Local Responses to Federal Insolvency

The federal government will default. We don’t know when or in what sequential order, program by program. But it will default. The numbers are clear.
No one in power acknowledges what the numbers reveal. The leaders ignore it. The masses assume it can’t happen to them. They don’t deserve this, they conclude, so it just cannot happen. But it will happen.
When the checks stop coming from Washington, what will local regions do?
COUNTIES
I start with Pareto’s law. About 80% of the population resides in 20% of the counties/cities. This means that in 80% of the counties/cities, residents’ lifestyles will not change much. There will be no riots. The residents are not rich. Their sense of deprivation will be limited.
These regions will be left alone. The Feds and the states will have their hands full in the cities. Resources will flow where the votes are. This will not be rural counties.
There will be liberty in these counties. The good old boys will face new challenges. They have built their regimes with state and federal money. The locals can challenge them. That’s when we will see how strong the Tea Party is.
Inner cities will be cordoned off during violent riots. There are few streets in or out. Police cars will block the outlets. The riots will not spread. They will burn themselves out. Riots do not go on for months. People get tired. They run out of stores to loot.
The ghettos are dependent on those outside. Either the residents of the ghettos cool it, or else they starve. It’s simple. The rest of us really don’t need them, economically speaking. They need us.
Liberals need these dependents in order to justify their employment in the welfare state’s bureaucracies. They also want to feel needed. But when the checks stop coming, liberals will have to get jobs in the private sector. They will run out of other people’s money.

This post was published at Gary North on March 23, 2016.