Front Page of the Atlantic: Upper Middle Class Veal Calves in Total Freak Out

[JurisDoctorOfDoom]

Front page of this month's Atlantic Monthly is damn good. The short version is the author's portfolio crashes, he fires his broker, and starts consulting with famed survivallist Cody Lundin:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200905/goldberg-economy/3

On the psychological fallout of the recent collapse:

For most of our adult lives, my wife and I have behaved in the way responsible cogs of capitalism are supposed to behave—we invested in a carefully calibrated mix of equities and bonds; we bought and held; we didn’t overextend on real estate; we put the maximum in our 401(k) accounts; we gave to charity; and we saved, but we also spent: mainly on gasoline, food, and magazines. In retrospect, we didn’t have the proper appreciation for risk, but who did? We were children of the bull market. Even at its top, my investment portfolio was never anything to write home about. Its saving grace was that it was mine. And I imagined that when we did cash out, at 60 or 65, I would pass my time buying my wife semisubstantial pieces of jewelry and going bass fishing like the men in Flomax commercials.

Well, goodbye to all that. I took a random walk down Wall Street and got hit by a bus.

This reminds me a lot of the NY Times finance author who found out his broker was involved in dirty deeds. (We have a thread on that somewhere started in the last few days.)

His observations after consulting with Lundin:

The curious thing about listening to Cody Lundin is that in his ideas I heard echoes of ideas I’ve been hearing from people very much dependent on the financial grid. Bill Gross, the founder of Pimco, the world’s leading bond trader (and, according to a September 2008 ranking by Forbes, America’s 227th-richest person), suggested that thrift—not mouse-eating thrift, but more moderate forms of thrift—is quickly becoming the norm, as a result of society’s massive over-leveraging.

Here's a video with the author, you can see he is your typical upper middle class "professional" wage slave:

http://podcasts.theatlantic.com/2009/04/the-con-game.php

He looks not unlike a veal calve (sorry but it's true). Not surprising when you think about it as he was just getting fattened up by his "adviser" from MErril Lynch who had him invested in Citibank and AIG, two of the dirtiest of the dirty players out there in terms of the "tapeworm economy." I'm a big believer that your physical body starts to represent what is going on long term in other parts of your life particularly those that you put the most time and energy into. So it comes as no surprise to me that so many of the upper middle class retail investor types (like the author of the Atlantic) have taken on the appearance of fattened veal calves. (Of course I have come to wonder what effect my work - which involves heavy computer use - has on me but I do offset it with lots of time outdoors, this is probably another thread though)

[pamela]

You know, that was a lot better article than I thought it was going to be.
He did a good talking about the barefoot survivalist, didn't make him sound like a nut or any of the usual stuff.
He made him sound more like the wise hermit that you go to in trouble times for advice. More like Gandolf or some mythical figure.
I liked that a lot.
 
Good stuff JDD.

[lynnie]

Great read, thanks!

[buffalocreek]

Yea, that guy's a real porker. Lundin probably had dark thoughts whilst advising him, such as how long will tubby keep everyone well fed on one of Cody's survival hikes.

[slow_dazzle]

Yea, that guy's a real porker. Lundin probably had dark thoughts whilst advising him, such as how long will tubby keep everyone well fed on one of Cody's survival hikes.

LMAO! Damned funny comment.

[Katie]

One of my reactions to my peak oil moment was to begin to gain weight.  Then, I was an average, to slightly below average weight for my height, depending on which chart you use.  Now, based on those charts, I'm not overweight, but if I gain 5 more pounds I will be  .  My reasoning was simple:  if food is going to be scarce in the future, a few extra pounds wouldn't hurt, a bit of prepping.  Plus, I gave myself permission to eat chocolate and things like that since it will be scarce in the future  .

I'm not sure if this is reasoning or rationalization .  I also put so much time into educating myself and preps, I don't exercise as much as I used to.  Time spent at the gym in the winter was not at the top of my to do list.  I still do it, but feel less healthy than I did pre-PO awareness.   Gardening season will take care of some of that.   I hope not to look like a veal-fed calf  .

 

[JurisDoctorOfDoom]

One of my reactions to my peak oil moment was to begin to gain weight.  Then, I was an average, to slightly below average weight for my height, depending on which chart you use.  Now, based on those charts, I'm not overweight, but if I gain 5 more pounds I will be  .  My reasoning was simple:  if food is going to be scarce in the future, a few extra pounds wouldn't hurt, a bit of prepping.  Plus, I gave myself permission to eat chocolate and things like that since it will be scarce in the future  .

I'm not sure if this is reasoning or rationalization .  I also put so much time into educating myself and preps, I don't exercise as much as I used to.  Time spent at the gym in the winter was not at the top of my to do list.  I still do it, but feel less healthy than I did pre-PO awareness.   Gardening season will take care of some of that.   I hope not to look like a veal-fed calf  .

 

Well there's different types of "overweight":

Overweight Type A: Sturdy, robust, strong (Think Old Horseman) This is the GOOD type of "overweight", like a strong mule or something. (A female softball player would be the female equivalent)

Overweight Type B: Soft, placid, doughy. (Think the author of the Atlantic piece) This is the BAD type of "overweight" as it's more like being a veal calf than a work horse.

The same can be said for being underweight. You can be "skinny" and be healthy (think of a a greyhound) or you can be skinny and be very unhealthy (think of what you feel like after losing a bunch of weight from being sick)

A person's scale weight is not the distinguishing factor. I'm sure there are some type of numerical differences that could be measured but it's more something you know when you see it.

[PseudoPhil]

I've been thinking for quite a while that after the poor and middle classes have been thoroughly fleeced, that the upper middle class and the lower upper class would be next in line for the shearing. Once we reach the point where only the "rich" have accessible assets, then the "richer" will start to feed on them. Wealth continues to be concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. Those who thought themselves "rich" and looked forward to a retirement of leisure are going to be just as disappointed as those of us who have recently realized that the future they expected is already gone.

On a side note, the thought also occurs to me that those who remain rich are even more dependent on others than most. They may think to set themselves up as the modern equivalent of feudal lords, but they will end up being as dependent on their servants as the later Caesars were on the Praetorian Guard. I seem them becoming prisoners in their own palaces.

[Katie]

Well there's different types of "overweight":

Overweight Type A: Sturdy, robust, strong (Think Old Horseman) This is the GOOD type of "overweight", like a strong mule or something. (A female softball player would be the female equivalent)

Overweight Type B: Soft, placid, doughy. (Think the author of the Atlantic piece) This is the BAD type of "overweight" as it's more like being a veal calf than a work horse.

The same can be said for being underweight. You can be "skinny" and be healthy (think of a a greyhound) or you can be skinny and be very unhealthy (think of what you feel like after losing a bunch of weight from being sick)

A person's scale weight is not the distinguishing factor. I'm sure there are some type of numerical differences that could be measured but it's more something you know when you see it.

He does look puffy and unhealthy, but typical of so many.  Good distinction about the differences between A and B.  Muscle weighs more than fat, so that's a part of it. "A" type overweight is something for me to shoot for, because I really do think being too skinny could be a liability in the not-too-distant future. 

[Fishsurfer]

The lower class got its wealth redistribution alright when their employers lost the farm and bailed like smart little worker bee's.  Hows that working out.  What we are witnessing goes beyond simple greed and stupidity.  Who allowed for poor loans to be forcefully fed to the populace? Who allowed a massive cadre of MIT geeks with flawed algorithms to determine investment strategy based on those said sub prime loans?  Who was it that engaged in retrieving credit from other countries?  It all comes back to one of two things:
a) a highly orchestrated and purposeful move to fluff the system before it collapsed to bring about a stronger more authoritarian statist government.
or
b) a group of fools we call represenatives piece mealing and subsequently not managing oversight committees and legislation. 

Now that all that has gone down, what really matters? 

Contrary to popular opinion on here, i do not believe for one second that both sides of leadership in DC are on the same page.  Not in the least bit.  I know these people like the back of my hand.  The majority are clueless selfish egotistical idiots that got elected by pandering to certain groups...blacks, whites, mexicans, corporations, banks, etc... with a wee bit of help from a highly uninformed populace who gain their information from ten second news snippets on the radio or 15 page fluff pieces on a blog obviously slanted towards one side or the other.  The MSM, the real news, is not relevant in this country any longer.  The people didnt care to know the truth, so they got one sided fluff instead to feed their ignorant one sided self feeding minds.  They can't handle the actual truth. 

So this leaves us with a massive period of readjustment/violence.  People are not going to like self responsibilty, they are not going to like risk, they are not going to like the geopolitical ramifications of not living in a nation that holds up its end of the bargain. 

The only solution i see thats viable, that may give individual states and individuals themselves a chance for immunity; is to retract support of the federal governments economic and foreign policies peacefully, retract taxation meant for the statist State and keep it for an actual State, let the leadership dissolve, plea to the world for forgiveness and clarity, let the people send in real represenatives.  Is that going to ever happen as our founders had and would most likely of hoped of us? I doubt it.

[lucid]

Other things Lundin asked me to try include making fire with sticks, eating mice—“a free source of protein in survival scenarios”—and living without electricity for a week to “see where it hurts.” Lundin himself eats mice and rats he traps at his off-the-grid passive-solar house in the wilderness, because “why waste free protein?”

Lundin is a funny guy.  Here's a clip of him demonstrating how to trap, dress, cook and eat a rat.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/_J0RZVqbHGM&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D18&amp;rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/_J0RZVqbHGM&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D18&amp;rel=0</a>

[permaculturepapa]

Here's a video we put together of Cody Lundin's sustainable house (doomstead):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWpSVNrt0LU (External Embedding Disabled)

I've known Cody for a long time, helped out a little with one of his buildings. He's a no-nonsense desert viking!!

[Broil]

Lundin is authentic ...... trapping small game and knapping rocks to make tools are a couple of skills I've put off practicing, even though I know how in a theoretical sense.  I'm reluctant to kill even small animals, and the penalties for doing so without a trapper's license are pretty draconian in California.

But I'll have to get started on that, hunting and gathering is likely to start becoming more important for me in the near future because of my financial situation and the increasing cost of food.

[islandgirl]

That's a really awesome looking house.  Thanks for sharing.  I wonder how much he spent building that house. 

I think that if things start getting worse, that it might be a good idea to just buy 2-5 acres of cheap land somewhere and buy a cheap used RV and pluck that onto the land.  But the earthbag home, the domes, and other sustainable homes are still a dream though. 

[HotRocks]

Overweight Type A: Sturdy, robust, strong (Think Old Horseman) This is the GOOD type of "overweight", like a strong mule or something. (A female softball player would be the female equivalent)

Did someone say softball player? In case anyone doesn't have an idea, here's Olympic gold medalist softball pitcher Jenny Finch:



(may not be entirely representative of every female softball player, but hey)