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The Collapse Of America In Raw Numbers (With Video)
SHTF Plan ^ | 2-9-2012 | Mac Slavo

Posted on 02/09/2012 5:55:20 PM PST by blam

The Collapse Of America In Raw Numbers *Video*

Mac Slavo
February 9th, 2012

Looking at the numbers behind our federal budgets reveals that the majority of our government’s spending goes not to running the day to day operations of government, but rather, to social safety net programs like Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, welfare, food assistance, rental stipends and a host of other entitlement programs. In many cases, the programs themselves are used as a marketing tool during election campaigns, with the winner of an election often being the candidate who promises the most benefits to their constituents.

While this strategy of indirect vote buying has worked well for politicians on both sides of the aisle for many decades, and has been instrumental in ushering in an era of centrally planned economies and expansion of government influence on the individual lives of American citizens, it is as Bill Whittle suggests (video below), an unsustainable system that will ultimately fail.

It’s generally true that the people who receive the most in benefits pay little or nothing in taxes, so people are voting themselves other peoples’ money. It’s not just a vote pump. It’s a wealth redistribution pump, and it pumps $2.2 trillion every single year from people who work and pay taxes to people who often don’t work and don’t pay any taxes.

As long as the benefit receivers can outvote the benefit producers there will be more and more people taking, and fewer and fewer people working harder and harder to produce those benefits. That’s exactly what we’re seeing today.

(Please click to the site to see the video)

We face a choice. One option is to cut back on this [entitlement] food supply and gradually but firmly reduce this entitlement dependence to what it was originally intended to be: help for those, who through illness or physical incapacity, cannot help themselves, and return everyone else feeding on this supply from the wealth consumer column to the wealth generator column. That is going to be very, very, very difficult to do.

Or, we can let this continue until the system collapses, and that’ll be sooner rather than later, and much sooner than many of you think. Then there won’t be any benefits at all.

There is certainly something to be said for the ethical and moral obligations of an advanced modern-day society with respect to taking care of those who cannot care for themselves, or those who have experienced a short-term medical or employment emergency. But providing extended womb-to-tomb safety nets and entitlement programs for those who are perfectly capable of working a productive job but refuse to do so, or for those who make poor personal budgetary choices, leads to the inevitable outcome in which everyone eventually realizes that they’d be better off by simply collecting their income from the government.

We are at the point in America where there really is no turning back. While Mr. Whittle’s solution of drastically cutting back these types of nanny-state expenses is a sound one, it is simply not politically feasible for individual politicians. In today’s America, the idea of cutting back on social expenditures and facilitating a return to individual responsibility is political suicide for incumbents, and a non-starter for those wishing to enter the political arena as first time candidates.

Moreover, eliminating these types of expenses is simply not going to be possible without massive social upheaval. Consider what would happen if you cut supplemental food assistance by 50%, or eliminated extensions of emergency unemployment insurance, or, heaven forbid, you take away access to the millions of Obama Phones that will be distributed this year.

We are now so far gone that entitlement cuts to the federal budget will have the same catastrophic impact on society as will the eventual collapse of the monetary, financial and economic systems when our creditors finally stop lending us money. It’s a catch 22 and both options lead to the same end result. Thus, for Congressional representatives who control our budget, the choice is simple: kick the can down the road to keep the system from completely destabilizing for as long as possible.

When the money runs out – and it will, because China, Russia, Japan and the rest of our lenders know we’re a lost cause – the entitlement system in America will fall apart, leaving tens of millions of people without any way to meet their basic needs.

Once this new paradigm becomes apparent you can fully expect riots in the streets - bloodshed, starvation, martial law – all of the worst case scenarios you’ve imagined.

The system is coming unhinged and the math is all the proof you need.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: collapse; economy; preppers; shtf
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To: kearnyirish2
"The descendants of the Americans of the 18th and 19th centuries are disappearing, and being replaced by foreigners with completely different cultures and worldviews; there is no longer any assimilation, as the culture they would historically assimilate into has been denigrated into non-existence. "

I agree.

What started out as a (very successful) war against White males has become a war against all Whites and Western values.

21 posted on 02/10/2012 4:16:51 AM PST by blam
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To: blam

What states and local communities need to think about is how they take care of the most vulnerable in the face of financial disaster at the national level.


22 posted on 02/10/2012 4:24:38 AM PST by RFEngineer
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To: RFEngineer
"What states and local communities need to think about is how they take care of the most vulnerable in the face of financial disaster at the national level. "

The helpless/dependent may find that family and friends are their only/major support.

23 posted on 02/10/2012 4:34:26 AM PST by blam
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To: RFEngineer

Well, I can only speak for Georgia, but the GOPElite in charge at the Capitol is STILL determined to tie the state even more tightly to the Federal government, rather than looking for ways to stand on our own.

Not an unexpected consequence when you elect as Governor, a career United States Senator.

May God grant us strength.
Tatt


24 posted on 02/10/2012 4:41:06 AM PST by thesearethetimes... ("Courage, is fear that has said its prayers." Dorothy Bernard)
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To: brityank; bruinbirdman
Greek Death Spiral Accelerates
25 posted on 02/10/2012 4:46:59 AM PST by blam
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To: jessduntno
Third Manassas bump.

Fighting FedGov™ tyranny since 1861.

26 posted on 02/10/2012 5:08:46 AM PST by central_va ( I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: thesearethetimes...
As Gloom And Doom Becomes Fashionable, The Real Doomers Are Worried About A Bubble

“Worried that the Federal Reserve and the U.S. dollar are on the brink of collapse,” says a report at CNNMoney, “lawmakers from 13 states… are seeking approval from their state governments to either issue their own alternative currency or explore it as an option.”

In the event of hyperinflation,” warns Glen Bradley, who has sponsored one such proposal in North Carolina “depression, or other economic calamity related to the breakdown of the Federal Reserve System… the state’s governmental finances and private economy will be thrown into chaos.”

(snip)

27 posted on 02/10/2012 5:10:25 AM PST by blam
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To: blam

Thank you Lord, for not so small favors.

Here is a link to the CNN Money article.
http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/03/pf/states_currencies/index.htm

Now to find out how it is going here, and who is driving it.

Thanks much blam, for the tip and the glimmer of good news, statewise.

May God guide our course.
Tatt


28 posted on 02/10/2012 7:18:25 AM PST by thesearethetimes... ("Courage, is fear that has said its prayers." Dorothy Bernard)
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To: BobL

I understand your position, but as a guy who put well over $400,000 (including employer contrib) into SS and Medicare, what am I supposed to do now that I’m eligible to get some back?


29 posted on 02/10/2012 7:23:56 AM PST by nascarnation (DEFEAT BARAQ 2012 DEPORT BARAQ 2013)
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To: blam
Imagine what the economy would do if 43% of government spending was removed. (That is what is required to balance the budget) ...

No, it has to be cut even more than that.

Remember that some government spending comes back to the government as tax revenue. If that spending goes away, that partially-offsetting revenue also goes away.

30 posted on 02/10/2012 12:26:34 PM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: blam

“What started out as a (very successful) war against White males has become a war against all Whites and Western values.”

It is more cultural than racial; a lot of the enemies are white liberals.


31 posted on 02/10/2012 1:12:47 PM PST by kearnyirish2
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To: nascarnation

You’re screwed ... as am I.

Just about everyone in the country is going to find that promises made to them by someone (and not just in governments) will not be kept.

Surviving the abrogation of those promises will be the challenge of the next century.


32 posted on 02/10/2012 1:30:35 PM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: DuncanWaring
"Surviving the abrogation of those promises will be the challenge of the next century. "

Century?

Didn't you mean decade?

33 posted on 02/10/2012 5:01:49 PM PST by blam
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To: nascarnation

“I understand your position, but as a guy who put well over $400,000 (including employer contrib) into SS and Medicare, what am I supposed to do now that I’m eligible to get some back?”

Morally, not take the money. In the real world, yes, take the money, since you’re already on it. But then work to get it changed for the future, rather than immediately opposing any reform, as most of your generation has done. The system is driving my kids and their future kids into poverty...it must get changed.


34 posted on 02/10/2012 5:10:53 PM PST by BobL (I don't care about his past - Santorum will BRING THE FIGHT to Obama)
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To: BobL

Never in my wildest dreams did I think my retirement income (pension from bankrupt company and social sec) would be checks signed by a guy named Hussein.

What a horrible turn of events.


35 posted on 02/10/2012 5:21:40 PM PST by nascarnation (DEFEAT BARAQ 2012 DEPORT BARAQ 2013)
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To: Errant

My question was concerning a general economic collapse.


36 posted on 02/10/2012 5:23:46 PM PST by suthener
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To: suthener
"My question was concerning a general economic collapse. "

My guess...one to five years.

They will 'kick the can' until we wake up one morning with the suprise.

Nothing can stop it...only delay.

37 posted on 02/10/2012 5:29:25 PM PST by blam
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To: blam

It’s been building for a century.

The only way it can be cleaned-up in a decade is if the 60-70% of the population that thinks they are owed government cheese dies. Literally.


38 posted on 02/10/2012 5:35:02 PM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: blam

I confess: endtimers and preppers and such used to make me snicker a just a hair not too terribly long ago. But it’s just not funny anymore. If somehow His Evilness, along with his bloody merry band of oppressors retain power after this yr, we are all probably screwed silly.


39 posted on 02/10/2012 5:41:01 PM PST by Dysart ("Don't worry, it's not loaded")
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To: volunbeer; blam; Graewoulf

I appreciate the replies and I believe everything each one of you said which is why I asked the question. No one answered it, though.


40 posted on 02/10/2012 5:41:17 PM PST by suthener
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