It Was Never Gonna Be

Why are you so scared? The world seems to be spinning out of control, doesn’t it? The American “comfort zone” has gotten a bit uncomfortable, hasn’t it? You can barely tell what’s “real” any more, can ya? You don’t have any idea who you can trust anymore, do you? Scared, yeah, you’re scared.

While Americans were busy riding the tech prosperity wave, overpaying for streaming services, consuming social media and trashy “reality” TV, they were almost completely ignoring the impending confluence of decades of bad decisions. It gives me no pleasure to say that I’ve alienated many people over the past 3 decades by pointing out that some really shitty times lie ahead. I even went so far as to predict that by my mid-60s, the “stuff” was really going to start hitting the fan. Uh, I’m 65 now…and the “good times” have commenced. None of my predictions envisioned a pandemic, so that just added some accelerant to the bad news fire.

NOTE to all of you “Cult of Personality” people: All of these bad decisions, and my predictions of them, predate the first term of President Donald J. Trump. He didn’t cause these issues, he can’t fix them and they won’t disappear when he’s out of office. However, since it makes some of you feel better, he conveniently gives you someone to blame, so you can hang onto false hope that his exit will reinstate your utopian dreams.

So, what’s up? Well:

We are drowning in the confluence of Corporate hegemony, a poor but expensive healthcare system, a poor but expensive education system, an aging population with younger generations who don’t want to have children, runaway technology that generates new information (accurate and inaccurate) at a rate we can not process, all while the average American thinks their only civic responsibilities are to vote, then protest. We seem to think we are entitled to spend all of our time seeking pleasure and fun while “the government” is fixing all the problems.

So, just to list a few:

1) We let corporations take over the world, and our governments. These companies control the wealth, trade, resources, etc. While their wealth has soared, Federal (taxpayer) debt has skyrocketed. What shall we do about this?

2) We failed to recognize the economic and social chasms that new technologies would cause. The people who really understand what happens inside of those shiny little boxes now own you. From the Apple 1 in 1976 to the AI of 2026, the world has changed in ways most of us could have never comprehended. We’re on a runaway rocket that we are powerless to constrain… and we’re terrified of being left behind. We are now surrounded by technology that can create images, videos and sounds of almost anything, almost immediately. We are bombarded with “information” at a rate we can not process. We are overwhelmed by this flow to the degree that we don’t know what to believe anymore.

3) We failed to recognize the Post-WWII international relationship structure wasn’t going to last forever. There are no “friends” among nations. There are alliances based on mutual objectives. When the objectives change, the alliances change. International law is a myth. There is no way to enforce it. Those with the baddest weapons will do what they please.

4) We failed to realize that as more emerging countries, well, “emerged”, they would increase competition for jobs, resources, etc. We thought the Post-WWII American prosperity was the norm. Three generations have grown up believing it was their birthright. We were taught to believe there would be endless growth. There won’t be. In light of this, with the global corporations moving jobs to the cheapest labor, and AI taking the lower end white collar jobs, as the standard of living rises in third world countries, it’s going to slide a bit in the industrialized world. Some of us saw this coming. It is already happening. Otherwise, why do tech billionaires talk about needing UBI, Universal Basic Income. NOTE TO BOOMERS: You were LUCKY! You got to live in the most prosperous country, in the most prosperous era, in human history, It was the aberration, not the norm.

5) We failed to understand that in order to sustain our society and our culture we MUST have children. Demographics is Destiny. All generations after the Baby Boomers are smaller. There are not enough wage earners to support Medicare and Social Security. Insolvency looms in 2034, with diminished benefits for our seniors. Which leads to our failures with…

6) Immigration. It’s been a growing disaster for over 60 years. We have knowingly allowed millions of people to enter the USA illegally. We have used them as indentured servants. Both major political parties, and the public at large, bear the responsibility for never enacting humane, sustainable immigration and guest worker laws. Even in the midst of all the current deportation activity we do not hear any voices loudly proposing corrections to the system. We need these workers. We need them to be legal. We need their tax revenues.

7) We (well, not me, but most of you) believed the lies of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It was written by healthcare companies, pharma and insurance companies, then rushed through the house and senate with no time to be read. It has dramatically increased premiums and made access to care far more difficult. We have, by far, the most expensive healthcare system in the world, with some of the poorest outcomes among all industrialized nations.

8) We have succumbed to the excesses of an allegedly wealthy nation. Many of us eat a very poor diet and engage in detrimental behaviors. We are a very physically sick nation, relative to others. There has been far to little effort spent on promoting wellness as we funnel the sick to the pill factories.

9) We have allowed our education system to become dominated by unions and politicians. Our children, en masse, are not performing anywhere near the levels of other countries. Again, we have one of the most expensive systems, some of the worst results.

10) We succumbed to the idiotic notion that everyone needed to go to college in order to have a good life. This nonsense has caused numerous issues including:

a, The government made loans easy to get, seducing millions of people into going to college who otherwise would not have. This resulted in mountains of student loan debt which, conveniently, can’t be discharged through bankruptcy, enslaving millions of people well into their middle age. This suppresses their ability to purchase homes, cars and other goods.

b. The cheap government $$$ prompted more colleges and accredited on-line “universities” to form, in pursuit of those $$$. Watered down education at inflated prices.

c. Yes, all this easy $$$ has been a significant factor in the skyrocketing cost of a university education.

d. The Academic “Elite” who extolled the virtues of higher education, simultaneously derided those who chose “blue collar” trades. This lasted for over 2 generations and has resulted in a significant shortage of skilled tradespeople and a very “out of balance” society. We could use fewer professors, social workers and artists…and lot more people who know how to use power tools.

The list could go on and on. The point is this, there have been a number of issues that we have repeatedly failed to address over the past 45 - 65 years. The consequences of this inaction is now piled up at our doorstep. Given our failures of governance, societal apathy and personal narcissism, this period in time was never gonna be great. We kept telling ourselves that someone was going to take care of these issues but, it turns out, they were our responsibility. Now we shall pay the price.