...I suspect I may have answered the wrong question.

I think you may be curious how I personally deal with these issues, as opposed to my recommendations for policy on a national level.

I have a great interest in politics and economics because I am a student of history. I see what is happening around me now as history in the making, as opposed to a series of events which are part of my own biography. History is a process that is constantly occurring, and certainly affecting me, whether I am aware of it or not. But it is not an evil conspiracy directed against me personally, masterminded by sinister forces and people determined to get me.

I feel I am very lucky, that I am insulated and separate from what is going on around me in the world of "Current Events". Although I certainly have sincere preferences as to which political party and philosophy dominates our future history, these are to a certain extent abstract and academic. I've tried to design my life so that I am independent as much as possible from whatever might go wrong. I almost can confess I'm ready for the bad guys to win, so that just out of sheer curiosity, I can find out what will happen if they actually succeed in getting their way. After all, just because the future I wish for fervently materializes will not guarantee I will benefit from it. And vice-versa.

Like I said, I think I'm very lucky, things have worked out well for me, or perhaps, I've even managed my life wisely and have managed to maneuver myself into a fairly secure place, a situation where I can sit back and just watch this movie play out to the final scene.

Sure, I know things may go awfully bad, either politically or economically, and no doubt there are all sorts of other personal disasters that could dump on me unexpectedly. But you could say that about any time or place in history, or any person, and at my age, tragedy, health or finances could probably sneak up on me and blindside me at any time. But we all have that fear, and face that same threat. After all, we might wind up getting hit by a meteor during surgery. You can't plan for everything.

Still, I have taken all the reasonable precautions, and to worry and fret about what might happen next would just be paranoia. The other shoe eventually drops for everybody, unexpectedly, no matter what we do, so its pointless to obsess about it. Maybe I'm being too smug about it all, but that doesn't hurt anyone else, so my conscience is clear.

Whatever the future has in store for me, historically or personally, I'm in good shape to deal with it now. And if it turns out to be a real pain in the ass, something completely overwhelming and thoroughly intolerable, well...I'll just have to deal with it when it gets here, won't I?

In the meantime, I'm just going to kick back, roll another one, and listen to my Spirit albums.