Why Today’s Economy Is Rigged Against You

I can see the game playing out all around me. This makes me dangerous and unpredictable to those that hold wealth and power. Their continued hoovering of money and power is threatened by me and others like me, because it would almost surely make it almost impossible to continue to make money. At least, in the long term, as it takes our government a long time to get legislation passed. There are two actions that have put us where we’re at today with the current financial system.

1. Repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act
   • Enacted in 1933 during the Great Depression, it’s main purpose was to restore public confidence in the U.S. financial system after widespread bank failures.
   • Prohibition of commercial banks to engage with investment banking activities, created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and restricted commercial banks from affiliated with securities firms or using depositor fund for risky investments.
   • Repealed most of the provisions under 1999’s Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act allowing commercial banks, investment banks, and insurance companies to merge.
2. Rollback of provisions in the Dodd-Frank Act
   • Enacted in 2010 as a reaction to the 2008 financial crisis that was made possible by the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act. The main purpose was to increase financial stability, improve accountability, and protect consumers.
   • Created or established the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), enacted the Volcker Rule, and identified Systemically Important Financial Institutions (SIFIs).
   • Majority of the provisions in this Act were rolled back in 2018 with the passing of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act. This raised supervision of banks to those with $250 billion or more in assets. Also reduced stress testing and capital requirements for mid-size banks as well as easing Volcker Rule compliance for community and regional banks.
   • Result with reduced oversight that caused the 2023 collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, showing risk existing outside of the megabanks.

The system has already been rigged to shift the majority of this nation’s wealth to a few at the top following an ideology that started with Reagan in 1980. The whole idea of “trickledown economics” sounds great on paper, but in practice I know of no company that would willingly use their annual profits to raise wages for its employees. A fanciful story told beaten into us with a smile on their face and fingers crossed behind their back. We now have at least two generations outright suffering in this economic market that was not built for them to succeed. I am not much better, but once I saw the game for what it was, I started making drastically different decisions.

My cars are now completely paid for, I own them. I have no credit card debt because I consolidated all of it into a home equity loan at 5% interest instead of the stupid 29.99% interest most of my cards had. I keep my technology for years, fixing it when it breaks, only replacing things when they are cost prohibitive to fix or are obsolete due to software, etc. I am not the ideal participant in this economy and there are more and more of us starting to speak out and make our voices heard.

I’m just one person, I know I can’t make a difference on my own, but I do have a voice and compelling arguments that cause people to stop and think. We need to pull back all the legislation that’s been systemically removed or had its teeth taken out reducing efficacy. The discussion has to take place now because recent legislation from the “administration” will see the bottom 51% of people gutted with higher cost of living without the increase in living wages. My parents lived through the most prosperous time in this country’s history, and they managed to have a house, children, cars, and pay for education on a standard living wage. To do that now, in today’s market, you would need to be making $66/hour or more to have the same spending power.

I am no longer playing the game.