Heard My View of the Collapse
This morning I was listening to a podcast I just recently discovered and really enjoy: The Borderless Podcast. In the episode I was listening to was an interview of a guy named Skinner Layne. Interesting young cat, this guy - and very sharp. In the interview I heard him say that the Libertarian (and similar) sect has "fetishized" this idea that economic collapse will be a sudden thing, and will result in a more utopian world. In the interview Atlas Shrugged was mentioned. Skinner went on to say that, if history is correct, our collapse will likely be a slow process. It will be so slow that many won't notice it. I hope I'm representing what he said accurately, because it's exactly what I've been thinking. I see the US in a steady, slow degradation of quality of life where the middle class evaporates and purchasing power for all but the elite dwindles down to nil. I actually can see it due to my work in finance and the fact that I've turned off the tv and read so much the past decade plus. In the rest of the interview he talks about how to apply this to one's own financial, and personal exploits. I will be listening intently on the drive home tonight...
At this time I see Trump as more of an anti-Hitler or Anti-Stalin, but once he's shoved out of the way things will get back on track to the United Soviet States of America again.
The US was supposed to be republic not an empire. I think it's unfortunate, we can't move toward being a free, open, and stable environment where people can build new things without being hassled and without turning over a third of what they make.
I know what you mean, but I think it's because that very phrase is out of date. During the post-WWII period there were rich countries and poor countries. There were countries supported by the US or USSR. If the country were supported by no-one, it was the third world.
That concept of rich countries and poor countries is rapidly going away. It's so easy to send value over long distances now because value is in software and plans, and communications is inexpensive. Physical location matters less. We will see more "third-world" in US and Germany, and more affluent people in Eritrea. People of our age grew up hearing about helping the "starving kids in Africa". The economy has been helping them help themselves. The problem is being solved. Poor countries are slowly going away. Pockets of poverty are coming everywhere, not just in a distant country.
If that is true, and I'm afraid it is, the only thing I can hope for is a giant EMP so the shooting will start.