Social Mode

Entitlement in every sense of the word is over.

Consider the immediate problem of unemployment benefits in a credit poor situation. Yup, that’s right, the states won’t be able to extend benefits much into 2009.

It’s not hard to imagine how quickly the Boomer generation (they will be leaving the workforce soon and taking their knowledge and productivity with them!) is going to chew threw Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. I’m sure other welfare programs aren’t far behind.  With 1 trillion commited to “war” and 2 trillion commited (after interest) to “rescuing” financial institutions, there isn’t much cash to go around that isn’t tied up directly in the American household (in aggregate we’re probably some $50 trillion +, though most is in real estate…)  Thus, some of that $50 trillion will have to be committed to the entitlements or we simply we have to stop the entitlement programs.

There’s your sacrifice folks.  Are you ready to pay for the boomer generation?  are you ready to pay for war directly? are you ready to pay for insurance companies (why not just pay for health care directly????) Are you ready to buy your neighbors house?  Your opinion doesn’t matter here, this is what’s happening already.

This is not a rant. I came to grips a long time ago that the only way to secure a financial future for my family was to get filthy rich through hard work of building and selling things other people want.  Wasn’t it always about this underneath the swaps, the valuations, the lending, and the short selling?

It appears others are starting to understand that getting something from “the system” is not a reliable strategy for survival.  That’s right, no one is entitled to anything.  What have you done for me lately? (and directly! and now!)

The engagement of the public in civil affairs, public debate, legislation and overall governance is way up.  The rate of reinforcement is way up in these areas and the behavior follows.  The intervening variables fell apart months ago when the daily cost of living exploded for most of us.

It’s now on our dime and that is a very powerful contingency.  Is it powerful enough to get a majority of people moving…….