The End of America

It has been a gradual process.  It has not happened overnight, nor is it complete.  But the basic concept of America is fading.  It is becoming just another statist, government centered bureaucracy.

The uniqueness & influence of America over the last couple of hundred years has been this unusual concept in human history:   Government of the people, by the people, & for the people. It was founded on the principle that government should serve the people, not vice versa.   Government was to secure our rights to life, liberty, & the pursuit of happiness.  The emphasis was freedom.  People had the freedom to live, take risks, face dangers & take responsibility for themselves.  Government on the national scale was very limited & had little impact on people's day to day lives.

The idea of america is for citizen representatives to honor their responsibility to secure the rights & freedoms for the rest of us. Those ARE high ideals, & tyrants have hidden behind those kinds of words for centuries, perhaps millennea. It is still a goal we can aspire to. I know perfection is impossible, with people being what we are, but the concept of America is too important.. too unique in history to let it die. We have had thousands of years of kings, dictators, emperors, coalitions, juntas, parliaments, caliphates, & any other ruling system you want to name. They have always been state centered. Oh, they might be benevolent, or treat people ok, generally, but they are still the rulers, & the rest of us live by their whims. They have the power, & wield it at their pleasure, not for the rights & freedoms of the people.

This message is getting lost in the muddy convolutions of noise & hysteria in our current political climate. The basic ideals are at times given lip service to, but they are not the driving force. The driving force seems to be for the politicians to grab the power, so they can make the rules. They promote themselves as the most benevolent rulers, who will rule us fairly, but they still intend to rule.  This attitude is the major indicator that we have lost our center. We are no longer a republic of free people, but are choosing our dictators in a corrupt system where we pay them to oppress us.

Most of the problems we face are because of the politicians, & bureaucratic decisions.  They spend taxpayer's money freely, tossing it out like parade queens throwing candy.  They start wars & meddle in other nation's affairs.  The promote utopian programs that encourage irresponsibility.  They have incurred a crippling debt that we may never recover from.  But instead of wising up & voting for fiscally responsible officials, we continue electing big spenders to run the gravy train.  But it will end, & badly.  Financial collapse is almost always related to spending more than you take in, whether you're an individual, a family, a company, or a nation.  People have a basic desire for security, & the illusions the politicians sell are very seductive.  They promise to take care of us.. feed us, house us, give us water, cell phones, cable, & free health care.   But these are not things that a government can provide for its citizens.  The productive workers of the country are the only ones who can produce enough substance to buy these things.  Money printed out of thin air to pay for free stuff will only lead to bankruptcy, which will hurt most the people politicians pretend to help.

So is it inevitable?  Is America doomed to become just another state centered system where govt rules supreme?  Unless we stop voting for frauds & charlatans who promise us goodies from the public treasury, the financial basis for the nation will collapse.  Unless we value the individual & champion personal liberties, the state will continue to whittle away at our freedoms until we are just another nanny state.  If there is a collapse of our currency, which seems to be coming, the void created will likely be filled by a powerful entity, promising order & stability.  Those are never good for individual freedoms.  I do not know how long we can last in the current direction.  But if we do not correct our fiscal problems, the future looks grim.

Evolution & Origins. Fact or Fraud?

The idea of evolution explaining the origin & complexity of life is mostly presented as fact in schools, national parks, & anywhere the topic seems to come up. I would like to examine this claim, & question it's validity.

First, i'll present the central question:
Does evolution provide a scientific & logical explanation for the origins & complexity of life?

I say it does not. Here are my reasons:
1. Micro evolution, or natural selection, explains how species adapt to their environment. The result of this adaptation is a decrease in diversity in the species, as the genetic pool limits itself to certain traits that are favorable to the environment. This is dark moths adapting to dark bark on trees, white rabbits doing better in the snow, & other natural selection processes. This kind of evolution does not increase complexity, but decreases it, as fewer genetic traits become available to the species. There is no known mechanism that causes an increase in genetic complexity. Mutations are aberrations in the genetic code, seldom produce anything positive for the species, & do not increase the complexity of the life form. It does not indicate macro evolution.

2. To say that micro evolution proves 'macro' evolution is a leap of logic. It is like saying that since we know people can travel easily between towns, they can travel easily between planets. There is a major difference between natural selection, which is a scientifically observable phenomenon used in breeding & hybridization, and the increase in complexity in a life form.

3. There is no mechanism that can explain why or how life can become more complex through evolution. It is assumed, & that is a faulty assumption. It is not good science, nor good logic. Neither mutation nor millions of years provide any mechanism or even explanation of HOW, but it is erroneously extrapolated based on natural selection. But just asserting that a species adapted over millions of years does not make it true, nor is it based on any scientific or logical constructs. It is speculation & fantasy.

4. One of the most basic concepts in science is that of entropy, or the tendency of all things to move to less complexity. Unless acted upon by an outside source, all of the universe is moving toward equilibrium & a simple state. There is no known mechanism that explains HOW or WHAT is causing life to increase in complexity. If anything, in recorded history, life is decreasing in complexity & diversity. Unique species are lost, and distinct new ones are not being added. We have variation within a life form's genetic limitations, but no moving into more complexity. This is what you would expect with entropy, & it brings a major difficulty to those claiming an increase in complexity through evolution.

5. As to origins, there is no mechanism or procedure that can create life.. real, reproducing life, not just some amino acids or 'building blocks' of life. There is nothing that can be measured, repeated, falsified, or even theorized. It is a leap of faith to believe life began spontaneously & increased in complexity for millions of years. There is no valid scientific explanation for this, even though it is asserted as fact in many spheres.

I am not making an argument for special creation, or alien seeding, or any other theories or speculations of origins. I am including evolution with the others. Our origins are a mystery, which science & logic have not been able to explain to this point. Macro evolution, or the increase in complexity in life forms, is an unproven speculation & fantasy.

Unsustainable Statistics

Here are some interesting numbers..

Total state, local, federal employees: 20m (2008)

Federal contractors:  14.6m (2006)

People on welfare:  100m (2009, does not include SS & medicare)

Total number of jobs in the us:  155m (2012)

Population of the US:  312m (2010)

These are the most current statistics i could find.  Now let's analyze them.

Half of the 312M population works, supporting the other half.. children, elderly, spouses, & other dependents.  Of the 155M jobs in the us, 36M are govt.. either working directly for, or contracting.  They are paid by the taxpayers.  That leaves 119M people working.  There are 100M people getting some kind of govt assistance.. food stamps, housing, adc, etc.  Some of these are probably working, but a great number are not.  But if you total both govt paid workers & welfare recipients, the number totals a staggering 136M.  You only have 119M working to support them, in addition to their own children, elderly, & other dependents.

This is unsustainable.  The dependent class has grown astronomically.  But the burden has not really been felt, as the govt has used borrowed money to support them.  If the taxpayers had been taxed for the actual expenditures, there would have been a revolution.  Taxpayers would not have submitted to paying for this much dependency.  But by borrowing the money & trading free handouts for votes, the politicians insulated themselves from the taxpayer's wrath.  But the reality is the taxpayers are still on the hook for the spending.  The growth of govt has far exceeded the abilities of the american taxpayers to fund.  Borrowing the money to spend is not a solution.  That only postpones the inevitable.  The other problem that the govt is not facing, is the continued growth of the dependent class.  Govt workers & welfare recipients are growing at a much faster rate than the economy.  It is already beyond what is financially feasible.  Continuing down this path will be disastrous  both for the workers & the dependents, when the inevitable crash occurs.

An analogy would be a family.  Say you have 10 people in your family, as i do.  There are 4 total households, with currently 6 people working to support them.  In my situation, all are in the private sector, & none get govt assistance.  Now let's have 3 of those workers quit & expect money from the other 3 for their support.  It can't be done.  The only way you can support these 4 households with only 3 working is to borrow money.  So the households live off of credit cards & 2nd mortgages for a while, & borrow from friends & extended family.  But unless you shut down some of the households, it cannot be sustained.

As a nation, we are running $1T/yr over income.  The debt is $16T & growing.  There are too many dependents living off of the working people.  We cannot have this level of spending, both in govt & welfare.  Social security & medicare are not even factored in these numbers, & their mismanagement makes things worse.  You cannot hide from the numbers.  A currency collapse is in our future if spending is not cut back drastically.

The problem is not a lack of compassion, but a lack of money to fund the compassion.  It is also unrealistic expectations from the working people, to fund exorbitant levels of govt & an entitlement culture.  If we do not stop the madness, the whole system will collapse.. the currency & the whole financial structure will fold.  If we truly are compassionate, we will not allow the govt to bankrupt us & spend us into economic collapse.  Govt workers & dependents will be the hardest hit if the currency folds.

It is folly & madness to think that the rich can be taxed enough to support all of this spending.  We are $1 Trillion over each year.  1,000 million is a billion.  1,000 Billion is a Trillion.  There is not enough revenue to support these kinds of spending levels, & the govt knows it.  That is why they just borrow.. obligating future generations to pay for their irresponsible pandering for votes.  But all it will do is wreck the nation.


Summary:
Total working people:        155M
Total govt workers:           35M
Total welfare dependents:  100M
Net annual deficit:             $1T
Sustainable:                       No
Economic collapse:           Yes