How should I react to America's grim future?

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i do not agree with Autistic "curabee" advocate Jonathan Mitchell very often but I agree with him here

no, a better analogy is like a choice between a turd and mayo sandwich versus a mayo and arsenic sandwich.

Seriously, though, Clinton isn't going to enslave anyone. Trump, on the other hand..,.

on the subject of slavery, assuming the senate only gathers more GOP mossbacks, trump may be able to push through a repeal of FLSA, for starters.

Our Grim Future is because of our past.

I voted against our past in the past.

Once more into the trenches, something has to change!

At the very least we should drag everything out of the muck and mire, hose it off, dry it in the Sun, and figure out what to keep and what to burn.

We can stall on the National Debt, but unfunded Public Pensions are a larger number coming soon.

When employed in Government, they voted to retire on twice government income.

It was Legal because the Government Lawyers and Judges approved their retirement.

That world view was based on the stock market returning 10% per year forever, and the planet having endless resources.

By 2030 we need a second planet.

Compared to 1964, one dollar face of silver coins is now worth $12.

50 years into 1200% inflation comes to 24% per year.

$21 Trillion in debt is greater than the GNP.

Lowest percent of the population in the workforce ever. The Great Depression had higher employment.

Our industrial base has been shipped abroad, and one third of Mexico has moved here illegally.

We are living in America's Grim Future.

^^^a slight correction- I am one of those gov't employees and I most certainly will NOT be getting "twice gov't income" in my pension. i'll be lucky to get maybe $800 per month, tops.

It is all auntblabby's fault.

What I meant, since math is not a first language here, is all pensions, City, Town., County, State, including Teachers, Federal, Military, and other pensions who do not pay into Social Security, are underfunded, and projected to increase, they all have cost of living, to a total that exceeds government income.

Social Security is under funded. SSI, Medicare, Drugs, are coming out of the General Fund.

A large group of War Babies is in the process of retiring, and collecting for the next thirty years.

That is a 50% increase in people drawing Social Security, and we have the smallest workforce as a percentage of population, and the jobs do not pay very well.

Many people think the economy was crashed of purpose to reduce the Social Security of this large group.

Unemployment hit the over fifty hardest.

The Social Security Trust Fund was invested by Congress in Treasuries, which pay next to no interest.

It was a Ponzi based on compound interest, just as the Government Pensions were based of Stock Market returns.

The actual returns were less than inflation, the investments lost money, the pensions still have to be paid.

Also the remaining Private Pensions are in the same poor shape, and they are backed by the Government, which means us. When they default, the people can get SSI, if they have very few assets.

Almost all the wealth in the stock market is Institutional, Pension Funds. That is what TARP, QE 123+ was about, it was government employees covering their pensions. Obama added ten trillion to the national debt, to support their pensions.

Social Security, our roads and bridges, the real economy, are paying for this.

RINOs in Congress did not raise the Debt Limit, they abolished it. Pension Funds are sucking the wealth out of the economy, and out of the future.

It is still not enough to cover the cost as no one figured in that people are living longer, over 50% longer since WWII.

It is a Black Hole that is sucking up Capital, leaving nothing for productive investment.

Ten Trillion would have built coast to coast high speed trains, with a new power grid, and new cities along the way.
China did it. Our future is Detroit.

Shame! auntblabby, Shame for ruining America!

The real shame is that rebuilding America would have produced a long boom, high paying jobs, and increased tax income and Social Security pay ins.

Government employees do not think about investment and profit, they just want all the money. They have the power to take it from people who make it.

keep in mind that "gov't employees" also includes the military and its support organs, of which my family and I were also a part. if one condemns civil servants one might also condemn the military, public health service and all sorts of other very useful things.

It was auntblabby who collapsed western culture.

No, it was politics at the top who borrowed off of future tax income, and spent more than the future could pay.

It is a Ponzi, as long as it grows it works. Then New Orleans lost a quarter of the population after Katrina, the Rust Belt cities lost factories to China, their best workers left because they could get jobs elsewhere, and the welfare need increased.

Cleveland was a very good investment twenty years ago. Everything was growing.

Pittsburg is half ghosts, Buffalo is blocks of abandoned brick building. The tax base left.

The debts and pension obligations remained.

Also, Civil Service, Teachers, Post Office, used to pay less, but were secure. Then Unions told them they should be paid like Auto Workers, but without the autoworker layoffs.

Their pay continued up, with more benefits, as Steel Workers, Auto Workers, and lots of others took pay cuts, and a reduced workforce.

It is true they do good things and we need stability, but government became the employer to fight unemployment, and when computers came out, almost all industries reduced head count, while government increased head count.

Services yes, Social Engineering no. The percentage of GDP spent on Government, has to be limited.

Some will say you will die of food poisoning without us, but we do anyway.

There is a non government economy that just happens to produce all of the income. It also uses Capital, available Labor, to continue generating income.

The more government takes, the less is available for the primary producers.

We Capitalists call it, The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg. It must be fed, sheltered, and protected.

We also have to teach the next generation to care for it.

they also strain at the gnats of people receiving benefits while swallowing whole the camels of the MIC complex.

Once the government gets money, it tries to avoid spending it on useless things like widows and orphans, and Congress votes to locate a factory that makes something for the military in their district, so they can give jobs to their local supporters.

Congress is in full control of the process, and makes things none of the service branches want, which are then stored for a few decades and then sold.

War does drive technology, although excess money might work as well. Technology and machine tools, robotics, are good if we can apply them to our needs.

Hey I hate to be the bearer of bad news but we all have a grim future, none of us will make it off this planet alive so enjoy the time you have and leave the rest of that crap in God's hands. Also buy survival stuff, I think you will find the world in general is going to get a lot worse soon. Hell most of the west coast has radiation from Fukushima. Now would be a good time to invest in a radiation detector, they are a few hundred dollars. The radiation isn't bad on the west coast but its bad enough that the rain is radiative, google it and some back pages have information on it. Also I know the active ingredient to protect yourself from radiation but I will warn you, it'll make you very sick. Only take it if a nuclear bomb has gone off near you but google Potassium Iodide.

when the balloon goes up, I will go down.