Fred On America

Fred is at it again. I've heard from several people that his view is too bleak, too pessimistic. I realize despair is a sin and all, but I would love to have someone show me just where he has it wrong. I look around at what comes out of our schools and wonder who is going to keep things on track in 20 years when the last of the educated people retire to Mexico or Bermuda. Sure, kids can punch buttons and make a passable page on MySpace, and are nothing short of geniuses when it comes to stealing music and movies. Just don't ask them to read anything longer than a blog post or to remember anything past the next test. And for God's sake, don't even think about expecting them to understand how anything works.

Not that it matters in any case. Everyone under 25 I talk to dreams of the day they will have a "real" job, not comprehending what that means: sitting in a grey cubicle doing work that a trained chimp could do more effectively and being hounded by some psychotic bitch to shut up about your god-damned kid's soccer game and get back to work and fill out this form, and log your time sixteen ways so management can create meaningless-yet-pretty graphs for the next level of psychotic bitches and neutered she-males and oh yea, FUCKING SMILE GOD-DAMN IT because "plays well with others" is far more important than competence. So I guess in a way, our schools are turning out exactly what the market demands; timid retards that have no clue and wouldn't want one if it smacked them in the face.

Of course, some parents see that their children get actual educations and the government hasn't managed to regulate all innovation out of the market, so some continue to accumulate both knowledge and the power that goes with it. The typical human condition over the last ten thousand years or so, with rare and brief exceptions, has been lords and surfs: a small group of elites controlling the resources and a far larger group providing the labor in exchange for a subsistence living. Paradise it ain't, nor is it a republic, but it can work. It may not be what everyone wants, but it sure seems to be where we are heading. That process will take time and most likely won't be complete in my lifetime or possibly several lifetimes. Of more immediate concern to me, because it will happen in my lifetime, is the financial collapse that will come about due to the ruinous levels of debt carried by nearly everyone. I've said it a hundred times and I will say it again. What is currently happening cannot continue. Seventy-five percent of the population cannot indefinitely spend more than they make. At some point, the house of cards will come tumbling down. The Roaring 20's didn't last and neither will this current bubble. There will be a big bump and it will be sooner rather than later. You read it here first.

When the comet hit, only the small and fast survived. Get small. Get fast.