Friday, December 7, 2012

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.



6 comments:

Matt said...

It's kinda hard to stop a regime that scoffs at the Constitution and has the attitude to just write executive orders to simply over ride existing laws in some cases and simply ignore laws in others...

And I don't understand this "not conservative enough" attitude. So they just stayed home... nice.

Donald Rumsfield once said,"you go to war with the equipment you have, not with the equipment you want."

Just because their "lord and savior" Ron Paul, didn't get the nomination, these people just decided not to play ball period. Very childish and this is exactly what it boiled down to...

That's their right I guess, but don't come knocking on my door after the collapse looking for a handout, they can just go somewhere else like the Obama voters.

This economy is going to crash, but we could have chosen a belly landing rather than a hard nose dive into the ground....

Boehner (and the rest of Congress) is certainly part of the problem being a RINO, but I start laying the blame with all these non-voters. They voted by not voting.

They get what they deserve this time.

JaneofVirginia said...

Matt, Perhaps you have clarified the flawed thinking which helped Mr. Obama get re-elected. Yes, they indeed voted by not voting. It will indeed be a "hard nosedive into the ground".

lotta joy said...

When I was a child, we were poor but didn't realize it. We asked for nothing and what we didn't have, we did without. Simple as that.

Which made me grow into that same kind of person my parents were.

Now, the kids ARE growing up the same kind of person their parents are: I can't buy mine, so I want YOURS.

And at some point, they will continue being placated by taking the social security from the ones who HAVE it because it's money we EARNED, and 'GAVE' it to the government for safe-keeping.

It's now called a "benefit".

JaneofVirginia said...

It's scary stuff. My eldest kids had a hard time in a state university. They worked hard and a lot of students thought that it was "unfair" that they got good grades. The idea that we work for what we have is a foreign concept to many people, particularly of this generation. Shouldn't we all just get good grades just for showing up ? After all, it's not fair that some are brighter than others ? This was the place where four years ago, my son's life was threatened if he did not vote for Obama.

The Handwriting Goddess said...

Did you see Tony Robbins' video that explained the debt? http://bit.ly/TaxWWC

Scary.

He quotes another blogger from Iowa, but the numbers make it impossible for Washington to fix.

I'm into Plan B and no longer work the way I used to. I hope our Social Security makes it, but I'm not so sure. I agree with JaneofVirginia.

JaneofVirginia said...

I don't think that the issue is IMPOSSIBLE to fix but I don't think that the president and the Congress and Senate will do what is necessary to do so. Keep in mind that Toronto in Canada was deeply in debt, and that a couple of years with a new Mayor turned a terrible deficit into a surplus. Our government needs to carefully consider what it spends and start budgeting the way the families in the US have to. If they can't remember how to run a government frugally, Nova Scotia can show them !