Tuesday, January 31, 2012

What's wrong in America? - a video to watch

My friend Tommy in New York, on his blog 'Tommy's Ramblings' on Friday, the 20th of January, has a link to a video about 'Engineered Inequality' and it is about half an hour (38 minutes) that is well worth watching. Here's the video.

My thanks to Tommy for providing this link. This interview with the book's authors and their comments about the problems make fascinating listening.

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting this one Ray.

    I've had several conversations with friends and have come to the conclusion that as an individual there is really nothing that can be done about this. We can only live our lives within out small area of influence. So, I can only try and put it in front as many people as possible and hope that as a collective (not the borg) that something can be done.

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  2. @ Tommy -

    Here in Canada we didn't have the same kinds of problems, as it mentions in the video, because our banking system is more carefully regulated.

    A lot of us are hoping that somehow the situation can be corrected, even though it appears to be a tough job. We are not looking forward to America being replaced on the world stage by others who do not share our common values.

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  3. "Here in Canada we didn't have the same kinds of problems, as it mentions in the video, because our banking system is more carefully regulated."

    I understand that this is true and we're very interesting in learning more about it. You never know, you may get a new neighbor up there in Vancouver.

    Me and my wife :-)

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  4. @ Tommy -

    Here is a link to something on this, and it may help explain some of the differences in the two systems....

    http://www.cba.ca/en/media-room/50-backgrounders-on-banking-issues/469-canadas-strong-banking-system-benefiting-canadians

    The biggest single difference in our two systems is in how they handle risks. Here, the banks don't lend money unless we can show that we can repay it. Another difference is that most of our transactions now are done electronically. When I paid off my car, I called the head office of the bank where my loan was, and told them I'd like to pay off the full balance. The gal there asked if I had the money in my account here so that they could put through an electronic debit for it, and I said, "Yes, please do" and that was it. When I looked at my local account, they had taken out their money, and there wasn't any paperwork until later on when I got a confirmation of that in the mail. Down there, I understand that it is still done mostly with paperwork being passed back and forth. I think our system is cheaper, and definitely faster.

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  5. Thanks for the link Ray. I will definitely check it out.

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