In an idle moment earlier today, I checked back on some old blog posts of mine to see if I had ever mentioned the potential for financial calamity or economic collapse in North America. I stopped looking through the Atavist archives at about midway through 2006. In past posts I had mentioned a number of times my fear of an eventual financial collapse and even discussed why I was concerned.
So, I saw the collapse coming a long time ago. So did some other individuals, mostly a few select newsletter writers. No main-stream economists or financial experts, and certainly no prominent politicians were among those who sounded alarms and warned people to get out of the financial markets, to de-leverage their investments, and to get out of debt.
Why not? Because we are a culture of fools who are always seeking greater fools to lead us. And when they lead us down the garden path, rape us and leave us for dead, we wait for them to come back to save and rehabilitate us. We have long given up independent, critical thought. We prefer instead to listen to 'experts'. We especially like experts who give us warm and fuzzy prognostications. We deserve what we get.
What amazes me is that now everyone, far and wide, is suggesting that we bail out this, subsidize that, prop up the rest, and then wait for things to get better, as surely they must because so many 'experts' are saying so.
Must things get better? No, at least not until all of the nonsense and financial excesses are purged from our political and economic systems. The experts are wrong. The politicians are wrong. The academics are wrong. Sure, there may well be some temporary improvements in some areas of our economies as things sort themselves out. Largely though, as our politicians meddle in things they know nothing about, the inevitable will only be delayed and the final results will be worse than if there were no attempts to 'help.'
The die is cast. We're screwed. To protect ourselves and our families, we should all get out of debt, cut back on our expenses, then hang in there until everything falls apart and we can start over again.
Maybe, some day, we will stop listening to politicians and start thinking and acting for ourselves. That's not very likely though, is it?
November, 2008