The Deal Is Broken!

But I have an MBA!

The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of extrajudicial punishment, and the Gulag is recognized as a major instrument of political repression in the Soviet Union.

Between 1934 and 1941, the number of prisoners with higher education increased more than eight times, and the number of prisoners with high education increased five times. It resulted in their increased share in the overall composition of the camp prisoners. Among the camp prisoners, the number and share of the intelligentsia was growing at the quickest pace. Distrust, hostility, and even hatred for the intelligentsia is a common characteristic of the communist leaders.

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I've always wondered what life is like for the Deal People. They show up, take the deal, do what they're told, spit out their 2.5 children, never think about anything outside their circle and die in a nice, comfortable room. Their fellow Deal People give them a nice obituary and the circle starts again. Who's blessed again, my dear savior?

What an amazing, amazing ride to be born with, say, a passion for nursing, love your work, always have good money in your pocket and the world at large can never ever touch you. You're not dying on a factory line or some creatively cursed soul struggling for survival and identity or living knowing you'll be picking up garbage cans for the rest of your life. You've got it made so incredibly well you can't even conceive of anything else.

"Buy my insurance and I'll show you my tits!"
What a deal!

Yours is the life we see in all those insurance commercials where the system is there to be your friend. We see you in the financial planning commercials as the affably befuddled soul needing a helping hand for that million dollar retirement. And you're the one elated with all the latest features of all the latest toys as you smile for the camera in technical orgasm. We like to pretend that's everyone's life - or could be if they "made something of themselves".

Well, it's certainly pretty to think so.

But now the cracks are breaking in even this mighty castle. I always laugh at those who say "education is the key to success." It's such an uneducated thing to say! But the time has come where a new education is being forced upon even the most wilfully blind. Following the old formula for "success" isn't going to cut it anymore. All free rides come to an end sometime.

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"I racked up all that college debt for this?"

For young 'Millennials,' an American Dream deferred

FORT WORTH, Texas — Brooke Guidry, a certified teacher and former standout softball player at West Texas A&M University, left Texas for a promised job at a Las Vegas fitness center. But when the economy collapsed, so did that job prospect.

She returned to Fort Worth, moved back in with family members and now works in the mailroom of a local engineering firm. Recently, she began moonlighting as a referee at high school volleyball games.

Guidry, 26, is one of many young Americans who graduated from college into the Great Recession and its aftermath: a sluggish job market and stubbornly high unemployment that for them has translated into a late start at the American Dream.

"All the stars were falling into alignment for me," said Guidry, who hit .520 on the softball team in her senior year. She taught physical education and coached girls softball for two years at a high school in Missouri City, outside Houston, before leaving for Las Vegas.

"So it's a little bit of a letdown," Guidry said of returning to Texas.

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No doubt telling one another education is freedom.

Look anywhere and you'll find stories like this from last Sunday's paper. The story dutifully points out how these Millennials remain optimistic despite, well, reality. Blind optimism - a trait so often hailed as heroically American - won't cut it anymore, those days long gone. Such good little boys and girls who won't stop believing the lie! But living life without questions is a luxury one can no longer afford.

What we have is a giant hole right in the middle of our lake of life sucking it dry. Those on the outer edges feel the drain first but the line moves continually inward until that hole is plugged. The hole is bottomless so no matter how much goes in it never stops. In the end, no one can escape. But most look down and ask: "Does my boat float?" If the answer is yes then all is well. You're a believer, you is!

One day we'll wake up and realize our "system" is in fact no system at all, but merely a delusion based upon illusion. You can point out all the water draining away for everyone but that fact is it is there to see for anyone who looks. Some think it's "safe" to play it conservative and just look at one's own little boat. Truth is, it's suicide. And what a long, slow painful death it's going to be. All for no reason than we believe it has to be this way.

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One day we shall read this:

The Soviet Gulag capitalist system was a massive system of forced labor camps. Throughout its history some 18 untold millions passed through the prisons Walmarts and camps Burger Kings of the Gulag American Dream. Under Stalin Goldman Sachs, labor camp prisoners capitalist believers became an important resource for the construction of many industries, including the nation's railways and roads, mining operations, and the timber industry. Millions White collar workers suffered in the camps, many guilty of no crime entitlement.

In the eyes of the authorities CEOs, a prisoner worker had almost no value. An unknown number well into the millions died in Gulag camps the unemployment line. Those who died of hunger, cold, and hard labor were easily replaced by new prisoners suckers.