YES! ALL IS WELL.

 

I think I am having a tantrum. Do octogenarians have tantrums? I thought about something, to write  about today, and now, I don't want to. I have been waiting. One of my flaws is, I don't do waiting well. My hay man was suppose to deliver me some bedding last week. I expected him Monday, at the latest. I finally called him on Wednesday and he said he would be here Thursday afternoon. He didn't show up. I understand, it was raining. My barn is in pitiful shape. Lambing is in progress and it doesn't seem a fit place to bring new life into the world.

Then my Son's car broke down. It has been in the garage for over a week awaiting a part. This means he has to take my 21 year old little truck on journeys it may no longer be equipped to make.

I don't like waiting. All is well, Gregg; a voice says is my head. I know it is true, but I forget when I have to wait. Quit waiting then, another voice says, be in the moment, embrace life. Stop being a dolt.

Okay!

What I was thinking, about writing, was an attempt to clarify the financial dilemma our government is in. It has been operating on borrowed money for several years. Every child that is now born in the U.S. is indebted. We are born in debt. For years economist have stated, that it is no big deal; productivity will increase. The gross national product will increase, there will be new tax revenue; we will make it up. However, those days are long past. With all the manufacturing gone overseas, and our economy becoming a so-called service economy, our gross national product has actually gone down. The information, the government puts out, doesn't reflect it, because they started to include financial products, with the 'hard' produce in the statistics. These financial products do not necessarily reflect real value. In fact they may have negative value, like all those bundled mortgages, sold to unsuspecting, overseas banks before the recent crash.

Under our present system we have no way of repaying the debt. It will keep accumulating, plus interest, until the next crises. We have no new taxpayers. Our birthrate has dropped to the point where we are not replacing the population and much of that is growing past the productive age. We depend on immigration to add new taxpayers to the roles; the present ideology is putting the cabash on that.

Of course we could solve the problem with a complete restructuring of the tax system. Taxing the rich? Don't hold your breath. So, when the government wants to borrow more, and congress refuses to raise the debt ceiling, what is going to happen. Again, the problem could be easily solved, by cutting the defense budget in half. We would still be spending more on the war machine than any country on earth. Is that going to happen in the current administration? Highly doubtful; it means draconian cuts to social programs. It could mean chaos and a breakdown of all we know.

Imagine a family of four; they make $40,000 a year, and it is plenty for them, to have a happy life. But they have an eccentric uncle who is greedy and demanding and wants $10,000 of that. He has some control over them and they cannot refuse him. This eccentric uncle is, also, paranoid and is able to instill fear in the family. They buy a $20,000 security system because they are afraid they may be killed in their sleep. Now they have only $10,000 to live on. They do the best they can, but this same eccentric uncle is willing to lend them money at a high rate of interest. In order to make ends meet, they continue to borrow. They hope to get better jobs, but it doesn't turn out. Soon they owe more than they will ever be able to pay. Their children will have to take on the debt.

We, as a country, are in a similar pickle. There are many ways, a soft landing can be engineered, but that would require high taxes on the rich and an end to our military adventuring. Can we see that happening?

I have said many times, I am not a prophet. I don't do well, when I attempt to look into the future. These are, the cold hard facts, that stare at me, and I am puzzled, that those more educated in this area, are not putting up more warnings. They are there [the warnings], but one has to go looking for them.

In one sense, it doesn't matter. It has to collapse. Our economy, and government structure, is so riddled with fraud and corruption, that it stinks. We are happy to be rid of our paranoid uncle. Yet it would be nice if we knew how big a garden we should plant, and should we order those chickens, this year or wait until next?

Well, as I tell myself, all is well! We will do just fine! We will be able to remake civilization in our local communities. After all, we do love each other! We can actually put the civil back into civilization. It has been missing for many, many years.

Happy Friday!

Love and Peace, Gregg