I've had this sense of falling for a while now. Just knowing, from what's been written, and what keeps happening, that the financial structure of the United States is falling. And that hitting bottom was going to come along somewhere in my lifetime.
So it's good/bad to know that the ground is Right There. Good since I don't have to be afraid of what's coming. Bad because I'm not ready, although I'm not sure I could ever have been ready for it.
How do you prepare for the fiscal collapse of the major superpower in the world, especially when you live there?
Canada has run a surplus federally for more than a decade. Our debt from before that is shrinking, albeit slowly. We're not in any danger of going belly-up ourselves. Yet when the U.S. collapses, we won't be far behind, because our economy is tied so tightly to the American economy.
Honestly, I don't think it's possible to be prepared for the collapse. But I've been saving, unlike a fair percentage of the population. It might not help, but at least I haven't been busily sinking myself into debt, and sacrificing my financial future for right now.
It might only make the difference between sinking with the Titanic or dying of cold waiting for rescue, but it's all I can think of to do.
I always wonder why some Canadians are so eager to tie our economy to the US. What happens when you tie a small ship to a large ship that is slowly but surely sinking?
I think it's difficult to avoid tying our economy to the U.S. Since it's the major market for our exports, it's pretty much a given that if that market collapses, our economy won't be far behind.
Which means that if I were in business and had just read this, I'd be starting to cultivate my non-American markets as fast as possible.
Someone once told me that every company Bush the younger headed ended up a financial disaster (anyone know if this is true). The US as a whole seems no different.
The article also specifically mentions the social security system as failing -- but I recall hearing that *ut* was actually solvent, and adequately financed for at lest another 20 years, that the rumours of its imminent demise were created by those eager to abolish it by replacing it by private-sector funds (and thereby getting their hands on all that money!).
It was already in the news over a year ago that other countries were starting to pull their foreign-exchange reserves out of the US because they saw the writing on the wall, and some financial analysts were speculating when the US dollar would reach the tipping point of panic selling.
That's just it. The US should not have any problem funding its social security, if it weren't spending trillions on a foreign war they have no hope of leaving anytime soon. The sinkhole is not the social programs - it's the war. And yet, so much of the American economy is built on the war machine that NOT going to war is almost as bad for the economy as doing so. It's a vicious circle, and it's spiraling towards the drain.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-21 06:55 pm (UTC)See, it isn't REALLY taxes if you make your grandchildren pay them.
Grrrrr
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-21 07:12 pm (UTC)I've had this sense of falling for a while now. Just knowing, from what's been written, and what keeps happening, that the financial structure of the United States is falling. And that hitting bottom was going to come along somewhere in my lifetime.
So it's good/bad to know that the ground is Right There. Good since I don't have to be afraid of what's coming. Bad because I'm not ready, although I'm not sure I could ever have been ready for it.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-21 07:20 pm (UTC)Canada has run a surplus federally for more than a decade. Our debt from before that is shrinking, albeit slowly. We're not in any danger of going belly-up ourselves. Yet when the U.S. collapses, we won't be far behind, because our economy is tied so tightly to the American economy.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-21 08:13 pm (UTC)It might only make the difference between sinking with the Titanic or dying of cold waiting for rescue, but it's all I can think of to do.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-22 08:11 am (UTC)http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15907.htm
I always wonder why some Canadians are so eager to tie our economy to the US. What happens when you tie a small ship to a large ship that is slowly but surely sinking?
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-22 10:52 am (UTC)Which means that if I were in business and had just read this, I'd be starting to cultivate my non-American markets as fast as possible.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-22 03:43 pm (UTC)The article also specifically mentions the social security system as failing -- but I recall hearing that *ut* was actually solvent, and adequately financed for at lest another 20 years, that the rumours of its imminent demise were created by those eager to abolish it by replacing it by private-sector funds (and thereby getting their hands on all that money!).
It was already in the news over a year ago that other countries were starting to pull their foreign-exchange reserves out of the US because they saw the writing on the wall, and some financial analysts were speculating when the US dollar would reach the tipping point of panic selling.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-22 03:49 pm (UTC)