Friday
As I languidly wandered the garden, I had the hazy thought that it is not just the lack of money and morals, and imminent collapse of society that bears comparison to the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476AD, it is the Coliseum type carnival that we are surrounded by.
Businesses are being thrown to the lions by the government, egged on by an hysterical crowd who in turn are exhorted to even lower standards by a gleeful media. All are baying for blood, not realizing that it is their own livelihoods that are being destroyed.
Without those businesses and the jobs and wealth that they generate, the ability of governments to distribute largesse will not last long.
Then what?
I received an article from a friend just now that mentioned the word ‘frugality’. I realized that I had not seen or heard the word used for decades. It is an almost unknown concept for the post-WW2 generations. They have known nothing but ever-increasing prosperity brought about by easy credit.
The debt collapse is on. Credit will be tightened – to the point of non-existence for most. As easy as it has been; it will be to that degree hard. In the world of real money there is no such thing as easy credit, and the Great Collapse will be deeply imprinted into memories. Houses will be foreclosed, asset values will plunge and any paying job will be keenly prized.
Feminists will be on the prowl for a solid working man to look after them. Common sense and normality will make a welcome comeback. We’ll even be able to tell jokes again – we’ll need some humour.
The Wuhan Virus is the catalyst bringing the debt problem into sharp focus. The sensationalised reporting of the pandemic will gradually disappear, but the very real problem of the collapsing debt will play out in all its technicolour goriness. A far greater number of people are going to die due to poverty and despair than were killed by the Wuhan Virus. Hopes and dreams will be dashed on the hard, sharp rocks of reality. For those that survive, the adjustment is going to be painful.
We are entering not a new world, but an old one, one where only the strong and determined, and those who can quickly adapt to change, survive. That old world is also known as the real world. It has not been easy to see for a while. Now that the clouds are beginning to part, we will again observe that people die all the time, but that closing businesses kills not only people, but capital, credit, goods, jobs and prosperity. It threatens society itself.
Governments cannot save us from that reality; it is not even a part of their job description. It comes under the heading of ‘Personal Responsibility’.
Time to weed the winter vegetable patch.