27 Comments

I'm one of what I assume to be millions of Americans who do not understand economics very well or at all on a national scale. Personally, I manage my resources exactly as I wish our tax dollars to be managed - I don't spend more than I make; I have savings for emergencies; I have no debt that cannot be paid in full when it becomes due, I give to worthy and charitable causes and I pay my taxes (somewhat begrudgingly). The difference is, I control how my money is spent. I can't control how the government spends my taxes, though if I and millions like me could, some of our debt problem might be reduced. As long as politicians have other people's money at their disposal nothing but a free-for-all exists, and government malfeasance brings us to exactly where we are - very possibly on the brink of war.

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Feb 6, 2022Liked by John Hawkins

Why doesn't he consider the possibility of a return to a federal system where states are relatively independent, and the blue states suffer the consequences of their actions and red states continue to have relative peace and prosperity. I don't see conflict as inevitable, just separation.

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"it is possible we could avert this whole disaster. We’d just need a responsible government willing to do wildly unpopular things" i.e. Donald Trump

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very interesting, but i argue this point with my friends...if we have a civil war...what sides are there? is it party cultists against the other party cultists....is it civilians vs government forces? people vs politicians? neighbor literally shooting neighbor? it wont be like the first civil war, i doubt there will be uniforms and battlefields...it will be terrorism and assassinations. i fear for the world we will leave our children and grandchildren.

another way to see if a country will fail is how they treat their offspring. we used to do things so our childrens lives would be easier, now we sell our childrens future for wealth/prosperity for us today.

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We're already two thirds for Trump and one third for the regime, and the two thirds got all the guns. Civil war? nah I don't think so?

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Interesting insights. Read the “299 Days” 10-book series and most of what is described, from a real person working in Washington State gov’t, has been happening across America for the past 12 years. The series is about what happens to people during the 299 days following the partial collapse of the U.S. economy. I agree we are the closest we’ve faced since the CW1.0.

Another good book to read is “Field of Blood”, which is from the POV of America’s first Clerk of the Congress, and details the major internal battles in U.S. Congress leading up to the first civil war. As is known to those who bother to read history, democrats have always been America’s bullies, our racists and more anti-America than any foreign aggressors.

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I don't know who actually said this, but there is a quote that reads: "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters realize they can vote themselves largess from the public coffers." We don't have a democracy, we have a representative republic, and what our representatives have been doing all of my lifetime is voting largess to voters (and themselves and patrons) from the public coffers. This cannot be sustained. We're now giving away Trillions to special interests and foreign countries who do not pay back what we give them in any meaningful way: We're paying able-bodied people to not work, we're buying drug paraphernalia for drug users who do not work, building roads and bridges in far away lands, while ours fall into disrepair, etc. Our elected leaders are no longer representatives of 'the people' but a ruling class who represent the rich and powerful who funnel money into their reelection (ha ha) bids and the ruling class returns the favor with laws. The people at the economic bottom have no hope of ever attaining the 'American Dream' through steady intelligent work, but can only stand open-mouthed as their jobs are shipped overseas and their towns dry up. Meanwhile the billionaire class gets larger and larger - the gap is enormous. Dalio is correct.

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Civil War, go after the media first.

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Very interesting read.

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I was in the U.S. Air Force for 10 1/2 years, the U.S. Air Force Reserves for two years while going to college when the GI Bill ran out. Then I was in the Federal Civil Service for 2 1/2 years, while accompanying my active duty husband overseas. For my fifteen years of service to my country, I basically got a couple of hundred dollars for retirement (Civil Service position paid $5.50 an hour for a GS-4 medical transcription job in the U.S.A.F. hospital) so there was never any money to save out of paychecks. With half a college degree I never earned more than $8.00 an hour when minimum wage here in Florida was magically raised to $8.50/hr. and I was told to stay home because hospital medical work was "seasonal." It had never been "seasonal" before. (Thanks Mr. (now Sen.) Rick Scott.) Get real. My rent was $700.00 per month here in 1997. I don't know who I have been a slave to and providing oodles of worth to in this life, but now, after the last 20 years, I am sitting here in a 40 year old mobile home and it belongs to me and the termites.

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This is simply the tytler cycle writ in detail.

Everyone keeps pointing to a person to save our republic.

That wont happen. Unless that one person is given dictatorial powers, which wont happen, it will never be enough to save the Republic.

Follow the constitution.

Before, after.

No federal control of money.

No debt based systems to thwart the constitution. (Thanks Woodrow Wilson).

There is going to be a starving time coming.

And Dalio is correct.

When entire armies of people begin to starve, they will forage. Soon you will see rural city states after the collapse.

And where America goes, so goes the world.

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Mistah Kurtz-he dead

A penny for the Old Guy

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.

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Feb 6, 2022·edited Feb 6, 2022

Don't believe any of this. We live in the best of times. A very small group of antisocial people commit most of the crimes and their actions fill the 24-hour news cycle. For most of us, the American Dream is alive and well.

My wife and I bought a home the year we were married. Like my father before me, I bought when most were selling (due to interest rates in my case) and refinanced a couple times. We managed on one income -- just like my dad -- and somehow paid our children's tuition and board.

Neither my father nor my mother graduated high school.

Let's tap the breaks on the end-of-the-world nonsense. The only 'revolution' happening in this country is a turnover of political fortunes -- something that has been happening since Federalists and Whigs dominated national politics.

It's not hard to imagine how a hedge fund manager might benefit from igniting fear. Not hard at all.

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