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From: Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net>
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Subject: Re: "Castigo Cay" by Matthew Bracken
Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2025 17:51:14 -0700
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On 7/22/2025 4:01 PM, Lynn McGuire wrote:
> On 7/22/2025 5:12 PM, William Hyde wrote:
>> Lynn McGuire wrote:
>>> On 7/21/2025 11:35 PM, John Savard wrote:
>>>> On Sat, 19 Apr 2025 17:55:16 -0500, Lynn McGuire wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> In the not so distant future, the USA Dollar has lost most of its 
>>>>> value
>>>>> and annual inflation is running 20% per year.  Gasoline is $60 per
>>>>> gallon and rationed at 10 gallons per week, so is electricity.  
>>>>> Food and
>>>>> housing are comparatively expensive.  The taxes have gone up including
>>>>> new personal healthcare taxes and such.  Many people have left the USA
>>>>> looking for cheaper places to live.
>>>>
>>>> Financial collapse is perhaps the last disaster I would imagine to
>>>> hit the United States first and harder than anywhere else.
>>>>
>>>> But precisely because the United States seems to be the world's
>>>> wealthiest nation, I suppose that overconfidence can lead it to
>>>> make mistakes.
>>>>
>>>> John Savard
>>>
>>> I think that financial collapse of the USA is the most prevalent 
>>> future.   The USA is deficit spending at 30% to 40% and the deficit 
>>> is increasing.  Keeping old people alive is very expensive as 
>>> Medicare and Social Security costs are rising rapidly (My wife and I 
>>> are the beneficiary of both).
>>>
>>> However, I do not know of any other country on Earth that is in very 
>>> good financial shape with even 1/10th of the population of the USA.
>>
>> The national debt of south Korea is about 40% of GDP, Germany about 
>> 65, France 90, the UK 100.  Canada and  the US are both about 120, 
>> Japan near 250.
>>
>> Where you draw the line of "in very good shape compared to the US" I 
>> do not know, but the first two should qualify, and possibly France also.
>>
>> Canada would have qualified pre-Covid.  Things can go downhill fast.
>>
>> William Hyde
> 
> The USA Dollar is the reserve currency of the Earth.  Many countries are 
> holding billions of Dollars as a part of their stability or their 
> requirements as a protectorate of the USA, such as Japan, etc.
> 
> That allows the USA to wildly abuse the the rest of the world in our 
> indebtedness.  But, the USA is testing that indebtedness level now and 
> in the future as it rapidly increases with huge annual deficits in the 
> trillions of dollars.
> 
Many countries are already moving away from reliance on the US Dollar 
because of the current federal Administrations attempts at policy.

-- 
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky 
dirty old man.