I think this young lady, if this is not a setup and she was coached, is wise beyond her years. I would, as she says, have to research the accuracy of her statements, but I think she fairly challenges the existing system. Specifically she is talking about banking and national debt in Canada. I think the logic and spirit of it applies to the banking and financial crisis in the U.S. and elsewhere.
On the share where I originally saw this, someone commented, "The world is complex. Not to try to understand this complexity makes you a fool!" This was in response to his view of a twelve year old girl oversimplifying an issue and others of us sounding off in a congratulatory manner.
The world on the whole, I agree, is very complex. Refusing to acknowledge complexity and thinking everything is easy to understand or has an easy solution or can be easily categorized does make people appear foolish. However, not everything is as complex as we sometimes make it out to be or as it is sometimes made out to be. Refusing to acknowledge that also makes people out to be foolish.
I think the majority of good con games go to one end of the spectrum or the other in regards to complexity. Some things that are too easy or too good to be true often are. People turn off their sensors because they want to believe and that bit of psychology is how they get played.
On the other end, a lot of the really good, and really long running, scams obfuscate the truth of something, especially through over complication. If we really saw the situation unfettered by layers of lies and misdirection, even a child could understand the con. I think a lot of intelligent people buy into some of these cons, like the banking system being discussed, because it is hard to fathom how so many for so long have been fooled, especially people seemingly brighter than ourselves. The people running the scam play off the psychology that the herd will think the herd leaders have already checked into all this confusing stuff. Also, individual people rarely want to stand out and be berated as foolish that they do not understand something. All of this plays into the hands of those running the scam.
Calling someone foolish or outright dismissing them for speaking out does not accomplish anything, least not education about or understanding toward an issue. In my opinion, the persons calling others foolish for doing that are arrogant and elitist at best and foolish pawns at worst.
Yes, there are issues that are documented and well understood and there are still people who are unable or unwilling to learn; one can only point those people toward the established knowledge and move on. However, I also think we must remain open that there might be someone who challenges the established knowledge with something new, and then that needs to be investigated, not dismissed and buried.
My personal opinion is that the mortgage crisis and banking crisis and much of the politics with nation states and corporate states are not unquestionable issues where someone, even a twelve year old girl, can not just say, with intelligent discourse, to open my eyes and stop being scammed. We should all question the issues until the issues are truly unquestionable. I do not believe that makes anyone foolish.
Thanks to +Gérard Foucher for the original post of this video and +Emilio Boronali for the share where I saw it.
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I've been looking into moving our "savings" to a more local bank or credit union. Any one of us tied to a major national bank can look at our statements and see that we're paying these people to take all our money and make more money for themselves. Then expected to say thank you for the opportunity.
Extremely well put, +Scott Cramer. Thanks for sharing and your words. You're absolutely right. Most of us fear facing reality and its coldness. We surround ourselves in a safe cocoon, expecting nothing bad will happen. The need to question and move forward with that mentality is something we desperately need as a people at this point.
+Luis Roca I have been a local credit union member for as long as I can remember. There are still problems, but it beats putting my money under the mattress!
+Moin Ahmad I am guilty many time of not questioning things also. I sometimes feel bad that I am not more politically involved. However, the way "the system" is built I have to take a majority of time earning money to pay debts and then if I want to spend time with loved ones, there is little left – physically or emotionally – for public service. Perhaps that is just a rationalization, but it's how I feel it works in my life.
+Scott Cramer we are all guilty of this, since we are in the situation right now. I also agree that after taking care of your responsibilities, it's hard to muster up more energy to devote to public service. I think we're finally achieving a level where "keyboard activism" actually can have a bit of an effect.
+Moin Ahmad I hope so. There are days where I start wondering if the "sign this petition" or "send this to your public official" are doing anything.
+Scott Cramer I have the same worries =/
printing money to reduce debt… that just decreases the value of its currency though.. ~_~
Seems like borrowing it and paying interest and then raising taxes to pay the interest doesn't work so well. A stronger currency that you have less of……?
+Scott Cramer I don't like the word "complexity" for everybody uses it for "this is something I have a lot of trouble to understand"… Which means bringing personal and emotional senses to something neutral : a complexity is an interconnexion of several causes interacting all together to produce another (higher) cause…. I'd better see the world as sophisticated, elaborated… And as one of my gurus (Leonardo da Vinci) once wrote: Simplicity is the highest sophistication". The human beings are the very one turning what is "simple" into somthing "complex" on the surface, therefore something that is really hard to understand. This is what that little girl is expressing: Everybody is believing that Finance is something complex where it is something very simple. But officials turned finance into some hocus pocus bogus to be sure others people won't get the scheme…
Well said +Emilio Boronali. I will be modifying my vocabulary accordingly. 🙂
+Scott Cramer too kind! :-)))
But it's not a one or another situation, borrowing money and raising taxes to repay debt is clearly not a good solution.
But neither is printing more money, as that will only decease the value of currency, which means in order to pay off the huge debt, you'll have to inflate the repayment amount thus flooding the market with excess currency. Banks will then handout more loans to people who may not necessarily have the means to repay (like the ninja loans in the states), when everyone has money, it will drive up the cost of living, paving the way for an economy boom thus begins the vicious cycle of inflation, depression.
I'm not too familiar with the economy in Canada, but speaking in general terms, to increase income for a country you need to promote external trade and foreign investment.
Reduce taxes on exports, work on ways to attract money coming into the country than producing more from within. Printing more money is just too easy and big a temptation to fall back on to whenever there is a financial debt. If it does work, then the great depression wouldn't have happened.
Just my two cents! 😉
+Queenie Moo Thanks for chiming in! I wish our government could have sensible honest conversations about issues; as opposed to partisan contrary politics.
Lol more like apologies for the long message? 😉 thanks for prompting such an interesting discussion! 😉
+Queenie Moo Somehow missed your last comment (c'mon G+, make the notification system better). You're welcome. I know it's not popular like an animated GIF cat in a LEGO Star Wars costume popular, but I try sometimes. 😉
it's ok! im used to being ignored! =p =p =p
I was going to just ignore that… but u 2 nice! 😉