A bleak future is in store if we continue this trend. All the pieces are lining up to create a “perfect storm” that will see the United States sink into socialism. Look at the evidence:

1. Fuel costs are on the rise. This causes…
2. Increased costs for goods and services. This includes…
3. Increased food costs. Part of this is because of #1 (higher fuel costs = increased production & delivery costs) and it’s also due to the use of corn for the production of ethanol instead of animal feed.
4. The sub-prime mortgage market implosion has helped put us in a recession. The government is in full-fledged panic mode, and trying to prop up our economy by continual fed rate cuts and a “tax rebate”; it’s only a matter of time before the Fed can’t do anything else and our economy goes into freefall. This will lead to…
5. Increased number of people getting laid off. Since many people bought into houses they couldn’t afford (thanks to — yes — sub-prime interest-only mortgages) more homes will go into foreclosure. These out-of-work people who are also out of a home will need…
6. Food, which is more expensive. (See #3.) It doesn’t help that…
7. The U.S. dollar is sinking rapidly in value on the world market, and is now worth less than the Canadian dollar.

So how does all this lead to a socialist tyranny nightmare?

No one is willing to stand up and take responsibility. No one is willing to say, “I screwed up. I made a bad decision.” Instead, they’re all looking to The Government to bail them out. And when The Government takes control, when The Government interferes too much, you have begun the decent into socialism.

We, as a nation, have become addicts. Addicts to stuff. SUVs and HDTVs. Starbucks and home theater systems. Designer clothes and iPods. And, like any addict, we are unwilling to give up our stuff. Rather than give up our stuff, we give up our responsibilities, and in giving up our responsibilities we give up our freedom. Freedom from failure is not freedom, it is slavery to they who keep you from failing.

People who are bailed out of foreclosure are enslaved by the state and federal governments that bail them out. U.S. banks are enslaved to foreign banks who bailed them out. The U.S. government is enslaved to China (among other countries) who loaned the U.S. money. And we’re not stopping. It’s not getting better. Why? Because we haven’t hit bottom. Like any addict, we, as a nation need to hit bottom. And The Government is doing everything it can to soften the blow, only lengthening and deepening the fall.

As the jobless rates climb, the number of people on food stamps will continue to increase. (There’s already a sharp rise in food stamp handouts. See here, here, and here.) And because of the skyrocketing food prices, the food stamps are buying less and less. So when the trucking industry, who delivers all our stuff (and most importantly, our food) goes broke, everyone will clamor for The Government to come to the rescue. Again. Then it will be in the position to use this stranglehold on the nation to impose any further expansion of the government that it sees fit.

Right now, The Government is busy fixing problems that it created in the first place. And rather than admitting it has only made problems worse, it uses the failures of its own policies to justify its own expansion.

And we will capitulate because food is a basic need, and because all along the yellow brick road, we failed to take responsibility because we wanted our stuff more than our freedom.