What's he talking about?
Well, initially, you've heard that many states are having real financial trouble, and many have huge "budget shortfalls".
The truth is that the United States itself is pretty much insolvent:
- The St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank posted a paper in 2006 entitled "Is The United States Bankrupt?". The paper provides the following answer: "The United States is going broke" (http://www.research.stlouisfed.org/publications/review/06/07/Kotlikoff.pdf)
- People seem to think the government has money," said former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker. "The government doesn't have any money" (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/17/MN8Q11OT2M.DTL&tsp=1)
- PhD economist Marc Faber says the U.S. will go bankrupt (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=JyD&q=%22marc+faber%22+bankrupt&btnG=Search)
- Respected economist John Williams says it already is (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=88851)
Moreover, I was born in America, I've lived here my whole life, and I love this country.
However, just as the Soviet Union broke up, there are more and more indications that our nation will break up also.
For example, the U.S. military believes that the chance of a break down in the system is real. Specifically, a new report from the U.S. Army War College discusses the possibility of “a loss of functioning political and legal order” and a possible "rapid dissolution of public order in all or significant parts of the US" (http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/display.cfm?pubID=890").
Indeed, many experts have warned of a break down in order in America (http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/02/growing-list-of-officials-and-experts.html).
And more and more states are passing "state sovereignty" legislation declaring their independence from the United States government (see http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=88218).
Even the Wall Street Journal recently covered the prediction from a high-level Russian academic that the U.S. would break up (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123051100709638419.html)
Indeed, an engineer who lived through the break up of the USSR goes around the country offering for free advice for Americans on how to weather the coming dissolution of the US (http://culturechange.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=325&Itemid=66).
Please rest assured that I wish that the economy quickly turns around, and that everything works out. But it sure doesn't look like that is going to happen.
So What Can We Do ... And Where Should We Start?
So what can we do to improve our situation?
Well, the experts who have looked at the best way to weather depressions and the break down in our society's systems recommend that people get together with their neighbors to work on ways to grow most of their own food (see http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2008/07/eat-cheaper-and-healthier-while-saving.html and http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2008/07/beating-high-energy-and-food-prices.html), to form local bartering mechanisms (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123482445928394833.html), to provide for neighborhood watch-type security, and to take other steps to increase our safety, security and comfort.
This letter is just a starting point for discussion, and not a definitive analysis or plan. I'm afraid that we're in for a bumpy ride, and so I'm reaching out to you to start talking about these admittedly unpleasant topics.
I don't have this all figured out. And together we're smarter than any one of us alone.
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