Mr. Perfect wrote:Typhoon wrote:
I guess I can add this to my list of doomsday predictions that are unlikely to come to pass along with rapture rupture and man made global warming.
Or it could come to pass like the subprime mortgage crisis or tech bubble, or the Great Depression, etc, etc.
The Great Depression lead to the New Deal. Careful for what you ask for.
The US recovered from the Great Depression. One could say with the assistance of Europe and Asia.
All minor events compared to the devastation in Europe post WWII.
Self inflicted, but very real. Germany had been razed to the ground, then partitioned, yet rebuilt as one of the most powerful and advanced economies on the planet.
Even some countries in E Europe, such as Poland, Czech, and the Baltic states have recovered well despite being held back until the 1990's.
So if Europe did not manage to exterminate itself in the 20th century despite unprecedented all-out non-holds-barred efforts, I doubt that a bunch of aging boomers will manage to do so.
The US, on the other hand, has enjoyed every advantage after WWII . . .
Mr. Perfect wrote:You're presuming that you progeny do and especially their descendants, if any, will subscribe to your ideology.
In my family there is amazing ideological homogeneity going back 1 century. I expect it to continue. My children are more conservative than I am. And you only get more conservative as you get older.
What is that disclaimer that US financial companies make, "past performance is no guarantee of future results"
Not wishing any changes to your descendants beliefs, but I've seen enough to no longer surprised by anything.
The aging US population is apparently becoming more culturally tolerant and liberal.
Mr. Perfect wrote:An ideology which appears to be a naive mix of social Darwinism with great expectations of schadenfreude reminiscent of those religious extremists who find great pleasure in anticipating the hell awaiting non-believers.
Could be. When I run into someone like that I'll study it and see what it's made of.
Well you won't have very far to look.
Mr. Perfect wrote:
Even if one were to very naively assume that the Japanese birthrate will remain unchanged forever, it would take a millennium for Japan to be come extinct.
Yes, this is where many of you are missing by miles. I don't know that anyone is pointing to population=0, more the horrors of bankrupting governmnents who walk away from nursing homes leaving the people to die and once thriving cities turning into Detroit projected 30 years into the future, first world standards of living turning into 3rd world, peasants essentially living among ruins. It's hard to predict of course all the details, or what it will look like exactly but it's coming. People predicting Islamic terror and subprime mortgage collapse, as few as there were, they were dimissed. Dismiss at your risk.
Last time I checked Detroit was in the USA.
After having placed financial stress on their nations with their demands, the boomer bulge cohort will die out and life will go on. This too will pass.
Mr. Perfect wrote:My ideology was mostly supply side panglossian forever prosperity, but people have made other decisions apparently. It's completely out of my hands.
Panglossian prosperity for me, but not for thee?
May the gods preserve and defend me from self-righteous altruists; I can defend myself from my enemies and my friends.