On Capatilism What Happened and…

We ordered a video of his and watched it. I was disappointed that this very bright economist and professor could not get past the 30 year mantra of “no regulations.” His final argument against them was that there was no sense putting in regulations because corporations would just lobby against them and eventually get them removed. To me this is more than an absurd argument it is so irrational and idiotic that it is irrational. Regulations are just laws, laws that are put in place to keep the market place equal.

Capitalism was at its most powerful, vibrant and healthy during the heaviest period of regulations our nation ever had, as a matter of fact all economists agree that regulations equal the playing field, spread wealth and actually promote unprecedented financial growth across all sectors. One can not argue with the fact that post WWII, post-Rosevelt (who put most of these regulations in place) the economy was booming. The average American family was able to survive on one income, and not just white-collar traditionally middle-class jobs, but blue-collar jobs. For example my father-in-law supported his wife and child comfortably working as a service station attendant until getting a better job with more mobility.

The problem was that the wealthy 1 percent who own pretty much everything didn’t really like sharing the wealth, even though they too benefited from a thriving economy. Their businesses made more money than ever before because more people could afford to buy things, there was more disposable income. However human nature (as usual) with its dark side seized the hearts of those who had been most special and where now having to pay 90% tax – that’s right, they paid 90% tax far more than socialist democracies of Europe do, even the most extreme like Sweden, Norway and Denmark – their highest tax bracket is 50%.  But when you make 999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999.00 that’s still a lot of cash, even with a take home of 10%, of course there were always ways around this tax bracket and I doubt any of the wealthiest Americans ever paid more than 50% tax. But back to my point, they couldn’t stand the uppity middle-class nipping at their heels and potentially turning their reigns around with their new money and their new sense of entitlement, after all that was their money and sense of entitlement.

OK, so here’s my metaphor to explain the idiocy of the argument the professor made about anti-regulation. His argument is akin to stating: Well, we should just stop making rape, murder, stealing, conning people and all criminal activities legal because sociopaths will still do those things anyway and they’ll always work against the law so the law will eventually just be useless – there will be prison overcrowding and it will be expensive for us to pay for as taxpayers. So everything should just be made legal and people should be allowed to do whatever they like irregardless of what harm comes to others due to the sociopaths actions since we can’t stop them.

Does this make sense? No.

And if one proposed it, one would be thought a lunatic. This truly is the essence of the professors argument.

Because corporations don’t want rules and will work to destroy them – we should not have any rules. His new paradigm for business is a ridiculous example of some Silicone Valley dudes who get together in a garage and start a software company where they are all equal. That’s seriously his answer to our economic meltdown. We should all be equal partners in our jobs and be able to come to work in shorts if we want with “a puppy or toddler in tow.” Here’s a little news flash for the professor – not everyone wants to be the boss. Not everyone should be the boss. Some people just want a job and don’t want to take the risk associated with starting a new business and some people are not capable of participating at this level. This is great for those who want to participate in this paradigm, but having been in a band I know how hard it is to get along with 2 other people let alone 100 people and come to consensus. There’s a reason humanity gravitates toward alpha personalities like George W. Bush (and it’s not for his intellectual prowess) it’s for his sureness, his sense of entitlement and his willingness to take the reigns of leadership, not everyone wants to be a leader. In fact I would say from my time on this planet most people don’t want to take that role, it’s the rare few who do.

Again the lack of psychological savvy in discerning a political or economic system is remarkable, have we learned nothing from this meltdown or the break down of the Soviet Union? Our system is the other side of the same coin as the old Soviet system. They had an elite group of people (bureaucrats) who doled out a standard allotment of money to the masses. People were seen almost as ants in a colony, which didn’t much allow for those who were ambitious to get ahead, but it did help those who couldn’t make it without help. In their case the system failed due to the greed and corruption of the few bureaucrats who skimmed the cream off the top and kept everyone else at subsistence level. The same could be said in a way of our system although it is from the opposite side of this ideology. Instead of all for one and one for all – communism. We are an all for one f***k you, get your own bootstraps to pull yourself up from, these are mine, society. But in truth no one gets anywhere alone – no man is an island, without proper education, a nurturing environment to grow up in and help, support and love from those around the individual, the individual can attain little (if you haven’t read Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell by  now – do so!) Our system has promoted the delusion of the maverick, the rugged individualist who by their own pure genius and hard work rises to the top of society to strike it rich. To make matters worse we are lied to and told we are all equal in this ability!

Really, so a kid whose mom is a crack addict and has 10 other brothers and sisters each from a different father, all of whom are in jail and who lives in abject poverty, is sexually assaulted and has an inferior education where he’s passed ahead every year because the system doesn’t care about him and graduates or leaves at 16 from high school unable to read has the same chance to be head of a company like Microsoft as Bill Gates whose parents sent him to private school and who had the rare opportunity start programming in high school when most college students didn’t even have access? Yeah, right. It’s an absurdity to think we are all equal.

We are all equal in God’s eyes. We are all of equal value, but we are not all given equal opportunity, or equal gifts or guidance.

So Denise what do you propose we do about it?

I propose we deal with reality. Corporations are made up of human beings. Human beings are imperfect and have dark sides. In this competitive world the sociopath has a huge advantage – without a conscious one can do whatever one likes to get what one wants no matter the consequence. And so like those who would murder someone for a few bucks, those who would destroy the Gulf – make it a dead zone never to be restored in our lifetime to what it once was –  should not just pay for every hair brained scheme that Kevin Costner or whoever else dreams up and do whatever it takes to fix the situation financially, but environmentally – the executives in charge should be criminally charged and imprisoned for criminal neglect. Neglect that led to the deaths of nearly a dozen human beings and countless sea creatures. The laws or regulations for corporations should not just be strengthened to impenetrable force, but they should include jail time for infraction of these regulations and corporations should not be able to contribute to a single candidate or have any voice on capitol hill – lobbying should be made illegal. Period. NO EXCEPTIONS! The only voice in a Democracy that should count and was intended to count when our constitution was invented, was the voice of the people. It seems we are the only voice now that has no say.

And oh, yeah there should be laws governing the 4th estate (news outlets.) If a “news outlet” is primarily editorial, great then there should be a banner on that station flashing, “this is the expressed opinion, and our opinion only not necessarily imbued with any facts or actual reporting in the traditional sense. We do not use journalistic standards of checking sources and can not vouch for a thing we are purporting.” And if it’s on the radio, this should be said every 10 minutes in-between commercial breaks. People have the right to now the truth and they need to know if they are being manipulated and tricked. It’s unfortunate that many Americans can’t discern this for themselves, but if that is the case then we need to let them know that the rules have changed on them.

Many blessings… next post I’m working on is the market in relationship to Oil and Gold…

Denise

Gen-X as a Uranus/Pluto Metaphor…

Thomas Paine was quoted as saying, “People are more like their generation than they are like their family.” He would say that being an Aquarian. Astrologers have often undermined the importance of the outer planets in astrology but I have found them to be amazingly important in the psychology, physiology and general fate of those born under the influences of generational planets. I’ve even seen physical traits that seem to defy logic among generations. There is a certain look to those with Pluto in Leo, Neptune in Libra (the Boomers) and to those who came before them. And certainly every subsequent generation. It’s not just the way they dress, it’s the way they carry themselves and even their features seem often to reflect a subtle hint of the outer planets influence.

In the 1960s just the transiting conjunction of Uranus and Pluto was enough to cause the sexual revolution, war and the vehement anti-war movement, civil unrest and the health food movement (the transit planets were both in Virgo) and also the decline in wages leading to the death of the American dream. It  also coincided with a huge drop in the population (due to the advent of the pill and other things). Those who are commonly referred to Gen-X’ers are the smallest in number around the world.

My definition of Gen-X is astrological and goes from about 1956/57 until 1969/1970. These people have in common Neptune in Scorpio (thus the obsession with the occult, often unusual sexual proclivities and all things hidden, secret or occult) and Pluto in Virgo which brings with it a desire to be of service, interest in health, healthy living, alternative medicine, natural foods, and unfortunately also brought us lower wages on the whole, and perpetual financial problems. Many of us have had to change careers many times over (Virgo is a mutable sign ruled by Mercury) which has made it imperative to change in order to survive.

The super ultra extra generation X-ers are those born with Uranus in Virgo conjunct Pluto in Virgo. That configuration started around 1962 and ended around 1968. These people are rebellious by nature, challenging, bright and often visionary. Kurt Cobain was born 2 weeks after me the same year, we shared a grand water trine, Uranus and Pluto conjunction in Virgo making a kite off of it. He however was not as lucky as I. He had far too many planets in water. My husband reminded me that I once looked at his chart and said it looked like he was an elemental. And indeed the poor guy had no fire (like me) but was deluged by water. He had twice the water I do and no air to distance himself from his emotions. Anyone who had that chart would eventually kill themselves, he was just too sensitive and too emotional. Life was pain for him. Many of the most innovative musical artists (popular in the 1990s) had this configuration as this configuration often shakes up things. And for sure this group shook the music industry to its core, it still hasn’t recovered but that’s another story… if only they would have embraced the Pluto energy, the change and the Uranian innovation they would have figured out what Itunes did and they would be flourishing like never before but instead they resisted, trying to be conservative and killed what people loved about the art and destroyed their own business in the process by resisting new technology. Often people with Uranus/Pluto conjunct will enter into a situation right before it’s about to implode or explode and become a catalyst for this change. And of course the more the person resonates the energy of that configuration the greater their effect is on those around them.

Obama is on the outskirts of the Gen-X’er generation. He doesn’t have the radical idealism embodied by those born between 1962 and 1969. He has the practical idealism of Pluto in Virgo. He believes he can work things out rationally. However he fails to see that while one would hope the world capable of rational thought and measured intelligence, as George Bush showed us, this is not always in the genes or the generation. Pluto in Leo people (who make up the vast majority of politicians) are very emotional almost vitriolic and/or zealot-like about their ideology, of course until it changes and then they intensely defend their new world view with the same passion often using their old life as an example of why their new life is so right on. I could name a thousand celebrity examples of this, but the first one that pops to mind is “Dr.” Laura Schelssinger (she’s not actually psychologist as many assume she actually has a degree in physiology which would make her qualified to be a coach, PE professor/teacher or give her good background to be a physical therapist: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Schlessinger .) All that aside, she rails on about the evils of divorce, oh yeah, she’s is a divorcee’, about the evils of adulterous affairs, that too she is supposedly guilty of and a host of other things which she vehemently chastises her callers for admitting without ever showing her own vulnerability. This quality in various forms can be seen in the Pluto in Leo generation often to good effect. They can throw themselves into things and truly effect change like nobodies business because they believe so strongly in their ideas and the Leo pride and arrogance allows them to do so without question. However the Achilles heel (for those who live in the shadow side like Dr. Laura) is intense, disgusting and ridiculous hypocrisy like George W. spending his life as the poster boy for cocaine and the party lifestyle and then doing a 180 a few years before he decides he wants to get into politics. Very convenient for him to have found God.

Well, enough ragging on the negative sides of that generation. There are a lot of people, the vast majority of the population that fall under this configuration, and for sure there are many great people and many who have used the bravery and sureness of Pluto in Leo to do amazing things. It’s just those few wankers who ruin it. But of course there are always wankers in every generation.

The Generation Y’ers are still coming into their own. Unfortunately, the Neptune in Sagittarius and Pluto in Libra combination is a hard one for personal (marriage type) relationships. Neptune in Sag wants to explore, go crazy, party, see the world, drink and generally over indulge and Pluto (which as I’ve stated is powerful transformative energy) wants to destroy, and the sign it’s in, Libra makes the aim partnerships, marriage, legal matters, injustice. On the good side of this, this generation has many strong activists for social change, those who are committed to changing the laws to make life equal for all (both Sag and Libra have legal implications.) On the negative side there is the Paris Hilton’s of this generation, who exemplifies the shadow side of this group of people.

The dark side of Gen-X is the extreme desire to be individual and the almost pathological need to be considered unique so much so that one is hard pressed to get someone in that generation to admit being part of a generation, which of course is absurd. I think many out grew this as they got older and reluctantly, and with much resentment, realized they were actually part of a group that could be “marketed to.” Other problems that I’ve seen among my peers are a feeling of hopelessness + powerlessness = apathy which is partially due to so much Virgo in Gen-X charts. Virgos have a tendency to feel small and of little value. We are the first generation to grow up mostly in single parent households (due to 50% divorce rates among our parents generation), having to adapt to radical changes in the roles of women and men. And the first generation to do worse than our parents generation did. We have often felt like outcasts and freaks, partially due to the inner turmoil between our conservative nature (we can be weirdly prudish and old-fashioned the Uranus/Pluto in Virgo) in opposition to the desire to wreak havoc (hence the Punk rock or Alternative music revolution embraced and continued by Pluto in Virgo). We want to shake things up and alternatively go forward at the same time, actually the music, literature and aesthetics of Steampunk pretty much sum up the conflicting weirdness of Gen-X people.

I focus a lot on Gen-X because not many astrologers have since we are a minor group, and difficult to understand from the outside in. We are the invisible children of the Me generation, the shadowed group that never really got a foothold as the Boomers extended their time in the work place, the group of kids left to raise themselves, fend for themselves in the face of declining jobs (since 1967) and many of us came into the career market as the first George Bush recession hit in the early 90s. Believe me I don’t think we have it the worst. We were and are a hallmark generation, the first truly modern generation bridging the gap between an America that protected its citizens from greedy corporations and stood on the side of labor, and equality and the wealthy pluto/corporatocracy we have now. We were just the first generation of people to go backwards – the beginning of the empire’s unraveling, back toward the standards of people who we were taught as children only existed in developing nations. By this I mean a health care system ranked 37th in the world below many developing nations. We are one step closer to indentured servitude and slavery each year as jobs continue to go overseas where labor is virtually free and we learn to live on the sort of money that seemed impossible 20 years ago to the Pluto in Leo generation. I know many people in their late 30s to mid 40s who are living off of about $600 a month in impossible places like the Bay Area. They live in abject poverty and can only pray they don’t get sick since they can’t afford care and apply to every job remotely related to anything they’ve done to no avail.

Let’s face it this is not a recession. It’s a depression. According to the most recent statistics 1 in 5 people is unemployed. That is 20% of the population, it was 25% during the Great Depression. Health care reform is not only imperative (and a moral obligation)  but so is throwing lobbyists out of Washington and actually  holding corporations to the same laws that we as human beings have to abide by.

Best wishes and happy holidays,

Denise