Posted on 05/29/2011 8:51:21 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Old habits are hard to break, but once they're broken...
The USD has been the safe haven reserve for 70 years and it is all based on the "full faith and credit..."
Break the faith, and she's gone, gone, gone...
My FAITH is NOT on man or money, but in the Lord only. ONLY IN HIM do I trust. He will take care of the rest. Do the same and you will have peace, peace the world DOES NOT understand. If it be His will He CAN easily turn our situation around IF we, AMERCIANS, will make Him, Lord of this country again!
Yes, all your points are absolutely correct.
And what is worse, the mainstream media is flat out refusing to cover the extent to which this nation is in deep trouble in an effort to keep Hussein and the Democrats in charge.
I suspect even many in the MSM understand a dire crisis is coming, but they figure they’d much rather have the Democrats in charge when it actually comes time to fix the problem. So they will simply help demagogue the Republicans and cover for Obama by just refusing to cover the poor economic indicators and the obvious calamity coming our way.
Politics trumps all things, and the majority of our media are desperate to keep the left in power. Even with the rise of the new media, the MSM has massive influence. People simply don’t believe disaster is coming unless the likes of Brian Williams, Bob Schieffer or the NY Times say so. Oddly enough, in a certain way the rise of alternative conservative media has actually pushed the mainstream media further to the left as they try to push back against outlets like Fox. So while the right has more media to choose from, the still dominant outlets are more inclined than ever to cover for and outright support Democrats.
We are headed off a cliff. If we get some real economic growth happening it may delay things for several more years, but at the rate we are going our economy is going to be in dire straights very quickly (it already is). Demographic changes and years of MSM/entertainment and leftist education propaganda has helped create a population that is now absolutely wed to the welfare state. This nation has slow growth, an unemployment rate of 9%, $4.00 gas, housing market in the tank, etc, etc - and STILL Obama is at 50%+ popularity. Any president presiding over such a mess in the past would be in the 30’s approval wise - that just shows you have much power the MSM retains and what a poor crop of Americans currently shape elections.
There is not enough cash. Most transactions are checks and cards. They are not really printing cash. Just cyber money.
Yes indeed. Anything to bring upon communism and share everythng with everyone. They are playing God and stupid US citizen elected this communist and he will cause a revolution.
They are not producing it is what I am trying to say. Limited to 100 dollar notes they can not. Debt is not even backed up by cash. Just Cybermoney and Bonds
Proclaiming faith in God will not fix our economic problems. It may give you and others inner peace, but it won't solve the implosion of the social welfare state. Many people consider themselves good Christians, have faith in God and STILL reliably vote for liberal Democrats. This is because they believe God would have us support a social welfare state such as the one bankrupting us now.
While I agree a stronger God fearing nation would do a lot of good, this economic fight is going to require charismatic, strong leadership and all of us deciding to get out there and change minds and convince people we are in for a world of hurt if we don't reform and curtail the entitlement state.
Retreating to faith in God alone simply will not help solve these problems. By your logic the American revolution would have just sorta worked itself out and good people wouldn't have had to have been willing to fight, kill and die in order to create the United States in the first place. More than faith is required. People have to stand up and be counted.
That way of thinking sure didn't help the Romans when the Goths and Vandals showed up.
Today the Mexicans are playing the Goths and the Muslims are playing the Vandals
I agree with everything you have said on this thread. But the deeper problem is this: even Ronald Reagan (or any other great, natural-born charismatic leader) on his best day would get trounced in an election if he told the American people: 1) the depth of our structural problems and 2) what would be required to fix these problems. The days when a simple depression could purge the excesses, imbalances, and bad debt from the system, are over. It is now a global problem, and one which would require societal changes which just aren’t going to happen politically (they will happen, but through systemic collapse, not the political process).
Kicking the can further down the road, is unfortunately the only politically realistic “solution”.
Though I hold out hope this is not true, it does seem to be the inescapable conclusion.
These programs will likely collapse eventually, the question is who will be around when the reform, restructuring and curtailment happen. The Democrats and their media cheerleaders are probably aware of this and in an effort to hold on to power at all costs will simply demagogue the whole thing so they retain the reigns of power now and when the time comes that dealing with this stuff is no longer an option.
Republicans, particularly considering the loss of NY 26, are probably coming to the same conclusion. Obama and the media set the trap and I suppose the GOP walked into it. Republicans took the bait and it appears to have blown up on them. A media that claimed it was time for "adults in the room" to stand up and talk entitlement reform instantly turned on them. Hussein did the same, even inviting Ryan to be present when he rolled out the Democrat medi-scare strategy. Politically speaking, the Republicans may have to just let the entitlement programs blow up and hope they are the ones standing when it comes time repair the damage. These programs are as much, perhaps more, of a third rail today as they've always been. Americans are absolutely wedded to the social welfare state and simply won't hear of changing it.
I agree.
It is already to late to try to fix these problems. We've passed the point of no return...we're going to have very serious problems.
The fix would produce the same results as an out & out collapse.
Rioting in the streets..maybe worse.
Prepare now the best you can
The demagoguery that you refer to has only just begun, and is nothing compared to what it will be when things start to really collapse.
I am, I think, more pessimistic than you, in that I see the entitlement programs as the tip of the iceberg. Globally, Europe, China, and Japan are in even worse shape, for a variety of reasons. Europe is collapsing, not just because of sovereign debt (and unsustainable entitlement programs), but because so many of their financial institutions are going to implode when those losses get realized. Japan has survived with a ridiculously bloated government, and equally ridiculous debt levels, by being an export-oriented nation at a time when world consumption was exploding, and by being a nation of savers. But the savings are tapped out now, and this is not a good time to be an export oriented country. This is all in addition to their obvious demographic problems.
And China is much more of a tinderbox than most people realize (economically, socially, and politically). I would not want to be there when/if the world slips into a real depression.
And in this country, we never allowed prices to revert to their norm. Even with the losses in real estate so far, the bottom line is that we have a terrible glut in housing, and taking into account taxes and the cost of home ownership, housing has a long drop ahead of it. Commercial RE is, if anything, in even worse shape. And it was only a couple of years ago that the stock market was a little over half of what it is now. When it drops, I believe it can easily test those lows. This isn’t even taking into account problems like the vulnerability of pension funds.
Basically, the loss of wealth will be staggering.
You said that “Americans are absolutely wedded to the social welfare state and simply won’t hear of changing it”. I think we are also absolutely wedded to a standard of living that is not sustainable, and I think the vast majority of the population will be taken by such surprise that they will be easy pickings for the demagoguery from the left.
As if that weren’t pessimistic enough: we also have a global just-in-time economy, which has never existed before, and is in many ways an untested framework. While it has tremendous virtues (efficiency, tolerance to shock, etc.), it also has one serious flaw: it is vulnerable to complete collapse, in a way that all other economies throughout history were not. My biggest fear is that a large enough shock in the system (such as a deflationary collapse starting in Europe), and suddenly the entire global economy pulls a Soviet Union: one day it is working, and the next it is not.
We will see. I could be very wrong on all of this. If nothing else, it is at least interesting.
You make many good points, however I am still not convinced things are quite that bad. I concede they could be, but my outlook isn't yet as dire as yours. Things do have a way of working themselves out, and it is easy to focus only on the negative and begin assuming the worst about everything.
The main thing I'd suggest is that you be careful not to ignore positive trends and statistics where they exist. I've known people that felt sure we were on the verge of collapse, and it is almost as if they began hoping it would happen to prove they were right. You can really put yourself in a funk if you let yourself think that way unnecessarily.
Still, I don't really disagree with much of what you say. Things look pretty glum in my opinion too. The media is helping feed enough optimism into the public that consumer/public sentiment alone is helping prop things up. Another shock could be all it takes for the bubble to really burst. I guess I'd just say I am not really sure yet how things will go. Americans have gotten their act together before and moved this nation in a positive direction. It is possible we may yet rally and turn things around.
I read, last night, that food in Asia as a percentage of income is now (average) 60%. Try to imagine having to spend 60% of your income on food alone.
The last I read, the US is at about 9% of income...23% for food and energy.
Bottom line: we cut our budget or China/Japan/Europe does.
One way or the other it is going to happen.
We should. But short of that, we need to keep the flow going.
Read “One Second After” for a gruesome picture of what we will face if we are cast back to the dark ages either due to an EMP or due to oil being shut down.
Thanks, Blam.
I’ll study it and add it to my library.
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