Over the transom more fish come thanks to Ishmael…. and damn that water is cold! — Ed
Some people out there believe we can vote our way out of this. These optimistic folks have been under a rock for the past few years or haven’t noticed clown world.
If you are one of those people who keeps on voting, that’s your business. I am not going to convince you voting is pointless anymore than you’re going to convince me that I should get off my ass and vote for a different douchebag this time.
The happy-fun reason we aren’t voting our way out of this is because a self-perpetuating failure cycle has already been established. I’m not sure if this was deliberately achieved by earthly powers, or whether they took advantage of it.
I struggled articulating my thoughts about the self-perpetuating cycle into something coherent and finally gave up because it doesn’t matter. And it doesn’t matter for a very chilling reason. After thinking through the implications, dread about immigration, rising crime, and more inflation took a backseat to the insight. Yes, a self-destructive country that slowly decays is the optimistic alternative.
The problems we face now, and they are real and considerable, will be taken care of. Of that I have no doubt. We will not like the solution at all.
The reason we aren’t voting our way out of this hit me in a flash, like all the best (and worst) ideas do. After it did, I sat and thought for a long while. Then I closed this draft and didn’t open it for 10 days.
The old American social contract has been completely and utterly broken.
One aspect of the old social contract was protecting the young at the expense of the old. While there have always been selfish assholes among us, older generations used to sacrifice for the good of their children and grandchildren. The past three years put the final nail in that coffin.
The lockdowns were initially sold on the premise that we were saving grandma. Instead, we destroyed young people who had part-time jobs and no savings. Then we killed grandma deliberately. There was no trade-off, both young and old people’s lives were ruined. The generational tenent was bulldozed.
We are not done destroying this aspect of the social contract yet. To bring it back to the original topic, young people tend to support and vote for liberal causes. Thanks to declining fertility rates (for absolutely no reason at all), we will have a shortage of young people in the coming years. If you think about this like the average Republican politician, this is great news! There will be a higher percentage of conservative voters in 18 years!
Not only did we violate an existing social contract, we obliterated the chance to make it right in the future. Many of that future generation will never be born.
Speaking of first jobs, another social contract tenet was respect for labor. That’s gone now. Quaint notions such as employer/employee loyalty have been on their way out for years. At one point, a young man could reasonably expect to work for one company his entire career and retire with a nice nest egg. He worked hard for the company, and in return the company took care of him.
Never in my working life has this been the case with large companies. Smaller companies still show loyalty to their employees, and that is wonderful. After the past three years, only the most willfully ignorant believe a mega corp will show them anything other than pure contempt.
It began with outsourcing. Entire divisions were fired and work sent overseas. And in a tremendous “fuck you”, employees were required to train their own replacements. Some lucky folks got hired back at lower salaries and longer hours to correct all the problems the foreigners created.
But that was amateur hour compared to what clown world vomited up in the past three years. Everybody still remember vax mandates? So many people lost their jobs because they refused to play Russian roulette. Other people chose poorly and died, or had their health nosedive.
Previous guest Tickers have stated the psychological toll this inflicted on individuals and “we the people.” Basically, the American work ethic has been destroyed for at least the next decade. Many of us have lasting psychological damage from the abuse. We as individuals can recover, but it will take time. “We the people” will not recover until individuals do.
All that is bad enough, but the next act turns really dark: There’s a depression looming. Mass layoffs are coming, whether anyone likes it or not.
We are at the precipice, famine is coming, I have been out of the workforce since 2017 and do not miss it at all. Loyalty from the employer died a long time ago. As you stated the social contract with the illegal regime is dead and buried, we need a call to muster nationwide if we are to survive. Who of us will step up and start what needs to be done? That question needs to be answered soon.
Personally I’ve never seen a difference, every company small or large will treat you like a POS that’s disposable. Not just the CEOs, etc., but also the other employees themselves. For years now I’ve seen fellow employees get a rush and feeling of superiority from making someone else’s life hell because they can.
Mass layoffs are already here. My industry in tech which used to be lucrative is being eviscerated. Thousands are being laid off every week.
I worked as a boiler operator in a sawmill of a family owned lumber company in the Northwest for several years that treated its people great. After working thirty years in the meat business, I was never treated as well as at the mill. I’d go back to the mill in a new york minute if we ever moved back there. I was paid well, had good bennies and was treated with far more respect and humanity than any other job I’d ever held previously. Hard work? Yes. Dangerous at times? You bet. Rife with discomforts and challenges? Absolutely. But it was by far the best job I ever had, and I was treated far far better there than I ever was by a bunch of college bred, frat boy wannabes and jock douchebags in retail.
Wes, thank you very much. Somehow I’d forgotten about Karl Denninger. Used to read his site. He’s a tremendous critical thinker.
I’ve said that and thought that for long time. Voting will NOT be effective or fast enough.
Conservative Treehouse has a chart today about how the government is going to curtail your driving, eating, clothes buying and banking. You ain’t gonna like it. No carbon foot print for you, citizen. They want us dead.
these days, if you think that voting works, you likely believe in the tooth fairy, Santa and unicorns.