[Nettime-bold] Re: <nettime> Gamblers in the casino capitalism

["cisler" <cisler@pobox.com>]

The one phrase that stuck with me in Felix' posting was "jump on the bandwagon
and not be left behind."

I live in Silicon Valley, and the feeling of being left behind goes along with
people comparing their situation, income, house,car, kids school performance,
job to neighbors or co-workers. Because of the high prices and high salaries for
many, people who would be very well off in many other industrial societies think
they are not. A person in a house worth $750,000 is surrounded by mansions going
for $3,000,000, and that person feels inferior.  That is what is really
problematic. I'll be talking about this at the tulipomania.com conference next
week.

Martin, the older investor in the message, claimng to have lost everything,
probably has social security (or will soon) and if he files for bankruptcy to
cover the debts incurred from buying on margin, he can still protect his house
equity.  In short, he may be depressed, may have had his dreams shattered, but
he's way better off than a lot of people in the U.S. and most of the world (in
financial terms).

My son is in high school. His economics class had each student pick a simulated
portfolio of stocks for an initial total outlay of $100,000 US. His was usually
the worst performing of any student--even before the fall. He takes a perverse
pride in this. After all, it's not real money, is it?

Steve Cisler


_______________________________________________
Nettime-bold mailing list
Nettime-bold@nettime.org
http://www.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold