Thursday Thirteen

It appears the United States is on the verge of collapse. Even the Democrats are acknowledging this on the talking head shows. Civil war won't be state against state, it will be more like gangs, as I understand it. These little militias that are popping up all over the south will take control and shoot anyone they please, I suppose.

At any rate, I have questions about what happens if the government fails. I am assuming if it does, we will become an authoritarian state, with a single ruler, like in Russia, China, or North Korea. We could be an oligarchy but we're pretty much already that, so I assume major changes imply authoritarianism. Here are some of my questions.

1. If the United States fails as a government, will its citizens be responsible for its trillions of debt? Other nations will want to be paid what we owe them. Will each citizen be asked to cough up the $56,715 per individual that it would take to pay this off? (That's assuming 300 million people; if many more die from Covid or are killed in the civil war, then the amount per person would be more. Of course, if you're a family with 4 kids, that means you have to pay $340,290 for a family of six.)

2. Would anyone be able to maintain private property, or would the supreme ruler declare that s/he owns everything, and we must pay rent on the things we've already bought and paid for?

3. Would such things like Medicare and Social Security continue? If they don't, how will the people who depend on these public programs receive health care and have enough money to live?

4. Would all of the prisoners who were sentenced under current US laws go free?

5. Who would be in charge of enforcing order? Would we become a police state? (Papers, please.)

6. What would happen to public schools? If we have no public schools, then someone is going to be home to take care of the children, most likely women. Who will fill their jobs? Or will those jobs even exist anymore?

7. Would we be required to take part in a state religion? What if we don't like that religion? What if you're a Baptist and the services are more like Episcopalian, and you don't like that? Would people be lined up and shot because they don't want to go to church?

8. Without regulations over various things, how would we be sure that any work performed, such as building a house, is performed in a safe and good manner, so that the house doesn't fall in during a high wind?

9. Without public-supported fire departments and emergency service providers, will blocks of cities simply burn down during the civil war portion of this? Back in the late 1880s, several blocks of the Town of Fincastle burned down. Will we see entire towns go up in flames?

10. What happens to health care? Do hospitals keep running, or do they shut down? Who pays these people to keep the hospital running? Do people die then of preventable or curable things, like heart attacks? Who takes care of the gunshot wounds from the civil war? Do we go back to having the neighbor next door take an axe to a limb to keep a person alive?

11. Does the US Dollar maintain any value if we lose the government? Or will the dollar be like US Confederate money, totally worthless? Would we all become penniless, with nothing in the bank? Will banks even be operational? How would we keep the lights on? Or pay the cellphone bill? Or buy food? How many people would starve?

12. What happens to media and information? We're already swamped with misinformation campaigns. Would all the media fold? Would we even have TV? If the money is no good, who is going to keep TV running? How will the Internet continue to work? Will anything work, actually? Would we ultimately end up with state-run TV, seeing only what the supreme one deems fit? What if he doesn't like Downton Abbey or Yellowstone or football?

13. How many people could we reasonably expect to die under these circumstances? I estimate at least 10% of the population, and that's probably a conservative figure. That would be 30 million people. Who are you prepared to lose in order to see the government fail?

These are valid questions to ask and think about. I'm under the impression that many people who want to see the government fail - and apparently that's about 30% of the population - haven't given the future much thought. Maybe these people think they will somehow be protected because they support the supreme one, whoever that may be. But, will these people like everything? And what if s/he simply says, "death squad" to anyone who disagrees with him/her about anything? What if he shoots your grandma, or she starves to death because she's lost social security?

Do these people simply not care?

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Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while, and this is my 744th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.