The End is Near

The Egyptians were the first real empire on the planet, controlling everything for the better part of 3000 years. They had a vast pool of slave labor to work their fields, build their pyramids, and fight their wars. For centuries the working class (slaves) had to tote that barge & lift that bale or face the wrath of the whip master. Ruling in this manner of brute force, meaning all stick and no carrot, has its limitations. Worker morale was poor, each whip master could manage only so many slaves, and those slaves were only as productive as they needed to be to avoid the business end of the whip. The system was rife with inefficiency.

  The Romans were the next real empire to come along. They improved the system by raising the morale of workers. They accomplished this by offering them the carrot of keeping some of what they produced. By giving the slaves a stake in their labor, not only did productivity soar, but less oversight was required. Eventually, productivity peaked and the only avenue for the sustainability of the empire was to expand by plundering foreign lands. So the Romans came up with a couple of more firsts for empire, perpetual wars, and currency debasement.  The gradual debasing of the currency allowed the ruling class to pay soldiers and fund expansion for centuries. Once the debasement was complete, however, with nearly all precious metal removed from coinage,  the cost for almost everything rose sharply, leaving the ruling class without the means to pay soldiers or fund wars. The empire collapsed shortly thereafter.

  The most recent empire is, of course, the United States. Like the Romans before them, they rule using the carrot, the stick, currency debasement, perpetual wars, and a few added improvements of their own. The go-to, rinse and repeat move of those currently running our empire, is to engineer a problem, which then requires the implementation of a government solution. The solution never works, and only creates additional problems, which of course require additional government solutions. Much like the mythical Greek Hydra, where every time you cut off one of its heads, two more grow back - the size and power of our government continue to expand with no end in sight.

Our rulers have also gifted us with an educational system that doesn’t educate. It exists only to indoctrinate our youth to the ways of institution by advocating conformity over curiosity, feelings over reason, group over the individual, and obedience over critical thought. This systematically eliminates all self-awareness and independent thought in our young. As they become adults, it is then much easier to manage their perceptions and beliefs through the unrelenting use of propaganda. Bagholder stands in awe at the ruling elite’s ability to manufacture consensus, frame discussion, and control thought, by marketing the imperial narrative across all platforms in a consistent, concise manner.

  The ruling elite are absolute masters at creating a shared sense of identity through the clever use of divisive, yet polarizing language (isms). Patriotism is routinely trotted out to manufacture the consent of the governed through the false paradigm of “us or them”. Terms like racism, terrorism, wokeism, etc…are used in an incendiary manner to eliminate rational thought, and elicit an emotional response - a feeling. Once you can get people to feel, instead of think, control is easy - especially with the current day non-stop proliferation of censorship. In classic Orwellian doublespeak, we are told we have the freedom of speech guaranteed to us by the first amendment in the constitution. Yet every day there are more and more people de-platformed, demonetized, and kicked off various social media apps, just for being critical of the prevailing government narrative.

   Even with all these added improvements to running an empire, ours is teetering on the brink. The problem is we do not produce anything in this country. Our largest employer is government, which produces nothing, and whose main exports are inflation and regime change. Our second-largest employer is the military-industrial complex, whose biggest exports are military bases, drone strikes, and war. This leaves the US in the precarious position of relying on other countries to make our goods. And worse yet, we need those countries to accept our dollars in exchange for those goods. The ruling elite are well aware the US empire would collapse immediately under the weight of hyperinflation, if the countries who produce things refused to accept our dollars in exchange for their goods. As a consequence, any country foolish enough to do that will get the full US war machine experience.

    Muammar Gaddafi from Libya tried just that when he said “NO more dollars for oil”. He was killed within weeks of uttering those words. Saddam Hussein publicly said “NO more dollars for oil” as well. Shortly thereafter, under the charade of “fighting terrorism”, we unleashed a full-scale invasion of Iraq. Saddam was killed in the process, and the US military seized the Iraqi oil fields (about 10% of world production).  Fast forward to today, now it is Russia thumbing its nose at the US, by selling their wares on the world stage without the use of dollars. Tsk Tsk.  As a result, we are now beating the drums of war in Russia’s direction. Of course, we are told their invasion of Ukraine is the impetus. Fact is though, the invasion, much like “fighting terror” was in the Gulf war, is only a pretense. It is all about the refusal to use dollars.

  If you look for them, all the signs of a collapsing empire are there. Just as the barbarians were arriving at the gates in Ancient Rome, the Roman empire had high taxes, massive debt, moral decay, multiple wars, soaring inflation, cultural rot, and political corruption. The US has all of those, in spades.  By the time Rome was sacked, it had been looted and hollowed out from the inside by the politically connected on their way out the door. In like manner, the Pelosi’s of the world today make more money in a month trading stock off inside information, than most of us make in a lifetime. Bagholder wonders, how is it the average net worth of members of congress is in the tens of millions when most of them have been “public servants” their whole lives?

    The imminent collapse of the US empire will not be pretty, as such, you might want to stop reading now. The soaring commodity prices we see today are just the opening salvo. Broken supply lines and empty shelves, will become the rule, not the exception. Expect the Hydra to then step in with price controls which, in typical government fashion, will only make things worse. Perpetually increasing inflation will lead to sharply higher interest rates. Those higher rates will crash living standards as well as all asset markets, including stocks, bonds, and real estate. Shortly after people watch their income streams shrink, their 401k’s evaporate, their high-paying jobs disappear, and their dollars unable to buy anything - the powers that be will usher in the era of permanent food shortages. Yeah, instead of wondering which Airbnb to rent next, most people will be left trying to figure from where their next meal is coming. While many of you reading this are skeptical any of this could happen here, know this: Empire only ends one way…Ugly.