The Impending Destruction Of America

For 232 years the United States has been one of the greatest experiments of civilization in history. We have been required to fight enemies, foreign and domestic, that sought to destroy our way of life. It seemed that our formula that involved freedom and individuality was a threat to those who sought to subjugate the world to their tyranny. We were never defeated (we quit in Vietnam) and grew to the greatest nation in the world. But now I see an enemy that has us by the throat and will choke the life from our great country. We have met the enemy and they are us!

No, I am not predicting another Civil War. Not even an armed insurrection, although the sight of those protesters at the homes of the AIG executives a couple of weeks ago reminded me of a Frankenstein movie, sans the pitchforks. In fact, it appears that we have given up without a fight. That spirit of individuality has been redefined to indulging oneself in any perverse manner imaginable and calling it free speech. The self reliance that this country was built on has been replaced with a dependence on the government that would make Karl Marx proud. We are a country of narcissists that has mortgaged the future of our country for some immediate gratification today.

If you visit my blog page you will see a national debt calculator whirring away, now over $11 trillion. Every living man, woman and child owes over $35,000 right now. And this doesn't include all of the latest money and the deficit spending that is planned. Some predictions have us doubling that debt in 5 years! Can you imagine what my 2 1/2 month old grandson will owe when he reaches adulthood. And of course, the politicians all talk about reducing the deficit spending but none of them has a viable plan to reduce the debt. It is like we have a credit card with an unlimited limit on it. And of course we are making the minimum payments and ringing up more and more charges.

So when is the world credit card lender going to rein us in? Is some mysterious person going to call Obama one day and say "You have exceeded your credit limit. Please cut up your card and return it to us."? It will not be as abrupt as that but it will happen something like this. Currently we go to the market and sell our T-Bills, borrowing interest at a very attractive rate. We get this great rate because the debt is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. Eventually that faith in our country will not be as strong and these people (Chinese, Indians, Russian Mafia, etc) will require a larger return on their loan increased due to what they perceive as increased risk that they will not get their money back. These increased rates will have to be paid by increased borrowing and the end result will be an inflation rate the likes of which we have never seen. Our savings will disappear and we will reach that level of dependency that our government wants us to achieve.

While I think we are rapidly headed toward the cliff I do not blame this situation on the current government. The old saying is that you get the government you deserve is very appropriate here. We, the American public, are responsible, and are the only ones that can correct it. The problem is that I see a lack of will out there. We willingly go along with anyone that promises what we want to hear, primarily what is in it for me. These people are doing our bidding and our bidding is driving our country into the dirt.

There are a lot of people sounding the alarm but nobody is listening. So I guess they will have the satisfaction of saying "I told you so" but it will be a hollow victory. Alas, absent some astounding change I see no clear skies ahead.