Recessions are caused by a reduction in the ability of the ruling economic class - the wealthy - to concentrate wealth at a rate that satisfies their greed.

When this happens they turn around and share the lack of wealth, by "trickling down" their displeasure in the form of job layoffs, etc., taking advantage of the dependencies they created in the process of becoming wealthy to make the rest of the general population suffer.

The sad thing is that a recession actually signals that the general citizenry has actually begun to learn how to limit the tactics of the rich; it's a win for the average consumer... or at least it would be if said average consumer didn't have a job that depended upon the wealthy, putting them in a position of dependence. (Think we don't still have a "barony" of the sort that American forefathers were supposedly trying to escape? Think again.)

The wealthy then retaliate against this victory by using that trickle-down effect that Reagan thought was so great to make the general population feel their pain, too.

A recession is in no way a loss of productivity or general faith in productivity and the "economy"; people don't actually stop being productive. That's bullshit fed to us by the wealthy, via mis-educated "economists" who don't actually have a clue (because they were very deliberately mis-educated to serve the interests of the wealthy).

The effect of a recession is to teach the general population a lesson, put a (temporary) end to their little economic victory and return control back to the grabby grubby greedy little hands of the wealthy. In effect a recession is the wealthy saying, "If we can't have our cake and eat it too, then by God none of the rest of you will, either!"

What do you think that "economic stimulus package" was all about? What is the real purpose of the "bailout"? That stimulus package was really intended to benefit the wealthy, not you nor I (I actually refused it), by encouraging people to once again spend-spend-spend and put profit back in the hands of the wealthy.

Since a recession is actually about loss of control by the wealthy, why the fuck would we want to give it back to them? Why don't we suck it up and finish the job we unknowingly started: kicking the money-changers out of the temple? Don't END the recession... DEEPEN it.

No, you can thank the drug warriors for our loss of rights. We drug users are simply engaging in our right to pursue happiness. Nobody has a right to decide what does and doesn't go into my body except for me.

Here's delusional thinking again.

I have this fantasy that there is another pasture somewhere that is greener - and less populated by mindless, munching, farting bovines - than the one in which I've chained myself. I was told today by a non-American that "trust me, you live in one of the best managed countries in the world"¹.

I really hope that person is wrong, because I need that fantasy to come true some day. I need to find my own Carol Connelly, too.

¹ My reply to that assertion, by the way:

"The fact that this country is "managed" is not, in and of itself, a good thing: it happens to be managed for the primary benefit of a small minority . The rest of us get "trickle-down" scraps and picked-over bones. I taste sour grapes perhaps only because I'm not part of that particular minority and never will (and don't entirely want to) be. I'm well aware that NOT "all men are created equal" and that our founders got that wee bit seriously wrong - or were just humming what they knew the unequal ones wanted to hear - but we should be able to manage something more egalitarian than this. Call me picky."

I doubt if the FTC intends to abolish it altogether, and that's the only egalitarian way to "straighten out" this collection of wealth-concentrating tactics. Too bad the general population is too unaware, uneducated, and distracted with their nine-to-fives and other minutia to even know or care how they're being disadvantaged by it. It's mostly the very same minority who stands to gain from it, in one fashion or another, which has any real influence in its existence. That's why IP law exists in the first place; those who are not egalitarian sought to cement and further increase their gains, and they succeeded because of general ignorance (again). We've been stuck with it ever since (centuries), in one fashion or another and to varying degrees.

We're not yet ready to be the egalitarian Land of the Free that our ancestors alleged. The People are still incapable of standing up to the minority that seeks to disadvantage them at every turn. The very existence of IP law and DRM and all the rest of it is testament to that unreadiness and incapability.

Messiah Obama can't fix this, either, in large part because he's part of that minority and thinks it's fixed already.

I think it's time the State revised the proposition system such that passage of any proposition would require a three fourths majority of popular votes. It's far too easy to find a simple majority of stupid gullible easily manipulated Americans, California residents included.

American politics: rinse, lather, and repeat.

I encounter people constantly who are suffering from real-life versions of that complete self-delusion. Worst of all is when the delusions pervert people's ethics and become a justification for all sorts of ethical trespass, both major and minor. I wish I could force those people to sit down and watch Burstyn's performance; hopefully holding that mirror up to their own behavior would help them finally divorce themselves from it. It's my conclusion that the human race will not be able to progress or evolve further until it can leave such bizarre and irrational neurology behind. I'm accused of being "disordered" myself, and it's true that I seem incapable of making a success of myself in this particular screwed-up illogical world; nevertheless I often feel like the only sane person standing, like Burgess Meredith in an old Twilight Zone episode. They call me crazy merely because I'm too damned sane to fit into the insane world in which I have been unwillingly thrust.

I'm just a Vulcan tourist who desperately needs to find that return ticket home that was taken from me.

From the Wiki: "Cognitive bias is distortion in the way humans perceive reality". Of course I have no such bias myself.