re: Middle Class America: R. I. P. --------------- I read an interesting article which basically listed stats on young people, auto ownership and driving. Young people just aren't doing these things like we did back when. Imo, there's plenty to be said for the independence and power and freedom of mobility, now we confine our youth to drinking bottled water, texting and avoid risk, wear your helmet, stay in the smoking section, face book WOW, and nuture social misfits.
I doubt they will ever confiscate them, not in our lifetimes anyway, and during your working years the return should equal inflation plus a small (it's getting smaller) amount of real growth in purchasing power. However you'll have to put aside an awful lot to make sure you can survive the ravages of inflation without running out of money before you die. That's why Social Security is such a good deal. You give up an estate in exchange for a pension you can't outlive because those who die young subsidize those who live beyond their actuarial death age, and you have to put aside much less per month to do this. Of course a social security pension alone is just enough to keep the lights on, barely. You'll need to supplement it with a Roth IRA first, and then a traditional IRA, 401K, 403B, etc. -- Or work for the Federal government.
I generally agree, but the odds that we just "muddle along" are next to nil given a long enough time frame. As such, when things "turn ugly" and those with the foresight to have stored wealth in metals start to use it...guess what happens next? Home invasions, kidnappings, ransoms, theft of master lists of PM vendors databases, etc, etc... Imagine what is currently going on south of the US border with the cartels essentially running the country and what could happen if the US economy transformed into a quasi-third world, underground economy. (btw, I realize this is a bit off topic to your reply, but in context to the thread title. )
When do you think it will get bad? I think it is likely in the next two to six years. But it could happen in the next six months.
yes, shortly. The level of complacency still baffles me. Somehow people think that Quant Easing will just turnaround the ship. Even those who aren't so far gone off the deep end, continue to argue for it simply as a means to "cash out" and leave the carcass to another generation. I still think 2008 was simply the pre-cursor, the past 2+ years was an "echo bubble" and eventually every single short term solution to try and solve "long term problems" will be met with complete disdain and contempt.
I suppose if you lived in the wrong neighborhoods right about now, you'd think it was borderline anarchy and a third world country. That's one thing about the US, there are many third world aspects to it that most people conveniently side step or try to forget about. I just think this country will continue to evolve into a more typical third world type culture...and with that, the "have nots" will begin to infringe more and more upon the "have's"...which is to say that I believe third world type of crime will become epidemic and that's scary enough. Underreported high inflation, lowered standard of living, chronic joblessness, and hundreds of thousands of "at risk" youth's roaming around the city streets (and suburbs) with a chip on their shoulder looking to even the score... I guess that I could ramble on about how I see this unfolding, but it would take a bit more effort to organize all my thoughts on the topic.