This article was written by Charles Hugh Smith and originally published at his Of Two Minds blog.
Editor’s Comment: History has many lessons to reveal to those who bother to pay attention. But closer to the ground in modern America, ordinary and even above average people are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet, to avoid an avalanche of debt, and to make any kind of true, upwardly mobile progress.
Indeed, it seems that the ‘dream’ of a better life for those who work hard to achieve it has been replaced by a cruel illusion, and a crumbling powers-that-be ruling class at the top. As difficult as it is to imagine, economically, the middle class is being pushed back into the hierarchy of feudalism – though, presumably, people will be allowed to keep their iPhones and TV screens, for they are they great pacifying bread and circuses of our day.
The Lesson of Empires: Once Privilege Limits Social Mobility, Collapse Is Inevitable
by Charles Hugh Smith
The next few years will strip away the illusions of “growth” and reveal which dominates our society and economy: privilege or social mobility.
Among the many lessons of empires is one shared by virtually every empire: once the privileged few limit the rise of those from humble origins (i.e. social mobility), the empire is doomed to rising instability and collapse.
Just as a reminder of how wealth and income are increasingly concentrated in the top of the wealth/power pyramid:
The greater the concentration of wealth and power, the lower the social mobility; the lower the social mobility, the greater the odds that the system will collapse when faced with a crisis that it would have easily handled in more egalitarian times.
When the economy is expanding faster than the population and the tide is lifting all ships large and small, the majority of people feel their chances of getting ahead are positive (even if the actual chances remain low).
But when the economy is stagnating, and they see those at the apex of the pyramid still amassing monumental gains, the majority realizes their chances of securing a better life are declining.
The natural result is frustration, anger and a disavowal of the corrupt status quo: in other words, precisely what the U.S. is experiencing in this election cycle.
People are waking up the reality that the status quo exists to protect the privileged, period. When the serfs do all the right things–get a university degree, work hard, serve their masters well, etc.–they find that “getting ahead” has been redefined as “running in place to keep from falling behind” (i.e. the Red Queen’s Race).
One of my projects is to better understand what social, economic and cultural elements of empires enabled their rise and durability. I was especially interested in locating traits shared by virtually all empires that endured.
One key trait that all enduring empires shared was high levels of social mobility: in enduring empires, those of humble birth had multiple pathways to wealth, power and influence.
When social mobility is lost, all those denied access to the empire’s top rungs leave for greener pastures or devote their energy and ambition to bringing the empire down.
Social mobility is only possible if merit is valued more than privilege. When privilege locks up all the top rungs for cronies, the empire crumbles under the weight of incompetence, elitist squabbling, inefficiency and wasted resources, while the best and the brightest seek outlets for their ambition elsewhere–often in the ranks of the empire’s enemies.
Though ancient societies were by and large anti-egalitarian–slavery was an accepted norm–the enduring empires maintained very porous boundaries between classes. The Roman Empire, for example, accepted people of many ethnicities and origins as Roman citizens. A free citizen of a distant Roman province was as fully a citizen of Rome as a free resident of Rome.
In the Republic of Venice, the system was carefully designed to enable new blood to enter the higher levels of power. Commoners could rise to power (and take their families with them if their wealth outlasted the founding generation) via commercial success or military service.
The Eastern Roman Empire (the Byzantine Empire) offered multiple pathways to wealth and influence to the humbly born: the clergy, the army, trading, and service in the Imperial bureaucracy. (For women, the path to wealth and power was generally marriage into an influential aristocratic family. Many women gained great political power in the Byzantine Empire.)
After suffering the many indignities of the poor (and often warring) tribespeople of Mongolia as a young man, Genghis Khan instituted a highly regimented, merit-based system of rule in his sprawling empire. Success was more important than privilege.
The question, not just for the U.S. but for every nation, is whether the ladder of social mobility is real or if it is largely propaganda. Is merit and success more important than privilege? Or does society give lip-service to social mobility while heaping wealth and power on the privileged few?
The test is always economic crisis. When the pie starts shrinking, who’s piece gets trimmed to a sliver, and who’s slice gets bigger? I think we’re on the cusp of a crisis that started in 2000 but was short-circuited by central banks in 2000-2003 and and again in 2009-2016.
The next few years will strip away the illusions of “growth” and reveal which dominates our society and economy: privilege (sludgy toxic oil) or social mobility (clean refreshing water).
I recommend these books to anyone interested in the history of empires, not just their decline and fall, but their rise to dominance:
The Fall of the Roman Empire (Michael Grant)
How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower (Adrian Goldsworthy)
War and Peace and War: The Rise and Fall of Empires (Peter Turchin)
The Rise of Rome: The Making of the World’s Greatest Empire (Anthony Everitt)
428 AD: An Ordinary Year at the End of the Roman Empire (Giusto Traina)
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World (Jack Weatherford)
Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire (Judith Herrin)
Venice: A New History (Thomas F. Madden)
The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization (Thomas Homer-Dixon)
——–
Charles Hugh Smith is an author and blogger at Of Two Minds who focuses on sanity in the face of bizarre and crippling economic developments. Check out his book [amazon text=A Radically Beneficial World: Automation, Technology and Creating Jobs for All: The Future Belongs to Work That Is Meaningful&asin=1517160960]
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First!
Better life for whom? It all depends on your point of view.
The Government? Yes.
Obama?Yes.
The Media? Yes.
Globalist Bankers? Yes.
Wall Street Directors? Yes
Bankers? Yes.
Pension Fund Managers? Yes
Insurance companies? Yes
Illegal Aliens? Yes.
Minorities? Yes.
Working White People? NO
Tax payers? No
Retired? No
Handicapped White People? NO
Steven, your list is 100% accurate. Sad but true.
Depends on more things than this. You can succeed if you are smart, work hard, educate youself, are willing to travel, can recognize opportunity, have ambition and have the will to execute a plan. A better life can still be had by those who choose to to pursue it. Don’t whine, simply do. And unlike the brave one, I don’t think you are 100% accurate – just the opposite, in fact. If a person wishes to be successful, it is still possible.
In my humble opinion the American dream is already lost.
At one time I felt that a man could work and earn a living and improve his lot in life but I don’t see that now.
Locally so many people have lost their jobs that i really dont know what these people will do for a living.
There is just NO work!
You might say it was 1122’d
Same here, but thats not what the politicians will tell you,
“There is just NO work!”
OF course there is.
Why do you think we have to import so much labor from Mexico and the rest of the world to do it?
That is correct. There is plenty of work.
There is just no “easy” work.
My first real full time job, was handling 50 to 80 lb. boxes of cold raw chicken. That was after going to high school all day as a junior, and working five nights from 3:30pm to 1:30am Monday thru Friday and sometimes on Saturday.
Those Sat.night hours were time and a half, and they were tough…but I put those extra bucks into a jar. After i built up about 500 dollars, I took half and put towards my extra car payments, and put the other half towards a good time going to eat out at nice restaurants, and going to see rock concerts in the big city. Lost count of how many times we saw KISS, Lynard Skynard, Marshall Tucker, Charlie Daniels, etc.etc.etc.
Yes, times are hard, but folks can manage to scrape out a decent living if they use their head, and not live above their budget.
When I started working in the early seventies, the minimum wage was $1.60 an hour. I worked my way out of minimum wage jobs and was making $6.35 by 1977, after working nights for nearly six years of college and some high school. By 1980 the minimum wage was $3.10. I was making about $9.10 as an adjuster for a bank.
There are opportunities out there but young people have to stay dedicated and make sacrifices.
For most middle age folks that are struggling right now, in about 80% of the cases, they are trying to live way above their means and have more children than they should.
Too many newer cars, bigger newer houses, and grand delusions of how life is supposed to be like the Brady Bunch.
Too much whining and blaming others for their own stupid mistakes like signing their lives away on the bottom line of a loan document.
Usury is a yoke of bondage to most people, living above their means and capable commitment to hard work.
The big houses and fine cars and high taxes become a burden, and cause many family breakups.
The world, more specifically the ussag, is what it is and people either adjust accordingly, or eventually end up in bankruptcy.
Today’s kids sit around on the couch all day and smoke dope, texting their other dopey friends. Then plot how to kill their parents to take their inheritance early in life. Look Folks, Never make yourself too valuable, where you are worth more dead, than alive to your family or business partners. Kids are the Biggest OPSEC Blabber mouths out there. And why I don’t have any miniature terrorists. Anybody with Kids better have that family talk weekly, and tell them to keep their fat trap mouths shut about stuff at home. Especially Prepping. Cause kids will bring home friends after school, to show them all your cool prepping gear and where you keep your condoms and guns. That’s before you get home from your Clock punching Rat Race Career. And pour a stiff one, cause your life sucks. You are doomed cause you still live in the City, and daydream about having your own BOL in the mountains, but just don’t see it happening. Well I filled about 120 50 Lbs sand bags in the last few days. I feel great. Awesome exercise and yard work. Keep on going people. For a safe bet, get at least 200 and bags for your Preps. Start buying sand and start filling them. Time is running out. Are you ready for the shootings to start?? Sandbags, Wudda Shudda, Couldda, but Didn’t.
~WWTI…
Your crazy, only in your mind…
Climb off your cloud…
Why does it show 61 comments with only 40 showing?
Sorry Mac, if I pushed the envelope.
Your world…
For once I agree with you, pissin. People DO live way above their means. Combine that with no gumption and everything being someone else’s fault, and you have the perfect storm of entitled bum – be they couchsurfing millennials or bitter old men……
There will always be work for those that truly want to work.
I am not a child of the Depression, so perhaps my thinking is a bit tainted.
I know that as a young guy, when I wanted a job, I went out and asked for one. I figured out what I could do, what I wanted to do, went and asked.
Looking back on it all now. When I was in the Navy, I went to a car dealer, and said I want a job, washing cars, and lining them up. I will wash every car in the lot every day.
The owner said, Don’t need anyone to do that, already have 3.
I said, I am in the Navy, I don’t need a job, I want one, during my off time. If you change your mind, here is my number.
Before I returned to the barracks, this man had called me 9 times. He said, people do not come in looking for a job like that, if you want one, you got it, when do you want to start. Tomorrow.
After a month, he had fired the 3 guys, and I not only washed all the cars, I started doing delivery cleaning, and taking customers for test drives.
Within a month, it even expanded more.
I never forgot that lesson.
The same thing has happened over and over, college and in different carriers.
Agreed. Today people have lost the will to work. They want uncle Sap to take care of them, wipe their noses if it dribbles.
As I told my kids when they were growing up. Most people would rather stand next to prosperity thinking some of it might rub off on them (IT DOESN’T)
One of my favorite quotes goes something like, The only taste most people get of success is the bite they take out of you.
FREE
Have you started your garden yet? Put in 20 hills of Potatoes, 100 onion sets, 50 garlic, two 30 foot rows of kidney beans, 30 foot row of peas, 30 foot row of Lima’s, 20 Bush style Acorn Squash, 30 foot row of leaf lettuce, 2 30 foot rows of Peaches and Cream sweet corn. Now I hope we get some rain.
Can’t wait to get my Sweet Potatoes, Peppers, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, and melons.
Sgt.
Sgt Dale
I built 7 two foot high raised beds over the winter 🙂
I don’t have 30 foot rows of things, but herbs, radishes, cabbage, carrots, edible daylilies, 150 garlic, 160 onions, 40 bunching onions, 30 Fava beans, 4 packages dry peas, 1000 square feet barley, potatoes in 4 colors, 30 strawberry plants, 5 blueberry bushes, 4 elderberry bushes, apples, asian pears, peaches, plums, with 144 summer plants still holding under grow lights for warm weather.
You can work for others or work for yourself.
FreeIllinois, sadly I have to agree. Now it’s all about SURVIVAL.
Mac:
I hope you don’t mind me posting this experience?
Found myself getting moderated now. Didn’t mean to offend
Not at all — not sure why it forced that into moderation — should be visible now!
thanks,
Mac
Very cool tnx
What is and has happened in this country is an example of what occurred in countries that voted in or were overtaken by Socialist programs. We are beginning to experience what the populations in Soviet controlled countries lived under.
Another view point is look at the Federal Housing Projects in your city.
Where man believes his freedom come form God, there is freedom and growth. When he believe his freedom comes from man there is no freedom and despair.
Just my opinion.
W&W- and a very wise opinion it is! Nice post
Well now, it sure has been a while. Good to see Mac is still at it.
Hope all of you are okay. Wish I could say I’ve been busy living the American dream. You know, lounging on the beach in Galveston, hanging out in okieville playing golf with the mayor while we discuss the city budget surplus, grinning over the tax returns, etc…all this when we’re not busy stacking the ever increasing pile of preps. Sadly, it ain’t so.
I’m still thankful to have a job, but danged if this working-for-a-living stuff isn’t getting harder every day. More hours, less pay, more frustration, less peace of mind. I’d just give up and go back to whiskey and cocaine, but I can’t afford ’em anymore!
So… like most of you, the mrs and I just keep trudging on, doing the best we can. It’s either ‘onward Christian soldier’ or ‘lemmings over the cliff’. Some days I ain’t sure which.
On a more positive note, I’ve decided I just don’t care anymore. My give a damn’s busted! If this country that I once loved and admired goes down the toilet, so be it. The good book says we’re supposed to love our neighbors, but when the neighbors are all stupid sheep, it’s hard to have much compassion. I try, but lately, cynicism seems much easier. Present company notwithstanding of course. I still love all of y’all!
Keep stacking…. even if the piles are littler. They say it isn’t the size of your preps, it’s how you use them!
Howzithangin Okie
Okie, How’s your mellon smellin’?
Hey brother okie,
I was just thinking about you the other day, and was wondering where in the hell is Smokin’ oak.
What actually made me think of you was the Championship Bull Riding i was watching, and a boy got the snot beat out of him by a bull named…You guessed it…Smokin’ Okie.
Your influence runs deep and it’s not all bull. ha ha; hope you and yours are doin’ well.
Okie, good to see you back. It IS getting harder and it’s more about survival now than anything else. I spent a week at the BOL last month and going back in June. I’m still stacking and steadily moving everything to GA. the next trip might be the BUGOUT for me. time will tell.
Hey, has anyone heard anything from Sixpack? Hope she’s OK.
Brave
I asked the same question a few weeks ago. I to hope she is OK.
I do miss her witt and knowledge.
Sgt.
the lies of the “empire” exposed AGAIN
conspiracy theory turns out to be conspiracy FACT
It’s Time to Admit: The ‘9/11 Truthers’ Were Right
ht tp://www.prisonplanet.com/its-time-to-admit-the-911-truthers-were-right.html
what REALLY concerns me is that more and more people are realizing just how very corrupt things are
at some point “the empire” is gonna take drastic action to preserve the corrupt status quo
are they going to bring down the economy ?
start another world war ?
they won’t give up their grip on power voluntarily
I don’t care how bad it is.
If you have courage, imagination, and are willing to work; you can succeed. The problem with people is that they want someone to give them a job.
People don’t think for themselves. They listen to experts who lie to them.
Do you know anything? Write it down. Sell it.
Can you do something. Somebody somewhere needs somebody who can do that for them or teach them how to do it for themselves. Barter, trade, sell.
Develop your skills now.
For me:
I’m going to get people to give me their gold. Then I’m going to give them a note saying I have their gold. For every dollar of gold I’ll issue two dollars in notes. I’ll print notes and give them to all my friends. If anybody objects I’ll send criminals to beat them up. I’ll call them anti-semen, and I’ll report them to the IRS to be audited.
I was mowing the grass this afternoon, and a black guy pulled in the driveway and wanted to know if I use his lawn services. I told him no, but we talked a little.
In the course of the conversation I told him that our rulers were trying to stir up hate and that he shouldn’t fall for it. He agreed. He even said that he thought Obama was gay and Michelle was a man.
It was hot today, 78 degrees. If I’d had the money, I’d have let him mow my grass.
There are people who are trying to work, but not many.
The way I see it is. We can go down the road that Obullshit and TPTB are putting in front of us and we loose the American Dream.
Or we can say HELL NO! I’m going to work for Stand up for and Fight for the American Dream. For me I’m willing to fight for it.
Sgt.
Tiara, why do people like you play games like this shit? Are you so bored and so vacant with your life that you make up little crap like this amuse yourself?
Talk about keyboard commandos. More like keyboard cowards.
“K”
Thanks
Sgt.
t
Let me make you very happy. I’m keeping my Police Pension. I’m keeping my two pensions from two other companies I worked for, and I’m having a great time spending your tax dollars that you are paying into S.S.
Setting back working only about 48 hours a month at my 2Nd police Dept. Just wait. I will be getting a Pension from them too.
I hope I made you happy tonight. I can tell you I’m very happy with this money.
I know its too bad you won’t get any pensions, because they don’t pay pensions for living in your mothers basement. And when you can’t hold a job for more that 24 hours. I’m sorry it just doesn’t work that way.
As for picking On EPPE and Brave 1776. I would love to see you say to them or me to our faces what you print on your keyboard. You would get an ASS KICKEN that you deserve.
A troll is a troll, and nobody here like a troll.
Sgt.
But we do like Sarge!
You go Sarge! Nuthin like hearing from idiots that haven’t experienced life but feel they have to criticize everyone else. Let em live for awhile and watch their minds change n so many ways. Wisdom will do that.
Jim, a TROLL having WISDOM? some people know how to dream, don’t they? [just kidding]
Sgt. I always read your posts when I come here. You have a LOT of good to say. And this one, too, I agree about trolls, and those that won’t work. However, if I may respectfully say, this was one of your weaker posts. I generally work til midnight – literally – every night, and on weekends (I come here for my ADHD breaks for 5 minutes a few times a day). I get no pension, and will work until I am 70. Part of the reason is that I am paying taxes to pay for pensions like my sister in law who, while nice enough, retired at 56 making $7,000/month as a simple elementary school teacher. As I say, she is nice enough, but that is BLOOD money that is taken from me through property taxes.
If you have a pension, thank God for it, but please be aware that many of us are paying for everyone else to retire early. That is not fair.
I will also warn you: Many, many pensions are underfunded. Think Detroit here. If there is a global reset, those pensions may be paid back in devalued dollars, or defaulted on. Moreover, IMHO, I really wish solid people like you would stay working, to impact the younger generation.
Just my thoughts, with all due respect.
SARGE, GO GO GO!
Tiara:
In the words of Nichola Tesla to Marconi; “You are a donkey”. In other words: You are an ass.
Kula and B from Ca.
Thanks guys. We might not always agree but at least we can have a civil conversation about it.
Sgt.
Tiara, YOU’RE the one who is a joke so go f#$% yourself.
“People are waking up the reality that the status quo exists to protect the privileged, period.”
I’d like to believe that…ok, maybe some people are, but TOO DAMN FEW!!
The dream is you having a job while the useless eaters live off the fruits of your labor. If you have a job to go to your living the dream. If you don’t like the pay you get skills or degrees to up your responsibility and pay. You are free to do that here in america. If you settle for working at Walfart and you have degrees or skills who’s fault is that. I hear the pissing and moaning by guys about the paycuts the pension funding cuts everyday. I tell them if they don’t like it go work somwhere else. They are free to resign their position. There is no chain holding them down. I got this job 4years ago it’s providing for me and mine so I’m not gonna leave. I’m not a believer in the grass is greener on the other side. guys have left and I see them in the market they tell me they have been laid off twice since leaving. It’s the best thing going in my industry right now consistent work free medical Bennys for the whole family. I don’t have a beef with it at all. The unemployed free shit bums are really living the dream free subsidized housing free medical free food cash assistance in some cases they have free time to persue education and have plenty of family time. I don’t have free time like that I pay property taxes on my house I have to fix my home and scrape up the cash to do it. Free shit bums don’t have to worry about that at all. I have copays and deductibles the free shit bums have free state Obummer care. I gotta buy and grow my own food because my income is to high to get ebt. Gotta pay my own phone bill. The people that get all the free shit complain about McDonald’s not paying a living wage but they get everything subsidized. Who’s really living the dream. Either your happy being a shill or you provide for yourself it’s up to you. For me being the provider for my family and not the gov is the dream. There is alway gov dependantcy when all else fails. I choose not to fail. As for $ it comes and goes just make more.
Nine Meals From Anarchy
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-18/nine-meals-anarchy
you may not have to worry about “getting ahead”
the day may come when your biggest concern is
where your next meal will come from
or even if it will come
“But food is different. If there were an interruption in the supply of food, fear would set in immediately. And, if the resumption of the food supply were uncertain, the fear would become pronounced. After only nine missed meals, it’s not unlikely that we’d panic and be prepared to commit a crime to acquire food. If we were to see our neighbour with a loaf of bread, and we owned a gun, we might well say, “I’m sorry, you’re a good neighbour and we’ve been friends for years, but my children haven’t eaten today – I have to have that bread – even if I have to shoot you.”
OT rambling- For your BOV consider a 2 ton comealong cable & hook, and a tow strap. Slime makes different mini air compressors now, pretty cheap. A bike pump will air up a car tire… slowly. Take enough water to at least fill up your radiator. Spare fuses. A flat tire screw-in plug kit. Some flat boards so your jack won’t sink into the mud. Some cardboard to put under the vehicle to lay on while you are cussing and busting knuckles. A quart of oil & an empty gas can…
Jackson
Very good advice, There are times when you just don’t think of these things. Thanks you for bring it up.
Sgt.
Well, thankfully, Michelle-Marie Antoinette Obama (or is that Leona-Michelle “Laws are for the little people” has HER financial nest fully feathered… along with her monthly carbon spewing uber luxe vacations…
Roundup of Bundy Ranch Protesters Continues
Meanwhile, for those of you interested. It is hard to imagine of someone who could sell so much of their soul to the Devil, but there it is. Yes, the tyrants have a long memory as you see in the article below. What they are too stupid and arrogant to know is that us hoi polloi here in flyover country have an even longer memory. Just another drop in the rain barrel of outrages against us common folk.
Short story at http://freedomoutpost.com/fbi-roundup-of-bundy-ranch-protesters-continues-in-north-carolina-2-women-detained-questioned-threatened-with-arrest/ These people did NOTHING violent like, say, disgusting Bill Ayers and his group.
We need to continue to peacefully and non-violently educate and inform every single person in our circles about the vile horsemanure from the fascist left like this. As Victor Hugo once wrote, “All the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come.”
By peacefully but insistently educating people, that time (of justice, truth, fairness, liberty) will come sooner rather than later. I always recall how the Leipzig protesters put the nail in coffin of Communism in East Germany just by non-violently praying as gathering in protest. Of course, the truth is, that 62 million or so died in the Soviet Union prior to that, so there is no guarantee this will happen immediately. But the USSR finally died of its own internal inconsistencies. So will this oppression. And yes, you, the person monitoring this site… you, too, will end up in X number of years, wondering how you could have betrayed freedom, how you could have betrayed your grandfather who fought against Nazi fascism, while you now support it (yes, fascism. Exactly as Mussolini defined it. You have a education – look it up); you will feel **exactly** as the Stasi agent of 1989 feels about his work today. And when you are done, you WILL face a God that judges righteously.
Just something you might want to ponder.
You don’t decide what your employer does. They will hire cheap labor because it profits them to and it’s their $ and they are taking the risk. When you own your own business the decisions and investment is your choices. you will not be paying your help top dollar. Don’t sit here and say you would for American help. Your full of shit. How come when a corporation does it they are deadbeats. But if you do it as a business owner it’s ok. If I invested millions into my business because I borrowed the capital how is that privelege. I took a risk and if it don’t pay off I lose. If it does payoff I profit. This is fair and reasonable. In America anyone can borrow capital and start a business. Just because you drive a BMW doesn’t mean your rich and priveleged. As long as you make payments you can keep it. The reasoning some people try to justify makes no sense. Not everyone that is wealthy had a silver spoon in their mouth from birth. Some people were smart took chances and worked hard to succeed and they are being villainized. People need to smarten up and stop believing the liberal media and their attacks on success. Do I agree with what my employer does no but it’s their business their investment if they fail I take my services elsewhere. It’s that simple. The deal is I agree to work for them under this contract. When it’s over we renegotiate the contract or not. I’m not siding with the rich some are greedy but it is their $ they can do what they want. We need to protect capitalism. put the shoe on the other foot your a successful business man being attacked by an angry hoard of workers complaining about pay but your employing people and the help can leave and go work somewhere else but they just wanna bitch about the pay but not leave and go to the greener grass. We could have socialism and your property belongs to the state. Does that sound better the state owning your property.
No offense Asshat but you are talking apples and oranges. When I, for example, talk about global megacorporations, I am not even discussing capitalism, but oligarchy, where a few people write the laws to favor themselves and give it to their pets in government to make laws. Most of the conversation about these things are about the oligarchs. Until you wake up and notice that you are not a member of the oligarchy, you are giving them the planet and will be begging for porridge one day. Amazing that the sheeple includes so many upper middle class with delusions of grandeur.
htt__ps://you___tu.be/ChdGe___2YxVmA
The Battle of Vienna, September 11, 1683
Christian Europe fighting for its very survival against a strong Muslim invasion.
Listen carefully to the monk.
This is the battle that matters. This is the conflict that determines whether Western Civilization survives.
I respect Charles Hugh Smith; have been reading him for six or seven years. You and I, we here on SHTFPlan, will survive somehow. Better than many. The fewer who stand on the field, the greater the share of honor.
This is a skosh long. 1:54:00. If various Christian nobles hadn’t coalesced to fight for their faith and freedom, none of us would be here now. Europe as you know it would not have existed for a third of a century.
No, this isn’t the computer game by the same name. This is where those who strive in Allah’s Cause got the date September 11 th. You didn’t think that was random chance, do you? Their minds see history in thousand year segments. We must do the same.
MAC
I see what you have done.
I FOR ONE WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOU!!!!
Sgt.
I always found a job when I really wanted to work. I quit at 62. Why keep running the rat race just to be taxed. and the wages have stagnated. most places are only part time. Im now not contributing to the free shit army. Im now a Social security Ponzi Check Drawing Parasite. Things are pretty good for us at the moment. I don’t measure wealth in dollars or possessions. I measure it in being able to do with my time whatever I want. Ive disengaged we only grow & raise enough for us. We don’t sell or give away any surplus. Its hog feed or goes into the compost. The country is being colonized. and the wealthy couldn’t be happier. The new folks make excellent serfs and peons. A large part of The white race has turned into wigger Land Wales. They are part of the Free shit army.
All I can say, it wasn’t like this growing up in the 1950’s!
Like the 50’s? Maybe. When Eisenhower straightened out the mess left by FDR and Truman, He chose people that could do the job as his cabinet. Ike told them, You are in Charge.
Do not come to me with your problems, unless it involves National Security.
So during Eisenhower, he paid off all WW2 debt, All Korean War Debt, built the highways, and did not float a bond issue or borrow from the future to do it, and left the WH with a surplus.
That is the kind of result I am looking for with Trump. So far he is saying all the things Ike did.
I am encouraged…
I agree Steven.. Trump is the only business person who sees Government as a Big waste of our money and will trim all the budgets. I want him to force every branch to create a zero based budget from the ground up and audited, and sell off needless assets to pay off all the debt. All they do every budget is increase across the board. If it was a business it would be bankrupt years ago. As they say in the country, “Time to take the Hog to the Butcher.” Trump is the only person capable of getting our country back on track. The rest of the politicians are war monger puppets that like to destroy other countries and fleece our own resources. Trump will make all of them, “Our slaves.”
~WWTI…