Read all of this sobering piece by the always-outstanding Walter E. Williams.
Sample:
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...Once legalized theft begins, it pays for everyone to participate. Those who don't will be losers.
That's the nation's dilemma. The most important job for people who want to spare our nation from economic collapse is not that of persuading politicians to do the right thing but to convince our fellow Americans to respect the limits of our Constitution.
In his speech to Virginia's ratifying convention, James Madison said, "Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it."
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With profound regret, I have stopped believing that the USA as currently defined can be saved.
In candor, there are scores of millions of Americans of all shapes, sizes, and flavors who won't survive what is coming.
My efforts lean increasingly towards what becomes of those who do survive.
Remember -- the fight for freedom in America does not end until the last person who truly knows freedom dies or is corrupted.
Stand.
Resist.
Most of us readers here at WRSA understand exactly what he is saying, but try explaining it to the masses and you get 'the look' (to quote another reader).
ReplyDeleteMy heart truly goes out to the elderly who are already on SS and clueless that they will find themselves both destitute and without medicine very soon, my 90 year old father included.
I too see absolutely no way out but hitting the wall at nine oh. We cannot buy, beg, borrow, steal, legislate or pray our way out of this coming collapse. And then what comes after the big starvation? Foreign takeover or endless civil war?
Unless we just printed some new form of currency and make everything good again...
0321
I think Monday was confirmation for what I knew emotionally. From an audience of thousands, there were three.
ReplyDeleteThere is zero evidence that ratio will be any better when Hell is unleashed. I will continue to click through the Necessary Fails for my own conscience. But I also am convinced that the history of the world is about to write one of our ugliest chapters.
The only questions left are: How many per thousand will survive, and what will society look like on the other side?
Sam
III
"For workers who earned average wages and retired in 1980 at age 65, it took 2.8 years to recover the value of the retirement portion of the combined employee and employer shares of their Social Security taxes plus interest."
ReplyDeleteBecause of inflation because of government policies, including stupefying waste and abuse. They started working when a gallon of gas was 10 cents, and putting away five dollars a week was extravagant.
Promises were made, rings were exchanged. Then it became MANDATORY. A shotgun wedding. Cost Of Living Allowance increases? The GOVERNMENT can't AFFORD IT, they say.
I don't expect to see one non-copper penny of my Social Security contributions back for 30 years of work, so I don't have a dog in this fight. But paying into a mandatory fund that the government considers its own trick-or-treat bag and wanting the promised subsistence if not security in old age isn't ENTITLEMENT.
I've been unemployed for a year and a half because my company wanted more profits and less overhead. My wife's blood pressure and diabetes medication won't be refilled after February because she can't go to the doctor for tests because we can't afford insurance. Our daughter is one of the working poor, living in a trailer park, and there's not much we can do to help.
We didn't murder or rob anyone, quite the opposite. We volunteered in the community. We never qualified for education grants: we made TOO MUCH MONEY. We've never been a burden on the system. So being blamed for wanting what we were promised by millionaires doesn't seem selfish to us.
False quote by James Madison at the end. It was actually written by Judge Hand. Great article, though!
ReplyDeleteGlad I live just outside of Atlanta, because I don't want to be anywhere near that place when the collapse happens.
Hi CA,
ReplyDelete"The fact is that the average man's love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth. He is not actually happy when free; he is uncomfortable, a bit alarmed, and intolerably lonely. Liberty is not a thing for the great masses of men. It is the exclusive possession of a small and disreputable minority, like knowledge, courage and honor. It takes a special sort of man to understand and enjoy liberty — and he is usually an outlaw in democratic societies."
H. L. Mencken
Madison was right. The Founders were as clever as they come, and even they couldn't keep government in check. Given a choice between the random violence of anarchy and the systematic violence of government, I'll take the former.
Dave
With profound regret, I have stopped believing that the USA as currently defined can be saved.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. But such acceptance can be very liberating. If you know the ship is sinking, you can put all your thought to getting into a lifeboat rather than wringing your hands when the latest attempt at the bilge pumps fails.
I think of the Authorized Journalists I used to work with and their faith in government. So much faith that they feel comfortable calling for the taking of our guns and the regulation of our political speech. They publish Walter Williams in the editorial sectoin, byt they don't read him. They think he's a conservative kook, all wrong all the time.
ReplyDeleteWhen the collapse comes -- I know I lost my job in 2009 partly for pointing out that it WAS coming and readership was down because people knew it but weren't hearing anything helpful from the major media -- I believe there will be spankings administered.
Front Page magazine:
ReplyDelete"Mubarak has ruled Egypt for the past 30 years under a state of emergency... that has allowed him to deal harshly with dissent... Corruption, unemployment, a stagnant economy and a dishonest, inefficient bureaucracy.... Egyptian cities are crowded with the poor. Exploitation of workers and child labor are also common. What is worse, the small, well-off ruling class appears not to care and has done little to remedy this appalling situation."
Sounds familiar somehow.
“We undoubtedly have enough problems in order to justify a revolution,” the journalist said."
Which the Muslim Brotherhood is fueling. They see opportunity for a power grab.
@Kerodin: "The only questions left are: How many per thousand will survive, and what will society look like on the other side?"
ReplyDeleteLook at Somalia, Afghanistan, and Chechnya for what happens when a nation totally disintegrates. Even then, *most* people survive. Yes, life becomes crueler, more brutish, and shorter (for most), but it does go on.
A gun shop employee commenting on Sipsey Street says dealers have been notified of an impending ban on importation of Yugoslavian semi-auto AK variants.
ReplyDeleteDon't want to spread rumors, but Kurt Hoffman, Examiner, mentioned something like that in his recent column as a possibility.
It seems that a rational person would have to admit that the "American experiment" has been over for a long time and that we have just been observing, and participating, in the final stage.
ReplyDeleteThere can be no hope of a revival of the best things this country used to stand for, because the American character today totally lacks the capacity to even accurately identify for itself where the pain is coming from. Americans mill about like dumb, wounded animals, and in fact they want to be treated like one. Bush, Obama, Beck; it makes no difference who the herdsman is.
Look at Tunisia and Egypt. I may be wrong, but I don't see the people out there with firearms kicking the government's backside. But I do see them out there, fired up, and in the attack. Americans can't see the obvious parody of themselves in all of this because the Tunisians and the Egyptians "aren't like us", and we know for sure that those weirdos sure as hell aren't spirit filled, bible believing, Christians on their walk with the Lord. And hell, they probably don't even like Israel. But they do have two things that Americans don't. 1) A right testicle and 2) a left testicle.
Now go clean your rifle and tell yourself how much you love the constitution, the Lord, your family, Israel, etc..... and how much you love your pathetic, servile existence.
Sadly, I too believe that "the United States of America" will not continue. Then again, it isn't even the same United States of America it was when I was born in 1950 ... which itself wasn't the same USofA into which my father was born in 1923.
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On the other hand, I firmly believe that the America we all wish we lived in -- the one which existed before the Roosevelt cousins started making their "federalizing" grabs: Teddy of land and Frank of everything else under the sun. THAT America shall be restored.
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Many won't like it. They'll have to actually work.
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That's my opinion ... and you're welcome to it!
Can it be saved? In it's current form, no. When 1/2 of the people make their living by STEALING from the other half at the point of a gun, something has to give. We are seeing the 1/2 who pull the wagon realize that the 1/2 riding the wagon enjoy all the benefits without breaking a sweat. Why bother pulling when you can get a free ride? In the end, too many will freeload, and not enough will pull and the ride will be over. Lets just hope we can survive to pick up the pieces and salvage something from this once great country.
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