Where does America fit in the "Grand Scheme of Things"? Are we the most blessed country to have ever existed? Is the current political climate just a blip on the radar, or a symptom of something worse?
I suspect that most of the members of this forum will agree with the author of this article, and hope that you will follow his advice to the best of your abilities.
http://www.patrickhenrysociety.com/hard-truths-biggest-duty/
This is a tough one. The problem with the "decadence" stage is that the entire reason for it is that the current generation has had it WAAAAAY too easy and is riding the coattails of previous generations hard work. I think the WWII generation was the last to be truly a generation of "producers" and not "consumers". Our current state of affairs is top-heavy and laden with government regulation, middlemen, bureaucrats, undeserving dependents of the state, and most importantly, DEBT. We have grown accustomed to a standard of living now and will do anything to keep it in a "buy now, pay later" world. The catch is, there is no "later" for this generation. This generation has saddled the next with the "later".
Think about Wall Street.. All the folks that trade in stocks, bonds, and futures. If you boil it down, they are all "skimmers". They produce NOTHING. They exist for the sole purpose of "flipping" something for profit, having a twofold effect on the economy. First, they skim profits off those that actually produce, and further drive prices up for the end user. I'm not talking about those who actually distribute product, I'm talking about the ones that buy a piece of paper that says they own 100,000 barrels of oil before it's even pumped out of the ground. Then they have NO intention or even ABILITY to take delivery of a single drop once it is. Also, the buying and selling of stocks on the scale that it is now has brought us the piss-poor quality products we currently enjoy in America. "Share-holder Profits" is the god every corporation bows to today, to the exclusion of quality and pride of workmanship. Consumers are to blame as well. They demand luxury as cheaply and quickly as they can get it. They want luxury and they DON'T want to work for it.
This is what drives many to graduate high school and "get an education". They've been taught that once they have that 4 year degree in hand companies will start handing them money. In the real world this is not the case. They have been raised by spoiled "Boomer" parents who had much given to them without much required. They weren't taught to handle money properly and that debt is "normal". That same dysfunction was passed on to Gen-X'ers and now the Millenials, who are so spoiled by instant gratification and technology that it WILL take a Great Depression/Dust Bowl/World War type event to break the cycle.
Trouble is, we don't know what it takes to win anymore, because we've never had to LOSE. If that great event that should break the cycle happens to be another world war, I have a feeling we will get schooled on what it means to lose. Hopefully just a battle or two, and not the war.
Basically, decadence is the last stage because no one remains in the civilization that is willing to give up the life of ease and comfort to sacrifice/work for the benefit of the next generation. I remember seeing a bumper sticker on the back of an RV when I was a kid that summed it up nicely.
"We're out spending our kids inheritance!"
Baby Boomers in a nutshell.
Hope that rambling made some sense.
It's overwhelming at times
Copperhead, I always liked the way the Mob delt with anyone found skimming, your right, its those making money off money that have plundered the last 50 years of productivity.
The big difference here is the skimming you are talking about is stealing in the form of taking money from a business associate outside of what is agreed upon. Not sure of the correct term because I don't speak legalese. In the case of stealing, yes, right there with you on how it was handled. However, what I'm talking about is perfectly legal, and a difficult problem to address. For many, the answer is more government regulation, which can easily give the Marxists a foothold (more so than they already have) for tearing apart the Constitution even further. I'm a libertarian that believes the government should stay out of everyone's business, but at the same time I don't want to see the economy get so top-heavy it collapses. I don't think we're far from the tipping point either. The people I'm talking about aren't criminals. They are people who love and love the idea of a "quick buck". Money for the sake of money, and all the stuff/toys/sex that goes with it, without a care about whose pocket it comes from.
It won't change unless our country's culture changes. You can't regulate human greed/laziness out of existence.