Tiny peeks inside my head on a Tuesday

If that title doesn't scare the 5 or 6 people that visit here on an average day away then they probably have a higher than average tolerance for boredom.

Thanks for coming, it was nice to see you.

I've always tried to keep people fooled as to my real ME by cracking wise or making off the wall comments. Maybe it's me that I've been fooling. No matter.

A couple days ago Yabu over at Bad Bad Juju asked the question of the moment.....

Are worldwide money systems beyond the point of no return? If yes, why, if no, why.

Dang ya Yabu, you planted an earwig in my head. Now I've got to scratch the itch. Not for anyone else, but to justify to myself the course of action I've undertaken to myself.

Very few people will read this in any event and I'm cossetted here in the inner recesses of the Kudzu Grotto (KG) where if the scratching gets personal no one will see.

If yes? Yes, they are. Why? In my opinion we have a greater hope of influencing the election results than of changing the world-wide system of fiat money-backed-by-nothing imposed by the (imho) Criminal Central Banks of the world.

That is to say that I hold out little hope of most of the worlds currencies becoming backed by any item of supposed value, whether gold or silver, neither of which can of course be eaten in and of themselves. The Swiss Franc was at one time fully backed by gold but they sold much gold while the price was lower. They still have that backing and with recent price increases may actually be in a position once again of have full backing, but I don't know if it is convertible by walking in to the local branch of USB.

Yes, when most of the worlds industrial countries spend more than they produce in goods and services, (which point the US has reached) and promise even more, they are in fact bankrupt, they just haven't filed the papers yet. Having filed those particular papers once upon a time myself I think I have a bit of an understanding.

When you rob Peter to pay Paul, eventually both Peter and Paul get pissed at you. Paul because you robbed him and Paul because you finally broke Peter and are no longer paying him what he has come to think of as his right. It's not of course, (his right), but he's gotten used to getting something for nothing. Witness the civil servants of Span lying down in the streets in protest at proposed cuts in their wages. (Can you blame them? They've habituated themselves to a certain standard of living and don't want to go backwards).

If, as is proper, many of the recipients of government largess in The USA were suddenly removed from the teat they had latched onto since birth in many cases, what would you expect their reaction to be?

Would our society become a lot less civil in the near term? Of course it would and the rioters would consider they had every right to then take by force what they were formerly receiving as a matter of course to them and not much protesting by the rest of us because we'd really rather not deal with them if we could help it. Interaction would then become very much more interesting and potentially dangerous. This takes no account of the millions who (supposedly) work for government and produce reams of laws and excessive regulation for the betterment of mankind and to ensure they have a job and a pretense at legitimacy when holding their hand out for their share. IMO once again many of the personnel and bureaucracies could be eliminated with no effect at all upon the majority of the American citizenry.

I'll give you one example.........The US Agricultural Extension Service. As a former Dairy Farmer I have has some dealing with them and as a parent I've had children who participated in 4-H.

At the time of establishment the Extension Service was to provide updated and innovative farming information to the farmers of this country (circa 1930's). A worthwhile venture to be sure as at the time much of the rural citizenry we somewhat less literate than their citified cousins (although perhaps less aggressive and abrasive) and the information highway was not even a gleam in Al Gore's eye. A network of shared information benefited both the farmers and the consumers to the point that the US fed not only it's self but much of the rest of the world.

Today that information is readily available in many media forms and while much research can be attributed to the Agricultural Colleges and the Extension Services, the local offices spend much of their time babysitting children, teaching them to shoot bows and arrows and going on field trips. Nothing wrong with that I suppose, but I suggest the time has come to reduce by 90% that agency. There are many more just like it and in fact much more useless as producers of value for the money spent on them.

beyond the point of no return? if no, why

NO. Does it surprise you to read that from me after all the above?

I guess I am an eternal optimist. I believe this world is going to continue spinning around the sun which is it's self spinning withing the galaxy through space and will continue short of Impact with an object large enough to pulverize things.

Will humankind be smart enough to avoid destructive scenarios such as total melt down?

I think we can. Much like the bankruptcy process, first you must face up to the fact that you have to make a change and either repudiate all your debts as well as ownership of any assets of any value and walk away to start over (Chapter 7 Bankruptcy), or recognize that you need to stop the destructive actions and put a plan in place to allow you with time and hard work to pay off your debts, while removing the temptations of credit, of which you will emerge with none. (Chapter 13 Bankruptcy).

This could be accomplished by:

1st, Kicking the current crop if incompetents out of Washington, State Capitals, and County and local leadership positions, replacing them with principled Statesmen/women who have and understanding of the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution of the United States and the 1st Ten articles of the Bill of Rights. Who recognize that rights are an individuals by right of Birth, whether you believe they are God Given, as I do, or they exist because you do. Life, Liberty, Property and the right to protect all of these both individually and collectively. Holding the civil Servants accountable to the people by methods both Draconian and Transparently.

2nd, Place a freeze on payments to holders of government debt and stop the interest accumulation until a re-organization plan is put in place to allow the debt to be paid and no new debt to be incurred.....period! If you can't pay for it out of available funds, you can't have it. This is just common sense.

3rd, Enact the Fair Tax. If you don't understand how this would completely fund the government with no more money coming out of the people's pockets and bring industry and corporations streaming back into this country, you need to do your research and read the two excellent books that have been written about it.
We would be in short order able to resume payments on the debts and eventually eliminate them and be debt free as a nation and people thus removing the shackles of slavery that have been fastened around our necks by those very elected representatives we places so much trust in. In addition it would totally fund the Social Security responsibilities to those who have paid into it as well as Medicare and gov't pension and disability funding although we would have to eliminate the fraud that currently exists in these programs. People should be taught that they are the responsible party for their retirement if any and allowed to accumulate and fund that retirement at their discretion, while educating them of the hazards of neglecting this important part of individual responsibility.

4th, Eliminate the Department of Education and return the control of the schools to the local level. Ban teachers from entering any collective bargaining groups and make them accountable to the parents of the students they are hired to teach. The old trite saying, "those that can do, those that can't, teach" is all to true in many cases. Require teachers to have a complete understanding of the subjects they teach and if at all possible require them to have a successful record of producing goods or services in their chosen fields.
Require student to demonstrate not just knowledge of their subjects but require them to use that knowledge to complete a period of apprenticeship using those same skills. There is nothing more useless than knowledge not applied and used. Likewise knowledge and education is worth every penny paid for it, if you use it.

5th, Establish standards by which this country will interact with other countries, making them completely clear and transparent, making if clear that we will not tell other countries and their peoples how to live and demanding the same respect from them. Trade with those countries that agree to these standards and refuse trade with those who do not. And By REfuse I mean no intercourse with them, no trade, no visas. If they want to be a part of a world that trades and interacts in good faith fairly and freely we desire it. If they want no part of our society, very well, we'll respect that and expect the same.
If they take actions that are hostile to this nation we will squash them until they agree to play nice, at which time they will be placed on probation for a period of time to verify their good intentions, or we will totally destroy them, making it clear to their population our intentions so they can (hopefully) exercise control over their own leaders.
In furtherance of these standards and objectives institute a system of service to the nation much like that in Switzerland, which has been able to remain neutral and unattacked for 400 years. If this requires a draft or a volunteer system, choose which is best.
Personally I like that proposed by Robert Heinlein in Starship Troopers where you voting rights depended on your degree of service to your nation for both men and women. This in an effort to make women feel equal to men in every way, although why they would want to so lower themselves I cannot for the life of me understand, but after 42 years of marriage I'm no closer to understanding the female of the species than when I was 6.

These are just some of the things that would allow us to overcome the current crises both monetary and political that I would like see come to pass and I believe it would allow us to honorably pay legitimate debts and put on the path of solvency once again.

I claim no divine revelations, greater understanding than the next guy on the street, certainly no higher education (although I have monitored enough classes at the School of Hard knocks to attain at least an Associates Degree) and would really welcome ideas of yours whether you wish to do it in the comments or would care to establish an e-mail correspondence with me. We've got to work on the problem......it will not go away on its own or because of wishful thinking. So Please, lets put our heads together.