The Paths Toward War

Why the nations are heading toward disaster today.

With tensions mounting the world today is a tinder box where at any moment a spark of threatening rhetoric could ignite the flames of destruction that would engulf the world.  The rhetoric coming from Trump has made it clear that our President is hell bent on provoking retaliatory responses from North Korea. Today, there is no justification to the antagonistic approach that our infamous President is forging. It is clear that he is trying to intimidate the country of North Korea. With the media focusing on the turbulence stemming from the agitation that Trump is engaging  we are purposely directed away from the real reasons why the world today is such a hot bed of aggression that would ultimately seal the fate of not only the United States but the rest of the world.  In true to form our President has not an ounce of realization of what the consequences of what would escalate into an all out confrontation would bring should North Korea act on the provoking rhetoric of Trump.. 

We have to realize what brought the world to this point. What is truly behind the irrational behavior of our President and others leaders more rational approach to world circumstances. There are major contributing factors that continue to thrust nations to the brink of war. When we realize what these factors have done to undermine civilization we will have a better understanding of how to correct the course humanity is heading.  

The first thing we have to understand is that nations today have accumulated massive amounts of debt. Look no further than the United States. When we think back say some 45 years ago the United States had only $.30 in debts for every dollar of our GDP. Today, that ratio is $1.32 of the GDP. More than quadrupled. That debt does not include the trillions in U.S. government obligations like Social Security, Medicare and Veterans benefits. It does not include debts of U.S. corporations, consumers {Credit Card and Student loans} and local governments. When you through in the trillions in high risk bets made by those too big to fail banks called derivatives we can see just how far the United States is in debt. 

The result of all this has been a series financial collapses each one larger that the previous one. Remember the collapse of the U.S. dollar in the late 1970's followed by the crash of the United States bond market of the first part of 1980. Then there was a flood of bank failures through out that decade. The insurance industry failures. Then in 2007 the housing market collapse which set off a string of other catastrophic events which turned into the worst financial disaster since the Great Depression. To think the United States is the lone contributor in massive debt other major economic powers have plunged even deeper in debt than the United States. 

To combat and ease the strain of debt which is still like a noose strangling the life blood of nations our leaders have chosen to use the more convenient way in addressing the problems of debt. The core aspect of governments today in escaping the harsh realities of eliminating the debt crisis is by just printing more money. Think back to all those Quantitative Easing done by the Federal Reserve. In Europe following the Federal Reserve example European banks started flooding banks with an seemingly unstoppable about of freshly minted Cash. Banks then pushed the interest rates to practically zero.  What this did only created the greatest income inequality in history.

We always had a disparity in incomes. For instance back in 1978 the top 1% of Americans controlled just about 23% of the nations wealth. But, today the income disparity rate in America has more than quadrupled where the top 1% now control more than 92% of the nations wealth. To think that the U.S. is the lone nation that has the greatest income disparity Russian millionaires control more than double what the top 1% of Americans control. Meanwhile China's gap has grown the fastest than any other country in the world. To date China has suffered the most radical shift from equality to inequality of any other nation around the world. 

We can only conclude that when there is so much inequality around the world corruption always is a result. It is that wealth empowers certain so called elites who now have the means to obtain government positions. In these positions they now have more opportunities to steal and cheat just to satisfy their lust for more power, control and wealth. This is a large contributor to the fact of the continued impoverishment of the middle and lower class. This is not only a pandemic in governments but also in business. Many times this corruption is not only criminal but many a time are hidden in technically legal schemes deliberately designed to deceive the public. Case in point, the housing bubble of 2007 that burst and the subsequent financial crash that followed. Livelihoods, life savings, and so many homes were lost just because of the deceptive practices of our financial institutions. That's just in the United States. European nations followed and Russia still has one of the worst records of corruption that has kept their economic fortunes alive just for their 1%. 

With so much corruption and the ever widening income inequality another factor to why the world is heading toward disaster is the fact that nations have become so divided it is almost impossible to rectify the extreme political divisiveness that continues to pull apart nations. It is no more evident than right here in the United States. Today, our government is locked in gridlock where political parities continue to avoid compromise. When government fails to provide the means for people to unite behind their government the ugly head of tyranny rises. We are now on the the very seam to where tyranny will take hold just has it has done in North Korea and many other nations. 

When the head of tyranny rises the result is catastrophic for mankind. Wars erupt, death and destruction follow. Which only concludes that we have learned nothing from our past. Could this be the path man has chosen? Or will sensible men take the reigns of power and steer humanity back on a course away from the tragic trajectory mankind is now heading? 

To change the trajectory that the United States is on there has to be radical reforms implememted almost immediately if we are to save ourselves form ourselves. There is too much at stake for mankind and our planet not to realize what is actually happening and the reasons why they are happening not to head the lessons of history and implement National Economic Reforms Ten Articles of Confederation before it really is too late.