A talk with F. Ryan...

So, Ryan calls me... and we'd still probably be talking had Jacob not come home and needed help with homework.

Jist of it was that he's wondering if the Obama re-election means that America has proven that it is now dependent on a welfare state system.  I'm inclined to think it is.

More than 58% of America is now, or will be soon, retired and thus, dependent on Social Security for their livelihood.  Love it or hate it, SSI is a fact, and can't be ignored.  We can argue and debate what it will take to keep it solvent, but whatever happens, the tax remains for those that are nearing retirement, and those that are decades away from even thinking about it.  Someone has to foot that bill.

47% of America (according to Romney's now famous line) is dependent on some form of assistance from the Fed, in the form of food stamps, WIC, unemployment, etc. and that number is expected to grow (by both parties) over the course of the next 6 years.  Someone will have to foot that bill, too.

Nothing about the Federal Government is going to "shrink" in the next four years... not the rate it grows, not its size or cost, and certainly not is ability to intrude on our daily lives.  We can expect government regulation of business, finances, environmental issues and educational matters to probably increase substantially over the course of the next four years, and YES, someone will have to pay for that, too.

As has been said hundreds of times on this site alone... you could take ALL THE MONEY that the top 1% of Americans make (and have in savings) and it wouldn't run the government for 30 days.  A 100% tax rate for the top 10 percent of wage earners will only feed the beast for three fiscal quarters... leaving a fourth quarter unpaid for each and every year the nation operates.  The math simply doesn't add up, yet the American people want more and more of what Obama has been promising.

The rights and liberties of the individual have now become secondary to the needs and wants of the majority.  This is the direction that we have chosen.  I, personally, think it is the wrong choice... but that is just me.

Am I worried about the situation?  Frankly, yes... but not to a point where I'm ready to panic, or declare the United States "dead in the water" as some pundits are doing.  This current trend towards a more liberal (I think that means "European socialist") model of government is doomed to fail from the very start.  Catch phrases like "wealth redistribution" and "progressive fiscal agendas" are more than simply words thrown about in heated political debates... they are milestones on the road to socialism in America, and as I have said a thousand times before:  Socialism cannot work in a macro setting without lowering every facet of society to the lowest possible denominator.

I can tell you this, right now, officially and with great personal conviction:  I think that when the time comes for the "correction" to occur (and a correction is coming, one way or another), it is going to be every bit as painful and costly as the correction that we now refer to as the Great Depression.  I am obligated to my family and my children to ensure that all that I can do to prepare for this and mitigate the problems that will arise from such a situation are done well in advance of it actually occurring.  If I learned anything from my experiences during the single largest crisis in my life (Katrina and the three years of financial disaster that followed) it is simply that counting on the Federal Government to do ANYTHING to help or support you in a time of need is taking the biggest gamble of your life.  Not only will no help come when it is actually needed, it couldn't be provided to most people in serious need across vast regions even if it was available.  The Supreme Court of the United States has already determined that there is no "obligation" for assistance or aide from the government (or any agency or institution therein) to the individual... only to the general population.

If you want to be sure you are adequately protected from hardships, deprivation, disaster or disease... then you had better protect yourself.  I promise you, no one else will.  That includes Barack H. Obama.