Slowly the rain began to come down, as the skies darkened and a biting wind swept across the landscape. And the rain, and the clouds and the wind just kept coming, with no end in site. Each, with his own, simply shielded himself, with whatever he happened to find available, accepting that this, too, would pass. As time went on, all realized that they had not acted in time, and this would not pass.

Imagine this scenario and analogize it to our economic and social future. In the past, every time we have had a depression or a recession, the skies have finally cleared, and we enjoyed decades of fine weather in the aftermath of the down time. Despite what our esteemed economists and politicians tell us, that may not be the case with this recession.

Why? Because many of us finally have realized that Keynesian economics is not the panacea it is said to be. In addition, although global warming is merely a way for Al Gore to get rich, on the backs of the middle class, OPEC’s control of oil production and pricing is a reality. Finally, the industrialization of America, which made it the super power for the last 60 years, is over. What does all of this mean? It means that America is facing a far different future than it has in past recoveries.

Keynesian economics, which predicts that all economic downturns can be quashed by government spending, is simply wrong. The Bush/Obama stimulus money has been spent, and nothing has happened. Why? The answer is apparent. That stimulus money, meaning our tax dollars, was simply shifted from the public coffers of the treasury to the private coffers of the banking, mortgage and auto industry, the three units of our economic picture that failed us in the first place. That is exactly where the money is going to stay. The destruction of our individual credit will prevent that money from ever doing what it was intended to do – reignite the economy. What it will do, however, is create an inflation and stagnation, the likes of which even the moron Jimmy Carter was unable to create.

What the individual taxpaying homeowner does not quite realize yet is that his entire life savings has been taken away by this economic catastrophe, never to return in his or her lifetime. The largest purchase the average American makes, in his lifetime, is his home. The equity built up in that home is, for the most part, the money that most of middle America relies on for their retirement. Yes, we may have 401K’s, pension plans, savings accounts etc., but when compared to our home equity, these plans are but chump change, in the scheme of our retirement nest egg. Besides, the stock, bond and commodity markets, along with the crooks of Wall Street, have taken those dollars from us. Now, with most of us upside down in our homes, the middle class of America, is, for the most part, destitute and broke.

Well, you say, America has always bounced back. We have plenty of time to recover. That may have been true of the past, but the world has changed. It is no longer 1945 post war America where industry was booming and unemployment was virtually non existent. It is no longer a time when domestic oil fulfilled our needs and a gallon of gasoline was less than a quarter dollar. It is no longer a time when “as GM goes, so goes America,” or at least I hope not. It is no longer a time when America was the beacon to which all other nations looked for freedom. Most of them now view us as a target. It is no longer a time when we could look, with pride, at our elected officials. Now we look at them and ask, ” what in the hell were we thinking.” I mean, when you study the great legislators, orators and politicians of our past, and then look at Pelosi, Reid, Obama, Feinstein, along with their counterparts on the other side of the isle, you have to question the overall wisdom of your fellow American, when it comes to electing the “best” to lead this nation. In other words, things have changed in America, and the question is, is it going to get any better than this, for indeed, it cannot get much worse.

We cannot predict future prices of oil because we cannot predict that we shall not be at war with the major oil producers in the world, or at the least, not speaking with them. We cannot predict that American industry has not been so radicalized and changed by what it has recently gone through that it will even consider trying to build itself back from whence it has fallen. If our industry decides that government regulation creates too much of a stranglehold, then perhaps industry will simply move elsewhere or just close its doors forever. So much for the jobs that would have been created. In addition, our industrial giants have by now recognized that size may not be the end all as far as control is concerned. With an administration that favors the union over management, perhaps there is no reason to rely on a demanding union worker, when modern technology can do the job, perhaps even better, without the labor costs of doing business. America has been told that jobs will be created by stimulus dollars, but there is just as good a chance that those jobs no longer exist, now and forever. They have gone the way of the dinosaur. They are extinct.

In other words, the recovery may not be a recovery at all. It may simply be a new paradigm in America’s heartland of industry, where only one man is not needed for what ten used to perform. Keynesian economics has run its course, and a sea change now faces 300 million Americans. A post graduate education may get you a job slinging burgers. In reality, there may no longer be the dichotomy between the formal education and the education of the streets. You may have to move back with the parents, assuming they still own their home. You may have to forego having a family. You may have to accept less than your parents accepted, and you certainly will not do as well as your parents did. All of this is possible in the new America, and unfortunately, this new America is exactly what certain politicians, on the far left, desire. For when the wind is taken out of the sails of the American dream, the average American will become a likely candidate for the new America that the far left has hoped for, for years. A nation that depends for too long on its government to provide, becomes a nation that is unable to provide for itself. That my dear reader is a primer in socialism and communism. But of course, you won’t hear those words spoken on the floor of Congress or within the confines of the White House. Those words are for the future. Today, the words are hope, hard work and the belief in “change.”

Thankfully, our Democratic form of government allows frequent and regular changes in our leadership. If we sense that the nation is being taken in a direction which is not in keeping with our Constitution, and the dreams of our founding fathers, then we shall hopefully make the changes necessary to right our course, despite certain extraneous problems outside of our domestic control. Hopefully we shall sense the misdirection long before the next election, and prepare ourselves. On the other hand, if we are totally misled by those, who are not acting in the nation’s best interests, and rely on their continued promises of “change” for the better, we shall only have ourselves to blame.

JLK