Snowball Effect - Class 5 (2/15/12)

During this class, we started out with the discussion of Snowball and kind of summarizing what its about since we were going to be watching it. We then got into a discussion on capitalism and economies which are driven forward by risk management, and bottom-line profit. Capitalism is based on infinite expansion but the problem with that is that the world has scarce resources so the United States' solution is to create perpetual war to feed our "war machine" that began during WWII to feed its exploitative, imperialistic agenda. The capitalist tower was brought up in class which I had not seen before, but I confused it with a pyramid diagram I had recently seen, both of which are below. They are based on control by manipulation and in this case what they manipulate is the money. Since the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913, the US dollar has lost over 90% of its value with $1 today being equal to less than $0.10 in 1913 thanks to fractional reserve banking and inflation.

The Snowball Effect had stark similarities to From the Ground Up in how those in authority treated the group at risk in a manner that lacked respect and was condescending. They basically told outright lies; specifically what is brought to mind is the top dog of Snowball lying to children saying that the reclaimed water was completely safe and the snow made from it could even be eaten and also the worked from the water treatment plant who said the water was the same as other water because, wait for it, it looks the same! Of course when asked if he would drink it he basically said he wouldn't be caught dead drinking that water. The whole situation reminds me of the case studies in the book where they try to convince the people it is economically better for them if they just allow it to happen, but its all just lies, the town actually prospered more when there were bad snow years and this was likened to the roads being clear and people being able to go to town to shop. I was glad to hear the opinion's of the old couple in the back because they made great points and the wife basically summarized the premise of From the Ground Up during her little speech. I guess its just good to know there are others out there who understand the plight.