Thanks Stardust. I can't believe a few entire sentences were omitted from my first paragraph you quoted. I noticed the ellipsis ( ... ) appeared after the last word in the paragraph suggesting something came after that (which was originally there). I want to be sure you know I was "creating a scenario" relating to government snooping, and you were not included in it. Thankfully, the rest of my post was probably suggestive that was the case. I was not intending to offend, and apparently you weren't.
Looking at the past for answers is fine. Maybe the present and the future--with or without answers from the past--is equally important:
Your statement that the trend will end one day begs the question that is on most of our minds: How ? I get the sense most of us that speak up do so with with a shrill pucker factor generally with the attitude "it won't end pretty" and concern that "if it you don't reform the way I want to see change, then we are probably doomed." Now that is pretty desperate sentiment ! Five years ago, after the general election, many said if we weren't doomed, we lighted the ignitors to propel us more quickly to it. To say, "I told you so," is a hollow victory now. But it heightens the desperate sentiment.
Someone posted on this thread, if I understood it, that at an earlier time a few decades ago, many took the opportunity in very bad times to have made a lot of money only to have after the dust settle years later with currency worth a lot less. Something to consider: Make lots of money, traders ! In the process, ask yourself what will it be worth should the quality of life be such that there is little first responder protection or public works maintained ? If that is well beyond ours or your granddaughters' horizon, Stardust, that is good. The direction is not. You say you don't believe politicians will resolve the problem ? Who will ? The same source that put the politicians in office ?
Here will be a good tea leaf to read: While the nation is getting a shot of "good stuff" injected into its veins with the energy boom about us for some years to come, will there otherwise be serious anchors around its neck ?... continuing the current ones and making new ones to be...... dragging.....dragging ? There are wonderfully good derivatives of benefit from less expensive energy; watch closely, though, who is doing what with new anchors dragging the nation. Do those anchors necessarily need to be there ? Or is it a moot point because the ship will already be structurally a wreck that not enough of us wish to repair ? Do you think, Stardust, that a society (1) largely, recently accultured and sustained on the government tit, and (2) much of the remainder of it will be so dumbed down in its quality of employment that it is going to have the guts-- the will-- to make that ship be allowed to be put upright-- cheap energy notwithstanding ? Will the potential leaders among us who have just witnessed a model of demagogic success continue the whispering of sweet things in our ears such that we elect more, not less of them ?
I see the theme in your thread, StarDust, of coming up with answers by examining the past, and the objective of applying them to affect the future. You say that there are people who would have not chosen our current outcome no matter which political stripe. The nation has recently awakened to the understanding that maybe there are--leaders even--who wished to have the current status. That they have successfully made the new normal in much of America to be dependent, and not to bite the new hand that feeds them. How much more successful can those leaders be than to be re-elected ?
Your premise of this thread is noble. I ask of you --with or without answers from the past-- to keep your eye on the current ball. Be among the few who tend to CURRENT EVENTS consistently and know objectively what they mean. Also, knowing well history and basic economics are so important, but I would be happy if everyone only had an interest in current events and what is behind them. Talk to others who may be opinionated, but who could exchange with you the aggendas that drive current events.
CURRENT STATUS of affairs is critical. If you don't know where you are, current events will become of marginal importance. Think of yourself over the ocean at night with info on speed, wind drift, and heading, but you don't know where you are ! You have.....360 degrees of choice around you and limited gas to get to landfall. Half of those in the cockpit with you just as soon watch sitcom's beamed down from satellites. Much of the other half understands the seriousness of correct direction, and will choose it based on intuition, not fact: a combination of emotion (what looks good, what sounds good) and hope. "We see illumination with a rising moon in the distance: let's try that way !"
Warning: The more you are plugged in, the less heartening it becomes finding someone else as current as you. It comes with the territory. "Less heartening" leads to a sense of danger: "These under informed are voters !" As many will tell you on this web site, greed is good. In the real world, fear is good; it may prompt you to prepare. Prepare for what and when ? "What" will be your best and probably always modified judgement. The most respected individuals in every camp will truthfully tell you they don't know "When." By accident or incident, few understood the "what" (the degree) and "the when" of the Great Recession. And who among that selected few knew the duration ?
Keeping your ear to the ground and your wits about you is the best advice I have gotten to survive events. I applaud you for starting the process with this thread.
