Well, there is a famous quote from a famous socioeconomic philosopher explaining how stable societies can unravel. He noted that a society is only as stable as can ensure the next three meals of the population. In other words, if the citizens of a given nation or region miss three meals, they will be rioting in the streets and ripping the civilization apart before long. If you doubt this ancient wisdom, merely fast-forward to the present period and look at the Arab Spring.
If that's not enough for you, consider the riots in Spain, Italy, and Greece just at the thought there might be economic collapse, or food shortages. Folks can get riled up pretty quick and the mass mob mentality will take over. It doesn't take much. Some say it could never happen in the United States, but to that I say; oh poppycock. It could easily happen here. We've had riots before, and we've had civil unrest, and we've had looting of grocery stores and retailers. How about the LA riots, Chicago riots, or the New Orleans Hurricane Katrina looting? Have you forgotten your recent history?
Recently, on Coast-to-Coast AM a guest speaker came up with a frightening scenario; an EMP device takes down Washington DC and all of the computer systems. One of the first to go happened to be the "food stamp program" which 47 million people are currently on - he noted that there could be riots in every major city within hours. Sure, that could happen, but what if it were something else such as a computer virus or worm and it took down only that government computer system?
Now then, I'm not one to participate in doom and gloom conspiracy theories, but occasionally I do like to listen to that late night talk show to see just what sorts of interesting commentary and intellectual conversations might pop up. We have far too many people on food stamps that are now relying on the government. Instead of teaching them how to fish, we've given them free fish, and they expect that entitlement to continue forever. Do you know what happens when the government takes something away that it is promised the people?
Do I need to remind you of the ancient wisdom above, or the recent rioting we've had in the US, or that which we've seen around the world which was far worse? I think not, I believe you to be an intelligent reader if you are reading my intellectually driven philosophical articles. I ask that you please consider all this and think on it. How safe is the US food stamp program? It may turn out to be a very unwise choice, and this attempt to domesticate American citizens with free food could come back to bite us.
What happens tomorrow if it isn't there?
Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Scary Internet Stuff. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment