The Overextendted America

The American Spectator ^ | March 22, 2012 | R. Emmett Tyrell

[trappedincanuckistan]

We in America today live in a country circumscribed by entitlement policies devised by an America that has steadily been disappearing. Those policies established over a generation ago cannot possibly in mathematical or demographic terms support the America of the present much less the America of the future. That is the stark reality. We need to reform those policies or we shall go bankrupt, and raising taxes on the so-called rich will not fix things. Even raising taxes on the middle class will not fix things. Nor will spending a trillion dollars more than we have on hand fix things. Eventually those trillion-dollar deficits have to be paid off. Facts are facts; the day of reckoning that our hayseed politicians have said was up the road a piece is here. We have to do something now and we can begin by growing the economy.

[EyeGuy]

We need to follow Paul Ryan’s roadmap.

Yesterday.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

This has been going on for generations. One entitlement on top of another and it keeps expanding. People come to expect them yet they don’t want to pay taxes to fund them, or they want the “rich” to pay for everything. Years of liberal conditioning have turned poor and even middle class Americans into adult children who don’t think they have to support themselves and pay their own way. They want a mommy and daddy government that will give them what they want without effort. And if they don’t get what they want, they whine, scream and ultimately riot. Our people may not have the moral foundation and will to stop the spending binge. Just like an alcoholic who knows booze is killing him yet he still wants another drink.

[cuban leaf]

—We need to reform those policies or we shall go bankrupt—

If I were a betting man, I’d go all in for bankrupt. And it will be sooner rather than later.

[cuban leaf]

—We need to follow Paul Ryan’s roadmap.

Yesterday.—

That last word is the problem, as I see it. That is, we are a bus doing 70 mph and the driver noticed a stopped semi 50 feet ahead. The time to hit the brakes was “yesterday”. It’s a little late now.

No matter who we elect...

[PGR88]

I saw a statistic recently which was very scary

In the first 5 months of fiscal 2012, the USA has racked up $727 in deficits (typically, deficits are higher before April)

At the same time, tax COLLECTIONS were $625.5 billion ($2 billion below last year - and the economy is supposed to be growing!!???)

The US Federal Government is actually borrowing even more than it collects in taxes.

We are so screwed!!

[cuban leaf]

I keep calling the current situation a hundred year storm. And why WDII will be worse than WDI and, like WDI will be followed by World War, worse than the one that followed WDI.

[cuban leaf]

Yep. What happens to a family that keeps borrowing more and more on the credit card while dad keeps getting pay cuts? And the results are much more devastating when it happens to the most powerful country the world has ever known. It will not be without significant pain.

...of biblical proportions. Literally.

[Red Badger]

The Overextendted America..........That headline is overextended.............

[EyeGuy]

Correct.

We are going to hit the ground. HARD.

I’m just trying to figure out in what specific configuration, to prepare accordingly.

[cuban leaf]

In my case, two weeks before Obama was elected I purchased a small farm in rural Kentucky. I moved here from my 45 year home of Seattle last August. We bought 18 chicks a week ago and just plowed the garden yesterday. We own an entire finger of a plateau and you can’t see our place from any road. And I hear the wild turkeys gobbling in the woods just behind our house every morning as I leave the house. And we watched five white tails grazing outside our bedroom window a few days ago.

I’d like to get solar and wind power, but first things first.

[LucianOfSamasota]

Paul Ryan is one of the few in Washington even trying to address the problem. But $5.3 trillion over the next decade is still insufficient. Even if the Fed's would stick to it (which they won't), this would only SLOW the growth of deficit by about 1/3rd. The entitlement gravy train needs to end today, and we need to re-institute Judeo-Christian standards in order to cause Americans to return to self-sufficient behavior.

Women need to marry before bearing children, and two parent households need to raise those children. Lying, cheating, stealing need to be unacceptable. Taking charity should be shameful. And one should not desire what he hasn't earned. A man who doesn't work, shouldn't eat.

Part of the problem in America today is that kids honestly don't know right from wrong. They've been told that all systems of values have equal merit, and that there is no absolute wrong or right. Why would you expect someone to act properly when they don't even know what it is to act properly?

[EyeGuy]

Perfect.

Better than ammo, essential commodities and PM’s...though you need that, too.

You should feel very good about your family’s future security. That must be a satisfying feeling.

I’ve looked at acquiring land- Cheapest land in America: Rural Wyoming for about $170.00 an acre, but it is, of course, useless for pretty much anything but mineral rights.

Now Kentucky, that is some quality real estate. Must have cost you a very pretty penney. Kudos to you, sir.

[gogogodzilla]

Might want to consider removing any roads to your place.

It’d be pretty easy for it to be ‘appropriated’ for the ‘common good’ when it’s a known location, with easy access.

[cuban leaf]

Now Kentucky, that is some quality real estate. Must have cost you a very pretty penney. Kudos to you, sir.

---

It cost less than a hundred K, and here is the sweet part: My real estate taxes are less than $500 a YEAR. It had a new house on it when we bought it and is 13 acres. I’ve added a large shed and am trying to get a 40x80 sheet metal building up, while I still can.

It’s achilles heel is the 1/4 mile driveway that brings you up up from the valley, but I got that taken care of after we moved in. A couple grand for some serious grading and gravel.

[cuban leaf]

It’s off a road, off a road, off a road, off a two lane highway. ;-)

The road in front of our house is very much like a paved bike trail would be in Seattle, but maybe a foot wider. And the view is a lot better.

[Tublecane]

“That last word is the problem, as I see it. That is, we are a bus doing 70 mph and the driver noticed a stopped semi 50 feet ahead. The time to hit the brakes was ‘yesterday’. It’s a little late now.”

I heard a local radio personality somewhat recently predict that we’re going to wake up one morning to someone telling us we have to cut the government, like, 50% by noon. And it will seem like a surprise to most. That about sums it up for me. If it’s not already too late, no doubt it will be too late if and when we ever decide to do something.

[EyeGuy]

That sounds like a GREAT buy.

Looks like I need to do some more homework/research.

[cuban leaf]

It wasn’t a steel, but it was a good deal. On some mornings, we sit on our front porch and watch the sun rise in the east as the full moon sets in the west. I keep joking, after my orange juice, that it will be sad when the vacation ends and we have to go home. :-)

And I have never so thoroughly enjoyed physical labor as much as I do here.

[cuban leaf]

Here's my wife coming home one day. Everything you see there is part of our property. The road actually is a couple hundred yards to the left and down the hill (our driveway is a 1/4 mile "U shape. She is about to the end of one arm of the U at the house. The other end connects to the road after mostly paralleling the road down a hill.

And a youtube we made when we first got there:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuqK5EtxWTg