Posted on 08/21/2011 2:00:18 PM PDT by MarkAmerica
The future hasn't been written yet. The country is in a big hole, but *currently* the world is willing to tolerate that, in exchange for status quo that fits their needs.
If we get a President that is good, and the Congress that is good, then the trend can be reversed. The USA is a large country, with plenty of resources and with population that is well educated (some of it, at least.) Anyone on FR could come up with a 10 or 20 year recovery plan that will stabilize and eventually pay the debt.
But as things are, nobody in power is willing to even try those measures. It looks like the government and the Congress are high on drugs as are steering the country, giggling uncontrollably, into the abyss. If for some unfathomable reason the populace comes to its senses and elects a President who is smart, tough and loves the country, then this President will be bound in red tape and made ineffectual. If that President starts wiggling in those bonds, her life may be at risk (just ask JFK.)
Considering all that, I tend to reluctantly agree that the state of FUBAR is coming. In some aspects of life it is already here; for example, the justice system is already unusable - the citizens ARE afraid to call the police, but the criminals are NOT afraid of the police. Black is white.
There are many books and movies that depict possible future anarchy. I fear that they are all right. Lacking the desire for survival, the society moves toward the catastrophe inch by inch. Reduction of entitlements will be the tipping point. So far the government keeps shoveling money, more and more of it, into the maw of the entitlement demon. But eventually it will run out of money, or the demon decides that he wants more still. You can't keep him sated forever - there is not enough resources on the whole planet to feed and house a hundred million people who produce nothing but want to consume everything.
Where will you go(approximately) Steveo?
There ARE jobs; they just don’t pay what the applicants think they are worth.
I compete against Chicom manufacturers who pay fifty cents per hour. I cannot afford to pay a green worker more than minimum wage to do manufacturing tasks that don’t even require literacy. I have hired and fired over 50 people in the last ten years. Most don’t last a day. It’s just too hard for the pampered kids who think they should get $25/hr for unskilled labor.
BTW, I beat the Chicoms every day with higher quality, better technology, and faster turnaround. My workers were all born in the Old Country and grew up the hard way. They are outstanding, tough men of character who think it is macho to work in 105F ten hours straight to meet a deadline. No whining; they love their overtime checks.
I started working at age eleven for fifty cents per hour when it was 105F, and my job was not in the shade!
Sometimes people only learn the hard way. My parents were products of ranch and farm life during the Dust Bowl and the Depression. If our country is lucky, the current crop of youngsters will learn from the pain our country is about to endure.
Unfortunately, I'm afraid we're headed for a time of great tribulation not only in America but worldwide. I think this is it, as much as I wish it weren't.
I believe in continuing to fight the good fight but also to prepare for God's plan being different from our plans, at least for the near term.
As Beck said today at Restoring Courage in Israel, "Gang, we're on a freeway and there's a bridge out and we've passed all the exits (paraphrasing)."
Our last exit IMO was to use the debt ceiling as a lever to reduce federal spending. We failed miserably and succeeded in further dividing the nation.
Those who make it through this will see the birth of a new age with the expansion of the founder's ideas on liberty, freedom and Divine guidance and probably much, much more.
Pray that God cuts the days of tribulation short as promised in Mathew 24:22.
I apologize for the double post.
One more comment.
I think what has been lost is the concept of natural law. That there is a law of human relationships that is just as real as any other law of nature.
Many, many people don’t know that to get something done you can’t do yourself, you find someone who can do it, be nice, shake their hand, discuss the job, negotiate the payment, say thank you when the job is done and pay with a smile on your face.
Conversely many, many people don’t know that to get money you find someone who is willing to pay for what you can do, be nice, shake their hand, discuss the job, negotiate the payment and say thank you when they pay with a smile on their face.
That basic human interaction has been lost. Too many think you “demand payment” and stop the person with money from going anywhere else.
Add on to that progressivism which tries to replace what happens naturally with some imposed system and you have a group of politicians whose relationships (and reality) depend on something entirely different than natural relationships. These people simply don’t have one clue as to what a free and fair world is like. They don’t know it and they don’t want it.
With the debt spiraling out of control in the next three to six years, something new will come about. The ways of today must go away. I have no idea what will replace it but I’m sure that in some way those who produce must have more influence than those who don’t. It probably won’t involve proportional representation.
I took a stab at mapping that out. Interesting process, but a lot of data to juggle. Hope I can fill out the full map before we need it.
Cost of living very cheap, never cold, extremely nice people... why not?
Bflr
Yeah. Overtime. I put a couple of hours of overtime on my weekly 40 a while back. My net pay was less than a regular 40. Something about the tax structure. Learned my lesson. Had about the same in overtime this last week. I just put down my regular 40. Told the boss I would just add them to a short week. Pretty happy to have this job. That good paying one deserted me last year.
Anyone out there want to describe what Hoggin Daze ice cream tastes like? I have never had it before.
---We didn't have a housing crisis.
---We didn't have 20 million bold and self-entitled illegals occupying our country.
---We hadn't shipped almost our entire manufacturing base overseas.
---We weren't $14 trillion in debt.
---We didn't have a two party system that consisted of a leftist party (R) and a straight-up Marxist one(D).
I think the difference is that many leftist politicians in the past thought their policies would make this a greater country. They were mistaken. Today’s leftist politicians hate this country and want a Cloward-Piven Strategy to destroy it. Looking at their policies, they are right on target. I think we are in for a big fight no matter who wins the next presidential election. What Atlas Shrugged omitted was the leftists killing tens of millions who did not want to be slaves. So many times that the total killed by their own leftist governments in the last century exceeds 100 million. The current regime of Mao lovers is pretty transparent for those paying attention.
I’m holding down Corner #4...I am well motivated, well educated, well trained, well “prepped”, well armed and turn ammo into skill at least once a week.
Sometimes though I fell like I’m holding down my “corner” by myself...then I log onto FR and realized there really is an extended FReeper family of like-minded souls who will cover my back.
I thin we’re all going to need each other in the very near future.
I'll see your "thinly veiled words"..........
and raise you with hard, pointed, high velocity lead.
If there is civil unrest, I'll do my level best to make sure it's very violent, one sided and short lived.
Go ahead....jump.
so right.
and the masses of the left have been empowered by entitlements.
If Obama gets a second term, by whatever means, I expect there will be stringent capital controls to prevent transfers out of the country and various punitive measures to make leaving a real pain in the @#$$%! I also expect that retirement accounts like 401ks will be subject to some form of government control and levy that will be disguised as protecting the people from reduced value, but will really give the government the power to drawn the balances and replace them with worthless promises. I guess what I am saying is that individuals who are planning on relocating need to be moving assets now as much as possible.
Yeah. We’re FUBAR.
1) A large percentage of Americans have never held a real job, much less aspired to a realistic career. Young people (and too many middle aged people) mark themselves with tattoos that make them virtually unemployable in a respectable business.
2) The corporations continue to take money out of the economy as Americans (and the government) borrow to pay the bills. Prices go up, but no one that takes home a paycheck is making more money. They tell the worker to remain loyal and then lay him off as soon as they can find a cheaper replacement. They rob our retirement accounts and give us a 401k and then Wall St computers ensure that the value never increases through a series of ups and downs that allows the big investors to profit, but screws the mutual fund holders.
3) The working class is beginning to see the futility of even trying to get ahead. Work is fast becoming something that only suckers do. Everyone else steals, scams, begs, and/or sticks a hand out for their money.
4) Morality is a joke that society uses to snicker at people they deem old-fashioned for working, staying married, respecting others, etc. Religion that means anything is laughed at, but any denomiation that is “tolerant” is hailed as the “next great path to heaven”.
5) All of our societal “systems” are broken. Education, justice, law enforcement, consumer protections, environmental protection are all designed to take money from the taxpayer and fund bloated bureaucracies that promise everything and deliver nothing. We even fight our wars so that the military-industrial complex can profit, while our men and women die for wars that the leaders have no intention of letting them win.
So, yes, we’re FUBAR. It will require a full reboot with a lot of pain and suffering to set things right again. It is something I do not want to see happen.
A collapsing Federal Govt. doesn’t mean that the sates have disappeared. The next civil war will be like last one, a few states taking a chance on secession rather than going down with the ship.
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