[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

Good morning. Your four points are well taken. What they point to is some sort of significant restructuring of the whole political and economic reality of our nation. Herb Stein's observation is screaming now, and the quasi-pernanent class is working overtime to pretend there no -- or little -- consequence for decades of idiocy.

This is why, it seems to me, we are inundated with so many "shiny object" things in today's media -- including selling "shiny objects."

The diagnosis seems clear. Like "two roads diverged in a yellow wood," one chooses a path and the other path is "not taken." Economically. Politically. Demographically.

My view ( and forecast ) is some sort of collapse will be answered with abrogation of government debt, which is about one quarter of all, as corporate -- which is taking out business after business no longer able to handle its individual debt service -- is about half of all worldwide.

That "financialization of everything" has wreaked havoc for decades, and has a history to tell us what the end of the story will be. As it has in the past, over and over again.

We individually need play with caution, have no debt and therefore no debt service requirement, and vote out the debt-loving bastards. On a local basis as on a national basis.

As another comment on this thread says, there is no free lunch. It just looked like that when the liars painted all their pretty pictures.

Best wishes.

[Alberta's Child]

Thanks! One thing I’ve said for a long time is that we should stop blaming politicians for this. The real culprit here is American voters … because any political candidate who runs on a campaign of fiscal solvency is likely to lose by a landslide.

Massive government spending and structural insolvency are a “natural” feature of democratic governance.