The darkness worsens.

.
.
No, not a personal level except in a larger manner than anything about me. This is about our future. While I have been viewing the coming crash of the economy, my eyes have been blinded. I have been looking at the fall from an purely economic point of view. I have also been blinded to viewing only the private sector, seeing only public sector layouts and entitlement spending. These, even if what can be corrected is corrected and the Fed is eliminated and fiddlers are removed from playing with money, the prime rate, and other factors, will lead to an indeterminate period of economic devastation similar to the Great Depression. But when I say indeterminate, I mean a longer, a much longer period of time in severe economic depression. Japan really is an example and she still is not in recovery. Though what I think we are looking at is a good deal below where Japan has fallen. This, by the way, will be global. There is no nation that is insulated, save maybe North Korea. Uhrm, now that right there is funny.

What I have missed is why "money" is leaving America. I am beginning to see things how the wealthy see things. The reason money and corporations are leaving the U.S. has something to do with taxation, with the costs of business, with the risks the government poses, and with other obvious if still convoluted notions. Something I missed in my calculations is the infrastructure. The failing nature of our infrastructure, from roads to bridges to the electric grid to dams is so vast and terrible that it alone would cause a financial decay equal to all that is mentioned above, and perhaps more. Add them together and you find that wealth has no choice, no matter what happens with the government, to leave. If it does not leave it will be consumed whole cloth and to almost no good results for generations.

As an example, the levy system which channels the water for 25 million people in Southern California is beyond the pale. To fix those systems, the cost ranges between $40 and $60 million dollars... per mile. Okay, well, that is just California. Fruits and nuts can hang. Fine, fine, if that is how you see it. Well, let us move on to something you cannot function without, anywhere. Roads. The decay of the highway system, bridges, and all is beyond the scope of the public and private sector to maintain, let alone repair or expand. With a turn of a phrase and a little thought, think of roads having been created by a big bang. Unlike the supposed big bang on a physics level, this big bang is actually collapsing on itself. While, for the average Joe, this merely means more time in traffic. Sure, road rage, increased accidents, and long detours are something to complain regarding, they are not really a huge economic issue, mostly. But for businesses to succeed, they must have the ability to transport goods at great speed. Our roads are one major part of our economic arteries, and they are clogged beyond our "economic doctors'" ability to repair, let alone expand as would be required. And another example of "clogged arteries" is the electric grid. If black outs do not get you, rolling brownouts will. That does not include the rest of the levies, which are just now being collated and cataloged on a national level. Of course, none of this counts in the current economic realities of declining... everything. Right.

Who is to blame? Well, businesses have certainly used these resources to their breaking points. Ah, but they have paid so very dearly that they are, in part, being forced to take their businesses elsewhere if they can afford to do so. They get a pass on blame, seriously. Of course, there are the American people. We use things until they are broken and fail as well. Ah, but here again, we see that citizens have paid quite dearly for our goods. Some more than others of course. And the price those "some" pay is becoming onerous enough that deserting is not so much simply a wise economic choice as it is a choice between staying and being economically salvaged (perhaps worse, as the final solution came about more in hopes (why do socialists always do that hope thing, I do not think they now what that term really means) of covering up Germany's great theft of the fortunes of the few).

So, who is to blame. A minor player has been unions. When I say minor, I mean they represent about 1/3 of the blame. What have unions done? Well, driving up the cost of the maintenance and repair of the infrastructure through an increase of at least 30% of the (direct) cost of those endeavors, while union rules demand inefficiency and waste adding untold amounts to the price that is to be paid. The rest of the cost goes to politicians who have become shrill gold promisers. The most fiscally conservative politician on today's market would be called a fiscal lunatic in the first 150 to 200 years of this nation. When did this begin to change? Two words, feminist emancipation. This, however, was an enactment by men. It goes against logic, it goes against reason, it goes against tradition, and ultimately, it goes against God.

I now understand why many of those I discuss these matters with, read, or see discussing the issue have such a varied opinion about what can be done, what should be done, and what they themselves are doing. Very few people see the whole picture, from the economic to the political to the social. This is not an economic problem. Although, if you stretch the Austrian School of Economics' principles and predictions into the overall equations, you will find that they still hold true. What man has does in all three (the social, political, and economic) areas is to attempt to socially engineer a new world (order). That it is failing is no surprise. But the size of the failing is being so hugely underestimated by even those riding the dark horses of doom because they are not looking at the whole picture. Their 'televisions' are not wide screen enough. They are seeing the middle 3 square inches of a 50" inch 'television'. Most of us were born with blinders on. Those, like myself, who bucked the blinders and are sidelined at least in part for that, are just now expanding our view.

How far will we fall? I do not really know. Is there anything we can do to avoid even some of it? Yes, but you are not going to like the price, some of you will not make it no matter what we do. Is there hope? In God, yes, in man, ourselves, the economy for most of the rest of our lives, no. You really ought to get busy. The clock is ticking. One small cataclysm may well escalate into absolute failure of everything you know and hold dear. What you are wearing and can carry may be all you have left.

The ones I wonder about the most are the ones who are so jacked into cell phones, texting, tweeter, and the rest. I can handle hours, days, weeks, and months, even years without so much as a bit of chat. Can you? There may not even be land line phones except for the wealthy, in Europe or wherever they eventually flee. Though, for them, I fear even more. They will, at some point, be beyond their money to save. Even if they find a safe place, they will be prisoners there with others like themselves. Any army hired to protect them may well become their own masters, and by needs would become so even if not directly. None will be spared. I suppose that is why they enjoy an even higher life now. Drink that wine, for tomorrow it will be vinegar.

Bah! I blather. But lest you think this is simply a tale and you will go on as you do today, or more yesterday, bless your heart and may St. Ambrose help you. Actually, I do believe I will find a prayer which asks for his talents to be shared with the many. Hmm, perhaps St. Raphael, as well. Those are the patron saints of learning and of the blind.