The Fiscal Cliff and Financial Collapse

(Cartoon by: Michael Crawford, a frequent contributor to the New Yorker. This cartoon found in condenaststore.com)

     
 

       I wrote Rational Preparedness:A Primer to Preparedness because I had concerns that many people had no disaster plan.  Natural and man-made disasters do occur, and each of our families need to have some type of a plan for these. The plans don't work if you use a plan designed for a California coastal dweller and you live in Michigan's upper peninsula. They don't work if you adapt a Floridian plan for hurricane to an area an hour from Alaska's Denali National Forest.  We each have inherent hazards wherever we live, and the focus of the book is to recognize and note the inherent natural hazards where you live and then to structure both a sheltering in place plan and an evacuation plan for your own family and your own situation.
             As I wrote Rational Preparedness, I was giving thought more to natural disasters than I was financial collapse, although many of the same strategies for immediate management would be the same.  In the last weeks though, more and more people in the mainstream have been discussing financial collapse within the context of the fiscal cliff.  We have a real impasse here.  Our president, elected by those who are apparently not paying attention, believes that the government can continue to provide consolation prizes to those who have been passed by, by the educational and job opportunities which used to exist within the United States. The House Speaker, Mr. Boehner, believes that he can continue to discuss a compromise with Mr. Obama and that one may happen.  The fact is that we are very likely to reach a point where the federal government grinds to a halt, the military doesn't get paid, the passport office stops, and the law of unintended consequences could lead to some very negative happenings before some adjustment is made.  Meanwhile, rather than being outraged at Mr. Obama's demands, the Republicans are trying to morph into kinder gentler souls so as not to lose the election "next time". I have news for the Republicans.  Many of the people I knew who stayed home this election, did so because they felt the Republicans were no longer conservative enough .   Many people feel that Congress and the Senate did not work hard enough to stop the financial and spending excesses of the present Obama Regime.
            The fact is that we can't give free cellular phones to everyone in the United States who has known a financial challenge in their lifetimes. Not if the phones are any good, we can't.  We can't give free health care to anyone who needs it indefinitely.  Not if that health care is being delivered to the US standard we used to have.  We can be compassionate and help those who need temporary help, as many people throughout life do, but a healthy economy must exist in order for someone to be earning and paying into the system which allows us to even consider rendering aid to those who are temporarily non-productive.  It is part of life to be financially challenged. Ask any college student. Many of them are so poor they can't even pay attention ! Most of us have periods of time in which we struggle financially, recover and then save and are relatively self sufficient. This is part of life and something to be accepted.  Accepting poverty of all as a status quo and something the government needs to ameliorate will not only be a complete failure, but does not give credit or creedence to the idea that life, for one reason or another is a struggle.
             Good luck Mr. Boehner. Mr. Obama will simply let the country fall off the cliff and blame your lack of cooperation when his intention all along was to create as many people dependent upon a Nanny State government as possible.