Sanity exists

[badrose]

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/01/28/national/welfare-payments-to-be-slashed-%C2%A574-billion-to-root-out-the-comfortably-poor/#.UQcyj79qbsb

Welfare payments to be slashed ¥74 billion to root out the comfortably poor

[Doc]

Japan Smapan!

[CitizenBBN]

It's a shame it's so far away from where we need it.

[Catonahottinroof]

Considering Japan's debt to GDP ratio is over 200% there was little alternative.

[badrose]

Considering Japan's debt to GDP ratio is over 200% there was little alternative.

http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/economy/279857-report-fiscal-outlook-not-improved-by-debt-deal#ixzz2JOAYHF2u US debt headed toward 200 percent of GDP even after 'fiscal cliff' deal

[Catonahottinroof]

Japan can't compete with the rest of Asia for jobs because they are not competitive in the labor market.

Does any of this sound familiar...with Mexico just to our south sponging up manufacturing jobs daily?

[KeithKSR]

Our economy is a house of cards, one big shift and the whole thing will come tumbling down. Some economists claim there could be no collapse economy like the one experienced with the marked crash in 1929, I am skeptical that a crash could be averted if a few things continue down the wrong path.

[CitizenBBN]

Our economy is a house of cards, one big shift and the whole thing will come tumbling down. Some economists claim there could be no collapse economy like the one experienced with the marked crash in 1929, I am skeptical that a crash could be averted if a few things continue down the wrong path.

Always fun to watch the "it can't happen now b/c things are all different" crowd. They've been around throughout recorded history. Ah, the hubris of thinking you're so much smarter than anyone who came before you.

This one by these "educated" morons running things in the US may end up right up there with the "we will make war impossible by making it too horrific to allow to happen" crowd who created the interlocking defense treaties that turned an assassination into WWI.

People are stockpiling 22 ammo so bad you can't buy it and there are entire TV series dedicated to prepping. Clearly a number of folks disagree with the "all is well" view of our economic future. lol.

[KeithKSR]

People are stockpiling 22 ammo so bad you can't buy it and there are entire TV series dedicated to prepping. Clearly a number of folks disagree with the "all is well" view of our economic future. lol.

Gotta wonder how many preppers there are out there who aren't disclosing they are preppers. With the general feeling of the nation not being on the right track being what it is being optimistic about the immediate future is not realistic.

We are just a serious drought, natural disaster or any one of a huge number of things which can occur and throw our entire country into chaos. Look at what a winter storm warning does to the shelves at grocery stores. If trucks couldn't run for a couple of days to keep shelves stocked things could get ugly in a hurry.