Since last addressed here last March, the extent of the fake economy has been exposed to be orders of magnitude beyond what most Americans can yet comprehend. Some less than exuberant enthusiasm from back then:
…in light of the revelations over the past year…it really has struck me that a huge proportion of our economy is probably just money laundering. …
…now that we are learning that hundreds of billions—at least—of government expenditures go to fake nonprofits and businesses, … it has been dawning on me and others that some significant fraction of our apparent economy amounts to storefronts that provide little to no actual goods and services.
I've written about this before, but I often wonder how much of our "economy" is fake.
Back in the day in Los Angeles there was a prevalence of "Cell Phone Accessory" stores. Sometimes several per block.
[Rambo Van Halen:] I’ve written about this before, but I often wonder how much of our “economy” is fake.
Back in the day in Los Angeles there was a prevalence of “Cell Phone Accessory” stores. Sometimes several per block.
We’d film on these dumpy commercial streets, and be working in front of these shops for days. But we wouldn’t see a single customer enter or exit.
The off duty cops we hired for traffic control explained that it’s all money laundering. Same with the bodegas, the vape shops, and most of the restaurants.
In Los Angeles, and many other cities, there are miles and miles of streets full of businesses with no customers. And yes, most of them are owned by immigrants.
Another story, this time from San Francisco…
A new asian hotdog place opened in my neighborhood. It looked cute from the outside. Thought it might have good food (sometimes these places do). So I went in and ordered a hotdog….
The cute asian girl disappeared into the kitchen. Doesn’t come out for a long time. After 15 minutes I walk to the counter and ask “how’s it going in there?” but I got no answer.
So I peeked into the “kitchen”. And to my surprise there was no kitchen–it was just an empty room. No fridge, no stove, no food.
And there was no cute asian girl.
She’d left.
She had my money so I stuck around to see what the fuck was going on. A few minutes later she returned with a hotdog. I have no idea where she got it from. (I asked but she pretended not to understand English👍)
So this raises some questions, because in San Francisco the health department “grade” must be placed in the window of the restaurant. And the fake hotdog place had a legit 99% rating (probably because they had no food on the premises).
So somebody from the city of San Francisco inspected, and passed, a fake restaurant. The inspectors were probably on the take. At best, they looked the other way.
These “shops” take up a lot of retail space–it’s a lot of real estate. And retail space–especially in San Francisco and Los Angeles–is expensive, mainly because the cheap space is taken up with fake businesses.
In the past I’ve looked into opening retail businesses. The biggest expense is rent. And it’s so expensive that I abandoned the business ideas after running the numbers.
So how much of the commercial real estate market is propped up by these sham businesses?
And how many honest entrepreneurial Americans could be running their own small businesses but aren’t doing so because the rent is too damn high?
Once you start looking for fake businesses you can’t stop seeing them.
So the next time you’re driving around your city, look at the dumpy commercial strips, and the dirty “store” windows. Then look at the crappy strip malls with peeling paint, cracked signs, and empty potholed parking lots.
Then ask yourself, “How much of this is fake?” [End Rambo Van Halen]
Some of our fake economy is pure black market, but of course, much of it is straight from the government to fake businesses….
Obviously, there is a sector of the economy that is fabulously productive that props up all this graft, and the federal government can borrow trillions of dollars to keep it all going. There is an America that works, even if the left is trying to kill it. The American entrepreneurial economy is still strong, but underneath that layer of actual productivity, how much of the rest is just…fake?
There is no accounting for all this for obvious reasons, but I wonder. How many of those run-down storefronts are the legal address for 5, 10, or 50 fake businesses?
[Emphasis added]
The scope of the fraud and corruption is quickly – in historical terms – coming to light. I sure hope “we” don’t shy away from putting names and faces to as much of it as possible.
the philo t. custis institute 