Still Searching

I came back from the Holiday with a lot on my mind. I guess I am a bit sorry for the previous post. I do feel that money has too much value placed on it, but that feeling comes from an point of view that 90% of the rest of the population does not hold. I forget that it's VERY hard to see things from my point of view and everyone (including myself) likes to avoid bad news even if it is absolutely true. We tend to spin things and find fault in them if they don't jive with our core beliefs - and that is just as true for myself as it is for other people and theirs. It doesn't help that I don't have any answers or even comprehend our situation to the level where I can see the big picture and make long term decisions based on what I think is happening or will happen.

The reality is that most folks are still doing just fine as far as they are concerned. They don't feel too much pressure and don't really understand how close we probably are to the end of our current way of life. Most don't understand what seems to have been going on for the past 30+ years and I only caught on about 4-5 years ago myself. Even now I barely grasp the enormity of the problems ahead of us. The previous generations have no reason to understand what is happening because nothing like our current situation has ever occurred in our world history. To most there is still a lot of our world out there left untapped (a polite way of saying "un-used-up"), but never before in history did we have such a huge population entirely dependent on so few resources.

The Baby Boomer generation is likely to be the next big catastrophe - they outnumber the next generation by a lot - and as they retire and expect to cash out their investments in property, stocks or whatever, the fact that there's nobody behind them in a position to buy their accumulated wealth is going to come as a shock. The current economic situation just exacerbates the situation for them. Since the generation(s) behind the baby boomers do not have access to the resources the baby boomers had and the numbers of retirees coming up in the next 15 years is huge, we're going to see an overabundance of houses and other investments on the market that need to be sold to pay for retirement and health care costs. At our current rate of inflation and the devaluation of the dollar that is likely due to the trillions of newly printed (unbacked) copies, even if they are able to cash out, they will likely have to continue working to support themselves until they no longer can. The wealth split is greater than ever - and most of that wealth is held by the baby boomers themselves, so there's nobody there to pay it forward.

To expand on the subject and really get a good grasp of the current situation, I think this video chapter series from ChrisMartenson.com does a better job than I can of explaining what the hell is going on right now and why the current economic problems make perfect sense once you get a clearer picture of the problems. He's a hell of a lot better at articulating the problems I believe we are facing than I can.

The main angst I have stems around my lack of faith that we will continue to survive as we have been for any length of time. It's not just the oil/coal depletion, overpopulation or even global warming that has me tossing and turning at night - it's the fact that all sustainable and peaceful societies eventually get wiped out by more aggressive and resource hungry ones. As much as I wish for a society that is sustainable, the likelihood that those that are the most resource hungry will allow a society in balance (one with no growth and with sustained resources - allowing it to go "underutilized") is nearly zero. I can't think of any time in history where the peaceful/balanced/sustainable society has not been conquered by an aggressive/waring/resource hungry one. We are the product of thousands of years of those very societies. The winners. Peoples that have conquered and killed or enslaved everyone and everything in our path. Our very society is based on continued growth and prosperity and a sense of entitlement and ownership of everything around us. We have created a culture where we are born into debt and entitled to nothing - and we are rewarded for pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps and beating out the competition for jobs, status and property throughout our lifetimes. Society rewards us for "success" - the more we consume, collect and conquer, the more respect and admiration we gain. We need a big home to be happy, to consume our desires and to reproduce with abandon... but not if we're "Poor" - then you are a problem, looked down upon, pitied or ridiculed. We pass this message on to each generation almost without fail.

We have lost our ability to sustain ourselves in our own environment right now. Back in the late 1980's we HAD to import our main energy source to keep growing. If we were to close the boarders of the US today and not be able to import anything - we would see massive collapse immediately of everything we hold dear as a society. We don't even produce enough energy to sustain ourselves within our own countries borders so we need to "borrow" from other people around the world - and by borrow I mean trade for printed money, steal, kill and otherwise take control of those resources by any means necessary. The problem is that the globe as a whole is running out of our energy source, so we're having to go into areas that were previously thought of as too risky to deal with... We're the biggest "fake" society in the world right now and the truth is finally beginning to come to light and now that I understand it I feel like an ass.

Just the fact that you are born onto this planet with no rights to any part of it is hard for me to grasp. I was lucky to be born into this greedy social structure - I feel guilty for the way we all consume so much and do so little for the rest of the world, but it is better to be behind the guns than looking down the barrel of them I suppose. None the less, it is still painful to realize that the things I consume daily come at the cost of others less fortunate than I am and that I will likely leave this planet in much worse shape than when I was born into it despite my meager and pathetic personal efforts... It all goes with the continued growth of everything - it would be silly for me to expect the earth to be ours to share and take care of and pass along to future generations in better shape than when we got it... That we would have the maturity to keep our populations sustainable and provide everyone with everything they need from birth on. We don't even extend that courtesy to each other in the present, so there's even less chance that we'll extend it to future generations, so in a way I feel disgusted and doomed at the same time.

I have no faith that Hummers will turn into horses or that McDonalds will become Old Mcdonald's Farm. Not by choice - perhaps by forced and painful necessity... I see a glimmer of hope in some areas - somewhat sustainable lifestyles are emerging here and there - but they are far outpaced and outnumbered by the resource hungry and the pseudo-sustainable lifestyles that are much easier to adopt, rewarded by society and backed by 80% of the wealth of the nation. The ethanol cars, the biodegradable bottles, the new organics that are shipped even farther around the country than the non-organic brands. The hybrid cars and florescent light bulbs that take more energy to produce than we would lose using up the current gas guzzling cars or burning out the incandescent bulbs we already have. It's nearly impossible to know what to do - the information machine is playing both sides and trying to make money in the process, so finding the truth is tough - and you can't blame people for trying even if it is misguided.

The problem is that truly sustainable lifestyles are ridiculed and looked down upon as "backwards" or even dangerous by society despite it's "Green Movement". So I sit here struggling and searching for answers to the questions of what should I be doing. What should I be doing for my family, friends, neighbors, myself? Not knowing the outcome of the current situation or how long it will take is the hardest part of it all. Why try to save up money for land when the future of money and land itself is so uncertain? Will the dollar collapse under the weight of so many trillions of worthless printed copies? If so, what do I do with the money I am saving up to keep it from becoming worthless too? Will the economic situation lead to a total collapse of all social safety nets? Should I be arming myself to protect what little I have done to prepare for an uncertain future? The news says that firearms are selling in record numbers these days - what does that mean for those of us that don't want to ever have to own a gun - are we foolish for being passive? The answers are not easy - especially when I want a better future for my family... ...and then there is the social outcast feeling I get when I try to explain myself to anyone. It's tough and I am still searching...

I will try to post on things as I decide what to do next.

I don't know what to do

I don't really know what to say these days. Life has lost it's luster for me the past few months. There's not much to look forward to and the answers to the questions I have do not provide me with any comfort... The people around me now seem so out of touch with what really matters in the world. It's all about money, possessions and social status for them. Somehow that brings them purpose and they are the very reason that we are the most unsustainable of species on the planet.

Christmas is here. That means obligatory gifts and spending despite my whole hearted hate for the entire holiday now. My true friends don't need gifts from me to know that I charish them. The rest expect time, energy, money and all with a smile.

I wish at this moment that I could run away from this world. Run away to a place where peace, love and humility were the worshiped in place of the all mighty dollar. Where there was something more important to share with each other than sports highlights or chit chat about our current level of success (money, fancy cars, big housesand fake personalities that everyone wears like a set of fake tits in order to impress each other). I want simplicity and truth and transparency in life.

I can't say anything more specific about the way I feel right now. It's just a deep depression and hopeless feeling about everyone. This is the world of greed & glutttony and I am feeling very alone again.

The falling price of gas is about to hit bottom

One of the positive aspects of the economy going down the toilet is that people are spending less, especially on gasoline and diesel. People are car pooling and skipping those quick trips to the fast food joint down the road to save a few dollars here and there, which has lead to less demand for oil, which in turn has brought down the price of gasoline. Never fear though, OPEC is getting ready to meet this Friday to discuss what to do to keep oil prices higher so that they can continue to rake in the cash even as the economies of most of the free world crumble around them. My guess is that they will cut back on production so that there is no surplus of gasoline and prices will level off or go back up again relatively soon despite our lack of demand. It's a monopoly, so the "free market" is only free to move within their boundaries.

This is the roller coaster ride that lulls the masses into thinking that things will return to "normal" again... Prices fluctuate wildly as demand and supply are unable to find a balance in an unstable market. Here's where people fall into a trap - seeing that the price of gasoline is falling, they put off all of the energy saving alternatives that they were looking at while prices were high. They go back to driving the big SUV instead of letting it rot in the driveway where it really belongs. Ford, Dodge & Chevrolet saw this coming many, many years ago. It's time for them to either re-tool while it affordable or go the way of the dodo bird for not bothering to heed the warning signs. Unfortunately, we the taxpayers will likely end up paying for their greed and lack of planning as I doubt that the US Government will step aside and let more than one of our major car manufacturers feel the full effects of their stupidity.

Those of us with nothing to lose (no 401K, 403B or huge sums of money in any bank), no real expenses (no mortgage, no property tax, no interest payments on anything) could really care less if all of the banks and mortgage companies suck themselves and everything that they touched down the proverbial black hole they created. We've been living within our means and being responsible for our own actions. We've been dying to buy a piece of property with even a modest home on it, but we don't have the savings to buy outright and knew that housing prices would have to fall from their nearly 100% markups...

Every dollar that the US government pours into saving the banks and mortgage lenders (which will not pay the mortgage for you or slow the falling price of housing one bit) just means that more government social service programs will be cut, taxes will be increased and more rules and regulations designed to keep track of our spending (to insure that we're not making any money under the table) will be put in place. You might be thinking to yourself (but they can tax the rich instead of the rest of us)... Yeah right - the rich have all of the options and loopholes. They can afford to move their money around at will and have the inside track on where to invest to shield their money from taxation. Any attempt to increase taxes for the rich that succeeds (i.e. taxing banks at a higher rate for example), will just be passed on to the rest of us as an increase in the cost of borrowing money, or a new type of fee tacked on to your home loan. Trickle down economics only works in reverse - money always trickles up - never down, which is why the 1.5 trillion dollars pouring into the banking sector will not return one thin dime to the average Joe. Joe will have to continue to work to "earn" that tax break or refund check while the banks continue to earn more money simply by making Joe their "customer".

If we all stop borrowing money and instead save for the future, all of these problems become just problems for the banks instead of problems for the entire world.

Obama can't save us

Guess what folks, neither Obama, McCain nor Ron Paul is going to save our assets. The Bush legacy has yet to be fully known. Our great, great grandkids will still be flipping us off for not doing a damn thing while the wealth of the world was transferred to the hands of just a few select families. I'm not just talking about money here - the real wealth of the world is our natural resources. The natural resources that make life on this planet worth living. The money is just an indicator of how fast we're depleting those resources.

If you had gone into a coma at the beginning of the Bush administration and awoken just yesterday, do you think you would believe the number of shocking changes that have taken place in just the past 8 years? A war, the failure of emergency services post Katrina, a near total collapse of the banking system, record joblessness, major corporations on the brink of Bankruptcy, nearly double the national debt (from 5,674,178,209,886.86 to 10,326,055,380,264.11 - spending more in an 8 year period than all other administrations combined), the lack of personal freedoms and loss of privacy. You would find that you can be taken in the middle of the night, held prisoner indefinitely and tortured - all without a warrant or any kind of trial - just for being suspected of any form of state terrorism. You would hear that the president has the power in an emergency to circumvent all other branches of government, take control of private businesses and any other action he/she determines is in our best interest at the time... and on, and on...

All of these changes will not be reversed or repaired by the next president. With nearly 11 trillion in debt, the next president faces double the debt. More of our taxes will have to go to paying interest on the debt that our government owes which means less money for social programs. There's no way we can continue to borrow to pay the monthly bills. Something has to give - and I seriously doubt that those with the most resources will be the ones to do the giving...

There is a way out of this mess, but it will not come from the top down. Changes that do the most good for society always come from the bottom up. Those that do the work have the real power, not the ones at the top that just redistribute the wealth. Just imagine what would happen if you were to work directly for the things you needed instead of trading your work for a piece of paper that continually buys less and less...

Kiss your assets goodbye

If it hasn't hit you over the head like a sledgehammer yet, just wait. The "experts" are saying that this whole thing is in our heads. Apparently it is all our fault that the economic situation is so bad. Because you put off buying that new pair of shoes or stopped eating out at Red Lobster last week, the economy is doomed to be in a recession for at least the next year or two. Unless you get back to spending your money like never before, we're all doomed... It's your fault that the banks are in trouble - if you had gone on with your life - business as usual - despite being upside down on your home, cars and credit cards, things would be just fine. Basically, if you would just shut up, go back to your cubicle and make your minimum payments, the banks would go back to making money and be happy. But no, you stopped spending. You saw your down payment disappear. You saw that you would be handing over most of your paycheck to the bank for 30 years while the home they sold you depreciated faster than you could have ever imagined. Now the banks are pissed off and going to get your money any way they can. If they can't get it from you directly, they're going to get it through your taxes. Which is what they would prefer anyway - less chance of default that way...

We are the idiots that handed over 1.4 trillion dollars to the banking system so far. It looks to me like that is about the amount that the stock market has dropped... So, your assets are nearly directly being funneled into the banking system. It's sort of like putting out a fire with gasoline isn't it? The more money we funnel into the banks, the faster we burn through our future resources. We're already looking at a 500 billion dollar budget shortfall for next year. What government programs will be cut this time? Something has got to give and it certainly will not be the banking sector. Will it be education? Healthcare? Social Security? State funding? Bridge maintenance? Non-profit organizations? Welfare? Food subsidies? Right at the height of the unemployment & housing crisis - wouldn't it be the worst time to cut back on any social safety net? But something has to give, and it historically has never been the ones that took the most, so it will not be the banks, mortgage companies, investment firms or the Fed itself.

You are unlikely to see relief for the next 10-15 years, and even that is a bit optimistic considering all of the other critical things we've neglected. All it will take at this point is a relatively minor catastrophic event to push us past the point of no return - and by no return I mean you will never again have the opportunity to live life as you have grown accustomed to. Short of us retracting back into our borders and bailing on our debt obligations around the globe, we're pretty much looking at the kind of things that will plague us for the rest of our lives.

The US is in debt far beyond anyone's wildest expectations. Oil is past it's peak and there is no real capital available right now to go poking around in the bedrock of the seismic hot spots off our coasts anyway. Even the government is too broke to pay for an oil program now. We've systematically destroyed our farmland, oceans and most critically our fresh water supplies. We've screwed up the atmosphere and permanently changed the climate of our planet. We've distanced ourselves from the many allies that we once had and re-established old conflicts. We've screwed up our educational system and neglected our best and brightest. We've shifted all of our assets into the hands of a few and given up our freedoms under the guise of safety and security, and that's not even the worst of it all...

Keep your head out of the sand and pay attention - one of the largest rapes of society is taking place right before your eyes and the media is too well behaved and too busy making money off the campaigns to bother with something that doesn't make them any money and might make them unpopular (at least in the short run)...