Filed under: life
In the last week it has become increasingly difficult to not have a troubled mind conerning the economy. I don’t know what specifically triggered this nagging sense of pending doom, but I am now fighting off fear with more regularity.
My gut tells me that the current state of affairs is for the big players, and that the small businesses of America – or maybe the “micro” businesses, since our govt. considers a small business to be anything less than 500 employees – will survive and possibly thrive.
Today I thought back to the stories I was taught of how during the Cold War, when Moscow would host a big event they would put up facades of buildings, paint dying trees and plants green, and create a sense of weath that was not really there.
Driving around the Cincinnati area, I see the same thing. I see more and more empty commercial real estate vacated. When my wife pulls comps for surrounding houses in our area, we see a few foreclosures. Banks, cars, airlines, insurance… they all need bailouts. More to come.
Billions of dollars that didn’t exist one minute suddenly exist… because the Treasury said so. Debt and an over-extension of living according to what could be afforded is the systemic cause of everything going on, yet the best idea we have is to go deeper into debt, to “stimulate” a free market.
My gut says we are on the verge of very dark days. A year from now… will computers even matter? Will I be more concerned about living off the land, somewhere other than here, and providing for my family? I tend to think the worst.
I think America’s “best day” are behind her.
That’s a stark thing to both think and write, but it’s been my sentiment for several years now. Even though I am an optimist, and know where my ultimate Hope is (hint: not a politician, not a country or government), I still tend to resonate with observations that lead me to a logical truth. I see nothing that would lead me to believe that the original idea of Americanism is even remotely alive and practiced.
But that’s getting off topic. My point in writing this is to jot down how I’m feeling/sensing. The bottom hasn’t hit everyone yet. I hope it doesn’t.
