Translate

Monday, February 21, 2011

All this turmoil in the USA was and still is predictable

Here's why. Humans are being themselves, which is mostly selfish. And some are worse than others. All want to do well for themselves, their families, and their grandkids that they know right now. Whether they loan money, rate the credibility of the borrowers, or simply just work to get through life (like be warm and fed), we are all human in how we think about things and make decisions.

It is the predictable decisions that makes things so...predictable. Even two or three years ago, Moody's, one credit rating company that does this for a living, predicted the down rating of the USA's ability to borrow in 2016. And while that was an opinion, it seems to have made a point to me.

The logic line I follow is twofold, both folds human. When governments can no longer borrow like in the last many decades, then people will lose jobs, and even schools and police protections may shut down. And two, when the loaners start imposing their conditions, then voters are no longer in charge.

Now then can we local voters even decide as to how our future goes? After all, if there is not enough money for all good intentions, then what will locals vote for as to be represented for their benefit? Think priorites in this case. And I still think we can vote, and help it count.

There is a worse logic line I have thought of, and hope never happens. Suppose all the borrowing continues, somehow, and in the future when our kids or grandkids grow up and find out they have to work for two or three months a year just to pay the interest on the federal debt, and can't even buy a house because they can't afford the house payments after satisfying all that the present generation is borrowing on, then I predict generation warfare, whatever that means. After all they want to have families, too.

Now I cannot predict the future at that level, but it is a good guess that things are going to be painful here in the USA. And some places will be more painful than others. Even where I live in east Tennessee I suspect times are going to get harder in 2012 and later. I am weird enough (age 62) to still appreciate all the public electricity benefits we have today, which may decline in the future if our elected governments have their way. And my military retirement payments (all electronic will also suffer, I suspect). I would say come arrest me, but then maybe this option will become unaffordable to state and local governments. Now I am just speculating, but the point is what I think is predictable is coming sooner than Moody's 2016 estimate.

And we USA humans did it to ourselves so far, including our votes so far.

And I really don't want to go through anarchy, again. Try exiting a hotel in Istanbul in ways just to keep from being shot. I can be devious, too.

And, for my DC friends, even I have biked the C&O Canal bike path all the way from Cumberland, Md. to Georgetown, DC, twice. I have even paddled the lower Shenandoah in flood stage, and was scared to death when it met the Potomac River, and the standing waves were such that I had to look up to the crests. I have even fished both Forks of the Shenandoah River, but I'll always remember catching hellgrammites for bait on the South Fork. And I have many many other stories, some going back to post Civil War observations, and even more modern trips like on the Yakagany in PA.

So I don't think DC is like Rome in its' end. We new world humans are better than that, I think.

But stand by for heavy rolls.

It will be a better world in the end, including the USA. After all, the old world has its problems, too. But the interim is going to be painful, like being hungry and cold. But if this forecast becomes what happens I would rather be in the new world USA than anywhere else.

No comments: