To kill a dinosaur

I’m not talking about darn big lizards. I’m talking about real dinosaurs -those mega banks and other mega corporations. We know them as the “too big to fail.”

Of course, that’s wishful thinking on their part. Take the banks for instance. What’s keeping them going? Government bailouts. Some like to think of it as a waste of tax payer’s money. It isn’t really tax payer money. There isn’t nearly enough of that. It’s money created out of nothing at all -smoke, mirrors, promises, inflation, Chinese voodoo, whatever.

How do they keep a straight face when they talk about paying off the debts someday? It’s physically impossible. The world economy would have to grow at a dizzying rate -instead of shrinking. Yes, it’s shrinking. Only creative accounting can give the illusion it isn’t. At some point in time those debts will be written off -one way or the other.

Mega corporations only keep themselves going through a tight partnership with government. Sometimes it’s direct, like when an automaker gets one of those magic government loans. Other times it’s a bit hidden, like requiring everyone to get medical insurance, or auto insurance, or asteroid insurance. Add in licenses, regulations only the big boys can follow (or are exempted from) and it’s a pretty cozy arrangement.

The game is rigged. How can anyone win?

By not playing.

Boycotts work. A large number of people could decide not to do business with XYZ corp and they are suddenly in trouble. As effective as boycott can be, they are old school and limited.

To kill a dinosaur, you starve it to death. Think of a boycott of -everything. Nobody buys anything, borrows any money or even pays taxes. A well coordinated effort could crash the whole system. That scares people, as well it should. Dying dinosaurs thrash around and trample a lot of little folk in their death throes.

That may be the good scenario. You see, the dinosaurs are going to die, even if nothing is done. They’ve grown so big the land can no longer support them. They are outstripping the world’s resources. Wages are about as low as they can go. At it is workers can barely buy the basics of life. The robbers have stolen just about everything of value.

Problem is, a lot of people are living on the scraps dropped by the dinosaurs. They are going to have a hard time. They need a plan B. Just look at the political attack on food stamps, Social Security, Medicare, and other social programs. The dinos want to eat up those scraps too.

The dinosaurs will die. We can either find a way to live without them now, or scramble like crazy later when the old monsters die. On the bright side, we won’t have to compete with dinosaurs once they are gone.

Maybe the smart thing is to kill the dinosaurs before they consume any more of the good stuff.

-Sixbears