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The triple whammy
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Dec 6, 2018 22:51:08   #
whitnebrat Loc: In the wilds of Oregon
 
Looking ahead, I see three distinct problems that are facing the country within the next five to ten years. If they are not solved by then, then we as a country are in jeopardy.
First is climate change. It doesn't matter who or what is causing it, it only matters that it's happening. The answer to it from most reputable climate scientists is to cut down the carbon footprint (carbon dioxide emissions, etc.) and go to a 100% renewable energy platform. This means a massive change in the way we do things. If it doesn't happen, then the weather will become more severe; disastrous storms will get more disastrous; and what we now consider to be the 'breadbasket' of corn, wheat and soybeans in Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska (plus a few more) will move north to Alberta and Saskatchewan, This will leave the Corn Belt to become the modern equivalent of the Dust Bowl, and displace hundreds of thousands of Americans who depended on those crops for a living.
The second problem that is imminent is that of the national debt. We currently have a national debt of over $21,000,000,000,000 (twenty-one-trillion). That equates to approximately $70,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. It is financed by Treasury notes (national IOU's), which are primarily bought by other countries as an investment. China and Saudi Arabia are currently some of the foremost purchasers of our national debt and could disrupt our entire economy if they were to stop purchasing our debt or dump the T-bills that they have onto the world trading floors. This would crash the bond market and will cause at least a major recession or probably a depression (ala the 1930's only worse.) We have to get to a balanced budget and begin paying down this debt … it's that simple. Tax cuts and runaway spending don't help. The disruption of higher taxes and huge spending cuts at the federal level mean that the average American will not have the standard of living that they have become used to, and adjusting to that will become extremely difficult. The alternative to this is to 'print more money', which is effectively devaluing the dollar, causing runaway inflation and economic disaster … look at Venezuela or Brazil (or Germany in the 1930's) for the effects of this.
Debt of a different stripe is also looming in the loss of or inability to get jobs … mainly in the area of personal loans (auto & student) that won't be repaid if the jobs aren't there.
Third, and most problematic is the loss of the manufacturing sector jobs in this country. They aren't coming back, not for lack of trying, but because of technological change and automation. This means the loss of many (if not most) of the old "shock absorber washer stuffer" or "data entry clerk" type of jobs that we once had. Cashier-less markets, automated fast-food outlets, and retail stores are already being implemented. This will create a permanent underclass of people that cannot become robot maintainers or software coders or their equivalent, no matter how much training you give them … they are just not capable of it. Even many white-collar jobs are beginning to be eliminated by automation and artificial intelligence. Former managers are working at Walmart as greeters. What do you do with these people whose employment prospects are almost zero? If they don't have any way of making a living, and can't feed their families, you have the potential of mass rioting that will make the Watts riots look like minor scuffles. Historically, the French revolution was caused by just this problem. Here, it eventually will become (if it isn't already here) necessary to pay these people to not riot, which means a welfare state on a major scale. One answer is to 'de-technologize' many industries just to give people work and keep them from civil strife. Once you go this route, at least you have tax-paying citizens instead of the non-tax-paying underclass that is non-productive and a drain on the federal treasury.
There are other factors that are possibilities that could massively disrupt our way of life, but these three are the major disasters looming in the near future. To ignore them is to create a country that is vastly different and vastly worse off then the one we have now. Ignore them at your (and your children's children's) peril.

Reply
Dec 6, 2018 22:59:37   #
padremike Loc: Phenix City, Al
 
whitnebrat wrote:
Looking ahead, I see three distinct problems that are facing the country within the next five to ten years. If they are not solved by then, then we as a country are in jeopardy.
First is climate change. It doesn't matter who or what is causing it, it only matters that it's happening. The answer to it from most reputable climate scientists is to cut down the carbon footprint (carbon dioxide emissions, etc.) and go to a 100% renewable energy platform. This means a massive change in the way we do things. If it doesn't happen, then the weather will become more severe; disastrous storms will get more disastrous; and what we now consider to be the 'breadbasket' of corn, wheat and soybeans in Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska (plus a few more) will move north to Alberta and Saskatchewan, This will leave the Corn Belt to become the modern equivalent of the Dust Bowl, and displace hundreds of thousands of Americans who depended on those crops for a living.
The second problem that is imminent is that of the national debt. We currently have a national debt of over $21,000,000,000,000 (twenty-one-trillion). That equates to approximately $70,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. It is financed by Treasury notes (national IOU's), which are primarily bought by other countries as an investment. China and Saudi Arabia are currently some of the foremost purchasers of our national debt and could disrupt our entire economy if they were to stop purchasing our debt or dump the T-bills that they have onto the world trading floors. This would crash the bond market and will cause at least a major recession or probably a depression (ala the 1930's only worse.) We have to get to a balanced budget and begin paying down this debt … it's that simple. Tax cuts and runaway spending don't help. The disruption of higher taxes and huge spending cuts at the federal level mean that the average American will not have the standard of living that they have become used to, and adjusting to that will become extremely difficult. The alternative to this is to 'print more money', which is effectively devaluing the dollar, causing runaway inflation and economic disaster … look at Venezuela or Brazil (or Germany in the 1930's) for the effects of this.
Debt of a different stripe is also looming in the loss of or inability to get jobs … mainly in the area of personal loans (auto & student) that won't be repaid if the jobs aren't there.
Third, and most problematic is the loss of the manufacturing sector jobs in this country. They aren't coming back, not for lack of trying, but because of technological change and automation. This means the loss of many (if not most) of the old "shock absorber washer stuffer" or "data entry clerk" type of jobs that we once had. Cashier-less markets, automated fast-food outlets, and retail stores are already being implemented. This will create a permanent underclass of people that cannot become robot maintainers or software coders or their equivalent, no matter how much training you give them … they are just not capable of it. Even many white-collar jobs are beginning to be eliminated by automation and artificial intelligence. Former managers are working at Walmart as greeters. What do you do with these people whose employment prospects are almost zero? If they don't have any way of making a living, and can't feed their families, you have the potential of mass rioting that will make the Watts riots look like minor scuffles. Historically, the French revolution was caused by just this problem. Here, it eventually will become (if it isn't already here) necessary to pay these people to not riot, which means a welfare state on a major scale. One answer is to 'de-technologize' many industries just to give people work and keep them from civil strife. Once you go this route, at least you have tax-paying citizens instead of the non-tax-paying underclass that is non-productive and a drain on the federal treasury.
There are other factors that are possibilities that could massively disrupt our way of life, but these three are the major disasters looming in the near future. To ignore them is to create a country that is vastly different and vastly worse off then the one we have now. Ignore them at your (and your children's children's) peril.
Looking ahead, I see three distinct problems that ... (show quote)


Shucks, the solution is simple. Ban Democrats, liberals, Progressives, Marxist (sameo, sameo) from participation in all civic life! No worries mate!

Reply
Dec 6, 2018 23:25:33   #
debeda
 
whitnebrat wrote:
Looking ahead, I see three distinct problems that are facing the country within the next five to ten years. If they are not solved by then, then we as a country are in jeopardy.
First is climate change. It doesn't matter who or what is causing it, it only matters that it's happening. The answer to it from most reputable climate scientists is to cut down the carbon footprint (carbon dioxide emissions, etc.) and go to a 100% renewable energy platform. This means a massive change in the way we do things. If it doesn't happen, then the weather will become more severe; disastrous storms will get more disastrous; and what we now consider to be the 'breadbasket' of corn, wheat and soybeans in Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska (plus a few more) will move north to Alberta and Saskatchewan, This will leave the Corn Belt to become the modern equivalent of the Dust Bowl, and displace hundreds of thousands of Americans who depended on those crops for a living.
The second problem that is imminent is that of the national debt. We currently have a national debt of over $21,000,000,000,000 (twenty-one-trillion). That equates to approximately $70,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. It is financed by Treasury notes (national IOU's), which are primarily bought by other countries as an investment. China and Saudi Arabia are currently some of the foremost purchasers of our national debt and could disrupt our entire economy if they were to stop purchasing our debt or dump the T-bills that they have onto the world trading floors. This would crash the bond market and will cause at least a major recession or probably a depression (ala the 1930's only worse.) We have to get to a balanced budget and begin paying down this debt … it's that simple. Tax cuts and runaway spending don't help. The disruption of higher taxes and huge spending cuts at the federal level mean that the average American will not have the standard of living that they have become used to, and adjusting to that will become extremely difficult. The alternative to this is to 'print more money', which is effectively devaluing the dollar, causing runaway inflation and economic disaster … look at Venezuela or Brazil (or Germany in the 1930's) for the effects of this.
Debt of a different stripe is also looming in the loss of or inability to get jobs … mainly in the area of personal loans (auto & student) that won't be repaid if the jobs aren't there.
Third, and most problematic is the loss of the manufacturing sector jobs in this country. They aren't coming back, not for lack of trying, but because of technological change and automation. This means the loss of many (if not most) of the old "shock absorber washer stuffer" or "data entry clerk" type of jobs that we once had. Cashier-less markets, automated fast-food outlets, and retail stores are already being implemented. This will create a permanent underclass of people that cannot become robot maintainers or software coders or their equivalent, no matter how much training you give them … they are just not capable of it. Even many white-collar jobs are beginning to be eliminated by automation and artificial intelligence. Former managers are working at Walmart as greeters. What do you do with these people whose employment prospects are almost zero? If they don't have any way of making a living, and can't feed their families, you have the potential of mass rioting that will make the Watts riots look like minor scuffles. Historically, the French revolution was caused by just this problem. Here, it eventually will become (if it isn't already here) necessary to pay these people to not riot, which means a welfare state on a major scale. One answer is to 'de-technologize' many industries just to give people work and keep them from civil strife. Once you go this route, at least you have tax-paying citizens instead of the non-tax-paying underclass that is non-productive and a drain on the federal treasury.
There are other factors that are possibilities that could massively disrupt our way of life, but these three are the major disasters looming in the near future. To ignore them is to create a country that is vastly different and vastly worse off then the one we have now. Ignore them at your (and your children's children's) peril.
Looking ahead, I see three distinct problems that ... (show quote)


I mostly agree with your last 2 points. The first one not so much. Air and water quality, yes, important. Global warming? Yawn. The earth has cyclical warming/cooling trends. I believe that the extreme weather we experienced in the late 40s and early 50s was partially caused by all the nuclear testing, but this current wealth redistribution scam called the Paris Climate Accord, not so much. Most French citizens agree with me

Reply
 
 
Dec 6, 2018 23:43:00   #
Carol Kelly
 
whitnebrat wrote:
Looking ahead, I see three distinct problems that are facing the country within the next five to ten years. If they are not solved by then, then we as a country are in jeopardy.
First is climate change. It doesn't matter who or what is causing it, it only matters that it's happening. The answer to it from most reputable climate scientists is to cut down the carbon footprint (carbon dioxide emissions, etc.) and go to a 100% renewable energy platform. This means a massive change in the way we do things. If it doesn't happen, then the weather will become more severe; disastrous storms will get more disastrous; and what we now consider to be the 'breadbasket' of corn, wheat and soybeans in Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska (plus a few more) will move north to Alberta and Saskatchewan, This will leave the Corn Belt to become the modern equivalent of the Dust Bowl, and displace hundreds of thousands of Americans who depended on those crops for a living.
The second problem that is imminent is that of the national debt. We currently have a national debt of over $21,000,000,000,000 (twenty-one-trillion). That equates to approximately $70,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. It is financed by Treasury notes (national IOU's), which are primarily bought by other countries as an investment. China and Saudi Arabia are currently some of the foremost purchasers of our national debt and could disrupt our entire economy if they were to stop purchasing our debt or dump the T-bills that they have onto the world trading floors. This would crash the bond market and will cause at least a major recession or probably a depression (ala the 1930's only worse.) We have to get to a balanced budget and begin paying down this debt … it's that simple. Tax cuts and runaway spending don't help. The disruption of higher taxes and huge spending cuts at the federal level mean that the average American will not have the standard of living that they have become used to, and adjusting to that will become extremely difficult. The alternative to this is to 'print more money', which is effectively devaluing the dollar, causing runaway inflation and economic disaster … look at Venezuela or Brazil (or Germany in the 1930's) for the effects of this.
Debt of a different stripe is also looming in the loss of or inability to get jobs … mainly in the area of personal loans (auto & student) that won't be repaid if the jobs aren't there.
Third, and most problematic is the loss of the manufacturing sector jobs in this country. They aren't coming back, not for lack of trying, but because of technological change and automation. This means the loss of many (if not most) of the old "shock absorber washer stuffer" or "data entry clerk" type of jobs that we once had. Cashier-less markets, automated fast-food outlets, and retail stores are already being implemented. This will create a permanent underclass of people that cannot become robot maintainers or software coders or their equivalent, no matter how much training you give them … they are just not capable of it. Even many white-collar jobs are beginning to be eliminated by automation and artificial intelligence. Former managers are working at Walmart as greeters. What do you do with these people whose employment prospects are almost zero? If they don't have any way of making a living, and can't feed their families, you have the potential of mass rioting that will make the Watts riots look like minor scuffles. Historically, the French revolution was caused by just this problem. Here, it eventually will become (if it isn't already here) necessary to pay these people to not riot, which means a welfare state on a major scale. One answer is to 'de-technologize' many industries just to give people work and keep them from civil strife. Once you go this route, at least you have tax-paying citizens instead of the non-tax-paying underclass that is non-productive and a drain on the federal treasury.
There are other factors that are possibilities that could massively disrupt our way of life, but these three are the major disasters looming in the near future. To ignore them is to create a country that is vastly different and vastly worse off then the one we have now. Ignore them at your (and your children's children's) peril.
Looking ahead, I see three distinct problems that ... (show quote)


How about putting an end to nuclear testing. There’s your “footprint”.

Reply
Dec 6, 2018 23:48:53   #
Carol Kelly
 
debeda wrote:
I mostly agree with your last 2 points. The first one not so much. Air and water quality, yes, important. Global warming? Yawn. The earth has cyclical warming/cooling trends. I believe that the extreme weather we experienced in the late 40s and early 50s was partially caused by all the nuclear testing, but this current wealth redistribution scam called the Paris Climate Accord, not so much. Most French citizens agree with me
I mostly agree with your last 2 points. The first ... (show quote)


I should have read yours first, but you’re absolutely on target. We Americans have done everything including having fewer children per family and why? So we can take in uneducated illegals and let them give birth in America to their illegal children who then claim American citizenship. Some are still nuclear testing. It should be stopped. They aren't hitting targets but they are destroying our world.

Reply
Dec 6, 2018 23:49:29   #
Carol Kelly
 
padremike wrote:
Shucks, the solution is simple. Ban Democrats, liberals, Progressives, Marxist (sameo, sameo) from participation in all civic life! No worries mate!


I like your plan.

Reply
Dec 6, 2018 23:58:09   #
debeda
 
Carol Kelly wrote:
I should have read yours first, but you’re absolutely on target. We Americans have done everything including having fewer children per family and why? So we can take in uneducated illegals and let them give birth in America to their illegal children who then claim American citizenship. Some are still nuclear testing. It should be stopped. They aren't hitting targets but they are destroying our world.


Right on, Carol!

Reply
 
 
Dec 7, 2018 05:54:57   #
Seth
 
Carol Kelly wrote:
I should have read yours first, but you’re absolutely on target. We Americans have done everything including having fewer children per family and why? So we can take in uneducated illegals and let them give birth in America to their illegal children who then claim American citizenship. Some are still nuclear testing. It should be stopped. They aren't hitting targets but they are destroying our world.


Not to mention the demographics involved, that while most American couples are having one or two children, the third world immigrants flooding in are having 4, 5 and 6.

A really good book to read on that, as applies to Europe but should serve as a wake up call for Americans is Mark Steyn's "America Alone."

I read it over ten years ago, and if anything, the situation Steyn discussed in the book has accellerated.

Reply
Dec 7, 2018 06:42:12   #
Seth
 
whitnebrat wrote:
Looking ahead, I see three distinct problems that are facing the country within the next five to ten years. If they are not solved by then, then we as a country are in jeopardy.
First is climate change. It doesn't matter who or what is causing it, it only matters that it's happening. The answer to it from most reputable climate scientists is to cut down the carbon footprint (carbon dioxide emissions, etc.) and go to a 100% renewable energy platform. This means a massive change in the way we do things. If it doesn't happen, then the weather will become more severe; disastrous storms will get more disastrous; and what we now consider to be the 'breadbasket' of corn, wheat and soybeans in Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska (plus a few more) will move north to Alberta and Saskatchewan, This will leave the Corn Belt to become the modern equivalent of the Dust Bowl, and displace hundreds of thousands of Americans who depended on those crops for a living.
The second problem that is imminent is that of the national debt. We currently have a national debt of over $21,000,000,000,000 (twenty-one-trillion). That equates to approximately $70,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. It is financed by Treasury notes (national IOU's), which are primarily bought by other countries as an investment. China and Saudi Arabia are currently some of the foremost purchasers of our national debt and could disrupt our entire economy if they were to stop purchasing our debt or dump the T-bills that they have onto the world trading floors. This would crash the bond market and will cause at least a major recession or probably a depression (ala the 1930's only worse.) We have to get to a balanced budget and begin paying down this debt … it's that simple. Tax cuts and runaway spending don't help. The disruption of higher taxes and huge spending cuts at the federal level mean that the average American will not have the standard of living that they have become used to, and adjusting to that will become extremely difficult. The alternative to this is to 'print more money', which is effectively devaluing the dollar, causing runaway inflation and economic disaster … look at Venezuela or Brazil (or Germany in the 1930's) for the effects of this.
Debt of a different stripe is also looming in the loss of or inability to get jobs … mainly in the area of personal loans (auto & student) that won't be repaid if the jobs aren't there.
Third, and most problematic is the loss of the manufacturing sector jobs in this country. They aren't coming back, not for lack of trying, but because of technological change and automation. This means the loss of many (if not most) of the old "shock absorber washer stuffer" or "data entry clerk" type of jobs that we once had. Cashier-less markets, automated fast-food outlets, and retail stores are already being implemented. This will create a permanent underclass of people that cannot become robot maintainers or software coders or their equivalent, no matter how much training you give them … they are just not capable of it. Even many white-collar jobs are beginning to be eliminated by automation and artificial intelligence. Former managers are working at Walmart as greeters. What do you do with these people whose employment prospects are almost zero? If they don't have any way of making a living, and can't feed their families, you have the potential of mass rioting that will make the Watts riots look like minor scuffles. Historically, the French revolution was caused by just this problem. Here, it eventually will become (if it isn't already here) necessary to pay these people to not riot, which means a welfare state on a major scale. One answer is to 'de-technologize' many industries just to give people work and keep them from civil strife. Once you go this route, at least you have tax-paying citizens instead of the non-tax-paying underclass that is non-productive and a drain on the federal treasury.
There are other factors that are possibilities that could massively disrupt our way of life, but these three are the major disasters looming in the near future. To ignore them is to create a country that is vastly different and vastly worse off then the one we have now. Ignore them at your (and your children's children's) peril.
Looking ahead, I see three distinct problems that ... (show quote)


The global warming (climate change) is a natural phenomenon. It has been politicized by globalist factions as a way to redistribute the wealth of productive nation's to less productive ones, and as a means for a lot of people, such as scientists living high on the hog on federal grants, Algore, etc. For some reason they never get around to mentioning that the planet was much hotter in the late 1800s, among other periods that came before, when man was not burning even a fraction of the fossil fuels we do today and not even a fraction as industrialized.

The only ways to pay down the national debt are to have Americans working and paying into the treasury. This doesn't require heavy taxation, just the aggregate of a low unemployment population, and a curtailment of unnecessary government spending. That includes trimming out the very large excess of federal employees and keeping the necessary employees total respective compensations on a par with their private sector counterparts. There's no reason why a federal employee's total package (salary + benefits) should nearly double that of a private sector employee doing the same job with higher productivity requirements, and at the same time be guaranteed a higher retirement package than the Social Security the private sector worker is going to collect.

Then there's the "money's no object" attitude of many in government, to say nothing of most of our politicans, when it comes to general spending and long term obligations. Pork, etc. These items also need to be reevaluated.

President Trump's economic policies are working, they have reinstated a business friendly environment that has spawned a lowering unemployment rate, to the point that companies, particularly in the manufacturing sector, are having a harder and harder time finding new employees. One bi-product of this is that now employers are having to be more competitive, and that will bring up wages according to the laws of the marketplace rather than the artificial and destructive mandatory minimum wage increases that serve to create downsizing and/ or termination of businesses.

Then there are the millions of people out there, many of them young and strong, who suffer from treatable conditions that are instead treated as disabilities, who instead of being expected to work are put on disability along with various other taxpayer funded benefits. Among them are numerous young people with no disabilities who game the system because it's easy to get away with. Ask California.

Thusfar, President Trump's approach has been doing very well. Jobs are returning at a record pace, consumer confidence is still a level not seen in a long time and what is needed is for the current administration's policies to continue to work for America.

And they ARE working, but they need time to take their full effect, and unfortunately, Trump's political opposition is fighting and obstructing every inch of the way.

These people, despite all they claim to represent, do not represent the will and genius of America's founders nor the letter of the Constitution. While the Trump Administration does, today's Democrats, AND the mainstream media, instead represent an ideology that is the antithesis of the spirit of America that caused this nation to flourish as it did in the first 200 years of it's existence.

If anything is going to bring this great country down, it is that, the left wing ideology that has infected the Democratic Party and the media.

Reply
Dec 7, 2018 08:52:35   #
debeda
 
Seth wrote:
The global warming (climate change) is a natural phenomenon. It has been politicized by globalist factions as a way to redistribute the wealth of productive nation's to less productive ones, and as a means for a lot of people, such as scientists living high on the hog on federal grants, Algore, etc. For some reason they never get around to mentioning that the planet was much hotter in the late 1800s, among other periods that came before, when man was not burning even a fraction of the fossil fuels we do today and not even a fraction as industrialized.

The only ways to pay down the national debt are to have Americans working and paying into the treasury. This doesn't require heavy taxation, just the aggregate of a low unemployment population, and a curtailment of unnecessary government spending. That includes trimming out the very large excess of federal employees and keeping the necessary employees total respective compensations on a par with their private sector counterparts. There's no reason why a federal employee's total package (salary + benefits) should nearly double that of a private sector employee doing the same job with higher productivity requirements, and at the same time be guaranteed a higher retirement package than the Social Security the private sector worker is going to collect.

Then there's the "money's no object" attitude of many in government, to say nothing of most of our politicans, when it comes to general spending and long term obligations. Pork, etc. These items also need to be reevaluated.

President Trump's economic policies are working, they have reinstated a business friendly environment that has spawned a lowering unemployment rate, to the point that companies, particularly in the manufacturing sector, are having a harder and harder time finding new employees. One bi-product of this is that now employers are having to be more competitive, and that will bring up wages according to the laws of the marketplace rather than the artificial and destructive mandatory minimum wage increases that serve to create downsizing and/ or termination of businesses.

Then there are the millions of people out there, many of them young and strong, who suffer from treatable conditions that are instead treated as disabilities, who instead of being expected to work are put on disability along with various other taxpayer funded benefits. Among them are numerous young people with no disabilities who game the system because it's easy to get away with. Ask California.

Thusfar, President Trump's approach has been doing very well. Jobs are returning at a record pace, consumer confidence is still a level not seen in a long time and what is needed is for the current administration's policies to continue to work for America.

And they ARE working, but they need time to take their full effect, and unfortunately, Trump's political opposition is fighting and obstructing every inch of the way.

These people, despite all they claim to represent, do not represent the will and genius of America's founders nor the letter of the Constitution. While the Trump Administration does, today's Democrats, AND the mainstream media, instead represent an ideology that is the antithesis of the spirit of America that caused this nation to flourish as it did in the first 200 years of it's existence.

If anything is going to bring this great country down, it is that, the left wing ideology that has infected the Democratic Party and the media.
The global warming (climate change) is a natural p... (show quote)


AGREED and AMEN, Seth

Reply
Dec 7, 2018 09:19:15   #
Wonttakeitanymore
 
Stop welfare period! Privatize!! Work or don’t eat!! Look at the ants!!!

Reply
 
 
Dec 7, 2018 11:58:27   #
Bad Bob Loc: Virginia
 
whitnebrat wrote:
Looking ahead, I see three distinct problems that are facing the country within the next five to ten years. If they are not solved by then, then we as a country are in jeopardy.
First is climate change. It doesn't matter who or what is causing it, it only matters that it's happening. The answer to it from most reputable climate scientists is to cut down the carbon footprint (carbon dioxide emissions, etc.) and go to a 100% renewable energy platform. This means a massive change in the way we do things. If it doesn't happen, then the weather will become more severe; disastrous storms will get more disastrous; and what we now consider to be the 'breadbasket' of corn, wheat and soybeans in Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska (plus a few more) will move north to Alberta and Saskatchewan, This will leave the Corn Belt to become the modern equivalent of the Dust Bowl, and displace hundreds of thousands of Americans who depended on those crops for a living.
The second problem that is imminent is that of the national debt. We currently have a national debt of over $21,000,000,000,000 (twenty-one-trillion). That equates to approximately $70,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. It is financed by Treasury notes (national IOU's), which are primarily bought by other countries as an investment. China and Saudi Arabia are currently some of the foremost purchasers of our national debt and could disrupt our entire economy if they were to stop purchasing our debt or dump the T-bills that they have onto the world trading floors. This would crash the bond market and will cause at least a major recession or probably a depression (ala the 1930's only worse.) We have to get to a balanced budget and begin paying down this debt … it's that simple. Tax cuts and runaway spending don't help. The disruption of higher taxes and huge spending cuts at the federal level mean that the average American will not have the standard of living that they have become used to, and adjusting to that will become extremely difficult. The alternative to this is to 'print more money', which is effectively devaluing the dollar, causing runaway inflation and economic disaster … look at Venezuela or Brazil (or Germany in the 1930's) for the effects of this.
Debt of a different stripe is also looming in the loss of or inability to get jobs … mainly in the area of personal loans (auto & student) that won't be repaid if the jobs aren't there.
Third, and most problematic is the loss of the manufacturing sector jobs in this country. They aren't coming back, not for lack of trying, but because of technological change and automation. This means the loss of many (if not most) of the old "shock absorber washer stuffer" or "data entry clerk" type of jobs that we once had. Cashier-less markets, automated fast-food outlets, and retail stores are already being implemented. This will create a permanent underclass of people that cannot become robot maintainers or software coders or their equivalent, no matter how much training you give them … they are just not capable of it. Even many white-collar jobs are beginning to be eliminated by automation and artificial intelligence. Former managers are working at Walmart as greeters. What do you do with these people whose employment prospects are almost zero? If they don't have any way of making a living, and can't feed their families, you have the potential of mass rioting that will make the Watts riots look like minor scuffles. Historically, the French revolution was caused by just this problem. Here, it eventually will become (if it isn't already here) necessary to pay these people to not riot, which means a welfare state on a major scale. One answer is to 'de-technologize' many industries just to give people work and keep them from civil strife. Once you go this route, at least you have tax-paying citizens instead of the non-tax-paying underclass that is non-productive and a drain on the federal treasury.
There are other factors that are possibilities that could massively disrupt our way of life, but these three are the major disasters looming in the near future. To ignore them is to create a country that is vastly different and vastly worse off then the one we have now. Ignore them at your (and your children's children's) peril.
Looking ahead, I see three distinct problems that ... (show quote)



Reply
Dec 7, 2018 18:54:04   #
maryjane
 
whitnebrat wrote:
Looking ahead, I see three distinct problems that are facing the country within the next five to ten years. If they are not solved by then, then we as a country are in jeopardy.
First is climate change. It doesn't matter who or what is causing it, it only matters that it's happening. The answer to it from most reputable climate scientists is to cut down the carbon footprint (carbon dioxide emissions, etc.) and go to a 100% renewable energy platform. This means a massive change in the way we do things. If it doesn't happen, then the weather will become more severe; disastrous storms will get more disastrous; and what we now consider to be the 'breadbasket' of corn, wheat and soybeans in Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska (plus a few more) will move north to Alberta and Saskatchewan, This will leave the Corn Belt to become the modern equivalent of the Dust Bowl, and displace hundreds of thousands of Americans who depended on those crops for a living.
The second problem that is imminent is that of the national debt. We currently have a national debt of over $21,000,000,000,000 (twenty-one-trillion). That equates to approximately $70,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. It is financed by Treasury notes (national IOU's), which are primarily bought by other countries as an investment. China and Saudi Arabia are currently some of the foremost purchasers of our national debt and could disrupt our entire economy if they were to stop purchasing our debt or dump the T-bills that they have onto the world trading floors. This would crash the bond market and will cause at least a major recession or probably a depression (ala the 1930's only worse.) We have to get to a balanced budget and begin paying down this debt … it's that simple. Tax cuts and runaway spending don't help. The disruption of higher taxes and huge spending cuts at the federal level mean that the average American will not have the standard of living that they have become used to, and adjusting to that will become extremely difficult. The alternative to this is to 'print more money', which is effectively devaluing the dollar, causing runaway inflation and economic disaster … look at Venezuela or Brazil (or Germany in the 1930's) for the effects of this.
Debt of a different stripe is also looming in the loss of or inability to get jobs … mainly in the area of personal loans (auto & student) that won't be repaid if the jobs aren't there.
Third, and most problematic is the loss of the manufacturing sector jobs in this country. They aren't coming back, not for lack of trying, but because of technological change and automation. This means the loss of many (if not most) of the old "shock absorber washer stuffer" or "data entry clerk" type of jobs that we once had. Cashier-less markets, automated fast-food outlets, and retail stores are already being implemented. This will create a permanent underclass of people that cannot become robot maintainers or software coders or their equivalent, no matter how much training you give them … they are just not capable of it. Even many white-collar jobs are beginning to be eliminated by automation and artificial intelligence. Former managers are working at Walmart as greeters. What do you do with these people whose employment prospects are almost zero? If they don't have any way of making a living, and can't feed their families, you have the potential of mass rioting that will make the Watts riots look like minor scuffles. Historically, the French revolution was caused by just this problem. Here, it eventually will become (if it isn't already here) necessary to pay these people to not riot, which means a welfare state on a major scale. One answer is to 'de-technologize' many industries just to give people work and keep them from civil strife. Once you go this route, at least you have tax-paying citizens instead of the non-tax-paying underclass that is non-productive and a drain on the federal treasury.
There are other factors that are possibilities that could massively disrupt our way of life, but these three are the major disasters looming in the near future. To ignore them is to create a country that is vastly different and vastly worse off then the one we have now. Ignore them at your (and your children's children's) peril.
Looking ahead, I see three distinct problems that ... (show quote)


I definitely agree about the loss of jobs. And this, if for no other, is a major reason to: 1. END permanently ALL immigration (legal, illegal, refugees/asylees/TPS. We simply must stop this stupidity of adding millions more poor, needy foreigners to our population EVERY YEAR. 2. END immediately ALL work VISAS and move (by force if necessary) our own nonworking citizens back into the workforce, independence, supporting themselves, and contributing. Force corporations to work closely with universities to educate/train our own citizens in the jobs needed. 3. Empty our country of ALL foreign illegals and all relatives including anchor babies. Since there will be fewer jobs, those jobs must be kept for OUR citizens. 4. Replace the citizenship law to require citizen parents. 4. Require ALL TPS foreigners (whole family including anchor babies) to return to their countries. Give them a 6 month period to be gobe with all assets. Afterwards all assets will be confiscate and immediste deportation will occur. 5. All foreigners/refugees/asylees here for more than 5 years without becoming citizens AND becoming English proficient AND financially solvent (NO public assistance including medical) must return to their countries. THEN, Let's work on developing new factories making the things we need for daily life. Forget the robots, put our humans to work. Make the factories owned equally by all employees so if the business makes a good product for Americans, then they all do well, if the workers slack off, do poor work and the business does poorly or fails, every employee does poorly or fails. 6. We need to reopen modern day mental institutions and get all of those people off the streets. The other street /homeless people must be put to work, and housed, put the violent ones either in a mental institution or imprisonment whichever is appropriate but we must get everyone off the streets and contributing to our country and society. Hire more mentally/emotionally well trained police and get rid of the gangs throughout our nation, clean up our inner city slums, make people responsibile for the place they live. Close down our borders except for specific ports that can be managed properly and stop the influx of drugs (shoot them on sight is fine with me, send the military to destroy them where THEY live and create the drugs).

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Dec 7, 2018 19:08:59   #
Bad Bob Loc: Virginia
 
maryjane wrote:
I definitely agree about the loss of jobs. And this, if for no other, is a major reason to: 1. END permanently ALL immigration (legal, illegal, refugees/asylees/TPS. We simply must stop this stupidity of adding millions more poor, needy foreigners to our population EVERY YEAR. 2. END immediately ALL work VISAS and move (by force if necessary) our own nonworking citizens back into the workforce, independence, supporting themselves, and contributing. Force corporations to work closely with universities to educate/train our own citizens in the jobs needed. 3. Empty our country of ALL foreign illegals and all relatives including anchor babies. Since there will be fewer jobs, those jobs must be kept for OUR citizens. 4. Replace the citizenship law to require citizen parents. 4. Require ALL TPS foreigners (whole family including anchor babies) to return to their countries. Give them a 6 month period to be gobe with all assets. Afterwards all assets will be confiscate and immediste deportation will occur. 5. All foreigners/refugees/asylees here for more than 5 years without becoming citizens AND becoming English proficient AND financially solvent (NO public assistance including medical) must return to their countries. THEN, Let's work on developing new factories making the things we need for daily life. Forget the robots, put our humans to work. Make the factories owned equally by all employees so if the business makes a good product for Americans, then they all do well, if the workers slack off, do poor work and the business does poorly or fails, every employee does poorly or fails. 6. We need to reopen modern day mental institutions and get all of those people off the streets. The other street /homeless people must be put to work, and housed, put the violent ones either in a mental institution or imprisonment whichever is appropriate but we must get everyone off the streets and contributing to our country and society. Hire more mentally/emotionally well trained police and get rid of the gangs throughout our nation, clean up our inner city slums, make people responsibile for the place they live. Close down our borders except for specific ports that can be managed properly and stop the influx of drugs (shoot them on sight is fine with me, send the military to destroy them where THEY live and create the drugs).
I definitely agree about the loss of jobs. And th... (show quote)



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Dec 7, 2018 20:13:59   #
Hogback
 
whitnebrat wrote:
Looking ahead, I see three distinct problems that are facing the country within the next five to ten years. If they are not solved by then, then we as a country are in jeopardy.
First is climate change. It doesn't matter who or what is causing it, it only matters that it's happening. The answer to it from most reputable climate scientists is to cut down the carbon footprint (carbon dioxide emissions, etc.) and go to a 100% renewable energy platform. This means a massive change in the way we do things. If it doesn't happen, then the weather will become more severe; disastrous storms will get more disastrous; and what we now consider to be the 'breadbasket' of corn, wheat and soybeans in Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska (plus a few more) will move north to Alberta and Saskatchewan, This will leave the Corn Belt to become the modern equivalent of the Dust Bowl, and displace hundreds of thousands of Americans who depended on those crops for a living.
The second problem that is imminent is that of the national debt. We currently have a national debt of over $21,000,000,000,000 (twenty-one-trillion). That equates to approximately $70,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. It is financed by Treasury notes (national IOU's), which are primarily bought by other countries as an investment. China and Saudi Arabia are currently some of the foremost purchasers of our national debt and could disrupt our entire economy if they were to stop purchasing our debt or dump the T-bills that they have onto the world trading floors. This would crash the bond market and will cause at least a major recession or probably a depression (ala the 1930's only worse.) We have to get to a balanced budget and begin paying down this debt … it's that simple. Tax cuts and runaway spending don't help. The disruption of higher taxes and huge spending cuts at the federal level mean that the average American will not have the standard of living that they have become used to, and adjusting to that will become extremely difficult. The alternative to this is to 'print more money', which is effectively devaluing the dollar, causing runaway inflation and economic disaster … look at Venezuela or Brazil (or Germany in the 1930's) for the effects of this.
Debt of a different stripe is also looming in the loss of or inability to get jobs … mainly in the area of personal loans (auto & student) that won't be repaid if the jobs aren't there.
Third, and most problematic is the loss of the manufacturing sector jobs in this country. They aren't coming back, not for lack of trying, but because of technological change and automation. This means the loss of many (if not most) of the old "shock absorber washer stuffer" or "data entry clerk" type of jobs that we once had. Cashier-less markets, automated fast-food outlets, and retail stores are already being implemented. This will create a permanent underclass of people that cannot become robot maintainers or software coders or their equivalent, no matter how much training you give them … they are just not capable of it. Even many white-collar jobs are beginning to be eliminated by automation and artificial intelligence. Former managers are working at Walmart as greeters. What do you do with these people whose employment prospects are almost zero? If they don't have any way of making a living, and can't feed their families, you have the potential of mass rioting that will make the Watts riots look like minor scuffles. Historically, the French revolution was caused by just this problem. Here, it eventually will become (if it isn't already here) necessary to pay these people to not riot, which means a welfare state on a major scale. One answer is to 'de-technologize' many industries just to give people work and keep them from civil strife. Once you go this route, at least you have tax-paying citizens instead of the non-tax-paying underclass that is non-productive and a drain on the federal treasury.
There are other factors that are possibilities that could massively disrupt our way of life, but these three are the major disasters looming in the near future. To ignore them is to create a country that is vastly different and vastly worse off then the one we have now. Ignore them at your (and your children's children's) peril.
Looking ahead, I see three distinct problems that ... (show quote)


First problem is not a problem at all. Climate is a natural occurrence. When I was a kid in school back in the 60's we were taught of a pending "ice age". Since they were wrong on that they started teaching global warning they were wrong again so now it's just climate change that covers everything so now they can't be wrong.

The second problem is a real problem indeed but since America is actually in better shape than any other country in the world I guess the entire world will go broke at the sme time. Even if every man woman and child had the $70.000 to pay the debt who would we pay it to? Every country in the world owes every other country in the world with the banks holding the I O U's. It will be very intresting indeed. But I'm not so sure it will be a big problem. Just erase the books and start all over. In the Bible it speaks of a one world economy and a one world currency maybe we are one our way.

The third problem is under control if everybody would just leave Trump alone and let him do his thing!

Actually, the biggest problem is that there are too many democrats in our way who want to give this country away to people who want to bring us down. Political correctness is also a probem we don't know any more if a baby is a boy are a girl. We don't even know which restroom to use. We spend hundreds of 1000's of dollars on a college education for a degree that is worthless on the job market. Like African American studies or female studies etc . . . We can start by solving those easily seen and obvious problems and stop spending money on something like global warming err.. . . oh. . . I. . . I mean climate change or whatever it's being called.

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