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Termyn8or -> RE: The Decline and Fall of the American Empire (12/7/2010 4:16:21 PM)
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My predictions have been made. A bit gloomy but those who caused the decline will at least suffer some. Even if they find a way to print enough money, even without totally destroying it's value, there will be less out there to buy. Prices will inflate while income deflates. Much of our luxury will be gone, and quite soon. In fact alot of it already is.
However taking a lesson from Germany in the 1930s all is not lost, at least in the empirical () sense. A President could be elected who is such a war monger that he makes the Bush family look like a bunch of pussycats. America for the Americans, take what we want. That process is already underway, but I think it will become more blatant in the future. You don't need a trade surplus and a robust economy to finance war, at least as a rule. Public perception is the key. My Father quipped that we will become a nation made up of soldiers and lawyers. No real production.
That's even a worse problem than that faced in pre WW2 Germany. They still had the means to manufacture, ours gets sold off to the highest bidder. Even 20 years ago we had already lost the means to maintain some of our older war machines. Melted it down, literally.
Of course it's not that bad. Hell we could melt down 138 pennies and get two bucks for the copper. That would've actually happened a few years ago but the copper in pennies is on the way out, much like the silver in other coins of the realm.
True wealth is not measured in dollars, and that axiom works both ways. Enjoy and keep what you have, because we don't make it here. That means most of our luxuries have their price vulnerable to currency exchange rates.
The return to self sufficiency will be forced. It would go alot easier if we would plan for it, and recreate those resources - the true measure of weath - like we did before. This should be happening right now, but shortsightedness seems to prevail. Indeed the sheeple have been taught to only think of the present. You think our "leaders" are much smarter ? What planet is this ?
Right now the yuan is still pegged to the dollar, I think. That has artificially postponed the inevitable. As in many other things, that makes the inevitable worse in the long run. And it's not just plasma TVs at risk. Try food. Alot of it is imported nowadys. If a loaf of bread is $2, but $2 is only worth fifty cents, simple math tells the new price. If a bag of nuts is $4, now worth about a buck, a calculator does not yield pleasant results.
But for warmongers the price of an army and bullets etc. are of prime importance, not the fact that us peons will need two grand a month to feed a family of three.
An old theory about the disparity of income inducing revolutions indicates that we are about a hundred years behind schedule. (possibly an exagerration). But things have changed. The power of the state is so emormous now that the Peiople cannot effectively do what must be done at this point in history. Where does that leave us ?
Don't eat, you starve. Up north here, don't have heat you freeze. Very few can live the life of a primitive anymore, so now what. Spend money you don't have ? That's been going on for alot longer than most people think. Our collective credit card is just about maxed out.
And the worst part is that people are weak. They will vote for for someone who offers a way out, regardless of the fact that this will entail militarily taking what others have. When we should get busy, build factories, open up those iron and coal mines, rebuild the education system and a few other things, they will look to take. Some won't, but the majority will.
That's my take on the situation. Believe it or not, your call.
T
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