I bring this up, not as a pity party, no one should pity me. Everything I have done, I have done with eyes wide open and cognizant of the consequences. I took a gamble on staying in business long enough to make things work. For going on three years I have been holding on, waiting for some sanity to return to the economy. My business is largely reliant on the construction business, but I am not a carpenter. I cannot lay down my hammer and pick it up later when things get better. There are a lot of capital costs involved, a lot of expensive machinery that cannot be sold in a flooded market. I can't keep making payments on things that are worth half of what they were before and if I let them go back, I will not be able to purchase like equipment in the future because my credit is already shot trying to hang onto the business.
The reason I do bring this up is I have been racking my brain trying to figure out what might improve the economy when there is no interest in doing so in Washington, DC. As Americans we are taught to believe that an economy should not be reliant on the congress to flourish. An economy ought to function no matter what Washington does. That's when I realized how much the policies of the Obama Administration are restraining the economy, purposefully, or not. That doesn't mean that they were designed to restrain the economy, but I do recognize that they were intended to restrain some sectors of the economy. The only sectors of the economy the Obama Administration has put any effort to improve are the public and the automobile manufacturing sectors, two of the most heavily unionized sectors. The events in Wisconsin explain better than I could why.
So, I have been sitting here thinking: "What can I be doing that is smarter than what I have been doing?" That is something that has been driving me crazy. See, I don't look to the government to make my life better, or to solve my problems. I look inward, because I know that is where all the real answers lie. Yes, the construction of new homes is down. Yes, the commercial activity that usually puts money in the pockets of my typical customers has been lacking. Yes, the price of diesel and gasoline have been robbing even more money from the pockets of would be customers and drastically increase the costs associated with my services. Yes, with the Middle East in flames the prospect that fuel costs will rise and possibly crash the stock market, sending what's left of my market into the toilet.
As I think about my situation I realize that everything I have worked hard for all of these years is now worth nothing. When I think of the value that has been drained from my home, my cars and trucks, my equipment, my business, it reminds me that a lot more was lost in the compression of value that came with the bursting of the housing bubble than can really be accounted for. When I look out at the fiscal landscape and I realize that there are whole sectors of the economy that may never again rise from the ashes I am given pause. By nature we tend to think that there is some eventual correction for the state we are in, but maybe there is not. I know, they speak of the "new normal" well, you know, there is no "new normal" there is normal and extraordinary and this is extraordinary.
What I know is this: I should be doing something smart right now and I am not. I'm willing to think outside the box. I could let everything go if something new presented itself. I look at opportunities in other businesses, in other industries. I am not afraid to go into something new or to take some risks. None of these things are preventing me from doing the smart thing.
Okay, so you might be thinking to yourself "All right, T.L., what the hell does this have to do with anything?" Well, here it is: No matter what "smart" thing I come up with it will already have been done. By dividing my thoughts between what to do next and how to handle the day to day, I am mimicking the society as a whole, stuck between one thing and another, just waiting for something to happen, something to provide guidance. Good and bad don't enter into it. We are, as a society, adrift, leaderless. We are left to float out there, with all of our previously understood realities shattered, to try and make sense of the future. It can't be done. This is chaos, most people are just going to work out of habit. They aren't doing anything other than waiting for the next calamity, like me. We have fallen into the trap.
Our elected representatives are right now trying desperately to divert attention from themselves. They want to show us that they are working on the problems. It's all for nothing. There is nothing they can do. They are not unlike me. They are cognizant that it is all too late, but are unable to do anything other than perform the daily tasks. Take a vote, sit on a committee, read the news, scratch their heads.
What I want to warn you about is that there are others, those who have created this chaos. There are those who need us impotent and busily repeating yesterday's tasks so that they, with their focus, can plan their future based on new standards and practices, methods alien to us, even inconceivable. They are not lost as I am, they are found, they are busy and like those in Madison, they draw oxygen from the flames. They gather strength in our weakness. These are the true enemies of liberty and they are at the highest levels of government. Eric Holder said it as plain as it can be said, basically acknowledging that when it comes to "their people" be that black, white, Latino, or Asian, their "people" are reds, communists, collectivists, i.e., the enemies of liberty and they will use our laws to protect them, our structure to shield them from harm. They will use our police to deny us liberty. In our busily distracted lives, they have arranged their pieces and will soon call for the start of the game.
I suggest you come out swinging.
If you want to understand the technical mechanics of what has taken place READ THIS by Gardenserf.
Graciously linked at Keep It Simple Survival.
Graciously linked and quoted at Refreshing the Tree of Liberty.
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