k wrote:

flynn23 wrote:
Hopefully, I'll be living somewhere else.

Sadly, perhaps, my attitude is exponentially trending in this direction as well. I'm pessimistic about my ability to comfortably and happily continue living here. It's depressing.

Well, when I said that, it was partially tongue in cheek, as if to say, the grave.

Ultimately, I don't think it will matter. There might be SOME places to run to. But I think that governments as we've known them in the 20th century will be an anachronism. Not to sound too William Gibson, but multi-national corps will likely be the next equivalent thing to that construct. Given that the US and many other nations are outsourcing prime processes of government at an ever accelerating rate, then it's highly likely that the concept of government will homogenize. Much like every mall looks the same no matter what part of the country you're in because every mall has the same stores designed to operate in the same way.

As far as getting less bureaucratic government and more convenience out of the deal, I'm not sure that I'm totally against this happening. If you're a world traveler, particularly of American origination (and stats show that there are more and more of you), it actually helps that health care or law or commerce look and feel mostly the same wherever you go. I think this is in the US's best interest, and it might've been in the stew that propelled the thinking to invade Iraq (we'll spread our culture there so that they'll more likely buy into the system instead of cower against it, no pun intended).

But it's a slippery slope, because for every "convenience" and "market economy" we give to the world, the more "totalitarianism" and "thousand year hatred" we have to injest and solve for. Compromise will be the name of the day. And you're seeing that now as we whittle away at the towers of freedom and liberty and ideals to become more and more just like the other coffee store up the street.

RE: Why you'll never retire...