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The Only Thing That Will Save Us Now Is Fear Itself

Frisco_Slug_Esq

Frisco_Slug_Esq

On Strike!
Joined
May 4, 2009
Posts
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I hate to say this, but right now the only thing that can save our country is -- fear itself. Our government is bankrupt, its deficit is insurmountable, and at both the federal and state levels, we've run up more debt than can possibly be repaid. This isn't a political thing; it's a numbers thing. Either everything I've ever learned about math and economics is wrong, or we're on the verge of going down. The only possible way to come through safely -- and even so, the odds are against us -- will be to frighten ourselves so badly that we'll be willing to do things that in normal times we simply could not imagine doing.

Let me use a little story to illustrate the effect of fear on human behavior: Every so often my wife and I look at each other and agree that it's time to clear out our closets. We're not big shoppers, but even so, the amount of stuff we accumulate is appalling. Well, we never quite get the job done. It isn't an emergency; there's always room to squeeze in one more pair of shoes or sports jacket, and besides, one day we may actually go to Hawaii, and I'll want that ghastly shirt my mother bought me 35 years ago.

Now imagine that my wife and I actually are en route to Hawaii, and halfway across the Pacific, the pilot tells us over the intercom that there's a bad leak in the fuel tanks: "I hate to say this, ladies and gentleman, but we've done the calculations up here on the flight deck and it looks like we won't make it. As I see it, there's just one chance -- it's a slim chance, but it's all we've got. If we throw everything we possibly can out the hatch -- and I mean everything, every item, every ounce -- we just might lighten the load enough for our remaining fuel to bring us in."

Reader, in thirty seconds we'd be pulling our suitcases out of the overhead bins and taking off our clothes. If we believed our lives depended on lightening the load, there isn't one thing we own -- not one -- that we'd hang onto. (Well, except for my iPad...)

...

Now imagine that just as we and the other passengers are stripping off and handing everything to the crew members manning the aft hatch, there's a second announcement from the flight deck: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the co-pilot. I've done my own calculations, and I don't think the fuel leak is all that serious. If we just lighten the load a bit, and gain some altitude, we'll have no trouble making a safe and on-time landing."

What? How is it possible that the pilot and co-pilot can reach such different conclusions with the same data? And whom are we passengers supposed to believe? My guess is that most of us will choose to believe the co-pilot and go back to whatever we were doing -- reading, snoozing, watching a movie -- when the pilot scared us half to death. We won't want to even consider the possibility that the pilot is correct and that the co-pilot is wrong, or perhaps even lying to us.

And this is the political jam we're in. It's obvious to anyone who's looked honestly at the numbers that we're about to go down into a sea of red ink. You don't need a Nobel Prize in economics to understand this. All you need is a simple, back-of-the-envelope calculation to see that the federal government is hemorrhaging money so fast our economy must inevitably seize up, which will crash the dollar overseas and turn a national disaster into a global catastrophe. The financial situation is even worse in states like California and New York.

And when all this happens, as it must, the unemployment rate will soar beyond its current miserable level. Millions of working-age Americans will lose both their jobs and their homes, and millions of retired Americans will lose the pensions they believed were guaranteed and which they depend upon to get through each month. The nation's health care system will collapse for lack of money no matter what plans the politicians in Washington, D.C., Sacramento, and Albany concoct. And our children's generation will be condemned to a standard of living far below what we've enjoyed and come to believe is our right.

...

And that's why the only thing that can possibly save us now is fear itself. Not until the majority of voters are so frightened by what lies ahead that they will support belt-tightening policies that right now seem intolerable, and vote into office candidates who cannot get elected now because of one imperfection or another -- but who have the technical skill and moral courage to make the necessary spending cuts -- will we have even a chance of landing safely.
Click to expand...
Herbert E. Meyer served during the Reagan administration as special assistant to the director of central intelligence and vice chairman of the CIA's National Intelligence Council. He is the author of How to Analyze Information and The Cure for Poverty.
 
Crises=opportunity in their political calculus; it provides them the opportunity to do things that they could not normally pull off.
 
Yeah. Well, no.

I love this country.

Let US know if there is anything we can do to help you get settled.
 
SaintPeter said:
Yeah. Well, no.

I love this country.

Let US know if there is anything we can do to help you get settled.
Click to expand...

Give us half your stuff and keep all your bills.

Isn't that the manly role in a divorce, or do you just want to continue roll over and give it up some more?


:kiss:
 
... and either way still you would stalk us...




... you're not going to sit still for rejection...



:rose:
 
Frisco_Slug_Esq said:
Herbert E. Meyer served during the Reagan administration as special assistant to the director of central intelligence and vice chairman of the CIA's National Intelligence Council. He is the author of How to Analyze Information and The Cure for Poverty.
Click to expand...

Do you believe this is the correct course of action?
 
zipman said:
Take drastic measures to reduce the deficit.
Click to expand...

No, I believe we should be very complacent and very precious because any day now Obama's policies are going to pay off...


There's simply no reason to be afraid.


Just a little tax on the rich and *presto*, problem solved...

We'll even have enough left over to bail out Moonbeam.
__________________
I'm Hungary for some €PIIGS!
A_J, the Incredulous
 
Wok said:
Yeah, let the poor rot.

I get it.
Click to expand...

The Republic: Surely you're not saying we have the resources to save the poor from their lot? There will be poor always, pathetically struggling, look at the good things you've got! Think while you still have me, move while you still need me. You'll be lost and you'll be sorry when I'm gone!
 
Frisco_Slug_Esq said:
The Republic: Surely you're not saying we have the resources to save the poor from their lot? There will be poor always, pathetically struggling, look at the good things you've got! Think while you still have me, move while you still need me. You'll be lost and you'll be sorry when I'm gone!
Click to expand...
Yeah, they put themselves there.

fuck 'em.
 
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