a biographical note...

TruckerT

... I was born in 1949, and grew up on an increasingly levelling playing field - the two world wars and the great depression seemed to dilute the great divide between political and economic 'classes'

I was lucky enough to go to a very good grammar school, but I dropped out after 'O' Levels - during my career, I have been actively involved in Trade Unions, but for most of my working life, I was self-employed, and an occasional employer. Although I have never voted for them, I generally prefer Tory politicians (they simply have more fun)

Until now, I have never felt 'threatened' by world events - even during the Cold War, and the threat of Nuclear Oblivion, I was confident that our leaders would find a way through

But now I am scared!

There is now a 'common enemy' - it is 'The Banks' - they are Dictators (ie they dictate the way in which we live) - Gaddafi was a dictator for 43 years or so, and eventually he was bombed out by NATO

All talk of recession, growth, quantitative easing etc etc is whistling into the wind - whatever happens in the foreseeable future will be decided by The Banks

Time to wake up

TruckerT

nearlynew

It's THE BANK, not "the banks"

The_White_Horse

this is garbage. the common enemy is the public sector and self righteous lefty. it is they who have threatened the entire west with their continued greed. also, they have made people scared of their own shadow. cameron can't say anything anymore because of the shrieks of hysterical lefties in the wings. you can't say people are lazy, get too many benefits, have no drive, ambition, behave badly are just bad. you have to keep giving, keep helping, keep making excuses, otherwise you are a homophobe, xenophobe or any other name they care to sling at you. the lefty has destroyed the west far more effectively than any terrorist or islamic group ever could. they have restricted us to the point that we are uncompetitive, uneducated and unmotivated, because afterall, we all deserve everything and have to do nothing to get it. that is our human right innit.

the lefty has destroyed us. completely. they could never understand the simple absolute truth. that the public sector must not cost more than the private sector brings in. but they didn't so they borrowed and borrowed and borrowed and probably planned on continuing this folly until they owed 90 billion trillion gazillion googleplex - because they just don't care and don't understand anything. hateful people.

they have destroyed us, and now they are blaming the banks. its laughable.

pqrdef

Nurse! The pills are wearing off!

TruckerT

nearlynew wrote: »

It's THE BANK, not "the banks"

THE BANK is not commercially motivated - "the banks" were probably as surprised as anyone to discover the extent of their power

This crisis has been active for 4 years now (roughly the same as WW2), and shows no sign of abating - the banks pushed themselves to the edge of extinction, and found that it didn't matter - they won't give up without a struggle, and if they do give up, then it will be upon their own terms

People are comparing now with the 1930s, but try comparing the violent history of Europe during the early-mid 1900s, with the currently developing popular unrest over such essentials as food prices

The EU, aka Common Market, was conceived in the embers of Post-War Europe, and was intended to make future conflict impossible

So why are we all holding our breath?

TruckerT

Loughton_Monkey

Like the OP, I was born 1949, and went to grammar school.

For my sins, I went into Financial Service and although I predominantly worked for Insurance Compaies, I found myself at one point a director of an Insurance Company owned by a mojor bank. Hence I observed a lot of the 'banking' individuals.

I never got the impression, however, that they 'run' the country. Indeed the bulk of them didn't have the brains. What I did find, though, was the most surprising proliferation of "The Old School" [which I thought had died in the 80's, but was alive and well right up to the millenium at least.]. I also found the epitome of "Jobs for the Boys", and the tendancy to deploy about 150 people to a project that any 'normal' company would do successfully with 7 or 8 people.

I saw the strangest things. I could have pointed to mile-high piles of paper representing "Risk Assessments", "Risk Management Procedures", "Audit Procedures", "Controls Manuals"...... and yet within an amount of paper that could have been written by an infinite number of monkeys, I never read a single paragraph that could be described by words such as 'Common Sense', 'Rational', or even 'Practical'.

I have 100% confidence that all this work will detect (and prevent) a branch teller stealing £5 from the till, and yet would not stand a cat's chance in hell of detecting a half-intelligent back-room kid who is covering up a £20 billion loss!

Bankers are self-centred, yes. Greedy yes. Loyal - Yes, but only to each other. But they don't rule the world.

purch

Time to wake up

......maybe time to stop being so self obsessed too :eek:

Jimmy_31

TruckerT wrote: »

... I was born in 1949, and grew up on an increasingly levelling playing field - the two world wars and the great depression seemed to dilute the great divide between political and economic 'classes'

I was lucky enough to go to a very good grammar school, but I dropped out after 'O' Levels - during my career, I have been actively involved in Trade Unions, but for most of my working life, I was self-employed, and an occasional employer. Although I have never voted for them, I generally prefer Tory politicians (they simply have more fun)

Until now, I have never felt 'threatened' by world events - even during the Cold War, and the threat of Nuclear Oblivion, I was confident that our leaders would find a way through

But now I am scared!

There is now a 'common enemy' - it is 'The Banks' - they are Dictators (ie they dictate the way in which we live) - Gaddafi was a dictator for 43 years or so, and eventually he was bombed out by NATO

All talk of recession, growth, quantitative easing etc etc is whistling into the wind - whatever happens in the foreseeable future will be decided by The Banks

Time to wake up

TruckerT

Ive seen a lot of people wake up over the last few months, i cant see the average working man putting up with it all for much longer.

The protests and marches will start soon just like in america

Thrugelmir

Jimmy_31 wrote: »

The protests and marches will start soon just like in america

The USA is a highly unequal society. Where people are left to fend for themselves.

Herbie_Hancock_I_wish

I was also born in 1949. A world so different from today . As approaching retirement I worry about my my private pensions , having paid in since 1978 . Annuities are so low . Other savings eroded by inflation and stock market investments , need I say any more? Oh just a word to Chite Horse, it was Thatcher who claimed that their is not such a thing as society. She talked a lot of bs yet that was a criminal statement imho. In 1979 one million were unemployed, 4 years later it was three million, not so short of where it stands today.

By the same token I agree with Horsey. We are far to heavy as far as public workers verses the wealth creating sector. In fact I would go as far as to say that they stifle productivity. As an ex business owner, I lived in fear of paying VAT and income tax on time. Would get some twerp turning up to check on `elf and safety.

John_Pierpoint

Thrugelmir wrote: »

The USA is a highly unequal society. Where people are left to fend for themselves.

They also have the ability to be a highly adaptive "get on your bike" society.

Their drawback in that with only two week's vacation a year, most of them have no practical knowledge of the rest of the world.

They also assume that their system for messing up is superior to everyone else's. They tend to tell them too, which is not a good way of making friends and influencing people.