Southwestern Energy to cut 44% of workforce.

Well, certainly the contributors know more than I ever will - that doesn't mean their predictions are accurate; indeed, how can anyone claim accuracy about things that far in the future?

You are of course right that the Federal and (many) state governments will soon be unable to meet the pension and other obligations of retirees. We have no choice but to restructure entitlements - the sooner the better. This will only be tenable politically when enough people take this dire fact on board and vote accordingly.

My main point is that the situation is never hopeless. If we become more productive, the economy grows and relative debt and obligation shrink. If we scale back and better focus military objectives, that would help enormously. Combine those two principles with a little belt tightening in the short term and, voila: the Beast of Armageddon slumbers on.

My secondary point is that a healthy fear may be what we need to generate the political will to start making appropriate policy changes.

May i get, if not an 'amen', at least a high-five?

 

I just e mailed an economist and author asking him to read this thread and give an opinion. With any luck, we may have an authoritative response in a day or two

 

I decided to google the term in question and the first hit rather validated my intuitions. This is no proof I am right but I can at least provide a citation of someone smarter than me who is having the same thoughts:
http://politics.stackexchange.com/q...surement-valid-true-and-is-it-possible-to-fix

 

I wish they could restructure some of these programs, but look what happened out in Illinois a few months ago. The state attempted to restructure the government pensions that have the state on a course to default, and the court shot it down. Now I agree with the court that the state entered into a legal contract with workers to provide a pension, but if the money is not there, it just is not there. So now Illinois is on a course to have its entire budget consumed by its pension obligations and is likely to have to declare bankruptcy. There are a few states not too far behind.

Is he a Nobel Laureate?

 

I have no idea what that was but those people sounded like they just stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night. I'll stick with the Nobel Laureates.

 

If I could get a Nobel Laureate to enter this thread, then would I get a thanks? Sorry, don't have such connections.

Yeah, I know about Illinois. That's what I meant about generating fear for political necessity - usually the wrong thing to do, but here? ...
The economist I invited (who may or may not show) is not some one "on my side". He will probably shoot us both down. My inquiry was honest. I would like to understand this better.

 

Google the term, "argument from authority".

 

Hey, does anyone have a hopeful thought or are you all certain we are irredeemably ######?
(the censorship on this site is just silly sometimes)
Someone here thinks the word referred to by the slang term "darned" is profanity!
Was anyone emotionally "triggered" by the sight of this very common word used in a mundane context?
Is that same person unaffected by the very real threats we are trying to talk about?
Is this cognitive dissonance helpful or harmful to the free exchange of ideas?

Finally, is someone going to threaten to "ban" me for asking these questions?

A small thing, this example, but typical of the anti-intellectual attitude dumbening our country.
It offends me as a citizen.

 

Well, between talk of global warming and global economic catastrophe I've decided to stop getting out of bed every morning. I'm going to cozy up with a strong gin and tonic and binge watch everything Netflix has to offer while I still can.

 

Why does OPEC get so much blame for low oil prices? Iran?? It was the US shale drillers that flooded the market. It was the fact that rates were at all time lows so the greedy ######## borrowed as much money as they could, leased land and "Drill Baby, Drill!!". They pumped as much volume as fast as they could without thinking about the simple rule of supply and demand. The US drillers created this glut of oil. OPEC did NOTHING to cause this. They have simply maintained their production to keep market share. Iran is <3% of the world's daily production. A drop in the bucket. Big US oil is crushed by their own greed. A pig gets fed, a hog gets slaughtered.