Charles Hugh Smith

Charles Hugh Smith: A Radical Critique of Universal Basic Income

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– A Radical Critique of Universal Basic Income:

This critique reveals the unintended consequences of UBI.

Readers have been asking me what I thought of Universal Basic Income (UBI) as the solution to the systemic problem of jobs being replaced by automation. To answer this question, I realized I had to start by taking a fresh look at work and its role in human life and society. And since UBI is fundamentally a distribution of money, I also needed to take a fresh look at our system of money.

That led to a radical critique of Universal Basic Income (UBI) and an outline for a much more sustainable and just system of money and work than we have now. To adequately explore these critical topics, I ended up writing a 50,000 word book, Money and Work Unchained.

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The Consent of the Conned

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– The Consent of the Conned:

By Charles Hugh Smith

Every single line item in our entire Bernie Madoff scam of a system is cooked.

My theme this week is The Great Unraveling, by which I mean the unraveling of our social-political-economic system of hierarchical, centralized power. Let’s start by looking at how the basis of governance has transmogrified from consent of the governed to consent of the conned.

In effect, our leadership leads by lying. As we know, when it gets serious, you have to lie to preserve the perquisites and power of those atop the wealth-power pyramid, and well, it’s serious all the time now, so lies are the default setting of the entire status quo.

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Let’s Talk About Solutions, Not Fake Fixes – Keiser Report: Collapsing Empires (Summer Solutions) – (Video)

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– Let’s Talk About Solutions, Not Fake Fixes (Of two Minds, Aug 8, 2015):

Since the status quo has no workable Plan B to “growth” in an economy in which household incomes have declined 8.5% in a supposedly expanding economy, real solutions must arise outside the status quo.

It’s a lot easier to talk about what’s wrong with the status quo and fake fixes than it is to talk about real solutions–for a number of reasons.

1. It’s clear to virtually everyone who isn’t being paid to make absurd claims that everything is peachy that the status quo is failing, so discussing the failings is like shooting fish in a barrel.

Read moreLet’s Talk About Solutions, Not Fake Fixes – Keiser Report: Collapsing Empires (Summer Solutions) – (Video)

Will the Fed Let the Stock Market Crash Before an Election?

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From the article:

“If central banks have learned anything since 2008, it’s that waiting around for the panic to deepen is not a winning strategy.

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Put yourself in their shoes. Isn’t this what you would do, given the dearth of alternatives and the very real risks of implosion? Anyone in their position with the tools at hand would not have any other real option other than to buy stocks in whatever quantity is needed to reverse the selling and blow the shorts out of the water.

If $1 trillion doesn’t do the job, make it $3 trillion, or $5 trillion. At this point, it doesn’t really matter, does it?”

Unless their Rothschild overlords tell them to do simply nothing this time.

– Will the Fed Let the Stock Market Crash Before an Election?  (OfTwoMinds, Oct 12, 2014):

Anyone in their position with the tools at hand would not have any other real option other than to buy stocks in whatever quantity is needed to reverse the selling and blow the shorts out of the water.

Since I’m writing this on Sunday evening, if the Dow Jones Industrial Average opens down 1,000 on Monday morning, I’m going to look very foolish. Such is the risk of being contrarian. So what’s contrarian now–expecting a crash or expecting a bounce and rally?
Exactly what the sentiment consensus is right now is open to debate. Analysts expecting a stock market crash see those expecting a rebound as the consensus view.

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This Is How Empires Collapse

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– This Is How Empires Collapse (OfTwoMinds, April 22, 2014):

by Charles Hugh-Smith

This is how empires collapse: one complicit participant at a time.

Before an empire collapses, it first erodes from within. The collapse may appear sudden, but the processes of internal rot hollowed out the resilience, resolve, purpose and vitality of the empire long before its final implosion.

What are these processes of internal rot? Here are a few of the most pervasive and destructive forces of internal corrosion:

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