As we enter 2011, see our future.

[dixiegrrrrl]

Of this I have no doubt.

Recent Headlines:

UK austerity measures to throw 1 million into poverty.
http://digg.com/news/world_news/uk_austerity_measures_to_throw_1_million_into_poverty


Rising numbers of desperate families need charity food aid.
The need for the food parcels was described by campaigners as a throwback to levels of poverty more associated with Dickensian times than Britain in the 21st century.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/life-on-the-poverty-line-breadline-britain-2158111.html


One third of working families in US struggling to meet basic needs.
http://www.workingpoorfamilies.org/reports_and_pubs.html

Canada’s richest 1 percent grabbed one-third of all income growth since 1987.

Irish budget imposes savage austerity
( and the Irish banks will get 25 billion dollars, taken from the national pension funds)



This is deliberate planned destruction of whole classes of people in Europe and in USA.
Planned.
Intentional.

"The corporation state, hiding behind the smokescreen of the public relations industry, the entertainment industry and the tawdry materialism of a consumer society, devours us from the inside out. It owes no allegiance to us or the nation. It feasts upon our carcass. "

Long and most excellent article by Chris Hedges, from whence I got the above quote, clearly defines reality.
A good read, for those who dare.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/2011_a_brave_new_dystopia_20101227

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. If I had a dime for every time I've heard "austerity."

Austerity= Bend over.

[bluerum]

2. The doomiest and gloomiest of the latest batch of doom and gloom pieces

I have seen. Interesting and not entirely over the top - but teetering on the edge.

But I will say that when Wall Street demands that congress imposes austerity and suspends Social Security that I will not be surprised. They will try it. We will stop it.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. "We will stop it."

How?

[bluerum]

4. Not sure. But we have to.

[femrap]

5. Like humankind has

always done in the past.

[jtuck004]

6. Not so sure. This is a new crop of human beings,

fattened on the largess we created as a group while being taught that the individual is the most important.
Now we have been fattened up, and beaten down, and I am not sure it is in us anymore to fight intelligently.
And if we don't fight with thought and education and organization and humor, we will be killed by people who
are far better at mere force and destruction. And then it all falls down.

It may be that it all has to fall down before any change can come about. Which means we won't stop it.

[femrap]

7. Well....

I have faith in Mother Nature. If all else fails, she'll grab a hold of humanity and shake it until all the money from all the pockets is floating in the air and sinking in the water.

Maybe that's what we need.....a Mother Nature 'do over.'

But look at Europe....they're fighting. America is a 'teenager' nation....an experiment in Orwellian and Huxley fiction....we're only 5% of the world's population. We think we're NUMBER 1....Alas, no longer.

I still think a small group of intelligent, organized, educated, and fun people can kick some ass. Don't you?

Or at least we'll go down fighting.....I already have my reservation on that unisex planet for my next life! I plan ahead.

[jtuck004]

8. LOL

"I still think a small group of intelligent, organized, educated, and fun people can kick some ass. Don't you?"

Oh, absolutely I do. But there is a lot of difference between winning some battles and winning the war.

Most of the nations that seem to have held on to their "collectiveness" know how to work together - they have
plans in place to move people to part-time instead of firing them and replacing them with cheaper labor, they
have made decisions that access to health care is more important than having the latest, greatest, most expensive
toy that may or may not prolong life, or even enhance its quality.

As much as I keep the idealism as a core, I look around to see what we have produced and given up, and I wonder
if we have passed the point of being able to organize enough to stop this before it becomes tent cities in a
big desert.

We shall see ;)

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. a Mother Nature do-over seems pretty inevitable, actually.

" We have to destroy the planet to save it".

(siging here, with very mixred feelings).

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. "always done in the past."

See, that is the reason I linked to Hedge's article, which postulates why "this time" is different than
in the past. In the article, he compares similar conditions of the past, and now.
I do encourage reading it.

[femrap]

12. I did read it....

and what I was talking about was revolution. You can push people only so far until they have nothing left to lose. Lots of the currently wealthy know this....they think the disparity in wealth has gone too far.

And I agree w/ Chris, it's different now. I think TPTB have pushed the envelope about as far as it can go. Plus all that DEBT....2011 should be quite interesting.

[angryfirelord]

9. Austerity isn't bad....

...but the problem is that we're doing it at the wrong time. Why didn't Reagan practice austerity after the 1980 recession ended? Where were the Republicans demanding austerity from President Bush? Deficit cutting should happen in good times, but unfortunately the Republicans and other conservative movements around the world have ended up politicizing it and ignored good economic policy. Yes, it's painful to spend when we are in debt, but now is simply not the time.