By the year 2020 we may be in the midst of (or in the early stages of recovery from) a major depression or perhaps even a full-blown socioeconomic collapse. An old saying is: “Hindsight is 20/20.” So here is a gedanken: What will people observe in the year 2020, with the benefit of hindsight?
The following is my conjecture on what folks will cite when asked: “What went wrong?”
- Profligate government spending at all levels
- Multigenerational welfare
- Rampant food stamp dependence (1/6th of the populace, as of 2013!)
- Loss of American competitiveness
- Declining academic standards and performance
- Decline in manufacturing and a shift to a service economy
- A systematically debased currency
- Deteriorating roads, bridges, power distribution, and civic water systems
- Increasing dependence on technology and long chains of supply
- General apathy, moral decline, and degeneracy
- Artificially manipulated interest rates
- A declining work ethic and detachment from traditional self-sufficiency skills
- Socialist policies, over-regulation, and over-taxation
- Malinvestment in everything from wind farms to Tesla Motors
- A narcissistic, self-absorbed, and overweight society
- A populace obsessed with popular culture, fads, gossip, fashion, celebrities, and media sensations
- A populace that ignores genuinely important issues
- Statism
- Corporate welfare
- A corrupt crony relationship between Wall Street, the Federal Reserve banking cartel, and the Treasury Department
- Enormous, uncontrolled debt–both public and private
- Never-ending bailouts of public and private organizations, paid for with tax dollars.
They will also ask themselves: “What could I gave done differently, to be prepared?” They will realize that they could have, and should have decided to:
- Move to a lightly-populated farming region that is well-removed from major population centers.
- Learn traditional skills such as gardening, canning, hunting, welding, and home mechanics.
- Network with like-minded individuals.
- Get out of debt. [1] and stay out of debt [2].
- Stock up on storage food and other key logistics.
- Arm yourself and get tactically-oriented firearms training.
- Develop a second income stream with a home-based business that will be depression proof and resilient to mass inflation
- Assemble a reference library.
- Train in advanced first aid.
- Get a ham radio license.
- Become involved with your local farmer’s market.
- Join a local Volunteer Fire Department.
I don’t claim to have any special insight on the future. But I can certainly see social, political, and economic trends and project their likely outcomes. The current trends do not bode well. Just by themselves, the public and private debt burdens will be enough to cause major problems in coming years. Get ready, folks.