A Frightening Scenario

[bluegrass]

Paul Craig Roberts
Infowars.com
July 28, 2010

It was 2017. Clans were governing America.




Clans organized around families and individuals who possessed stocks of food, bullion, guns and ammunition.

The first clans organized around local police forces. The conservatives’ war on crime during the late 20th century and the Bush/Obama war on terror during the first decade of the 21st century had resulted in the police becoming militarized and unaccountable.

As society broke down, the police became warlords. The state police broke apart, and the officers were subsumed into the local forces of their communities. The newly formed tribes expanded to encompass the relatives and friends of the police.

The dollar had collapsed as world reserve currency in 2012 when the worsening economic depression made it clear to Washington’s creditors that the federal budget deficit was too large to be financed except by the printing of money.

With the dollar’s demise, import prices skyrocketed. As Americans were unable to afford foreign-made goods, the transnational corporations that were producing offshore for US markets were bankrupted, further eroding the government’s revenue base.

The government was forced to print money in order to pay its bills, causing domestic prices to rise rapidly. Faced with hyperinflation, Washington took recourse in terminating Social Security and Medicare and followed up by confiscating the remnants of private pensions. This provided a one-year respite, but with no more resources to confiscate, money creation and hyperinflation resumed.

Organized food deliveries broke down when the government fought hyperinflation with fixed prices and the mandate that all purchases and sales had to be in US paper currency. Unwilling to trade appreciating goods for depreciating paper, goods disappeared from stores.

Washington responded as Lenin had done during the “war communism” period of Soviet history. The government sent troops to confiscate goods for distribution in kind to the population. This was a temporary stop-gap until existing stocks were depleted, as future production was discouraged. Much of the confiscated stocks became the property of the troops who seized the goods.

A d v e r t i s e m e n t
Goods reappeared in markets under the protection of local warlords. Transactions were conducted in barter and in gold, silver, and copper coins.

Other clans organized around families and individuals who possessed stocks of food, bullion, guns and ammunition. Uneasy alliances formed to balance differences in clan strengths. Betrayals quickly made loyalty a necessary trait for survival.

Large scale food and other production broke down as local militias taxed distribution as goods moved across local territories. Washington seized domestic oil production and refineries, but much of the government’s gasoline was paid for safe passage across clan territories.

Most of the troops in Washington’s overseas bases were abandoned. As their resource stocks were drawn down, the abandoned soldiers were forced into alliances with those with whom they had been fighting.

Washington found it increasingly difficult to maintain itself. As it lost control over the country, Washington was less able to secure supplies from abroad as tribute from those Washington threatened with nuclear attack. Gradually other nuclear powers realized that the only target in America was Washington. The more astute saw the writing on the wall and slipped away from the former capital city.

When Rome began her empire, Rome’s currency consisted of gold and silver coinage. Rome was well organized with efficient institutions and the ability to supply troops in the field so that campaigns could continue indefinitely, a monopoly in the world of Rome’s time.

When hubris sent America in pursuit of overseas empire, the venture coincided with the offshoring of American manufacturing, industrial, and professional service jobs and the corresponding erosion of the government’s tax base, with the advent of massive budget and trade deficits, with the erosion of the fiat paper currency’s value, and with America’s dependence on foreign creditors and puppet rulers.

The Roman Empire lasted for centuries. The American one collapsed overnight.

Rome’s corruption became the strength of her enemies, and the Western Empire was overrun.

America’s collapse occurred when government ceased to represent the people and became the instrument of a private oligarchy. Decisions were made in behalf of short-term profits for the few at the expense of unmanageable liabilities for the many.

Overwhelmed by liabilities, the government collapsed.

Globalism had run its course. Life reformed on a local basis.

[Pine Mt Beagles]

THAT IS NOT AS FAR FETCHED AS IT SEEM'S,IF THING'S DON'T CHANGE ,ACTUALL I WAS JUST READING ABOUT THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE,
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-I THINK THE SHORT TERM ,THINKING OF WASHINGTON(PUTTING THEIR OWN PERSONAL PROFIT'S FIRST),HAS,AND WILL CONTINUE,TO FAIL THE AMERICAN PEOPLE,JOB LESS PEOPLE CANNOT CONTINUE TO SUPPORT THE WORLD ,FIGHTING WAR'S OVER SEA'S AND REBUILDING COUNTRIES, WHILE AMERICA CRUMBLES UNDER THE LOAD.IT JUST SIMPLY CANNOT LAST.
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-THE ROMAN EMPIRE FELL ,BECAUSE THE TOP 1 % SUCKED THE LIFE OUT OF THE OTHER 99%.,,AND KEPT REACHING FOR MORE,UNTIL THE FOUNDATION COULD NOT SUPPORT THE TOP.
-THAT SAME THING IS HAPPENING HERE,C.E.O.'S MAKING MILLION'S WHILE, THE PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY PRODUCE THE PRODUCT, MAKES A FEW THOUSAND,AND THE PEOPLE MAKING THE PRODUCT SPEND MONEY ,WHILE THESE C.E.O.'S PUT THEIR MONEY IN OFF SHORE ACCOUNT'S.SOME SAY THAT THE TOP 1% CREATE THE JOB'S ,I DISAGREE WITH THAT,I THINK, THE MIDDLE CLASS WHO START SMALL BUSINESS'S,CREATE MORE JOB'S.

[bluegrass]

Once again Rufus you are blaming the wrong people...your class envy will eventually doom you one day.

Rome didnt fall because of its business leaders...thats absurd.

Rome's descent into ruins had so many sources that ONE single reason cannot be ascertained. Primarily it was the decadence of its citizenry, the corruptness of its government leaders, its embrace of all things morally bankrupt and YES its overextension into Empire building that contributed to it. You however have made the correlation between the US and Rome with one goal in mind...to blame everything wrong with the US on its Corporations...civics lessons aside, Corporations are made up of PEOPLE...and as corrupt as some are, they are NOTHING like Rome.


Tony

[Pine Mt Beagles]

bluegrass on Fri Jul 30, 2010 7:43 am

Once again Rufus you are blaming the wrong people...your class envy will eventually doom you one day.

Rome didnt fall because of its business leaders...thats absurd.

Rome's descent into ruins had so many sources that ONE single reason cannot be ascertained. Primarily it was the decadence of its citizenry, the corruptness of its government leaders, its embrace of all things morally bankrupt and YES its overextension into Empire building that contributed to it. You however have made the correlation between the US and Rome with one goal in mind...to blame everything wrong with the US on its Corporations...civics lessons aside, Corporations are made up of PEOPLE...and as corrupt as some are, they are NOTHING like Rome.
-
-NO I'AM BLAMING THE RIGHT PEOPLE,SIMPLY PUT, THEY ARE THE ONLY ONE'S, THAT HAVE THE POWER TO OVER EXTEND,(CLASS ENVY)IS A JOKE TO ME..I DON'T ENVY NOTHING NEVER HAVE .AND NO I DID NOT MAKE THE CORRELATION BETWEEN ROME AND THE U.S. WITH THAT GOAL IN MIND . ACTUALLY ,AMERICA IS MORE LIKE ROME.IN MANY WAY'S.ROME- FELL BECAUSE OF GREED .MUCH LIKE THE CORPORATION'S HERE.THEY OVER REACHED WHAT THE FOUNDATION COULD SUPPORT,BECAUSE OF GREED.THE U.S. CORPORATION'S GOING ABROAD IN SEARCH OF CHEAP LABOR.WHILE LEAVING THE WORKER'S HERE THAT PAY TAXES THAT SUPPORT THEIR FOUNDATION(OUR GOVERNMENT)-WITHOUT JOB'S-AND OUR CORRUPT GOVERNMENT GIVES THEM TAX BREAKS(WORKERS MONEY), TO GO OUT OF THE COUNTRY AND MORE TAX BREAK'S, WHEN THE GOOD'S COME BACK TO BE SOLD HERE.
BUT THERE IS ANOTHER LIKNESS-ROME WANTED TO CONQUER THE WORLD.THE UNITED STATES HAS BEEN FIGHTING OVERSEA'S FOR DECADES,WE HAVE TROOP'S BASED IN MANY COUNTRIES RIGHT NOW ,NOT TO CONQUER, BUT THERE NONE THE LESS.OVER EXTENDING TAX PAYER'S CAPABILITY.

[Collins Country]

Actually Rome fell because the leaders would rather lie in the Bath Houses (gay) with one another than to lead the people and lands they had conquered.

Hey, dont obamanation support the gays, and dont he take alot of vacations? Just a thought!

[bluegrass]

It doesn't matter what anyone says, or what history says, to Rufus the ONLY thing that matters is that the RICH are the EVIL of the world...his class envy is so palpable it must weigh him down when he walks.