Whatever the answer, it can’t be “tinker with the status quo”, just as it can’t be “burn it all down and start over”.
The answer is going to be like a major surgery—some things have to be removed, and others overhauled and rebuilt from scratch, while still others must be left intact. And if we do it wrong, either nothing will change, or the wrong things will change, or the right things will change in the wrong ways.
I would propose we start by acknowledging that we shouldn’t double down on anything that led us here, and start considering some things we’ve either rashly abandoned or never tried before.
One thing is certain: The specifics will matter. So before we start cutting, we’d better have a clear, well-reasoned idea of what we really need to do.
Not only premeditated but carefully orchestrated by our own intelligence community through their obscurity of funding for GOF research through the nefarious Fauci and ilk.
Yes. I pretty much knew all of this 2 years ago. Which is worse spending trillions during an emergency, or spending it over 10 or 20 years on something equally as stupid?
Most of the potential nominees for either side will be happy to waste Trillions $ on inefficient energy boondoggles. Take a look at this massive carbon capture boondoggle. https://summitcarbonsolutions.com/project-footprint/ I count 32 carbon capture facilities with hundreds of miles of steel pipeline to capture and transport CO2 emissions off of ethanol plants. How much do you think all of this costs, not to mention EVs, charging stations, and solar panel energy credits (almost all going to upper middle class income folks).
Not one person on that stage who served in government (all of them except for Vivek) has done a damn thing to cut any money serious money out of the budget. I won't consider voting for anyone who isn't talking about eliminating entire agencies or firing tens of thousands of federal workers.
Thanks for posting this. Would not have found it otherwise. I left the following comment on the author’s substack.
Thank you for the in-depth analysis of this catastrophic problem. There are points where I beg to differ, though not on the substance.
While I am greatly displeased at some of Trump’s decisions on covid, I believe the following is unfair.
“Extremely out of his depth, both scientifically and economically, Trump irresponsibly sponsored $6 trillion of CARES Act giveaways.“
Who among all the men who held the office of US President were known to be strong in science? “Economically”? I am against most if not all federal money give away programs, but if you force people to stay in their homes and not allow them to earn a living, you then must pay their bills. The solution, was to not lockdown.
My one other criticism of this piece is also, I believe, the strongest defense of Trumps decisions on covid; you as he, do/did not understand the breath of the problem. It ain’t just the US. Every nation with few exceptions, did as the US did. Trump’s decision to follow the bad advice to lockdown was reportedly greatly influenced by that fraudulent study from the UK that placed the likely number of deaths from covid astronomically high. Japan, where I live, resisted doing anything at all until pressure from somewhere compelled them to become the most highly vaxxed and masked and afterwards, the country with the highest case load and if I am not mistaken, deaths now too. My med school and nursing school are still requiring masks, some online only courses, social distancing and partitions between seats in the classroom, cafeteria and student lounge. My kids are still not allowed to talk during lunch time at school. Around half the population are still wearing masks. The “recommendations’ to wear masks was only rescinded May 8th of this year.
This devaluation of money is not a mistake. Neither is the destruction of most of the world economies. They are driving us to accept universal basic income and CBDCs. I believe this for three reasons. First, that is exactly what they have been saying they were going to do for a long time. We just didn’t take them seriously. Secondly, even a clock is right twice a day; when are the policies this people implement ever correct? They aren’t. This is all by design. Thirdly, if it was your goal to destroy the world’s currencies and economies, what would you do differently from what is being done?
Additionally, I have my own experiences in Japan which has maintained a cash based society longer than most. It is getting harder and harder to use cash in Japan as fewer cash registers in convenience stores and supermarkets accept it. More and more people are preferring to use various E currencies, my wife among them. I refuse to and thus do not receive the 5% to 10% discounts for doing so. Eventually, I will not have the choice. There are no “Cash Only” registers in the supermarkets we frequent but there are more registers that except many kinds of Emoney that do not take cash than do accept cash.
Now that Japan has opened its borders for the first time in over 3 years to tourists, we are flooded with visitors from abroad. For the first time in my experience going back as far as 1992 is Japan a cheap destination for most visitors from overseas as the yen is weak. Why? Because Japan as did the US “printed” huge sums of money to give (some) people it forced out of employment by our repeatedly extended and reimplemented lockdowns.
While cheap for visitors, it is not for we residents. I was shocked today that the cost of a pack of 10 eggs was 124 yen after tax. That is 30 yen less than two days ago and the first drop in their price I have seen since the panic started. They used to sell for less than 100 yen, the ones we get anyway. Saw gas at 194 yen per liter a couple of weeks ago. A little over ten years ago, when I was working at a location that I had to drive to get to, I received a huge pay raise to cover the then recent jump in gas to 130 yen per litter. Even at the near 200 yen per litter of gas, it is only this “cheap” due to government subsidies. Where is the money coming from? We were broke before we spent the massive amounts on the olympics which did not bring in much of any revenue as no spectators were allowed.
All, every single one, government policy by any government has the same foundational goal, utterly destroy its citizens ability to have even the slightest degree of independence from them. And with the covid panicked response, we are seeing a level of international cooperation never before seen in Human history. The unnaturalness of this fact is more than enough to alert all that this is coordinated and directed by an entity that is not bound by any nation’s borders.
The famous economist John Maynard Keynes said in 1919 essentially what you just outlined. Here are some excerpts "By a continuing process of inflation, Governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some.." "There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of Society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.."
Infuriatingly accurate. The worst part is that the Rabid Left set about destroying education starting in the 1960s and they have won. Prior to 1960, ANYONE with a high school diploma could read Greek and Latin and would have understood instantly the bullshit and lies.
Now our kids can tell you about the 97 genders that like, totally, like, exist, duh, you bigot, while Chinese kids are drilling calculus. Oh, and like, it's like white supremacist to "believe" 2+2=4.
If we do not reverse this decades-long indoctrination, we'll become a failed state, living in balkanized areas of mutually suspicious fiefdoms. It will become literally impossible to drive from New York to Los Angeles unless you're in an armed, Mad Max convoy.
Consider why Social Security is the only govt program that actually works and is adored by people.
It is because the govt simply pays the monthly dividend, and does not get involved with micro
-managing the recipients. Everyone knows they paid into the system, so do not consider it a handout.
The federal government is not a solution to anything. Unfortunately, the US will continue its slide until the people wake up and begin voting to RESTRICT govt power, not expand it.
Neither he nor Trump should ever again hold public office. AMEN.
So the question becomes, how do we move forward?
Whatever the answer, it can’t be “tinker with the status quo”, just as it can’t be “burn it all down and start over”.
The answer is going to be like a major surgery—some things have to be removed, and others overhauled and rebuilt from scratch, while still others must be left intact. And if we do it wrong, either nothing will change, or the wrong things will change, or the right things will change in the wrong ways.
I would propose we start by acknowledging that we shouldn’t double down on anything that led us here, and start considering some things we’ve either rashly abandoned or never tried before.
One thing is certain: The specifics will matter. So before we start cutting, we’d better have a clear, well-reasoned idea of what we really need to do.
Not only premeditated but carefully orchestrated by our own intelligence community through their obscurity of funding for GOF research through the nefarious Fauci and ilk.
Thanks! This essay really gets to the debacle of the COVID reaction. It had to be premeditated!
Yes. I pretty much knew all of this 2 years ago. Which is worse spending trillions during an emergency, or spending it over 10 or 20 years on something equally as stupid?
Most of the potential nominees for either side will be happy to waste Trillions $ on inefficient energy boondoggles. Take a look at this massive carbon capture boondoggle. https://summitcarbonsolutions.com/project-footprint/ I count 32 carbon capture facilities with hundreds of miles of steel pipeline to capture and transport CO2 emissions off of ethanol plants. How much do you think all of this costs, not to mention EVs, charging stations, and solar panel energy credits (almost all going to upper middle class income folks).
Not one person on that stage who served in government (all of them except for Vivek) has done a damn thing to cut any money serious money out of the budget. I won't consider voting for anyone who isn't talking about eliminating entire agencies or firing tens of thousands of federal workers.
Thanks for posting this. Would not have found it otherwise. I left the following comment on the author’s substack.
Thank you for the in-depth analysis of this catastrophic problem. There are points where I beg to differ, though not on the substance.
While I am greatly displeased at some of Trump’s decisions on covid, I believe the following is unfair.
“Extremely out of his depth, both scientifically and economically, Trump irresponsibly sponsored $6 trillion of CARES Act giveaways.“
Who among all the men who held the office of US President were known to be strong in science? “Economically”? I am against most if not all federal money give away programs, but if you force people to stay in their homes and not allow them to earn a living, you then must pay their bills. The solution, was to not lockdown.
My one other criticism of this piece is also, I believe, the strongest defense of Trumps decisions on covid; you as he, do/did not understand the breath of the problem. It ain’t just the US. Every nation with few exceptions, did as the US did. Trump’s decision to follow the bad advice to lockdown was reportedly greatly influenced by that fraudulent study from the UK that placed the likely number of deaths from covid astronomically high. Japan, where I live, resisted doing anything at all until pressure from somewhere compelled them to become the most highly vaxxed and masked and afterwards, the country with the highest case load and if I am not mistaken, deaths now too. My med school and nursing school are still requiring masks, some online only courses, social distancing and partitions between seats in the classroom, cafeteria and student lounge. My kids are still not allowed to talk during lunch time at school. Around half the population are still wearing masks. The “recommendations’ to wear masks was only rescinded May 8th of this year.
This devaluation of money is not a mistake. Neither is the destruction of most of the world economies. They are driving us to accept universal basic income and CBDCs. I believe this for three reasons. First, that is exactly what they have been saying they were going to do for a long time. We just didn’t take them seriously. Secondly, even a clock is right twice a day; when are the policies this people implement ever correct? They aren’t. This is all by design. Thirdly, if it was your goal to destroy the world’s currencies and economies, what would you do differently from what is being done?
Additionally, I have my own experiences in Japan which has maintained a cash based society longer than most. It is getting harder and harder to use cash in Japan as fewer cash registers in convenience stores and supermarkets accept it. More and more people are preferring to use various E currencies, my wife among them. I refuse to and thus do not receive the 5% to 10% discounts for doing so. Eventually, I will not have the choice. There are no “Cash Only” registers in the supermarkets we frequent but there are more registers that except many kinds of Emoney that do not take cash than do accept cash.
Now that Japan has opened its borders for the first time in over 3 years to tourists, we are flooded with visitors from abroad. For the first time in my experience going back as far as 1992 is Japan a cheap destination for most visitors from overseas as the yen is weak. Why? Because Japan as did the US “printed” huge sums of money to give (some) people it forced out of employment by our repeatedly extended and reimplemented lockdowns.
While cheap for visitors, it is not for we residents. I was shocked today that the cost of a pack of 10 eggs was 124 yen after tax. That is 30 yen less than two days ago and the first drop in their price I have seen since the panic started. They used to sell for less than 100 yen, the ones we get anyway. Saw gas at 194 yen per liter a couple of weeks ago. A little over ten years ago, when I was working at a location that I had to drive to get to, I received a huge pay raise to cover the then recent jump in gas to 130 yen per litter. Even at the near 200 yen per litter of gas, it is only this “cheap” due to government subsidies. Where is the money coming from? We were broke before we spent the massive amounts on the olympics which did not bring in much of any revenue as no spectators were allowed.
All, every single one, government policy by any government has the same foundational goal, utterly destroy its citizens ability to have even the slightest degree of independence from them. And with the covid panicked response, we are seeing a level of international cooperation never before seen in Human history. The unnaturalness of this fact is more than enough to alert all that this is coordinated and directed by an entity that is not bound by any nation’s borders.
The famous economist John Maynard Keynes said in 1919 essentially what you just outlined. Here are some excerpts "By a continuing process of inflation, Governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some.." "There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of Society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.."
Infuriatingly accurate. The worst part is that the Rabid Left set about destroying education starting in the 1960s and they have won. Prior to 1960, ANYONE with a high school diploma could read Greek and Latin and would have understood instantly the bullshit and lies.
Now our kids can tell you about the 97 genders that like, totally, like, exist, duh, you bigot, while Chinese kids are drilling calculus. Oh, and like, it's like white supremacist to "believe" 2+2=4.
If we do not reverse this decades-long indoctrination, we'll become a failed state, living in balkanized areas of mutually suspicious fiefdoms. It will become literally impossible to drive from New York to Los Angeles unless you're in an armed, Mad Max convoy.
The idiot sheeple voted for this bullshit.
Consider why Social Security is the only govt program that actually works and is adored by people.
It is because the govt simply pays the monthly dividend, and does not get involved with micro
-managing the recipients. Everyone knows they paid into the system, so do not consider it a handout.
The federal government is not a solution to anything. Unfortunately, the US will continue its slide until the people wake up and begin voting to RESTRICT govt power, not expand it.
I like this, and would like to see a bullet-point list of the highlights cycled on Twitter every day.