Lkorrow,
re: "Decades, eh? What happened to your golobal collapse?"
You don't like to let go of your preconceptions, do you? Below, I've reposted a discussion you and I had on this very subject SEVEN YEARS AGO.
I have NEVER - except in jest - said that global collapse was just around the corner. Never. But you keep coming back to that as if you've caught me in a huge blunder.
I've been pretty consistent in saying that there are two possibilities: An imminent collapse in which people will probably die, and a prolonged Soviet-style downturn - where folks can adapt and survive, but which may continue for so long that we may not live long enough to see the nation put back upon its proper course.
I've then made the point that I would prefer the former scenario. At least one of this board's marxist's ("joe taylor," aka "tinljhtkh") misunderstood THAT to mean that I WANT an economic collapse and, like you, won't let go of it.
Boy Scout leader that I am (okay, ASSISTANT leader), I'm doing my best to prepare for either outcome. Naturally, that puts more of the focus upon the one that can happen sooner. But the passage of seven years without collapse doesn't make me wrong. It just means that seven years have passed, and we're now that much closer to a precipice that's certainly there but which STILL can't be seen.
Either outcome remains possible. The odds of collapse happening soon are now, by default, greater than they used to be. But I *still* won't tell anyone that the United States will be in the throes of a Greater Depression within five years. I'll only say that that is pretty likely.
The fact is, some people a lot smarter than me (but who are, nevertheless, making things worse) are working hard to stave off the sort of sudden collapse that will prevent the distribution of food and medicine and lead to riots. They much prefer the "frog in a pot of water" sort of calamity, in which the crisis will mount gradually and most people will probably find a way to adapt. They're pretty good at what they do and they might succeed.
If I really DID think the odds greatly favored an imminent economic collapse, I now be living up North, building my farm in New Hampshire instead of sitting here in a suburb of Washington D.C., waiting for it to happen and probably take me out.
The outcome I'm *not* preparing for is the one you raised, the hope most people cling to, imo - that things will just, sort of spontaneously, get better. That's "ostrich-with-its-head-in-the-sand" thinking, imo, and I don't have the time for it. The reality is that will sleep in the bed we make. God isn't going to step in and reverse a hundred years of economic sloth.
I used to think that my written communication skills were pretty strong. But they're apparently not THAT strong since the misunderstandings persist by people who've known me for years. Unfortunately, I don't know how to say things any clearer than I do:
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