We are teetering on the edge, my friends. The auto industry nearly collapsed, and still may in the near future. Three million jobs down the toilet - nearly. Can you imagine the fallout from that?
- Three million people (nearly all at once) added to the already bulging unemployment rolls.
- Three million more people without any health insurance...
- Three million more people with drastically reduced buying power. A real problem since our economy is fueled 2/3 by consumer spending and all.
- Hundreds of thousands more foreclosures in relatively short order... this could have easily sent an already weak new housing market into oblivion.
- The possible collapse of foreign automakers' operations in North America. All of these companies worked with the same suppliers that would have gone out of business if GM, Chrysler, and Ford went down. How many more people would that have put out of work?
- Repeat all steps above as service industries related to auto plants, parts, dealerships, etc fold - everything from fast food joints, to stores, to office supply companies, etc, etc, etc.
We are staring economic oblivion right in the face. If you haven't woken up to just how close we are to another Great Depression, then you need to pay attention. The Fed finally admitted to a recession dating back to December 2007. As of the very moment of that announcement, we were in the longest running economic downturn since - you guessed it - the Great Depression.
Each new day we wake up still in this recession is another day added to the record of the longest recession ever. Most economists think there is no chance we'll come out of this in 2009.
Once the mightiest manufacturing sector the human race had ever seen - the Big Three - now is reduced to begging for taxpayer money like some homeless child. What's worse is that the guys who got us into this mess, Wall Street, came asking for twenty times as much money and got it without so much as a batted eyelash.
Let someone who actually makes something come ask for a paltry sum in comparison and it's like the Spanish Inquisition. What does that say about us? It says if you're white collar and take a shower before you go to work, then you can do no wrong. Be as greedy, corrupt, and stupid as you want - we'll bail you out no questions asked.
But if your collar is blue and you shower after you get off work, then expect to be demonized when you come asking for a loan. Expect to be treated with suspicion. Why? Because we don't respect hard, honest work these days. We respect money, and the making of it, above all else.
We respect it above hard work.
We respect money more than honesty.
We respect the acquisition of wealth no matter the means.
In short, we are sick. We have lost our center - and I don't mean that in any sort of religious manner. I don't mean that with any political bent whatsoever. I mean that when we don't respect that which made us great, then we will be great no longer.
Hard work and opportunity used to be at the center of the American ethic. We no longer respect hard work in and of itself and I fear that the same opportunities that were afforded me coming up will no longer be available or attainable to my children.
Why? Because the wealthy and elite have been allowed to run our ship aground - again. The difference is that back in 1930 people actually lived closer to the land, They knew how to darn socks and plant crops and raise animals. Many didn't have electricity.
Nowadays the dispossessed will not know what to do when there's no supermarket. They won't believe any of it until it's already happened - until the lights actually go out.
Well, my friends - I am not one of those people. I have a piece of land to retreat to when the sh!t hits the fan. This land has a source of clean water - a source spring. I have guns and seeds. I have the skills needed to protect my own (first aid, CPR, marksmanship). I have the skills needed to provide for my own (hunting, fishing, basic gunsmithing, gardening, construction, electrical engineering). I have a library of books dedicated to things like making drinking water safe, emergency shelter, gardening without petroleum fertilizers and pesticides, composting, shelter, and more.
Batton down the hatches. Gridcrash is a-coming.
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