Mark West
Day of the debt
By Mark West
Recurring dreams plague my life. I have a couple of dreams, from my childhood, that have recurred often throughout my lifetime.
One is a flying dream in which I fritter and frolic through the air in any direction I desire. Incredible beauty I scope on the scape from these lofty heights. I so totally hope that the next age bears some relative semblance to the elegance and grace of which I glide in these dreams.
However, I also have a darker, daunting, recurring dream that progresses every time I dream. Man, it even progresses when I'm not dreaming. Sometimes only a few weeks or months pass from one dream to the next, other times it is years!
In the earliest versions of this dream I was always chased...always running...always without a plan of action. As I've grown older, so have the dreams. Lately, I've dreamt of dwelling in a heavily fortified city faced with precarious supply runs amid the zombie hordes that lie waiting at our walls.
Yes, I have a recurring zombie nightmare that progresses as I age!
I was startled in my last dream to see the whole of human civilization, as found within the walls of our sentinel city, giving in and accepting the new normal. Captive living, abundant starvation, deficient resources, and shaky security were the salient staples of the new normal.
Upon awakening I thought, "Why have they accepted that existence?" Who would really want to live that way? I realize now that it wasn't a chosen existence, but rather a more sinisterly imposed existence with which they had acquiesced. Nobody chooses to live that way!
I also recognized that Americans have done the same thing. We've bowed into a similar existence. The modern American experience is littered equally with scenes of poverty and plenty. Driving through Batesville I see a new road, lined with empty commercial buildings reminding me of the city that once was and that may not ever be again. A zombie of sorts, kept alive only by consumption, as slowly its productive capacity fades.
America is addicted to money! Driven by our national addiction we imposed a new normal that is depriving us of our future. We continue to pile debt upon debt expecting the coming generations to foot the bill and miss out on their chance at prosperity. In other words, we have set up a cycle of recurring debt that will progressively worsen with each generation.
This borrowing cycle creates zombies. Zombie companies, zombie cities, zombie states, and worst of all zombie people. The Dawn of the Debt transitions into the Day of the Debt and unfortunately we will awaken to the reality of our current crisis only as the Day of the Debt evolves into its next form, the Epoch of Austerity! I'll detail how that works in my next column.
Our forefathers recognized the dire nature of their circumstances and had the foresight to recognize what they meant to the future of the nation. They took a stand...and we celebrate that stand every Independence Day.
While we attempt to kick the can of comeuppance to the next generation, the zombie of depression awaits. Most signals now point to an economic environment akin to the Great Depression.
Remember, the Stock Market is only the thermometer, it didn't cause the Great Depression, it only recognized its' arrival. The Market today is moving in concert with the Market movements of the Great Depression, only at a higher level!
Government "jobs," targeted stimulus, and tax increases also flooded the economy of the '30s as they do today. Only problem was that in the '30s these didn't fix the economy, they actually served to slow its recovery. Why? Private industry is the grease that keeps the economic wheels turning. When government is the only place hiring the economy is missing the vitally important ingredient of capital.
In the '30s Our economy was saved by World War II. What will save our economy today? Since we refused to learn from our past, are we doomed to see a repeat performance?
© Mark West
July 19, 2010
Recurring dreams plague my life. I have a couple of dreams, from my childhood, that have recurred often throughout my lifetime.
One is a flying dream in which I fritter and frolic through the air in any direction I desire. Incredible beauty I scope on the scape from these lofty heights. I so totally hope that the next age bears some relative semblance to the elegance and grace of which I glide in these dreams.
However, I also have a darker, daunting, recurring dream that progresses every time I dream. Man, it even progresses when I'm not dreaming. Sometimes only a few weeks or months pass from one dream to the next, other times it is years!
In the earliest versions of this dream I was always chased...always running...always without a plan of action. As I've grown older, so have the dreams. Lately, I've dreamt of dwelling in a heavily fortified city faced with precarious supply runs amid the zombie hordes that lie waiting at our walls.
Yes, I have a recurring zombie nightmare that progresses as I age!
I was startled in my last dream to see the whole of human civilization, as found within the walls of our sentinel city, giving in and accepting the new normal. Captive living, abundant starvation, deficient resources, and shaky security were the salient staples of the new normal.
Upon awakening I thought, "Why have they accepted that existence?" Who would really want to live that way? I realize now that it wasn't a chosen existence, but rather a more sinisterly imposed existence with which they had acquiesced. Nobody chooses to live that way!
I also recognized that Americans have done the same thing. We've bowed into a similar existence. The modern American experience is littered equally with scenes of poverty and plenty. Driving through Batesville I see a new road, lined with empty commercial buildings reminding me of the city that once was and that may not ever be again. A zombie of sorts, kept alive only by consumption, as slowly its productive capacity fades.
America is addicted to money! Driven by our national addiction we imposed a new normal that is depriving us of our future. We continue to pile debt upon debt expecting the coming generations to foot the bill and miss out on their chance at prosperity. In other words, we have set up a cycle of recurring debt that will progressively worsen with each generation.
This borrowing cycle creates zombies. Zombie companies, zombie cities, zombie states, and worst of all zombie people. The Dawn of the Debt transitions into the Day of the Debt and unfortunately we will awaken to the reality of our current crisis only as the Day of the Debt evolves into its next form, the Epoch of Austerity! I'll detail how that works in my next column.
Our forefathers recognized the dire nature of their circumstances and had the foresight to recognize what they meant to the future of the nation. They took a stand...and we celebrate that stand every Independence Day.
While we attempt to kick the can of comeuppance to the next generation, the zombie of depression awaits. Most signals now point to an economic environment akin to the Great Depression.
Remember, the Stock Market is only the thermometer, it didn't cause the Great Depression, it only recognized its' arrival. The Market today is moving in concert with the Market movements of the Great Depression, only at a higher level!
Government "jobs," targeted stimulus, and tax increases also flooded the economy of the '30s as they do today. Only problem was that in the '30s these didn't fix the economy, they actually served to slow its recovery. Why? Private industry is the grease that keeps the economic wheels turning. When government is the only place hiring the economy is missing the vitally important ingredient of capital.
In the '30s Our economy was saved by World War II. What will save our economy today? Since we refused to learn from our past, are we doomed to see a repeat performance?
© Mark West
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