Fear is such an articulate speaker It whispers in your ear and shouts in your face And it wins every time because it keeps you from looking at things from more than one perspective I love that about fear...
Sorry, I'm not a trekkie. Your insults don't bolster your weak arguments either. But hey, you have to use what you got. Your bank analogy is quite simplistic. When you have the world's reserve currency, you have a HUGE advantage, so long as you are responsible with it. Act irresponsibly, and you eventually lose that reserve status, and all the wealth and power that comes with it.
I don't know that we are. And even if it's debatable, we should take no comfort that others hosed it up as badly as we. 1. They don't have as big a Boomer generation, and we haven't reserved for the expense. 2. They are not running the expense of being "policeman to the world". 3. We have had moderately high expectations because of our strong middle class... much of which is now gone and not coming back. I hope I'm wrong about what all this means, but this is not simply another "cyclical swing". And coping with such a huge mess is not what I had in mind to occupy the rest of my life.
T'wasn't an insult, sparky. (but, this is, and denigrating too...) Look, I'm the last person you'd consider a fan of the dipshits that are running this country (into the ground.) Just the same, if the world had a viable option for an alternative reserve currency it would have already been implemented after the events of the past year.
I've studied all those alternative fuels. Not a panacea by a long shot. Shale gas wells involve hydrofraking - very intensive, uses loads of water, expensive, and those wells generally peak within a year or two - 60-70% depletion. Anything biomass involves a lot of land and water that takes away from food prodcution. Almost the same amount of energy is used to create the energy that is ultimately produced. Not a big net gain. Nuke tech - suffers from NIMBY. Oil is still King. If the SHTF, coal is the only way to go. And yes, we are the Saudi Arabia of coal. You deleted my reference to the climate. There we agree - It's not a pretty picture. It's actually the worst danger we face that will lead to resource wars and tremendous dieoff in many parts of the world.
What's more expensive? A few million geriatric boomers or a billion mouths to feed? Great point. I wonder how much U.S. debt would be forgiven if Washington announced that we were closing down every foreign base. (Not that I'd want to, it wouldn't give us the benefit of Washington learning a much needed lesson on fiscal responsbility.) I somewhat agree, but I'd lean towards unrealistic, not high, expectations. But, that doesn't take nearly as much effort to adjust as other things will. Again, it's going to be a painful transition for a lot of people, but it will happen. I agree. Those who are good with their hands will do much better than those who paid others to use their hands.
Oops, yet another who's betting with his heart, not with his head... Good luck, and let's remember to revisit this thread, agreed?