North America on the verge of economic collapse 4392

on collapse." infrastructure the

It's not possible to spend non-existent wealth. The wealth must be created and come from somewhere. What I think you are alluding to is the wealth people have stored in the form of US currency. The gov. can remove value from the dollar you have sitting in an account somewhere by simply printing more dollars. You still have the dollar but it is now worth less - and less and less.

Well, so long as a dollar is perceived as a secure store for wealth, people will still create wealth in exchange for those dollars. The problem comes when people realize they can acquire dollars without the bother of creating wealth OR when they perceive that the dollars they earn aren't worth the effort to create wealth.

Exactly so! A very good observation. You can't cash in the profits from the 500% appreciation and buy 5 equivalent houses with the proceeds. This is because that 500% price appreciation was not accompanied by a 500% increase in wealth. The houses are "simply retaining their value" - just as you say.

It's a nice illusion though! One that leaves most people scratching their heads. They made so much money and are puzzled that they don't seem to be getting ahead. They made this brilliant investment decision and now other mysterious coincidental events are somehow robbing them of their good fortune.

The truly awful thing about being poor is that you are unable to acquire the inflation (and tax!) protection that real estate affords. All your expenses have risen, but your tangible buttets haven't appreciated in response because you don't have any. And that modest 4 months rent you had in a savings account will no longer cover even one single months rent.

That illusion burdens many who know little to nothing about investing - but who may own their own homes.. Investers, on the other hand, are a bit more savvy. These are people who understand that investing is essential as protection against inflation. You can't just work and store dollars under the mattress because the wealth those dollars contain *evaporates*. They would also regard an investment that doesn't return substantially more than Alan Greenfrauds inflation numbers as a loser. Although, any inflation protection is still better than none.

"bankrupt"? If you mean that gov. has no money other than what it can extract from it's citizens, that might be true. But as long as people are willing to produce wealth in return for dollars, uncle Sam can grab some of those dollars and then help himself to a bit more wealth by diluting the dollars he didn't take.

Or invest. Because the dollar you don't spend or invest in an appreciating buttet is a dollar that will ultimately be lost.

Some. But then, it never was much of a democracy.

Hmmh! Depends upon who you mean by people. If you mean the broad clbutt called the US citizenry, then the answer is no.

I'd love to hear a clarification of that! Who are you calling Native Americans? What *was* the democratic spirit of the Native Americans? What did it look like?