Meltdown! The Long View

Nearly 30 years ago, newly elected President Ronald Reagan began acquainting Americans with "trickle down" or "supply side" economics-- that which favors profit-driven producers rather than (theory goes) overpaid workers and undeserving consumers. You know, workers and consumers like Thee and Me.

Listening to the President's men discuss his plans and ideas back then, I was gripped with a realization that he and his monied backers had determined Americans were too well off and had too much money wrapped up in their paychecks and benefits. The Reagan crowd clearly had determined that the monied class had to slow down middle-class upward mobility so upper class wallets would grow fatter.

Stripped to the core, practically every word and legislative proposal from the Reagan crowd pointed to beliefs that a Great Depression style meltdown would have a salutary effect on American society. Not only would it take away high-paying jobs and end profit-reducing benefits, but also unleash creativity in the Great Unwashed who weren't pulling their weight in the first place. They would have no choice, these churlish types, but to grow more creative just to put food on the table. And their awful kids would have to stay home and stop annoying us with their drug-induced crime and unseemly public behavior.

Should all these plans succeed, God would restore America to its rightful place as The World's Leading Christian Nation--and even better, attract other Christian Democracies to develop once Americans showed them how in their own native habitats.

In short, just as in the 1930's and '40's movies, Life would be lived in black and white again. But how to get there?

Witness nearly three decades of hammering Americans into thinking all of these self-defeating things: "Taxes are Evil." "Government is Them, and They are The Enemy." "Christians are Good; Everyone Else is Bad." "Education is for The Privileged Few, not for The Needful Many." "War is Strong; Peace is Puny." "Oil is The Only Way; Alternatives are Too Expensive." "The Globe is for Exploiting, Not for Cultural Understanding, Respect and Peacemaking." "Labor is Cheap Abroad; Labor is Unaffordable in America." "Manufacturing and Vocations are Passe; Computers and Commuication are the Only Games in Town." On, on and on.

The folly of such narrow-minded, selfish, greedy thinking and activity on the part of official America has now come crashing at our feet.

Whom should we in the middle class blame? Ourselves. Period. We have not acted or voted wisely in our own self-interest for 30 years. Foolishly, falsely, we have believed our future was paved in gold if only we would trust Supply Side, Trickle Down, Free Market, Unbridled Capitalism.

Query: How do YOUR IRA and 401 (K) look this week? And your pension, if you have one. Safe? Don't be ridiculous.

The long-sought-after sequel to the Great Depression is here. Can the long-feared WWIII be far behind?

Things are ripe for global resetting, bigtime. Fasten your seatbelt, save your seeds and bury your coins in the mattress. Life just got worse for Everybody. Everywhere.