Something's not right...

The earthquake and tsunami that devastated large areas of Japan and killed thousands are terrible events. They're still unfolding, and the situation in Japan's financial markets is understandably chaotic, I'm sure.

But what is going on in the United States? The markets have now lost everything that they gained in the year so far - in less than a week. The experts blame the usual suspects in addition to Japan's markets: the crisis in Libya which threatens the oil supply, the stubborn rate of unemployment, the fact that housing prices are still not coming back (gee, do ya think it might be because the banks are sitting on tons of that cash we had to give them, instead of lending?). Blah blah, woof woof, as Jimi said.

But one line in the story yesterday about the stock market caught my eye and kind of got me a tiny bit upset. They said that the traders were "taking profits" while they could, driving the market down further.

Now, I'm not an economic expert. I tend to think of money in terms of the checkbook, where you either have it or you don't. I don't get derivatives, and hedges, and credit default swaps, and all that stuff. To me, those are bets. And currency trading and all that stuff - Treasury bonds and all - is like vapor. It seems to be at least half illusion, as things vary and drive other things up or down. I'm sure it's a lot of fun for those guys with sixteen computer monitors on their desk and a nose full of cocaine, but for me, it's not real.

But I come back to one thing. A lot of the hard-earned money I made over the past ten years went into a 401(k) and a 403(b). That was real money. I worked an hour for each hour's pay. So when the stock market goes down, it isn't like I can see it as "unrealized gains or losses." That money disappears as far as I'm concerned. My money. Gone.

And someone took it. Anyone who "took profits" yesterday and in any way helped the stock market fall is a thief, as far as me and my retirement savings are concerned. Same for the guys who bet on the decline, And the guys who bet on the volatility of the market and happened to profit on the decline. The short-sellers. The option putters. All those guys. You know why?

Because they have a lot of money to begin with, and they are doing this because they choose to. I put my money into a 401(k) and a 403(b) because I had to. It was either that or pay taxes on it. Savings? You can't get a frickin' toaster these days, much less keep up with inflation. The banks forgot what their job used to be in the 1950's and 60's: Keep my money safe and have the benefit of using it to loan to other people who need it, for a price, which they'd split with me. Now they want to charge me ten dollars a month just to keep my savings that earns a few pennies a year.

And pensions, which were supposed to be our reward and security for a lifetime of hard work, and which our government vowed to keep safe, became ridiculous antiques, like black-and-white tube TV's. That was part of the plan, see? They brainwashed us into believing that defined-contribution plans would be better for us in the long run, because we could control our investments! And they would benefit from the booming markets! Why settle for a lousy 3% on a CD when you could make 30, 40, or even 200%, especially if you were a savvy playah?!

And we frickin' fell for it! We sat there and picked out those stupid funds from the little charts and graphs while the guy from MetLife or the Hartford sat and nodded wisely and showed us our nifty "risk tolerance" profiles. Well, guess what? We shouldn't have been doing that! ZERO risk is the only risk that's acceptable when you're talking about your old age!! So what did we get to "control?" We got to "control" whether we got cheap lousy aluminum siding or cheap lousy vinyl siding! Whatever we chose, we got cheap lousy siding!! The only reason we took 401(k)'s was because that's the only way we could do ANYTHING to save for our retirments without getting screwed on taxes and fees.

So we had this little recession thing in 2008 when the house of cards the big boys built collapsed like most people knew it had to. And suddenly our money was GONE. Not just "lessening its return." Fuckin' disappeared. Two-thirds of it. WE watched and hoped and started to feel a little bettwe when it clawed its way back, even though the value of our houses kept free-falling until even those of us who'd been paying for 25 years on our houses were heading underwater. Everything that they told us to feel good about - our "net worth" - was revealed to be so much particle board furniture.

So now when we hear about a teacher or cop who still has a defined benefit plan - especially one that wasn't properly and lawfully funded by politicians who loved to play "turn out the lights and scream" every election - now we're all supposed to feel like they're on "the gravy train," or they're "freeloaders."

This is unethical, sinful, and if you want my opinion, a violation of human rights. Just because I get a statement every quarter doesn't mean I'm not being economically exploited, just as surely as some poor guy in Bahrain who has to live in a cardboard house while the big boys have gold toilets.

So now they want to do the same thing with Social Security. It's been coming for years. Now the politicians will play another round of "turn out the lights and scream" so they can scare people or con people or just wear people down into agreeing to this scam too. The Charles Krauthammers of the world; the guys who suck up to the Rupert Murdochs and David Kochs of the world. They keep screaming that "We're broke!" and "We have no other choice!"

Listen, assholes. That is MY MONEY just as much as the hard-earned money I paid into these tinshit 401(k)s was MY MONEY. You take it from me to play with AT YOUR PERIL. (I am talking about at the voting booth, lest you think I'm threatening someone.)

The system was set up to work properly, and if the politicians hadn't played games with it, it would be just fine. So instead of scrapping the system or squeezing retirees into working longer and getting less, they should CORRECT THE PROBLEMS they caused by using the Social Security fund as a cookie jar for their friends. They need to do what they should have done with the pensions: FIX IT and LEAVE IT ALONE. Play by the rules. Go gamble with your own money.

The only consolation I have is that not too many people these days are likely to fall for the pitch that they'll be better off putting their Social Security into the markets. The big boys pretty much killed that illusion. But I fear that they're going to operate on fear instead of greed.