Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Too much of nuthin'






I am hunkered down in the house this weekend and week.  In the parlance of denial, I am on "staycation", where my vacation days are spent at home.  We went on a hike yesterday and today, and I will be walking each day this week, and I will be spending my time off beginning the process of getting my cardiovascular system in some kind of condition.

The reason for the staycation is simply money.  I have a bad feeling about the debt ceiling talks and the aftershocks.  I think that I will probably be missing a paycheck or two in the near future.  If the government shuts down, the hospital still opens up every day, it just holds our checks for us until the checks are made good.

I am thinking back to the "Contract with America" and the last time that governmental farce moved like this.  I think that this will probably go the same way. 

We are moving through a farce which has been played out before.  This farce contains elements with known means and ends and known fixes.  When a Republic heads into these things, the results aren't usually that pretty.

So, government will "shut down" as political theatre.  A means of looting the future will be agreed upon and government will reopen.  The rich will spend a little bit longer getting richer and not paying taxes.  The poor will suffer.  Somebody will finally get the balls to start taxing the rich.  We will plod ahead slowly to a new balance.  This is all old theatre.

But at the end of the process, we will be a little bit closer to realizing that the economics of growth are no longer available, that the economics of homeostasis are our future.

We aren't there yet.

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