America the New Pottersville

We have heard about big surges in home sales. Hmmm. But there are all those For Sale signs and people are still upside down . So what is going on. Well. Like the stock market, the one percent is making a play and what they are doing is creating a new Pottersville. Lets go back to the movie It's A Wonderful Life. It was wonderful because George kept the Building and Loan going and they made loans to middle class people nobody else would lend to. In other words they developed a middle class.

But Pottersville owned by Mr. Potter were all renters. Nobody owned. Everyone "kept paying the rent in Potters slums" and that's why the Building and Loan drove Potter crazy because it  cut into his business. Potters renters became Georges buyers. Now. Lets take today. We have an incredibly depressed housing market (sans LA) with prices scraping bottom. Now a lot of middle class people cannot get a loan still. Bad Ficos. Homes upside down. But yet houses are being bought. They are being pot by our modern Potter.

Big companies. Investors from other countries are buying up homes at the clip of three hundred a day. Why? Because they are going to create  a vast rental market for  Americas beaten down middle class. People have to live somewhere and they will rent. And large conglomerates will rent them the  homes until the market moves up and they decide to sell or maybe they will just keep renting. Maybe the new normal is a Potterville where no one can buy but they rent.

A new twist on the American Dream turned upside down. Remember in the movie when George gets his wish and the world has turned into Pottersville? At least he could wake up and return to the old world before Potter. We are not so lucky

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The Timesuck of the Internet

How much time do you spend on the Internet and how productive are you? When you try and get something done on the Internet you are taking on the whole world. And the world pushes back and suddenly you cannot get the most basic thing done And you spend hours trying to get something accomplished. And it may be the only game in town but maybe there is a better way. Or try this. If everyone is there then who is really listening?

Take getting a job. Millions of resumes. You don't get any response. You get nothing. People send off resumes and nothing comes back. And yet you remain convinced this is the way to do it. Not necessarily. Maybe it is time to around the building and go in the back door. Lets say  the Internet is this huge building with only one entrance. The problem is not everyone can fit in that room. In fact a lot of people never even get up to the door because it is crowded.

That has happened on the Internet. You can tell. There are so many people trying to do the exact same thing that nothing happens. You get blown out by volume. Lets use a highway analogy. Too many people creates traffic and then you come to a standstill. Gridlock. This is what happens all the time on the net. The gridlock is you get drained out by the voices.

The challenge is to know when to walk away from the net and do the unexpected. You know. Like pick up the phone. I got something really radical. Go see someone in person. I bet you will have the whole place to yourself.

Rocket Man...the funniest novel since Russos Straight Man...Chicago Suntimes