History

Many of us in the Center have watched debt spiral upward during the Obama years and cringed at the unworkable math going "forward." Even worse, the current administration's own budget projections appear to increase debt by $1 trillion each year through 2016—and that's an optimistic estimate.

As we approach and then pass the time when more than 50 percent of the populace depends directly or indirectly on government support, there appears to be no political incentive to suggest that programs that limit (dare I say it) "gifts" to this new majority dependency class should be controlled or cut.

Jim Tynen offers a very dark view of a future that could come to pass if we continue on our current trajectory:

A great bet is underway, a poker game with stakes in the trillions, between those who are buying time with central bank money and believe that they can continue as before, and the others, who are afraid of the biggest credit bubble in history and are searching for ways out of capitalism based on borrowed money.

Great. Yet it just says what we all know when we dare to think about it.

We're broke. Europe is broke. China is broke. The system will end.

I'd suggest this isn't just a financial system, but ... a transformation of the world civilization. It's not like the Great Depression, it's more like the Renaissance or Reformation or the Industrial Revolution: one civilization is dying, another will take its place.

That's the real message of the election: There is no electoral majority of any significance either for either stimulus economics or cutback economics. Obama has no mandate; he merely was better in rousing his base for one day. Romney, even if he had squeaked out a "victory," would have had no backing for trying to reverse our headlong plunge toward the abyss.

We don't have the vision and/or guts to make the choices that could save us; so the crash will come.

Maybe there isn't a way. Maybe we've gone too far; maybe as has been said democracy ends when 50.1 percent of the voters realize they can plunder the rich and the public treasury. Maybe the mass delusion that we can magically create wealth is too widespread.

My main consolation is that the change will uproot many of the delusions that have sprouted up. My main fear is that history shows this is never, ever, a peaceful process.

Many on the Left are fond of spouting platitudes about the benefits of "revolution." Those same Leftists might even embrace the idea of one civilization dying while another takes it's place.

My advice to Leftists who believe that their deluded view of utopia will lead to a better place: Be very careful what you wish for.