If we project such a typical shortfall of about $134 billion per month, how much longer do you think that this can go on before this financial house of cards collapses? This situation can be likened to a person in America who is unemployed, has a family, car and mortgage payments, maxed out credit cards but, incomprehensively, is in the process of trying to negotiate with his lenders to, once again, increase his credit card limits.
What is truly outrageous is that, in these critical times, the wealthiest Americans are being protected and not being asked to make any sacrifices to help solve our problems. The idea that these "special" Americans, who do not experience the pain and anguish of millions of their fellow citizens, are being given a free pass at the same time that cuts to entitlements remain "on the table", is a national disgrace.
Is there a way to stop the erosion of our financial and societal bases? Of course there is; it's the same solution that I and others have recommended numerous times. America must make significant reductions to its extensive military empire and wind down the current wars, the combination of which are destroying our financial stability.
Secondly, this president and the Congress absolutely must initiate and fund an aggressive job creation program to put millions of Americans back to work manufacturing products for home consumption and export. These two objectives are entirely achievable, they can pull this nation back from the brink of disaster and back on the right course -- but only if our leaders stop the nonsense and do what is right for America.
But let's say that this president and the Congress fail completely and neither end the wars nor make job creation the #1 priority. What then will happen to this nation and this society? What will happen, in my estimation, is something that we can barely imagine and that we most certainly would not like to see take place. I'm talking about a potential unraveling of this society as those many millions of distraught Americans finally give up all hope and react in violent ways.
When millions of Americans become desperate, struggling for survival and have nowhere to turn, what in the world do we think they are going to do? They are going to do whatever is necessary to survive. When these people under great personal distress watch the news and see the opulence enjoyed by the ultra-rich they are going to get even more frustrated and very, very angry.
This process of societal collapse is already underway in many parts of America. States and cities are having severe financial problems and cutbacks in jobs and essential services are having a very adverse effect on their citizens. Look at what is happening in cities like Detroit and Chicago. Detroit, no more than a shell of its former self, is seeing more and more people moving out as the city can no longer cope with its mounting problems. Half of its schools have closed; class sizes are getting far too large for teachers to handle. The prognosis for Detroit is very bad, the probability of extreme violence is very great.
Chicago is becoming a virtual shooting gallery with multiple killings in the inner city almost every day. It's not uncommon to have six or more fatal shootings in one night. The new police chief is trying to cope with the situation as best he can by transferring police from desk jobs to the streets. But he is fighting a losing battle because he is trying to deal with the symptoms of a festering situation and he has no way to deal with the source of the problem. That problem is the fact that massive unemployment breeds trouble and extreme violence. When this violence spreads to other cities, and it's already happening, things in America could turn very ugly.
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