It was 2017. Clans were governing America.
The first clans organized around local police forces. The conservatives’ war on crime during the late 20th century and the Bush/Obama war on terror during the first decade of the 21st century had resulted in the police becoming militarized and unaccountable.
As society broke down, the police became warlords. The state police broke apart, and the officers were subsumed into the local forces of their communities. The newly formed tribes expanded to encompass the relatives and friends of the police.
The dollar had collapsed as world reserve currency in 2012 when the worsening economic depression made it clear to Washington’s creditors that the federal budget deficit was too large to be financed except by the printing of money.
With the dollar’s demise, import prices skyrocketed. As Americans were unable to afford foreign-made goods, the transnational corporations that were producing offshore for US markets were bankrupted, further eroding the government’s revenue base.
And then things got really bad. Read the essay to see the rest of our future(?).
More of this “Change we can believe in.”
Whats interesting is how little of what is possible to start a downward trend and what other unrecognized something feed backs into that. Some kind of good bight is always possible. A major impact on any of the major crops: wheat, rice, corn could set off a global change.
Economic collapse? Yes. In both the Irish Famine and the Great Depression EXCESS FOOD was being produced while people starved to death. Just as today that is the case.
Society: a tenuous thing.
What a bunch of drama queens!
No, until the US gets back to business and cuts the cost of it’s military, it will just slowly muddle along lower and lower
Always useful to read about the programs advanced by the RNC.
Sound like a good movie script for the Repukes to produce to frenzy their sheeple.
Thanks to Obama, the economy is back on rack although the sheeple already for forgot it was off the tracks. Healtcare reform and Wall street reform….the end is near.
Dallas: Obama certainly is trying to do the right thing: as opposed to more tax cuts but his support for foreign wars is very troubling. I post to HIGHLIGHT that we are NOT ON TRACK to a recovery. The current recession is not part of the normal business cycle/correction. It is a global market RESET where the jobs are not coming back and the living/spending standards of the USA will be adjusted DOWNWARD whether recognized or not.
Your statement/Obama’s foreign ventures/continued Pork spending shows that the correction will be harder than it needs to be until REALITY is recognized.
As the world democratizes, the advantages of the USA economy UNAVOIDABLY were going to decline. Failure to deal with that reality is making the impact worse than it needed to be.
Silly Hoomans.
@Dallas
what data makes you believe the economy is in recovery. Unemployment numbers are closing in on 20% (u6) and job creation numbers are in the tank quarter after quarter.
So this blog is just posting random crap from Alex Jones’ site now?
This scenario will never happen as it is described. As soon as our money loses value, say when China stops artificially propping it up by pegging the dollar to the Renmibi, we will be at a competitive advantage labor wise. So while things we won’t be able to buy as much crap, we will finally regain our competitiveness as a labor market. No, as far as futures go, I’m far more worried for a “Brave New World” future myself.
#8 “.. but his support for foreign wars is very troubling..”
He exited Iraq and has a timeline to exit fro Afghanistan. What exactly does your foreign policy research suggest he do? Pack up and leave now?
“..WE NOT ON TRACK to a recovery. The current recession is not part of the normal business cycle/correction…”
What is your definition of on track to recovery? That is will all be like before? I certainly know it will not be like before but my definition of back o track is that it is no longer on a disastrous free-fall. Again, sheeple are looking for the “pill” that brings back the economic rainbows and unicorns. It ain’t gonna happen.
“…continued Pork spending shows that…”
Sorry but I’m a realist, there will ALWAYS be pork spending. It’s the horse trading that goes on in Washington. I hate it, you hate it but I’d rather see a plan to curtail it than some fantasy ideal of eliminating it – certainly in the short term. With me? or still looking for unicorns?
“…as the world democratizes, the advantages of the USA economy UNAVOIDABLY were going to decline…”
I agree. I see Obama doing everyting that I see feasible to restore America’s competitiveness. Clean energy, transportation and high tech are key to the future. The sheeple don’t see that but that’s why they’re sheeple.
#9 I wasn’t looking for the rainbow and the unicorn but I do see businesses making a profit (an early indicator), freefall has stopped and world economies are holding on their own despite the problems here.
There are more indicators of a recovery as there are of gloom and doom. The key is putting people back to work and restore confidence despite the Repuke speed bumps in congress seeking election.
Dallas==well done. You caught yourself before my response. Still, you frame our circumstances/future more brightly than what is reasonable to expect. “Recovery” is not in the picture. I agree the “freefall” has stopped but now we face a long grinding recognition of what our future is. Take off the rosy glasses and accept the new reality. If you did that, perhaps you would agree that we should make an immediate and ABRUPT pull out in Iraq and Afghan. What that allows us to predict with certainty is less money spent on worthless endeavors and a breathing space for our military to recover. What TURMOIL will this bring to the area? No one knows.
Clinging to images of the past is no way to effectively lead/understand. While the meme of sheeple does have value, you are coming to rely too much on it. Lazy thinking.
Hard pragmatism is a better way than a slow coasting==whatever the reasons supporting either are.
BTW–the guy in the pic has a large loaded up shopping cart, a gun, and a hot babe. The future is so bright, I gotta wear shades.
What people don’t think about, when we’re told that there’s a huge debt and we’re going bankrupt and then we’re all gonna die in post-apocalyptic hell, is that we spend such an enormous amount of money on things that could be eliminated if really necessary.
There’s a web-site here:
http://captaincapitalism.blogspot.com/2009/05/penny-budget.html
which shows how the budget is spent. Some of it is anti-Obama screed, but it makes the point that half (half!!) of the annual budget is spent on social-security, medicare, military, etc that everyone seems to think cannot be touched.
But I disagree. In the event of a true catastrophe, I think we could cut some things. If we eliminated paying social security entirely (which I don’t advocate) we’d actually eliminate the national debt in just a few years.
If we cut the military budget in half, we’d get real “free” health-care (instead of just forcing everyone to buy insurance).
If forced to, most people can make tough decisions. We do it all the time. At this moment some people are deciding whether to make another mortgage payment, or eat. What do you think they will do?
If our creditors (China) call our debts, or simply refuse to buy any more treasury bonds, the country will survive. There will be a lot of pain and hard-ship but the country won’t collapse. China might have a problem, when it’s government has to explain to it’s own population that they loaned all the people’s savings to another country and now they all they have is worthless paper.
#15 …
I would agree I am more hopeful than you. What is ‘reasonable to expect’ is purely subjective so I won’t debate it other than I don’t subscribe to your hypothesis that exiting right this instance from Afghanistan as opposed to a measured exit is some silver bullet. Again, unicorns are not for real.
The last several points are very elegant language. Thank you!
“Recovery” is not in the picture. I agree the “freefall” has stopped but now we face a long grinding recognition of what our future is. Take off the rosy glasses and accept the new reality. If you did that, perhaps you would agree that we should make an immediate and ABRUPT pull out in Iraq and Afghan. What that allows us to predict with certainty is less money spent on worthless endeavors and a breathing space for our military to recover. What TURMOIL will this bring to the area? No one knows.
Clinging to images of the past is no way to effectively lead/understand. While the meme of sheeple does have value, you are coming to rely too much on it. Lazy thinking.
Hard pragmatism is a better way than a slow coasting==whatever the reasons supporting either are.
Chuck==your comment is fair as far as it goes but the OT Scenario is more complex as it cascades from the initial impetus. When currency is seen as worthless, then goods/services/food can get stuck in a global economic system that no longer moves. Maybe old people will put up with not having a house to live it but even they will get upset when they have no food to eat. YES==large numbers of people can easily starve while food is dumped elsewhere. Why spend a penny to provide food when letting it rot is cheaper?
Worst case scenarios are rare, probably as rare as “not much will happen.”
#18–Dallas==if you are only being “hopeful” you should not express it in terms of analysis. Separate the two?
Abruptly pulling out of Afghan and Iraq ((which we have not done and will not for another year)) is not “a magic bullet.” I can only imagine what you mean by that term since I never used it and you don’t define it. In common parlance, it means a cure? Cure for what??? All I said is it would reduce our expenses for foreign occupations.
Good progress.
Freefall has not stopped. Freefall has simply slowed its acceleration. Last I check we had 18%+ unemployment and the census monkeys are not yet finished. When those jobs figures go off the books, I suspect that unemployment will go up. Lest we forget that Obama still has 26 months or so in office and he still has unfinished items on his agenda. I have no doubts in his ability to make things worse. For example, we’ll see if Obama is dumb enough to try to push cap and tax in this economic environment or tries to impose trade barriers. In addition, any rosy economic predictions are based on a lack of surprises (e.g. another attack, a country collapse, a State collapse, *cough* CA *cough*, another round of mortgage collapses etc). Realistically, things are going to get worse before they get better.
I like to think that the future in “Snow Crash” is the real one. I would love to live in a world like that. It’s very similar to this one, except cooler.
The Alex and Bobbo show.
Thomas==I agree. and I’m very consciously not being pessimistic. Just looking at what is. The pessimism/optimism scale comes after analysis as to what we “hope for.”
Its THERE that I prove myself pessimistic.
We’re screwed. All we have is tax and spend Dems with Deficit and Spend Pukes all in a matrix of a sheeple public split into two waring camps of equal stupidity and a ruling attitude of:
I’ve got mine, screw you.
To late! It’s already happening.
Just another wannabe conservative visionary. They wish society could collapse so they could hoard their guns and rule over a harem of women. Next step – “I am your god”.
Pathetic.
Just make your choice small government or big government.
I met a young man last night who worked ever since high school. Class of 1986. His company laid off 200 employees two years ago and he just now is getting a job. He is young and strong and very good but why did he lose his job? Mexico, China, etc.
I retired in 2001 from the government with good benefits and I did drop out of school in 1960. Why did life change so much in the United States of America?
If you want to see what will happen to the US in the next 100 years take a plane to the UK.
And 100 years after that, take a plane to Spain.
THAT is what happens to former empires.
This other guff is nothing more than a re-spun post-apocalyptic scenario. Great for a SciFi channel movie or some manga, but not realistic.
Cursor_
Guess again. And while you are all out here on the net arguing , making uninformed posts about something you refuse to accept as a possibility, no- a probability…. some of us are quietly preparing.
Good luck, schmucks!
#31. ditto
Ditto
#30–yank== yes the USA has a lot of assets/advantages to play with. I took the OP as a scenario of how a disaster “could” play out==not that it will or must.
Then we got a survivalist with two ditto’s in response saying it WILL!==ha, ha!
So, odds on something like this happening is an entirely different question from how might something like this happen.
Tell Me: wasn’t the Great Depression of 1929 pretty much a similar scenario, just not as bad, and wasn’t such an event just narrowly avoided in 2008? Its not that all the potential isn’t available, its that the organizing element has broken down and takes awhile to re-establish itself. Meanwhile millions can die. In my scenario, a good ===there I did it again===a FOOD shortage arises. When/if that happens, no amount of coal, ocean security is going to help and having the 3rd largest population is the problem.
Bad things can happen. Like AGW, the real question is what does a rational society do to protect itself from such percentages?
Can we keep infowars bullshit off the blog?