If one diverts one’s attention from felons catching footballs or running for president, the signs of financial fallout and societal decay abound in America.

The middle class is broke and vanishing at an alarming rate. Forty percent of working Americans do not meet the $28,000 federal standard for poverty qualification. And, again, those are people who are working. The real rate of unemployment in this country is staggering – probably close to 20%. Those poor without jobs and those marginally employed make ends barely meet via debt and government subsidies. Almost 50 Million are on food stamps.

The government caused a lot of the problems. Fiat money backed by nothing, runaway spending, burdensome taxes and regulations, and job-destroying programs like NAFTA and ObamaTrade have filed the growth of the government, select corporations and a wealthy, well-connected few. The lower, middle and upper-middle classes have been run through the ringer.

Whole Industries are changing. Everything that can be outsourced overseas is. No jobs for us. Everything that can be automated is. No jobs. Insane levels of immigration pushes native citizens out of the labor force. No jobs.

The jobs that remain for the people are low paying, bereft of benefits, and, increasingly, temporary (permanently temporary).  Those jobs too are cut whenever possible.

For years, decades the prosperity script was: go to college; get a good company job; buy a nice house; buy a nice car, and; have a family. Today, there are few corporate jobs to be had and they treat you like shit and pay you similarly. All those other things can only be accomplished by going into ridiculous levels of debt. All this is encouraged by the government and the Big Club. Theirs is a bastardized version of capitalism – corporatism – as bad for the free as communism.

Increasingly, many of the formerly normal concepts have become worthless. College education isn’t anymore. Schools used to educate young people. Now they mold them into pathetic, emotionally challenged wimps. These folks are not fit for employment or much else. And, many (maybe most, now) who do get jobs are employed in areas which do not require formal education anyway. Again, its only those lucky enough to find the jobs.

America is on edge, a time bomb waiting to go off.  All that is needed is either a trigger event(s) or enough realization by the people of how had they’ve been shafted the bomb goes off. Unpleasant to contemplate.

Rather than attempt to avert the disaster our “leaders” do everything conceivable to hasten the day of reckoning. Stupidity and evil are constantly on display in D.C. and mirrored throughout larger society.

I have written about this before:

These troubles will ultimately resolve themselves. After the inevitable big national bankruptcy we will have the chance for a reset. This should include universal debt repudiation and a return to a real monetary and financial system based on the free market. If done right there will be no room or need for any government meddling.

This future fresh start is the silver lining to look forward too. Make the best of the wild ride until then.

I am optimistic about the future though maybe not the immediate future. What to do until then?

The best lesson I ever got in college came in the way of side advice from a professor, the legendary C. F. Floyd. He said, “get your life out of sync with the rest of the world as fast as possible.” If the rest of the world falls apart, you need not participate.

Unnatural and deadly. Google.

I’m a big fan of Jame Altucher and Farnoosh Brock, both of whom rail against college for college’s sake and conventional, mythical employment. See if you agree with their reasoning and if their ideas are compatible with your life.

Learn what you want to not what you “need” to. Don’t go into debt. Don’t support a government bent on killing you. Don’t sacrifice family time slaving for a soulless corporation which really hates you. Pay no heed to the entertainment/distraction industry and their efforts to blind you.

Change yourself a little and the Big changes you encounter won’t hurt as much. Be yourself. Be free.