>SNIP
>>>
>>>Interesting.....I have never seen it put more succinctly before...It IS true in my part of the US...The money, however, for now, remains where it always has...The "have's" have more and the "have nots" remain about the same.
>>
>>Not so - the have nots have less. Check the statistics for the last 30 years.
>>
>>And this creates the imbalance which will have to be addressed once, or it will address itself.
>
>Exactly right, Dragan.
>It's hard for people to see what they don't want to see. And right now "the system" is covering it up very well. Schooling is 'teaching' fluff more aimed at making good consumers than smart people. The media is basically showing fluff.

All true and very obvious - again, for those who want to see.

>Our governments (Canada & U.S. at least) have to be bullshi*ting us as regards the economy. How can it be that lay-offs are at an all-time high yet 'the consumer continues to drive the economy' (they tell us)???? It could be that the "haves" are doing all the spending I suppose, but I doubt that there are enough of them to have the impact claimed. So I figure that either the "have nots" are spending on credit or the government is lying. And if it is credit spending that's really keeping things going, the bubble has to burst soon.

As to who's spending, it's both, the rich are wasting money on stupid things, and are welcomed because they're feeding an army of people who wouldn't find that sort of work anywhere else. Which other sort of country has such an industry built around pets, cosmetics, car cosmetics (!) etc etc.

And the credit spending is encouraged, because it's a very sweet source of income. The interest rages (ooops... rates) are very high, compared to regular loans, but then what's the service which is paid by this interest? Having the pleasure of paying later, or having the pleasure of supporting the consumer-driven economy? The sole reason for the existence of this interest is that the service (credit card) wouldn't pay if it wasn't there (which is bull, the credit card companies get a rebate from the vendors), or that it's the cost of not having money given as a loan to some other party.

But then who'd take these loans? Apart from the consumers (as in case of car or house sales), the supposed loans should go to businesses which are developing. Which aren't there - they exist in a growing economy, not in one which still deflates from its overinflated dot-com boom. So the market for business oriented loans has shrunk - naturally they'll try to push it to consumers. There's one born every minute, they say here.

Of course, this is probably the naive perception of someone who still doesn't know jack about how business is done here, having come from an ex-communist country where business was much more confusing than here. Whatever, I still don't have a credit card, nor has anyone managed to persuade me to have one.