Conspicuous Wealth

Kunstler on thinking about what might happen when it’s not such a good idea to display wealth:

I admit it was not a big deep thought, just an eerie one. Of course, one would have to begin by asking what kind of society would worship clowns like Donald Trump in the first place — and the answer would be: a society of envious slobs deluded into thinking that they could become the next Trump if only the Baby Jeezus would whack them over the head with a sock-full of silver dollars. This is, after all, a culture currently fueled by two dangerously childish ideas: that it’s possible to get something for nothing, and that when you wish upon a star your dreams come true.

 People who believe that it’s possible to get something for nothing can be persuaded easily that those who have gotten a lot have gotten it unfairly. And the flip side of wishing upon stars is that when your dreams don’t come true you can only blame it on the stars.

It’s hard to locate in history another society so devilishly rigged for implosion than the empire that runs from sea to shining sea. Every structural element in our financial sector is a jackstraw groaning under a load of false expectation. The hedge funds are only the most elaborate pieces, with their intertwined webs of exponentially unreckoned risk. The equity markets are a three-ringed circus of "greater fools." The mortgage clusterfuck has barely begun, with a tidal wave of ARM re-sets about to kick in that will not only shatter the aspirations of the formerly-middle-class, but will also put the entire suburban sprawl-building juggernaut out-of-business — just as the imminent global oil crisis makes that way-of-life obsolete. The undercarriage of the vehicle — medical and retirement entitlements, plus the social safety net — is rotting away as the massive debt obligations of the federal government are suddenly denied an easy re-fi rollover by the foreign central banks who no longer see the point in buying the trash paper of a nation that manufactures little more than celebrity envy fantasies.

As with many Kunstler posts, it’s a remarkably clear and lucid vision of very real possibilities. He’s no wild-eyed anarchy-loving survivalist praying for all things to come crashing down. You can almost hear the frustration in his writing voice that just doesn’t understand why those who disagree with him can’t see the obvious truth in front of them.

His vision is clear.

Tags: economy, peak oil, kunstler, real estate bubble

Posted in Economy, Politics, Society