A pessimistic realization

[whymc]

My thinking about the world moves on two levels. There is a conscious level, on which I process ideas that I encounter in conversation and interaction with the world. On this level, I work out what I believe about the world, and try to formulate sensible and appropriate plans of action. At the same time, other parts of my brain, older parts, but

Comments

[voland]

Learn to farm, and to fight. If you cant do the above, start planning an exit strategy. There are not that many countries that would accept a us academician in humanities.

There will be pain regardless of politics. If we get a new set of faces come November there will be austerity, and some blood letting, will it be enough?
If the empty suit dumb ass get to keep congress and senate, I would consider spending everything you have on paying down debt , and otherwise preparing for the worst. I can absolutely see the nationalization of 401k, IRAs and private funds, possible a Roosevelt type gold grab as well. We might see the above regardless of who has power. The biggest challenge of the next decade for the fed.gov state.gov will be to pay the pensioners and the bloomers, and to keep bribing the union ghouls. Without a doubt the producing members of the society will be expected to pay.

[whymc]

Interesting - we manage to be depressed about two completely different parts of the economy. I'm far more concerned about the changing role of corporations, and their ability to subvert the political process than I am about old folk or unions - I don't worry at all about unions, because, well, I'm a believer in them, and because right now they have the political and economic power of a depressed goat. I worry more about the way that the financial services sector has become 25-30% of gdp, and about the way that the financial services sector has managed to buy off almost everyone who regulates markets, be they democrat or republican. I understand why corporations do what they do - suborning politicians is cheap and easy, and makes them a much better return on investment than actually producing things or doing real research... but I fear the consequences.

[verymelm]

I'd be worried about the old folks, actually. Health expenditures are very, very quickly going to consume all public funds, squeezing out most everything else. I saw a presentation by the MN State Demographer (similar to this one: http://www.demography.state.mn.us/documents/Mn%20Planning%20Assoc%20Sept%202006.pdf) a few years ago and it was.. quite revealing.

[voland]

Exactly. Old people are a massive unfunded and insolvent liability. Between paying for all the promises to the old folks, paying interests on debt, paying the do nothing public sector ghouls that retire on bogus disability at 50, any real money the feds and the sates have will evaporate.

http://reason.com/blog/2010/03/31/reasontv-3-reasons-why-public

[fencert]

It often feels to me like our economy has, perhaps inevitably, come to the point where the crackheads are in charge of the pharmacy. The people who cannot control their greed have gravitated, necessarily, to jobs in which they are above reproach, where they lack oversight, or where they can exercise a great degree of influence over the money of others. The rest of us for some reason cannot seem to imagine that this kind of thing could happen, and that the foxes have in fact been put in charge of the henhouse. I cannot imagine how it could NOT happen without a wary and appropriately distrustful public. However, since few exercise their right to know what goes on with the government, since it is easier to simply rest on comfortable assumptions that validate some aspect of our own world view, we are pretty screwed.

[tandu]

Gold is always a good investment. Not always the highest performer, but as a method of maintaining wealth, there's few that are better and none that are better consistently.

[whymc]

Gold is actually over-bought right now... but other precious metals might not be a bad hedge. We'll always need platinum and lithium.

[voland]

Gold sucks. Way over hyped right now, just another bubble.

[damej]

I feel like I've seen this all before, in the 1980s (anyone remember the S&L collapse and bailout?).

The deficit ballooned dangerously during the Reagan years, and the economy stagnated. Still, we managed a very nice recovery in the 1990s (partly boosted by technology and partly by creative financial schemes, its true).

So, I guess I'm not too pessimistic about the future, long-term. It will not be painless, but when push comes to shove, even the Plutocrats will have to bend in order to serve their own long-term self-interest.

Our back-up plan is to retire overseas to a place like Panama or Ecuador, where the climate is mild, health care is decent, and the cost of living is low.

[whymc]

I guess that the difference I see between the two eras is that during the Reagan years, we had reserves to draw on. We'd had good years, years of prosperity, and the middle class was strong, and had assets. I worry that this is not longer the case...

[former_callixte]

My paranoid nature wants me to buy land and try to be self sufficient as much as possible. but of course I'm pretty fricken poor right now so that is not going to happen. (And I need some big pharma drugs to keep me sane. Expensive big pharma drugs.) But of course the reason I need them is probably why I am feeling the paranoia and depressive bouts of "OMG the world is going to hell!" when I think too hard about all the crap that is going on....Hmmm, I think I need to go find a happy corner of the internet right now.

[whymc]

Enjoy the cats. I'm told that some of them may be seeking cheeseburgers in a humorous fashion. The paradox for me is that I don't really want to end up in a world where I'm surviving as a paranoid dirt-farmer... my ancestors did that for untold ages, and I'd like to keep on breaking that cycle, thanks.