Hell, my father stayed in business for almost 20 years, while losing money the whole time! He just lost it gradually. Other people have done it for even longer periods than that before the bubble finally burst. The way you do it is by:

1. consuming your inheritance and personal savings bit by bit

2. borrowing other people's money and going deeper and deeper into debt

3. losing your money slowly enough that it isn't really all that noticeable on any given day

4. using credit irresponsibly and going deeper into debt

This, in fact, is what any number of goverments have done and are doing on a regular basis...while getting their public to foot the bill through taxes and inflation...and currency that is in truth almost worthless. The whole prevailing social System encourages the ordinary public to do this too, by offering them every possible temptation to "buy now, pay later" with credit, and live at a level they cannot really afford.

It's massive irresponsibility from the top down, and it rests on a few basic assumptions:

1. the main rewards in life are material (untrue)

2. money buys happiness (untrue)

3. he who has the most toys is the happiest boy (untrue)

4. people will respect and love you if you've got a lot of expensive stuff (untrue)

5. MORE is always better (grossly untrue)

Add to that a little religious declaration like: "The sole purpose of business is profit." and you've got a population that no longer has the vaguest idea what life is really about. A population of drugged serfs. Such people will never find a way to fill their loneliness till they dump that MBA religion and find a saner one, that honours life itself instead of material wealth.

- LH