Re: SC35

http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/46846/

Force of Economy, Economy of Force
[Report this comment] Posted by: gazooks on Jan 23, 2007 9:33 AM

(Orion is a worthy read for anyone who thinks. Thanks to all involved.)

Mr. Kunstler writes;

"Recent events have caused many of us to fear that we are headed toward a Big Brother kind of governmental tyranny. I think we will be lucky if the federal government can answer the phones, let alone regulate anyone's life,".....

To discount of the emergence of a police state that protects special interest from the displeasure of an rapidly expanding impoverished population is, however, a very big pass on reality. It seems to ignore a number of incontrovertible facts.

1. A rapidly aging and soon to retire bubble of boomers in needing the resources of a soon to be bankrupt retirement fund and SS landscape.
2. Over 85% of our population now concentrated in a few dozen population centers.
3. Guaranteed poverty for increasing percentages of both young and old through mismanagement of Federal resources, a declining domestic economy and the the ongoing corrupting influence of multi-national corporations in economic legislation and policy. Lip service to policy change.
4. Badly deteriorating infrastructure in both power generation and distribution. (Many engineering studies from many sources.)
5. Diversion from domestic investment in the above of what will be trillions of dollars to continue supporting the continuity of foreign sources of energy to the immense profit of huge oil in the foreseeable future.
6. Paltry investment in energy efficient design in transportation, architecture, appliances and public awareness of alternatives.
7. Property value, aesthetic considerations and lesser eco considerations overriding otherwise eco friendly wind farms, tidal generators, hydro electric, and new age nuclear power plants.
8. Detroit and imports still marketing muscle cars & trucks.
9. Ridiculously inefficient standards of planning and development nationwide furthered by the myopic, misguided necessity for economic "growth" based on debt.
10. A generally unacknowledged reality that provisions in the "Homeland Security" laws are applicable towards a swift transition to martial law. (You will be required next year (08) to carry a National Identity Card, with chip. You will be assimilated, resistance is... well you know.)

While we spend trillions on the attempted securing of the future of energy exports from the Persian Gulf, and threaten higher food costs by usurping agricultural production for fuel, (to the great profit of Archer Daniels Midland), we move even further away from even accommodating a transition towards a breadth of sustaining energy policies and technology.

Marry those facts with the expansion of commitment to an energy war of enormous cost in lives and borrowed money yet to be realized, along with the 45 trillion of unfunded liabilities already accrued, a negative savings rate and record consumer debt in an ever narrowing economy, and you have a very potent recipe for a domestic decline, in conjunction with a global monetary collapse, the order of which has never been seen because there has never been so many other economies dependent on one country staying economically healthy. We're not. Ask Greenspan or Volcker.

Anyone that thinks that our Government will successfully abandon it's dependence on corporate funding, and apply itself to dealing effectively with a host of very pressing domestic issues, as it's been unable to do for decades without a crisis, is smokin' some good ****. Just watch the funding facts for the upcoming Presidential campaign. Reform? Get real.

We all better wake up to what's just down the road for this country and the freedoms that we say we love so much...............