Permitting oneself an occasional philosophical reflection and contextual refocus can prove to be important in our personal quest to come out ahead. All of us in the good old USA could use just such a pause right about now.Let us consider, given the imploding global economy and all the implications thereof, our accustomed position of superiority in the world is now but a distant impudence. I do mean this in the most grateful and prideful way ... as a still-patriotic and red-blooded American who is ready and willing to pull up the bootstraps and get busy to help rebuild our country into the best possible nation on the planet.
Change--CAN We Do It?
The internet is chock full of partisans, pundits, and prophets. I try to avoid being any of these things online, and mostly that just leaves me to present a straightforward and repetitive case for the logic and common sense behind the need for personal preparedness. Preparedness has been a passion and an avocation for a long time and eventually one of my vocations as well.
Today, the short-term, mid-term, and long-term need for strong levels of readiness by everyone out there is obvious. The mystery is gone. The debates and the need to defend a position in favor of preparedness are over. Those late to the party are now scrambling to get caught up. It's not good, but better late than never, as never seems to be almost upon us.
Do I really need to provide you with some expert reference about the current state of our demise? OK--check this out:
The End of the U.S. as We Know It: Tracking the Dollar Downward
by Paco Ahlgren
Fenruary 1, 2009
Excerpt:
Look, there is absolutely no way the gargantuan political machine in Washington will ever consider backing the dollar with gold -- much less (God forbid) cutting spending and taxes at the same time. The dollar is doomed.
So what will happen next? I keep coming to only one bleak conclusion: the United States will have to default. And that will be the final call for the dollar. Food shortages, rationing, and martial law could become the status quo.
It will undoubtedly seem farfetched to some of you, but I don't think the United States can survive the failure of its currency -- especially considering that the catastrophe will be the direct result of decades of governmental lies and manipulation. The states sent legislators to Washington who have systematically and purposely destroyed our currency. They manufactured an irresponsible Ponzi scheme that created false prosperity, over and over again. I simply don't think the states in the Union -- many of whom asserted their independence at another point in history -- will sit still for more of the same.
[snip]Click on the article title above and read Ahlgren's entire piece. His commentary aptly describes where we find ourselves today. Like it or not, change is happening and there is no turning back the clock.
As always, we cherish our freedom to disagree. Today, it's all about how bad things will get and what this year and next year and beyond will look like. Will the dominoes keep falling or can someone out there find a way to stop them before the whole world erupts in chaos? In spite of my tendency to grasp at half-full glasses, I have come to the conclusion recently that we are pretty much out of luck.
Regretfully, our leaders are openly and shamelessly playing us for chumps as they wring some final personal wealth and power out of the dish-rag our system has become.
Bottom line: We're on our own. The safety nets are in the process of dissolving and many of the ivory towers are crumbling from the top down.
There's not a whole lot to be gained in trying to pinpoint just how bad things are going to get, as long as we acknowledge we're in the early stages of a long and painful descent. In fact, it may be enough to just come squarely to the realization that America will not ever be the same again. For a long time, many of us are going to be experiencing hardships we would not have seen as possible here a short while ago.
Clearly, the American Dream as we experienced it over the last few decades was just that--a dream. It was a fabricated blip in the graph of history. Now we will have to go back to earning what we have, and it will probably come the hard way. The sooner we each act on that understanding, the better off we will be.
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