Monday, July 25, 2011

Outlook not favorable



I think it is hard to imagine for the young today the system shock from the riots and assassinations of the late 60’s. When the price of gas doubled in the oil shock and then you couldn’t have all you wanted even if you could afford it. That just freaked the counter culture right the fuck out. Want to know why the peace and love generation turned into the greedy selfish fucks that everyone loves to hate the baby boomers that is what made them that way.

Over the next couple of years I am afraid that same youth will get to experience something far worse. There are no jobs. The very wealthy are doing very well, they are buying lots of new toys. Apple pads, pods, phones and their numerous clones are flying off the shelves. The top quintile is now 60 million people and that is more than enough to sustain the top quintile. As long as they can quit paying for anything needed by the other 4/5ths. The 13 million long term unemployed are about to start running out of benefits. “The little depression” as Paul Krugman calls it is upon the rest of us and the safety net we spent the last seventy years building is about to be destroyed. The government is out of money when tax burdens are at the lowest in 60 years. No brainier to raise taxes in a normal world but in Randistan that is heresy. The co-operative government that created the highest material standard of living in the history of civilization was now evil, but that is another rant. Because of Austerity measures to combat a revenue problem unemployment will go up and poverty will become endemic in a manner not seen since the 1930’s

I look around my little town and it is dying a slow death. A high end clothing shop opening at the mall will not make up for the closing of schools and restaurants. And for the newly fired most wont even get 26 weeks unemployment let alone extended benefits. It is my opinion that we are at the breaking point. There are not enough cans to pick out of the trash for us all to survive and humans being what they are it will not be pretty. The tent cities are already full. There is now a block long Bushville in the warehouse district now. It wont be fair to call the Obamavilles until he passes his grand bargain then all bets are off. When the next wave of foreclosures hit there is no place for these folks to go.

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