Posted on 08/21/2012 10:32:30 AM PDT by mojito
Sometimes societies find themselves in pernicious cycles in which the perceived medicine seems worse than the known disease. The Roman satirist Juvenal lamented the ill effects of free food and free entertainment for the masses (bread and circuses) in part because he knew there was no remedy for the pathology in sight and thus only a slow decline toward fiscal insolvency or riots were on the horizon. Any Roman emperor bold enough to rein in the Praetorian Guard, charge the mob for grain, and curb gladiatorial shows would earn a usurper marching on Rome from the provinces. So most did not.
[....]
We are currently mired in the slowest recovery from any recession in our modern history and we face the same circular dilemma. A good argument could be made that President Obamas gargantuan new health-care initiative, federal takeovers of businesses and failed subsidization of green industries, vastly expanded food stamps, unemployment insurance, and disability insurance, and You didnt build that business boilerplate have ossified the private sector. Many businesses have plenty of cash, but their owners are terrified to risk much of it in hiring, buying, or expanding. This results in fewer jobs and slower growth and again, in this squirrel cage of an economy, yet more need for entitlements.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Yes. We are Doomed:
Beats a truck full of technicals with .50 caliber heavy machine gun mounted on a truck bed and machetes showing up at the door and hacking everybody to death.
For this election cycle, I am fairly confident that Americans are so repulsed by Barry’s imcompetence and narcissism that they are going to make the right call.
Long term though, I am gravely concerned. In my view the odds are about even that sometime in the next two decades 50.01% of the country will vote to go flat-out Socialist, and all of us who have tried to do it the right way are gonna get SCROOOOOOOOOOOD.
I read in the WSJ yesterday that Texas has more people on Medicaid than there are total people in Iowa, Arkansas, or Mississippi.
Can anyone think of an historic example?
Well, yeah, but in central CA the man-made drought is a certainty that is presently observable. The truck full of gear is another, more colorful dimension to the question, "Are we doomed?"
Ohh...me...pick me.
Voluntarily? No. Hence ramming thru Obamacare. Now they rush to implement it and we need not wonder why.
Doomed!
Except, yeah, we're pretty darned screwed.
Texas is a solidly Republican state for one reason; the GOP routinely wins over 70% of the white vote. That’s it. What happens when the white share of the electorate is no longer large enough for that to carry the day?
The GOP may do better with Hispanics in Texas than they do in California, but they still typically lose the latino vote by large, double-digit margins in the Lone Star State. And there is no reason to expect this to change, especially while mass immigration (legal and illegal) continues.
Texas won’t become hopeless for the GOP like California as long as the white vote there remains so conservative, but Texas will likely become a battleground state within a few election cycles.
Yes. Next question.
Ok, so we are doomed. But I can still wash the bad news down with a Shiner. So, it's not all bad.
BTTT!
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve read articles recently about how Sweden is retreating from its entitlement state mentality.
The United States now ranks fifth, overtaken by Sweden and Singapore in the 2011-2012 rankings of the World Economic Forums Global Competitiveness report.
I choose to not participate the the doom. Much of America is doomed though.
That’s why IEDs were invented.
Thanks!
That’s very interesting.
I will try to find out more about Sweden then.
Suddenly I am reminded of how Stalin pacified the Ukraine.
At some point, you have to clean out the dross, and burning the books seems the time honored human way.
There was a time when I thought I would make some attempt to preserve some small pod of human knowledge, and there is a selected aspect I'll make the effort to keep alive. Otherwise, you'll find me next to the pile, keeping warm...
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