Arianna Huffington combats the Absurd Disconnect (aka states the obvious)

Another cogent post from fredericguarino this one has Ariana Huffington bridging the gap that occurs when what we think is so different from what the reality really is (aka the Absurd Disconnect):

“we also need to recognize that we all have a responsibility to do our part and rebuild our communities and rebuild our lives, beginning with rebuilding our own financial literacy so we can move our own family onto safer financial ground. Because this is financial warfare. The credit card companies, the mortgage companies that have been offering us, supposedly, a ticket to the good life, are really filling their contracts with tricks and traps, charging usury rates, 28, 29, 30 percent on our credit cards, and basically undermining the very idea of the American dream.”

—

Tavis Smiley . Shows . Arianna Huffington . September 20, 2010 | PBS

I’ve always been a fan of Arianna Huffington (even if I hate her website) and once again, she speaks the truth, even if it is a pretty obvious truth to anyone smart/cynical enough to look past the wishful thinking all of us did when signing up for a credit card.  Her mention of interest rates made me think of something I heard Robert Scheer say on Democracy Now yesterday:

So, you know, something that the Bible scripture calls for, whether you’re Hebraic, Christian or a Muslim tradition, usury is condemned. It’s condemned far more than anything else in the Bible. And yet, you know, if you dare suggest we not charge 35 percent interest to somebody on their credit card, my God, no, that can’t be.

Yeah, I always forget about how, if you’re a good Christian, Jew or Muslim, you should never charge interest or be willing to pay it, really.  That’s what usury is—or at least, that’s what it was.  Once greed kicked in and money became more important than the Bible or God, usury became excessive interest.  So, imagine if “thou shalt not kill” became “thou shalt not kill, very often.”  It’s sort of like that—ridiculous.

But now our entire economy is based on usury.  The Federal Reserve loans money to the US economy and the US economy has to pay it back with interest.  That money is then loaned out by banks to us with interest.

Huffington is right, but it’s not just with credit card contracts and mortgages. It’s with all money period—every dollar in our pocket or digit in our bank account represents money borrowed ultimately from the Fed for a fee.

And we are never taught this growing up. Well, I know I wasn’t.  We didn’t have so much as a section in Home Ec class in how to balance a checkbook.  I can, however, make a killer egg-in-a-frame, to this day.

Mythbusters Censored by Credit Card Companies

The above screencap comes from an Engadget.com post which you can find here: http://www.engadget.com/…company-l/ and it reports on Mythbusters co-host Adam Savage's admission that the Discovery Channel caved under pressure from the credit card companies not to air an episode profiling the extreme hackability of RFID chips that are now appearing in credit cards.

The story originally comes from a video posted on Wired.com here: http://blog.wired.com/…ch-my.html which was previously posted on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-St_ltH90Oc, which you can watch to the left.

So, now the truth is effectively been banned. This kind of thing pisses me off to no end--as the Engadget post points out, rather than spend money on finding a more secure solution to RFID's problems, these companies would rather spend money on lawyers to stop people from talking about RFID's problems.

In other words, rather than keeping our money safe, they'd rather be able to advertise the latest bell and whistle to get more customers.

This is why I don't have a credit card. This is why I wish I could function without a bank account--because banks aren't keeping my money secure. Remember that company that made a bunch of electronic balloting machines that were super easy to hack? They used to be called "Diebold" and guess what other kind of machine they make: Automated Teller Machines. Yep, the company that couldn't prove they could count our votes we're trusting to count our money.

Meanwhile, banks think RFID is the wave of the future. However, it's anything but. While the credit card companies won't let Discovery Channel show that Mythbusters episode (or let them even MAKE the episode), Engadget.com previously posted a video that details how easy it is to hack RFID. I reposted it here: http://thepete.com/…vulnerable

I'm all for technology (DUH!), but anyone who thinks that technology can be trusted not to fail hasn't used technology enough to know what they're talking about.

Mobile post sent by thepete using Utterz.  Replies.

UPDATE 20080905: I just came across a CNET article reporting on how Savage had to clarify what he meant when speaking at the convention. It seems that the real story is convoluted and bizarre but that generally what he said was accurate--aside from the fact that it wasn't Discovery Channel who shelved the episode idea, but the show's production company.

Either way, it still sounds like lawyers got involved and freaked producers out a bit--not that I blame them.