Thursday, November 19, 2009

The Unsinkable U.S. Economy

This is a good post from a blog a few months ago on the likeness of our economy to the ill-fated RMS Titanic. I don't have a lot of knowledge of the events of the night where the Titanic sunk (I only saw the Cameron film but once), but according to an earlier Titanic film (1951), many people on board the super-liner had no idea it was sinking. When it becomes clear to them that there is a problem, they are assured that there are around lifeboats for everyone aboard, and anyone skeptical of this is frowned upon. When the truth begins to come to light, a band is deployed to play and mellow people out as the ship is slowly submerging into the ocean. Of course, it is long since too late, and the ship sinks into the Atlantic, and many people perish.

Now, I don't want to paraphrase and rip off this blogger too much, but he closes by stating that, like a liner sinking, this collapse of the broader U.S. economy will last a very long time, and will occur in spurts. At the moment, many of us probably feel there are plenty of lifeboats (I guess "lifeboat" would be a synonom for "recovery"), as I get glazed-over eyes when I tell people about economic collapse or peak oil (which, interestingly, is becoming the "cherry on top" of this shitstorm). However, this is likely to change, as more become aware. The question is, will there be enough bands (in the form of commercial media distractions) to keep the masses occupied?

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