Wake Up Dead

We've muddled our way through several rounds of stimulus now. The twelfth round is here and I'm wondering...what do we do if this eight hundred thousand million dollar public spending spree doesn't get us Merikans back to our own private spending sprees?

I italicize if, because I'm not quite so bold as to say when, although that's what I think's gonna happen.

The thing is, none of you have even contemplated the end game if this stimulus plan goes south, because it seems that no one, no one!, is gearing themselves up for living in a depression. Not one shred of consideration for the potential of having to live with less.

The way I see it, if a depression materializes, 10% of us will turn into delusional, panic-stricken dolts. 10% of us will have prepared. And 80% of us will stand around with our thumb up our ass, paralyzed by inaction and dumbfoundedness, like this couldn't possibly be happening to us. These are the same percentages that can be applied to virtually any American trial. During a blackout, 10% will completely lose it because they don't know how their $300 dollars worth of frozen meat is going to survive. 10% light their candles, burn propane cooking fuel and wrap up in blankets. And 80% sit in the dark and freeze, wait for two days at Home Depot for the next truckload of generators to magically arrive, or wake up dead from CO poisoning.

No one talks about "depression," much like we spent the better half of 2008 trying to avoid "recession," but it came anyway, didn't it.