From my vantage point, I'd say it is affecting well over a hundred million people in a sharp way -- collapsing home equity, persistent unemployment, zilch for investment returns, no interest on savings if they have any, crappy jobs for their graduates (like mine, if he ever gets one), too much debt, too much stuff, too much to pay to maintain the too big house, too much tax paying for rapidly shrinking services, massively escalating parking fees from airlines to parking to overdue books (going up 67% in Seattle soon). The list of drags on prosperity mount by the day.
The process I see in play, as usual, is denial: all these factors in play simultaneously, yet complacency abounds. The job hunters I know are anemic in their enthusiasm and energy, as if this is all a dream that will go away soon. Continued false hope that the gubbamint is gonna make it mo'better for us. Wars continuing in perpetuity with no apparent purpose, no apparent goal, and no apparent benefit if any goal is thought of and achieved. Just a legacy of massive debt with charlatans in the gov't (and outside) saying that debt can never have a bearing on the economy (and therefore prosperity and therefore true wealth).
We're trapped in a film with a lousy, preposterously implausible script. Or so we thought... |
