Monday, January 17, 2011

After the Collapse: Taking the Government Mountain

Part of what I see ahead is informed by a seers anointing. Part of it is an understanding of history and observation from traveling the world to many very poor countries. I offer this for your consideration. The beginning will be rough, but then end of it all will be much better. Prepare but fear not....

A vision of what life will be like after the cataclysmic economic collapse to come:

Today we look at what government and government institutions (public sector) will look like. When the collapse comes most of the underclass government workers will cease to get paychecks. Police, Fire, Military, Clerical, Administrative. First there will be delays in pay, and then they will stop altogether. There will be promises. Unkept. This will be disturbing but a strange event will take place. They will keep working...for a while.

Those at the top will see to it they are not unpaid. They will rob anyone to keep up the appearance of continuity in their jobs. But there won't be any. The public sector will become the haves and the have nots. Those in power for a while will rob those with no power. This happens in every have and have not country. Look at Mexico or Haiti.

Arguments about public pensions and retirement will cease to be a discussion because they will be diminished by monetary policy. Riots and anger will be tremendous but coming on the heels of collapse the riots will be impotent to change things. Society will see that there is nothing there.

The effort will be to honor the letter of the law by paying pensions with massively deflated money. People who thought they were due $3000 per month will receive $300 per month in real purchasing power. This by inflating the money supply to pay pensions and obligations with fiat money instruments. Social security will suffer the same fate. All governments use massive devaluation of currency to solve budgetary crisis. This will be no different.

The problem will be to try to operate essential government without money, without a tax base, without wealth. When the money is deflated in value and people are impoverished because of it, there is no ability to tax or confiscate money that isn't there. Fortunately slavery will remain illegal.

The result is that many civil servants will continue to go to work as they always did, even without pay. They will seek to hold their position in the vain hope that somehow someday they will be returned to steady income. This prisoner of hope will work sometimes for years until it becomes apparent that there is no hope. That government job isn't coming back. Prisons will slowly empty except for the very violent.

Police and firefighters will continue to do their jobs if unpaid for a while. But as they become discouraged will slow and stop. People will be on their own.

Laws will go unenforced. People will cease licencing autos, drive as they wish, fires will burn out of control, insurance will be unpaid, accidents uninvestigated. Lawsuits will fail simply because the person accused is unable to pay and the people suing won't pursue.

Courts will close. Lawlessness will increase. Anarchy will reign in some fragmented communities. Some of this will be beneficial. People will form informal unions, exchanges, business. They will transact with one another on barter. Unfettered by any enforcement from absent enforcers, building will commence crudely providing shelter in abandoned properties. Innovation will take place. No one will be there to kick them out and they will become "Owners".

In a strange way it will seem free. Lawless, but free.

In time people will reorganize themselves. Leaders will step forward. Some unrighteous. Some righteous. A more direct essential government will emerge. It will be the time when Christians will have the opportunity to take their rightful place of authority on the government mountain. They will be the only ones with the optimism and vision to see a better way forward. Government will have failed badly. Despots will arise. Yet, if the Christians step forward they will have a powerful force to contend with.

For the Christian this will be the time of community. House churches in neighborhoods (no one can drive) will dominate the scenery. People will help each other. There will be predators attempting to take advantage but that will be limited. As these fellowships grow into solid relational nodes the interface of these will form the core of new government. Old government which will still be in place will resist. There will be a battle to restore democracy with a truly representative government. Eventually the people will succeed, but there will be a hard road.

As people see the failure of government there will be a new day of new hope. This will take time. A lot of time. But in ten years with a new platform a new USA will emerge better than it was. It will look more like the USA of the 1950s in economics and government. Let's believe for better.

Next time, the Education Mountain.

2 comments:

Ron McK said...

This is an excellent description.

It would be more effective if you distinguished what you have received as a seer from what is based on your experience visiting various countries. The former should be tested as prophecy, whereas the latter should be tested for logic against other peoples experience.

The experience in the United States will be much more mixed than you suggest. Government will totally collapse in some states, some cities, and many small towns. However, the federal government in Washington will grow stronger. They have the power to get the resources that they need. People will gladly give it to them in hope of getting security. The faith in government in America is incredibly strong, much stronger than you would expect, given the illusion of the tea party.

The USA will go on to be the Beast of Revelation, the most powerful empire that the world has known, even as towns and cities are collapsing internally.

The US will not come out in ten years as you suggest. It will take much longer for the federal government to collapse and when it does, it will be very painful. This could take a generation or two to work out fully in America, if it is not destroyed first. Which way it will go is still in the balance, and depends on choices made by God's people.

The restoration of Christian community and government is not automatic. It will only happen if Christians are prepared and know what to do. If they are not ready, they will just be wiped out lime the rest of their society. It is really urgent that Christians start getting ready for what lies ahead.

Anonymous said...

Gene,

Thank you! The Lord has just answered my nagging questions through you. Yes! Let's believe for the better.