This is exactly what is coming, once the crap hits the fan due to Medicare/Medicaid/Social Security. We ain’t seen nuthin yet, folks.

I’d thought we would have until 2030 or so until things got really bad, but the ObamaWagon has accelerated America’s Poverty Timetable so rapidly, that I think we’ll be staring the gorgon in the face by 2020 at the latest.

You can only live on your credit cards for so much time before reality smashes you in the face and leaves you broken, for your foolishness. And when Cousin’ Bammie takes the credit cards for a wild spin around town, spending like there’s no tomorrow, you max out far, far more quickly than you ever expected.

This is predicated upon the fact that ER doctors cannot be reimbursed for their expenses in mandatory care for those that stop at the ER. In this sense, we already have mandatory medical care. It is just mandatory emergency care, and not pre-emptive care or general practictioner/proscription services.

Since a government bureaucracy pays for these emergency cares, presumably, they have no interest in doing so fairly and efficiently. Their lives don’t depend on the ER doctor getting paid, after all. And the family members that were taken care of in the ER pay nothing, so they have no interest to promote the government’s reimbursement of the doctor. One might argue that they have a long term self-interest in doing so, in order to maintain the quality and quantity of care, but when has humanity ever been such a long sighted player?

When she offered to bag the book, I leaned conspiratorally toward her and whispered, “No, thanks. The environment, you know.” Then left the store.

Devastating Parthian Shot, man.

That’s what the 2nd Amendment is for.

Two interesting things as I went to pay for the book. While I was standing in line, a young man behind me remarked, “I see that you’ve picked an interesting book today.” Although he might have been a liberal, his statement showed me he was open to discussion about my choice.

I said, “Well, even though this was written 52 years ago, it bears an uncanny resemblance to the present.” He agreed, and we fell into some easy chat about how nice it was that “Atlas Shrugged” sales were through the roof and that ol’ Ayn would be proud that she could still bedevil the second raters even from beyond the grave.

The saleswoman was another matter. I could see hostlity in her eyes and her body language was stiff. She was an older woman with her hair pulled back into a bun and wearing all the little jewelry and blouse flourishes that scream “liberal arts major who recycles, hates Bush, reads the NYT and loooooves The One.”

She was civil, but offered none of the banter that usually occurs in these exchanges. I could tell, too, that my purchase of “Atlas” was probably one of many that had been occuring lately. Her lip curled into the slightest of sneers as she handled the book, as though she had been forced to handle cow manure bare-handed.

When she offered to bag the book, I leaned conspiratorally toward her and whispered, “No, thanks. The environment, you know.” Then left the store.

PS: The next day I returned to buy Hayek’s “Road to Serfdom.” The sweet young thing who helped me find it was confused at first. “That’s ‘Road to Surfdom?’” she asked.

(Suddenly I had visions of old Friedrich tottering on a surf board, wondering if he would survive the 20-foot wave just about to crash down on him so that he could finally—finally!—finish Chapter 10.)

Okay, actually I believe this is the flaw in the Dems plans. They are playing last centuries game. Where the Soviet Union, China and even Chavez had natural resources and a manufacturing base to seize and force labor in, to keep their economy going. Not to mention a large capitalist consumer economy to sell to. The US is a human capital economy. You can whip a man to force his work in the mines but how do you get the benefit of his ideas. Can you beat the next “iPod” out of somebody? If you waterboard a bright and innovative mind, it concentrates on how to stop the torture not a hot new consumer product. Look we couldn’t even get a decent days work out of a highly paid UAW member back in the ’70s.

It is as true now as it was true back then. The witch hunt against a few, is only ever an excuse to broaden the net to include all malcontents and obstructionists.

The devil says he will only take an inch. A minor sacrifice for great rewards.

All those sickeningly rich book authors, like Brin and Scalzi, who lambasted Bush’s economy and promoted the candidacy of Obama needs to face something called Concrete and Truth.

Customers don’t want to invest against a future they cannot discern. Combine that with the huge tax burden that is about to be thrown down on me (charging sales tax for consulting services provided, for example) and it really isn’t worth it any more.

Oh well.