The takers have now outnumbered the makers...we are doomed unless you think people really can get things for free.
So who are you including in the "takers" category?
If you're including retired folks collecting social security and disabled vets and people temporarily unemployed and other such people who have paid into the system for a long time (and/or with bodyparts) and it's not exactly fair to label them as takers.
As far as the coming apocalypse: I think you're wrong. It's just not going to happen unless something occurs like the talk about some kind of space storm or maybe a meteor strike that knocks out the grid for years and years. While we're likely not going to return to the levels of prosperity enjoyed during that brief period of time after WW2 when folks like grocery store produce managers (like my grandfather) could own vacation homes, we still have it pretty good.
The challenge now is competing in a global labor force where even skilled/educated labor is often cheap and it's increasingly frowned upon for the developed world to impose their will on less developed nations in order to unfairly enjoy the benefits of their resources.
I include everyone getting a government check as a taker, and that includes the "defense (sic)" industry. I agree, those who paid into SS deserve it, but the plain fact is that our government has already spent every single dime they paid in. The "trust fund" is crap. They spent it on wars, medicare drug benefits, etc. Gone. Nada.
So now my mother's SS is supposed to be paid by younger workers, who can't provide what is due, so the Fed is now creating money out of thin air to pay the difference.
How can they do this? This gets into the coming apocalypse. They can do this because the US Dollar is the world's "reserve currency" as per Nixon's Bretton Woods agreement where the US stopped paying debts in gold. Since then, all transactions for oil purchases from OPEC must be made in US dollars. So, for example, if Brazil wants to buy oil from OPEC they need to convert their currency into US dollars. You think this inflates the value of the dollar maybe?
This is one of the main reasons for our wars. Ghadaffi bombed the pan am flight, but when he tried to create a gold based African currency he ended up dead. The Libyan "rebels' " first action was to create a central bank trading in dollars....not your Princess Lea and Luke Skywalker rebellion that is for sure.
Saddam Hussein was fine when he poison gassed the Kurds and the Iranians, in fact we upped his aid, but some things are just not acceptable to the Empire. When he started selling oil in Euros.....dead.
And now Iran is "developing WMD's" I'm sure that it is just a coincidence that Iran is selling oil in yen and bartering with India for food and other goods.
When China and the rest of the world dump the dollar as the world's reserve currency, and they will, you will see what your dollar is really worth.
The Soviet Union had a wonderful pension plan for everyone. Then they invaded Afghanistan and went broke. Sound familiar?
