Thursday, November 8, 2007

Collapsing economy

So China has announced that it is dumping the dollar. Maybe they decided that we weren't that great of a market, after all, since we keep returning their toys.

So what happens now? In the last great depression, the majority of people lived on farms, so not many people starved. Now, less than 1% live on farms. Uh, oh, we're in trouble. Plus, the corporations have moved the essential factories to cheaper labor countries. All we make here are weapons and hamburgers.

Maybe that's why Halliburton has been busy building detention camps. I have dismissed speculation that they were going to start rounding us up. Why would they go to the trouble? If there's no mass dissension, there's no point in locking up malcontents. We're harmless to the status quo.

But let people start starving, and they may lose interest in Brittany Spears and start paying attention to the men behind the curtain. Then the military, or Blackwater and DynCorp mercenaries, apply the oppressive tactics learned in less fortunate countries that Americans have ignored for decades. We may learn for ourselves just what is, and what isn't, torture.

Or, we just have the predicted epidemic, no doubt starting in the poorer parts of the country, and not quite reaching the rich. At least, that's my guess.

1 comment:

PeterG said...

The Chinese official who made comment about dumping the dollar has backed away from it now. It was just one, off the cuff comment. The Chinese are linked to the American economy and if they dump the dollar, it is going to kill them.

I worry about the breakdown of the American economy. Our children have oatmeal for brains, because we have let them watch so much TV. We aren't importing foreign born engineers, because of 9/11 security concerns. Our President is a fool.

But, I think your worry about the next Great Depression would be better served by worrying about something else. We are going to have a recession, California and Nevada are already there (hung over from the sub-prime house lending boom). That means that everyone else is going to get hit soon. But a Depression? No, I don't think so.

The economy is much better prepared for downturns, and is protected from many problems by compartmentalizing different areas. Some economists think that we will never have an other Depression, because of these safeguards.

Nice work on the blog. Have you considered opening comments up to people who don't have Google accounts? It will bring some anonymous comments, but you can just throw them away if you don't like them.

Peter (the Great) - reporting from Oregon.