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Guest Post: What Are The Social Implications Of Economic Collapse?
From Simon Black at Sovereign Man
What Are The Social Implications Of Economic Collapse?
For the last few days, we’ve been having an important discussion
about the magnitude of the economic challenges in the west; if you
didn’t read yesterday’s letter,
I really encourage you to do so before proceeding because it’s
important to understand why the west has truly passed the point of no
return.
Simply put, the United States and much of Europe are borrowing an
extraordinary amount of money now just to pay interest on the money
they’ve already borrowed. They cannot even self-fund their mandatory
entitlement programs without going into the hole, and their options are
limited:
Option 1: Continue borrowing, keep the party going.
As long as the government CAN do this, they WILL do this. Regardless
of their intentions, though, more debt only worsens the situation,
creating higher borrowing costs in the long run, and even more debt. As
this happens, the pool of buyers begins to dry up, especially from
overseas.
Option 2: Inflation
The more buyers stop purchasing Treasury securities, the more the
Federal Reserve will mop up the excess liquidity. In doing so, the Fed
essentially conjures up money and loans it to the government.
No matter what the government monkey statistics say, this is
inflationary, plain and simple. The more money they print, the greater
the level of inflation in the long-term. Meanwhile, as foreigners
simultaneously reduce their US dollar holdings, this inflation will
become more acutely felt in the US.
Option 3: Austerity
There’s going to come a time when the US government is forced to face
its economic reality and make some incredibly deep cuts that would be
felt across society, from Wall Street and the military industrial
complex to project housing on the other side of the tracks.
Option 4: Default
Eventually, the debt burden is simply going to be too much, and the
most obvious solution will be to default. Politicians will make China
out to be the enemy and they will probably invent a war just to have an
excuse to default on Chinese owned debt. Americans will wave the flag
and celebrate defaulting on their enemies.
Option 5: Economic Cannibalism
In the best traditions of Atlas Shrugged, the government will
continue its persecution of the productive class– professionals,
investors, entrepreneurs, and skilled workers. Existing taxes will rise,
new taxes will be created, trade barriers will be enacted, and a maze
of cost prohibitive regulations will be passed.
The first option (keeping the party going) is what has been happening
for years. Politicians make small concessions to show they’re “serious”
about fiscal discipline, cutting laughably small programs while dumping
hundreds of billions of dollars into wars and entitlement programs.
The worse the debt situation becomes, though, the higher the
borrowing costs become, and the worse the debt situation becomes. It’s
not an enviable position. Existing lenders will continue backing away
from the US Treasury market, giving option 1 a half-life measured in
months at best.
In the longer term, only options 2-5 remain: inflation, austerity,
default, and cannibalism. Each of these remaining options will shake the
financial system to its core. More importantly, each of these has the
power to create widespread social upheaval.
When inflation eats away at a family’s already meager standard of
living, when austerity eliminates the benefits to which recipients have
grown accustomed, when default vanquishes a retiree’s savings, when high
taxes make workers feel like they’re just government serfs– this is
when the real turmoil will begin:
- Rising crime: devoid of a job or means to support their families, people will turn to crime out of desperation
- Class warfare: with dividing lines drawn between have’s vs.
have-not’s, it will become unpopular and even dangerous to be successful - Corruption: low-level public service officials will look to supplement their income through bribery and kickbacks
- Black economy: An underground, cash-only (probably gold or foreign
currency) economy will emerge with people getting paid in envelopes - Censorship: Of course they’ll blame it on national security, but
the idea will be to prevent public disparaging of government policy - War: The government will need another major event to distract people from the real problems
- Protests/Riots: This is when things turn bloody
- Police state conditions: The government will close ranks and send
the cops out to show all the little people who’s really in charge
There are a number of other manifestations, and many are already
showing signs of emergence. The US and European police states are alive
and well. Crime is on the rise.
In Europe, cops are doing battle in the streets with their citizens.
Think it can’t happen in the US? Remember tanks in the streets during
the LA riots? Remember New Orleans? Remember any number of G8/G20
protests?
Here’s the bottom line: all you have to do is glance at the headlines
to see what happens when you strip people of their livelihood, of their
ability to put food on the table for their families.
The US has been able to kick the can down the road with the most
blunt social implications simply because the country benefits so much
from a US-oriented financial system. This is coming to an end very, very
quickly.
As a rule of thumb, the greater the economic distortion, the harder
the collapse. The US economy has been in a fantasy world for so long,
and when its dominant primacy is yanked away, the collapse will be at
freefall speed.
Listen… I’m not talking about the end of the world here, I’m talking
about difficult times ahead, and the things that go beyond economics.
It’s time to face facts and look at how society will change (and has
already changed).
Tomorrow, I’d like to write more about what we can do now. Meanwhile,
please tell me what you think about this– how do you see society
changing from this reset of the financial system?
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"The love of liberty is so strong in the US that the US citizens started their nation by maintaining slavery."
Sometimes facts can be a bitch!
And then there were those nice guestures of giving blankets to the natives to keep them warm...
For all of the people fleeing tyranny, you are not welcome in the fight for liberty anyway. Farewell!
I am sure there were people who said the same thing to Jews who fled 1930's Germany.
I understand what you're suggesting, but Germany then and now has never been America. Do you really think we will allow ourselves to be disarmed?
If you do, you are seriously mistaken. I do not care what happens here or on the entire Earth. America will never willingly be disarmed. We are not pacifists like the Jews were in Germany during that period.
You are comparing apples and oranges in my humble opinion.
Controlling the US population will be much easier than you think and guns will be of no use. Simply restrict the transportation of fuel and food from a few critical points and the country could be brought to its knees. You will need guns, but not to fight tyranny. You will need them to keep the hungry away from your pantry and out of your garden.
"We are not pacifists like the Jews were in Germany during that period."
Scary is the thought that there are un-armed people with guns out there. Having incomplete information is dangerous!
Google is your friend: "nazi germany jewish resistance"
I'm actually looking forward to the Great Reversion to the Mean. Many agendas will capitulate to the simple truths we're left with. An honest money system will be the only money system possible and desired. The great government bubble will finally collapse. People will become more family and community focused. Those who bought gold will open businesses and employ those who will work. Food production will be back in the hands of local farming.
It's not just doom and gloom. There is much to look forward to.
Sir, whatever currency is chosen to succeed the dollar, it will require a society to understand it. If the social problems in the US are as bad as many think, then there will not be a great deal of room for honesty, in money or much else.
People might become more family orientated were it possible for the men to stick around long enough to see their children born. You of course may be one of the rare ones. If you take a look at your community, are there shops that locals use, in the locality? What about schools, fire stations or a library?
Now, read my comments on farming, and see if you can answer me. If you can, I will be more than pleased for it will mean that I am not alone in thinking that compost is an important part of civilization.
The history of money throughout civilization shows a constant oscillation between fake money (paper) and honest money (gold). When paper ends, the only option we will be left with will be honest money.
I like this definition of honest money:
"Honest money is simply money that does not purport to be something it is not." -FOFOA
Already we are seeing multifamily homes on the rise in America as the terminally unemployed move in with family. These kind of events force us to focus on family - a silver lining of collapse. There will be some terrible times ahead, it's important to see and make use of the silver linings.
Thankyou for your response, it is nice to know that there are some benefits to living in the US. I think you may have guessed that I do not.
It remains however, that you cannot eat gold. However much it may be worth, the value of gold is only in its beholding and not in terms of currency.
It is possible to barter say, a gold watch for a loaf of bread, but this means that gold too can be devalued in fiscal terms.
And thank you for your responses, you raise good points. I agree, one cannot subsist on a gold diet. But, there are many I know who preserve their wealth with gold and feed their families with bread baked at home, ground from hard winter wheat stored at home. The veggetables I grow I can and dehydrate. That's not to say the coming food crisis won't be difficult and perhaps brutal, but I believe it will be surmountable with proper preparations.
Simon Says: "In the best traditions of Atlas Shrugged, the government will continue its persecution of the productive class– professionals, investors, entrepreneurs, and skilled workers."
Dear Simon, don't forget that "government" is the trained monkey of the on the surface most "productive", i.e. most leveraged-to-wealth-class - i.e. the banksters and mega investors, who by their manipulations create opportunities for smaller investors, who may be lucky enough to time and ride the waves.
As I repeatedly point out on zerohedge - the mega rich, not the government they control, are the evil scum orchestrating the wealth distribution from the masses to their elitarian pockets - and they, the mega rich, are the only enemies for 99% of the rest of the population to focus on.
Forget Atlas Shurgged and Rand's iconization of the ascending individual.
It is time for brotherhood and community. If not, it will be more than riots - it will be civil war and complete disintegration of the US.
Black is totally off with this one: the activity called human production is a big consumption feast.
This guy maintains the false dichotomy between people who produce and people who consume.
Just a point of clarification, communities are often made up of individuals voluntarily participating in cooperation with others, especially when it's in the individual's rational self-interest. Just sayin'.
And speaking of brotherhood and communities, anyone who's lived through a natural disaster probably has a pretty good idea how things will work in their own communities provided the collapse continues dragging on (as opposed to some sudden event). I live in the suburbs of a fairly urban area and after hurricanes, people in my neighborhood pitch in to clean up and help each other in many ways. F*** a bunch of useless FEMA; my neighborhood took care of itself. My sister tells a similar story about an ice storm in her town.
I've been seeing many signs of economic decline for several years: more homeless, more beggars getting in your face and lots more crime, especially theft. I may be naive, but I truly believe that most people will try to work with others to solve problems and that thugs will be thugs no matter what; this is just one more excuse for their thuggish behavior.
remember when 'I got a bridge to sell ya' was a joke?
someone tell the author about bitcoins:
Black economy: An underground, cash-only (probably gold or foreign currency) economy will emerge with people getting paid in envelopes
The new black market is already here: Silk Road Anonymous Marketplace.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/06/silkroad/
Available via the anonymous darknet TOR at http://ianxz6zefk72ulzz.onion/index.php
Payments in BitCoins only - the true anonymous digital currency.
@" ..implications.."
individual awakening, not that anyone would prefer
to awaken from the dream.
.
soul soldier
http://www.youtube.com/user/peacsees#p/a/u/0/PPKZW8c2E40
don't get confused....
http://www.thetrader.se/2011/06/14/study-charts-and-dont-get-confused-by-experts/
Easily can go back to tribalism where groups form with common misery or advantage and quickly deteriorates to local territorial conquest and eventual genocide.
Sounds like status quo.
Okay, guys hold onto your seats because this is coming from the outfield.
Well, Rickky knows my strange thoughts.
The big problem that the US now faces (amongst a few other places too) is that their land has not been properly composted for a while now. What are you talking about you stupid woman? Well, take a moment to read the next paragraph then I will be on topic.
The US (and Europe for that matter) has, since the war at least, grown crops in a manner that requires a great deal of input in the form of pesticides, herbicides, regulators and plain old chemical fertilizers. The plant varieties now grown by farmers are a very far cry from what they were even in the 1940s and certainly owing to their manufacture (breeding would be the wrong word) they do not reproduce themselves easily. To cut a long story short, push up fuel bills much more and the farmers won't be able to afford these already expensive chemicals, seeds and of course the fuel to run their - well they aren't tractors any more! We are left with a situation where there is little food being produced or in fact that can be grown. This is because the soil is now pretty sterile - I have a new garden and it is pretty well pure sand, and I just watch my carefully planted out seedlings keel over and die.
At least I know the remedy and am skilled in its making. Most are not. Most haven't even heard of it let alone practised making it.
There will come a time when the US has come to this point through its own misguided principles. Yes, there will be gangs in the cities, but they will be hungry. Especially after a year or two of severe starvation.
I would posit that 99% of you have no idea of how to grow a cabbage well, let alone know how (or when) to harvest its seed so that you can live on it for another ten or so years? What about clothes, where will those come from if nobody knows how to weave any more, and there is no power to work the computers that drive the cotton mills (if there are any in the US) - or for that matter make the thread to do the weaving with.
The US - and many more - are risking a lot more than just a currency.
Rickky knows the answer though because I have told him, though like most, he doesn't believe me.
How many of you believe me? Not many I should think.
My non-hybrid seeds grow just fine with my own compost. The eventual 'retirement' of our corporatized food industry will lead back to the small farmer and homegrown produce. Current food production is carried out by too few TBTF giant farms. There is a massive area of commercial and private property that hasn't been used for agriculture in decades, and it will do fine.
Put simply, food production will return to the people and they will succeed brilliantly.
Put simply, food production will return to the people and they will succeed brilliantly.
Correction, The Survivors will succeed brilliantly.
Many many will perish in the initial transition.
It will take 2-3 years for people with 'Chem-Lawn' yards to recoop the vitiality of their property so it will grow anything.
I stand corrected and agree.
sir, in my estimation there are far too few people who understand gardening well enough to survive happily. I can see that you are of my breed - compost and probably a heritage of farmers (indeed my grandfather used oxen on the farm, but they were long gone by the time I came along). There will be some who can do as you are doing, which is good. There will be a great number who cannot. there will also be plenty who by use of firearms will feed themselves for a time.
I am in agreement with you.
As a long time "gardener", even good gardeners can fail. The weather, it's a bitch. Pests, disease. The last two years, the weather has been severely abnormal and some crops totally failed, where others gave bumper crops, that normally were marginal in my area. Agrarian based communities can starve to death pretty quickly if one or two bad harvests accrue. You must learn to preserve, as well as grow. Sometimes even that doesn't help. Remember, "year of no summer" led to the French Revolution when crops failed. Potato famine, another example.
You are right, Kali. Then again, life does not come with warranties or guarantees. Somehow, that makes it even more beautiful to me.
very good point.
One more thing, if Americans think they could screw China that easily, they cannot be more wrong.
China is holding a lot of American assets too, maybe not directly owned by the US gov., but owned the big US corporations. In case of a war, and US refused to honor the debt they borrowed from China, China will confiscate Americans assets within China too.
NO one wins
You raise an interesting point in US holdings in China. They are well known for pinching ideas; it is but a small leap to start pinching the factories too.
I doubt honestly that there would be a war between the US and China; for one thing the Chinese are extremely tough people, and the Americans aren't.
The Chinese are not interested in winners, or losers. They want their own stable economy, which is big enough to survive on its own, especially now that they have practically bought most of sub-saharan Africa.
I hope my mortgage inflates away before the SHTF. If so, I'll be OK.
Oath of Fealty?
http://www.amazon.com/Oath-Fealty-Larry-Niven/dp/1416555161
So here's a question. If we get into a war with china, would you prefer to be in a bunker and live with the aftermath, or be in the blast radius?
I often think the only reason why China hasn't done it yet is because they need our grain. Otherwise the USA might already be nuclear ash.
for great news/analysis of markets, during both European and US hours, check www.thetrader.se
That is not fair! It is from Sweden. they are sensible people: what are they doing here?
This is a country where, for 30+ years, people are routinely murdered when the local sports team does/doesn't win the national championship/super bowl/world series. What do you think they'll do when they have to miss a meal? I know I'll be watching it all unfold on the English TV station in whatever country I decide to flee to in the next 18 months.
In trying to get a feel for how to perpare for a financial reset in the USA, I came across this four page peice that I would encourage you to look at. http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/10.08/tshtf1.html
His comments address many of the issues that others have speculated about and since he lived through Agentina's reset, I feel certain his observations would be helpful to us all.
Dogs and Cats, LIVING TOGETHER!
Here's what I see. The 1970's all over again, but worse. In fact, disco may come back and stay popular for more than 3 years....yes THAT bad!
Seriously, though, it will be the 1970's. Moments where it seems like we're "getting better", then we'll slip back. Disruption in society as people focus on themselves. Remember the "Me Decade"? This will be the "Me, Me, Me Decade". And IF Obama wins again, he'll fight back by forcing through the "We Decade" legislation. That is, he'll force us all to join "voluntary" community project work to help our communities. Yes, we'll get ahead by working for the community.
Some will polish the poles of the new windmills in town. Others will Windex the solar panels.
That's not a joke. It's what the Soviet Union did, for the most part. Why buy snowplows, when you have an unemployed population that you can give brooms to and get them all working?
The Soviet Union was an ethnically homogenous society. There was also a larger disparity between the social classes, with most citizens falling into the lower economic strata of society. In addition, the population was unarmed, and the state-sponsored level of fear that the citizens were born into created no environment for revolution or broad-based insurrection.
It is disingenuous to suggest that the collapse of the United States will be anything remotely like that of the former Soviet Union.
Soviet union was NOT ethinically homogenous. In Russia or the eastern European part of USSR, maybe.
…all you have to do is glance at the headlines to see what happens when you strip people of their livelihood, of their ability to put food on the table for their families. – Simon Black
A profound statement, that.
The current political climate that birthed this long economic crisis hits many sectors of society. And young people are hardly spared, especially with the reordering of cultural priorities.Forbidding and delaying our youth work, particularly teenagers, is destroying not only their lives and futures but America’s culture and family.
A teenager who is actively prevented from getting a job which will permit him to buy clothes and pay car expenses to socialize with his friends, and/or save money for his higher education so he won’t begin his career indebted to the bankers, and then requires him to live at home after college while he looks for a job that isn’t there, makes him feel he is not a part of society and, therefore, useless and depressed and anti-society.
What have we done to our youth? Great revolutions occur out of a mass inability to work, according to L. Ron Hubbard in his book, “The Problems of Work.”
Children from two years onward are willing to work and are always pursuing their parents to let them help out with tools or cleaning.
It is a known fact that America’s greatest achievers usually worked when they were quite young, “the highest level of endeavor was achieved by boys who from the age of twelve, on farms, had their own duties and had a definite place in the world."
To deprive youth of the opportunity to work – because corporations want south-of-the-border labor or globalists want Americans' standard of living merged into their low-wage globalist plantation – is a Marxist joke on the American people.
zzzzz
L Ron Hubbard? Seriously?
Great Revolutions in the US have never revolved around the inability to work. Nor did they revolve around that in the pre-Soviet or Soviet Union.
Great Revolutions have always been about very simple issues. The ability of families to eat. In some rural countries, the feudal nature of leadership led to revolutions. In more advanced countries, the improper application of laws and taxes led to revolutions. In more modern countries, the desire to achieve certain liberties and freedoms once denied have led to revolutions.
Great revolutions based on the mass inability to work? HA! What a joke. The Soviet Union proved you can keep people happy without work as long as you provide a basic existence and plenty of cheap alcohol. Hell, the British did the same to Ireland for years. In fact, it wasn't the inability to work that led the Irish to revolt. It was the denial of rights.
Trust me, the current young generation will be HAPPY to not work. So many are entitled brats, it's almost pathetic.
America! Shining city on a hill. Break the chains that bind. Take back the blessings of freedom. Prosperity is only for the free. Shove aside the oligarchs who have seized your greatness and outsourced your livelihood. You, America! The patent king and producer of the world!
CHICAGO
HOG Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:
They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I
have seen your painted women under the gas lamps
luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it
is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to
kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the
faces of women and children I have seen the marks
of wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to those who
sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer
and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing
so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on
job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the
little soft cities;
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning
as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with
white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young
man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has
never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse.
and under his ribs the heart of the people,
Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of
Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog
Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with
Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.
CARL SANDBURG
More self adulation by the casino staff in that--what kind of gall does it take to include "investors" in those identified goups of the "productive class"?
And why should the truly productive class allow financial industry parasites to take cover among them?
I'm afraid we've got no reasonable choice by now but to call bullshit on this self-serving propaganda. Implications, at the very least, include removing tax favored capital gains status.
I make money in the market, but expecting me to pretend it's "productive" is beyond the pale.
Good read. Thanks. Looking forward to reading more and furthering this subject. No doubt we are heading for an epic correction. Timing is the variable here - and severity of course. Freefall is what would happen absent all the smoke and mirrors for sure.
The Govt wants to show us who is in charge? That wont be necessary. We know who is in charge. The cops know it too.
The collapse has already begun to some extent. Some urban areas are really in danger ATM (not that they were safe to start). My conversations with police over the last year have painted a portrait of extreme distress verging on outright anarchy. I try to support them whenever I can. Flame me if you want, but these guys are our last line of defense. And they have my respect and admiration for doing what they do. The cage door is slowly swinging open and there are folks out there who simply don't give a fck. Once it's open fully and the predators realize it, things will get interesting for certain. Hell, I posted last week about how they already are. The level of actionable criminality has gone down drastically in most cities and it will continue to plunge faster than CL on a GS call lol. Muni's are hosed, states r hosed. The good guys are now outnumbered and out gunned.
I here a lotta folks talking about "burn it down". Yeah? Really tough guy? How ready are you personally? Do you lift every week? Run? Do push ups? How's your aim? Ever kill something? Ever been in a fight with weapons? Honestly, if that thought doesn't scare you a bit you are full of shit or lying.
Dude captcha is -187 wtf?
There comes a time when a man has to decide whether it's preferable to live on his knees or die on his feet. One could say there are a lot of scared 'tough guys' out there, or one could say there are a growing number who are unwilling to live on their knees..
One of the most over-looked aspects of the 'prepper' is physical fitness preparations. As far as marksmanship goes, my own improved greatly at Appleseed.
We don't need no stinking austerity, the debt is fraud. But Simon Black continues to forget how to deal with economic fraud...you wipe it out....the law Glass-Steagall
Does he want armageddon? Does anyone? If not, force your congressmen to react to the existance of Glass-Steagall.
Simon black can be one big fucking idiot.
Police can't prevent anything - they just clean up the bodies and (very occasionally) arrest the bad guys. It doesn't matter whether society is crashing or not, there is always an excellent chance that if you look like you have anything worth taking somebody, sometime is going to try to take it, and you better be prepared to prevent that up to and including smoking their ass. We live rural with several buildings on the property and I have at least one loaded gun concealed but within easy reach no matter where I am on the property. I also have a concealed weapons permit that allows me to legally carry a gun in my car and, when I think its necessary, on my person. And my dogs are great little buddies who will also tear the throat out of anyone who tries to hurt anyone in my family. I wish the world were a nicer place but it's not. And yes I have killed people (Vietnam) and no it didn't bother me at all since they were trying their best to kill me. Guess what - they missed, I didn't.
Comforting to know you're out there and I mean that. Many like you in rural, in suburbs not so much, city very little. If and when a drastic collapse is imminent it will be time to go, suburbs will not be viable.
I need to nail down the bug out location soon. I'm still betting we will make it through this, but it's prudent to be hedged.
Ever wonder how the Dark Ages started ... something along these lines.
Not all parts of the country will descend into chaos some places like California Texas, Florida and the big cities will be hell holes no doubt about it.As far rioting and looting the police and National guard will hold it together till they stop being paid. As far as gangs ( gangs will lead a lot of the rioting at first ) yes they will have some advantages but if things are that bad gangs and looters will be deemed as enemies of the state. They will be fired upon with live ammo or executed during a national emergency.The best thing you can do is leave the city ASAP when this shit pops off each family an individual will have to make that decision when times comes. Have a plan and a back up plan ...God help us if this does happen
My opinion is that it will be like Russia of the 1990's. Same 'financial' advisors providing 'guidance' to the Russian Oligarchs that now run America. Same experiment, same result.
The Russians have told me not to be so fearful if we experience a hyperinflationary depression. They joked with me about how the women got that super Euro look during the Russian revaluation and energy-rationing period in the late 1990's.
They lament that the Russian women are growing pudgy again. Russians told me anything can be traded at black markets and no one screws with the homes or small buildings they run out of. However, your most likely to be robbed by the sharp dressed individual that looks like you can trust on the way to trade.
Becoming a local warlord doesn't make me fearful. World war happens when large countries with big weapons systems and ability to project power become bagholders. For that, I have three months of supplies for family and friends to survive the winter. Just like in the animal kingdom. Actually, most government preparedness sites use to have this same advice on them until the last couple of years.
Dear Alarmist - I'm not at all sure the Dark Ages ever ended. The Enlightenment, the Rennaissance, the American Revolution? Blips on the screen of history. The Dark Ages were about pathological evil in control of institutions designed to control, oppress, terrify and subjugate the masses. So what's changed? And that's just in the so-called "West". Don't even get me started on what the history of the rest of the world teaches us about human nature.
Agree, status quo. Can I go to sleep now?
This situation is FAR more complicated than anyone on this thread is getting. And probably far more serious.
A little background, before I continue...
I'm in the UK. I did 8 years in the RAF as an engineer. I was trained at considerable cost to find faults in complex systems. I'm passably good at that, if I'm allowed to exhibit a little pride in my intellect?
If you view the modern world as a complex system, there's only ONE way to restore it to normal functionality: remove at LEAST 50% of the human race from the equation, on as short a timescale as is logistically feasible - money doesn't matter in this case. As long as the guys on the action end of the job are fed and have reasonable confidence that their families are being fed and protected, they will cheerfully wipe out the surplus population.Read history; they always do!
Study the alternatives logically, in case you're wondering why they wouldn't:
1) We keep doing what we're doing, which is allowing the population to increase by approximately 1 billion every 13 years (that's probably accelerating, but that's the most recent figure I have).
2) The ever expanding throng of humanity keeps competing for a finite amount of resources.
3) The resources ARE finite, absent a real drive to secure them from elsewhere in the solar system, which we have the ABILITY to do, but prefer to fund socialist programs where the terminally lazy get to sit on their arses in front of the idiot-box and get paid for the privilege.
4) Eventually, no matter how well intentioned we are, the system collapses under it's own inertia and we probably get a much worse version of the relatively (but only in the context of very nearly extinction level event, of course) limited economic, social, nuclear, chemical and biological war we're absolutely going to get in the next 2 years WHATEVER we do.
I suspect the order will be;
a) chemical {refer to previous about what I used to do for a living - I know what a contrail looks like and what has been happening over my house the last few years is categorically NOT water vapor hanging around in the air for 6+ hours, especially not at the altitude they've been doing it at. And there are a LOT (maybe 30%) of people around here complaining of respiritory problems recently, myself included}
b) social {we've started that, but will never really finish it}
c) economic {getting there - 2 days to a few months until that's done!}
d) biological {it's cheap and easy and you can take out pretty much all of the civilian (military supply chain, ultimately) population quickly without much fuss, if you do it right. Which, if I were doing it would be to lower the general level of immunity in the population by bombing them with chemicals for a few years, then unleashing every strain of shit I could think of (and had vaccines for!)}
e) nuclear - for everybody that we couldn't easily overfly, chemtrail, then infect with 5 strains of flu, ebola, etc - and who might have the ability and guts to shoot back.
Have no fear on this one, my US-ian friends, TPTB know perfectly well that there are upwards of 1 billion privately owned firearms in the US, and about 150-200 million people who know how to use them at least passably well. That's why they aren't going to play the game your way.. they might lose.
And lest anyone think I'm actually FOR this genocidal psychosis... get real!
This situation is FAR more complicated than anyone on this thread is getting.
Big talk from a european doormat.
Last night I had a dream, I dreamt there was peace on earth, every human on the planet was dead.
I yearn for the days of yore. A horse drawn cart, a day’s wages and no one to pay usury to.
Fresh air, clear blue water, children in the village at play.
No I will not miss this corrupted excuse for government let Rome burn!
Capitalism, the USA, the Western World, the White race, militarism, science and technolgy, representative democracy, and the human population of the world have reched points beyond which they cannot go. They will now crash and move to the lowest rung of their respective ladders. That is the nature of things.
As far as educational and informal videos are concerned, this one of two was very revealing as to how it could go for many. Please watch this in its entirety and share it if you feel it worthy.
After Armageddon 1-9:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r97xoSOEjM
The other very educational series was of course, Jericho.:
http://www.tudou.com/playlist/playindex.do?lid=3681951&iid=4836238&cid=22
Consider the Great Depression: >91% of the population of America was White. It was pretty ugly then. Today, Whites are less than 65% of the population and they have been replaced mostly by mestizos and various other Third Worlders. When you think of the Third World, do you think of peace, prosperity, cooperation, intelligence, and productivity? Or do you think of chaos, poverty, violence, savagery, and disorganization? News flash: SOCIETY is a RACIAL construct, rather than the silly lie of race being a social construct. A "Great Depression" in the multiracial America that has been created will be devastatingly violence and oppressive. All those "color lines" that we thought disappeared (they didn't) will flare up stronger than ever and "inner cities" will be divided (even more than they are) by race and gang affiliation. We got fooled. We allowed our elites to elect a new constituency. Think about it-- if you're a dictator/oligarch/Soros/Bush/kleptocrat/bankster/despot...do you really want a White country? Whites have a genetic memory and actual history of standing up against centralized power and advancing individual rights and the rule of law (Magna Carta, American Revolution, Anglo-Saxon common law, et cetera). On the other hand, hop in a plane and fly to a brown country. Generally, it's an ideal place for an oligarch or elitist despot to rule with an iron fist, e.g. Mexico, Peru, Saudi Arabia, all of Africa, and on and on. Our elites decided to flood America with millions of (sorry to be blunt) ignorant, stupid, unorganized, PEASANTS because they want peasants. Peasants don't protest as much, will work for cheaper wages (Republicans), and will vote forever for bread-and-circus and entitlements (Democrats). There is a reason we fight a "War on Terror" and yet the Southern border is porous and unprotected-- THEY want it open. Illegal aliens are in fact encouraged to invade this country, e.g. Obama/Holder suing Arizona. This is not a religious, political, or philosophical point. This is an in-your-face analysis of RACE, something everyone is sooooo afraid of mentioning. What's in your future?
Crystal City to Sinzig, full spectrum internment options.
http://www.gaic.info/camp_doj.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sinzig_enclosure.jpg
Food is another matter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disarmed_Enemy_Forces
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_food_policy_in_occupied_Germany
Holy shit ... you've not just taken a few swigs of propaganda, you've been swimming in it, bathing in it, and swilling it down!
Do yourself a favour and take a trip outside your tiny little [basement/farm] world.
If I may be a bit of a contrarian to the author and the majority of the comments I predict we may just muddle through until entropy (heat death) triumps as we know it must. But at least we don't have to worry about proton decay for around 10^25 years. Can you imagine a world with only neutrons and electrons? Very unbalanced chargewise-talk about an unstable deficit! Forget about atoms and don't even get me talking about lack of molecules and its implications for life.
Preferred strategy of U.S.
Shift the blame by demonizing China
Distract the public with more ME wars
Allow inflation to lower standard of living
Increase police state via terrorism
Hit Americans from all angles to create confusion, fear and finally submission.
The dude is righteous.
THX again ZH.
I am a little more optimistic than most. I feel that the trouble that we are in has one root cause. We have been leaderless for decades. The current political system does not in any way select for true leadership qualities, and thus as simple as it sounds we have been "lead" by men and women who are electable but not much else. If economic collapse occurs true leaders will rise to fill the vacum created by the ensuing political collapse. We are good people but we have evolved for thousands of years under the protection and wisdom of the true leaders among us. We need those types back and we will have them. They are out there now waiting to be called upon. They will inspire us to create a new society that is organized, productive, safe and most importantly just. But yes, it could get a little rough in the mean time.
I'm pretty sure Mako has already nailed the root cause... and it's much more fundamental than our method of selecting a leader... it's basic math. Compounding interest and the necessity of exponential expansion... eventually resources and our ability to produce catch up with the paper game... one generation gets burned and within a couple more generations, we're off to see who can get crispy again.
All I see written here is a desire for violence and hatred towards others. If thoughts create reality then most of you are already in a bad place.
Americans, what a violent hate filled nation you have sadly become. Do you ever think that the entire world is just so sick and tired of buying your crappy debt just so you can kill more people in the name of freedom?
You are all so ready to fight and kill each other at the drop of a hat and yet your 'elites' will still live in opulence because you are the most brainwashed nation on the planet
This could be a chance to create something better, we need solutions, not death dressed up as democracy and freedom. Stop the wars! Channel that destructive, finance, to creative beneficial lives for everyone. The money already exists to solve all of your problems and yet you would prefer to blow things up?
Change yourself first, change the world as a result
The loyality of the American people to their government extends no further than the dollar. As the dollar collpses, the American government will, have no hippies-dancing-in-the-streets-changing-the-world illusions, face armed resistance, particularly from conservative rural areas, but also in urban centers. The loyalty of the military and of local police is paramount. I doubt the U.S. federal government could maintain these loyalties, especially in a time when they paid in a collapsing fiat currency. Many members of the military reserves and national guard are also members of militias. The loyalties of older men will turn local, to safeguarding their own wives, mothers, and children. Younger men will follow leaders, their reserve or guard unit commanders, in many cases. The federal government will have no one to defend it except its secret police, the true believers.
Pick sides carefully.
anyone who hasn't read this by now http://www.energybulletin.net/node/23259
really should.
Those who remember know what to do. Detroit in flames, been there seen that. Blocks were sealed as most the officers went home to seal them. No roving zombies just inner city strife from poor policy from the hangover boom bust from the fifty's. Never build projects again should be a clue as it is in our city.
http://www.67riots.rutgers.edu/d_witnesses.htm
Problems can be solved and tough as things are no one is starving in our neighborhood.
Impossible to convey context in a paragraph. Inflation is the enemy to all as we learned in the seventy's from piss poor decisions. I am still working and hire for cash those with there chin up and look you in the eye when I need some work done. Drugs are issue of course. A guy lost his brother to them recently. He changed. We all reap what we sow so do what is right and at least they remember that much.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvnzxeqCpcw&feature=related
We keep the family farm, its a generational thing, so in a few years more I will be there if the Lord wills. Wife has the Girls in town in the community garden for some years now. Grow up.