never had 53,000 dollars in savings, just lying around loose like that. But I love statistics (The Liar’s best friend) and understand the meaning of the numbers. As it spreads out like a puddle of oil until you can’t reach the edges of it anymore. It tells us where the rich folks intend on taking us.

Did you know, in the Stock Market Crash of 1929 it was only 13%? Then 12% and then the market slowly crumbled and leaked off until reaching the bottom in 1932. Ah yes, but things have changed today! We have circuit breakers and plunge protection. Do you see the problem? They focus on the crash and not the boom! The reasons for the crash are almost immaterial, it is what the crash caused.

The crash heralded hard times ahead. Not today, but soon. All the money was gone and with-it faith in the market. Herbert Hoover had a plan he called, wait and see. Just let the market sort this out for itself for a year or two. Of course, Hoover remembered the poor; what kind of Republican do you think he was? He sent seed packages to the poor. And if you lived in the Dust Bowl, take them with you! Finally, Hoover relented and proposed a two-billion-dollar aid package be given to America’s factory owners and industrialists to restart their factories. Hoover opposed any direct Federal Aid to the poor. For Henry Ford and RCA two billion dollars. For you…bupkis. Only because that aid would make you weak and silly and break your spirit.

Today like then, there is a loss a confidence and unlike then, a growing fear of the madness of the King. A bunch of really smart pseudointellectuals in caps and gowns sat around one day and figured it all out. Wealthy people should run everything, and non-wealthy people should just shut the fuck up. It’ll still look like a Democracy, only we’ll just run everything. Then a bunch of soulless political animals read this pseudo philosophy jargon and thought to themselves. What a great idea! And it’s all so simple! Get some Trojan Horse’s ass elected and then…just do it! Sure, they’ll scream like stuck pigs but, so what?

Watch this everybody! I’ll settle the war in Ukraine in one day! Well, 100 days then. Okay, if you’re not serious, I quit! The King throws lightining bolts and laughs! The Tariffs are on! The Tariffs are off! The Tariffs are on, but some things aren’t included! Watch them all quiver, quake and crawl at my trade threats! They’ll all be along any minute now, hat in hand begging me to make a deal. Beijing cancels Boeing Aircraft orders.

The markets rise and the market falls on whispered hopeful things on rumors and worry. No one knows what the King might do next. The markets fear what he might do next. Until in the King’s madness, confidence in the market was lost. We’ve hit the iceberg and soon we might all go swimming. The Leopard can’t change his spots now. There is a rush to buy new cars because of the fear of Tariffs. That’s great, what happens when that splurge is gone? And only the new uber expensive vehicles are left out on the lot.

Financially stressed citizens don’t need steel for new cars or lumber for a new homes. They don’t need carpenters or new car salesman. Or new carpeting for their summer homes. The poor may not own any stocks, but they do own the stock market.

“Just a minute… just a minute. Now, hold on, Mr. Potter. You’re right when you say my father was no businessman. I know that. Why he ever started this cheap, penny-ante Building and Loan, I’ll never know. But neither you nor anyone else can say anything against his character, because his whole life was… why, in the 25 years since he and his brother, Uncle Billy, started this thing, he never once thought of himself. Isn’t that right, Uncle Billy? He didn’t save enough money to send Harry away to college, let alone me. But he did help a few people get out of your slums, Mr. Potter, and what’s wrong with that? Why… here, you’re all businessmen here. Doesn’t it make them better citizens? Doesn’t it make them better customers? You… you said… what’d you say a minute ago? They had to wait and save their money before they even ought to think of a decent home. Wait? Wait for what? Until their children grow up and leave them? Until they’re so old and broken down that they… Do you know how long it takes a working man to save $5,000? (Or $53,000) Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you’re talking about… they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn’t think so. People were human beings to him. But to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they’re cattle. Well in my book, my father died a much richer man than you’ll ever be! – George Bailey