OUR FOUNDATION IS CRUMBLING

George Offerman

As I go into my fourth week of fighting this super bug, it is difficult to concentrate on reading and writing, but it is also difficult to watch what is going on and not comment on it. All the austerity movements in places like Greece, Ireland and the soon to be countries of Portugal and Spain seems to have finally arrived on our shores. The funny thing is, our debt is multiples greater than all of these countries combined and outside of the fact our dollar happens to be the ‘reserve currency’ of the world, we would have had to have dealt with our wayward ways years, if not decades ago. We are finally proving Keynes wrong after all this time: ‘you can’t print your way out of your mess”. The modern financial model is crumbling right before our eyes, and the change many have been speaking of no longer is in the status of coming; it has arrived

What’s going on in Wisconsin is just the beginning. Just as many have been overly critical about paying farmers good money to not grow crops, it is equally stupid and irresponsible to pay people 60-80% of their pay annually to not work. For many in the public sector, that is what they will make (or have been promised) putting in 20-30 years of service. I have met many people who were able to retire in their early 50’s, and with cost of living raises over the years, make more now than when they left the work force. Without exception, these are all government workers, and none of them think twice about the ethics of it, and get quite perturbed when asked if they should be included in those that are asked to ‘sacrifice’ for the good of the whole. We have too many on the dole and too many that have been brainwashed into thinking their well being is someone else’s responsibility. Well change is happening, and it will be a very rude awakening for these folks.

There seems to be a very dramatical shift in the mood of the common man. Over the past few months, many of my clients who run small businesses have decided to call it quits and are taking what remains of their marbles off the table before the ever encompassing leach government gets their fangs into it. I don’t recollect seeing this level of fear in those that create the majority of jobs in this country and cannot remember a time EVER when people are getting out of their businesses for reasons other than bankruptcy. These same people are also spending a lot of time preparing for very bad times ahead, and seem to no longer be focusing on the ‘good ol days’ of prosperity. Also, it is the entrepreneur who seems to have a better ability to visualize the future conditions of business than the common employee, and too many are coming to the same conclusion that the current conditions in this country are spelling major losses for them. They would rather get out of the game with what they have, than take the most probable chance that government will take away the majority of their profits.

We have become too indoctrinated into the redistribution of wealth to remain the constitutional republic our founding fathers envisioned. Greed, arrogance and entitlement has taken the place of charity, humility and thrift that made this country great. The bill is now due, and unfortunately our society has degenerated into a bunch of whiners that believe they have a God given right to a problem free and prosperous life on someone else’s dime and efforts. The time is past to do anything about the current system, and as corrupt as it is, we ought to be celebrating its demise. It is the transition that will lead to the largest challenges for the masses, as we know the elites have already taken care of themselves.

When civil unrest takes root in this country, I wonder if Obama will follow the advice he is giving to many of his comrades in the Middle East: to not fire upon or retaliate against the protestors. What we are seeing in the heartland today is merely the beginning. There have been warnings by many for numerous years, and those many have been mocked and persecuted for their ‘conspiratorial’ musings. These same writers are now talking about martial law and our own military eventually being used against our citizens. Given how accurate these writers have been, it’s not a safe bet to go against what they are warning us about.