If you don’t feel any pain, you tend to repeat self-destructive behavior.

Inability to feel pain is a serious medical condition, leading to scenarios like:

“After Effects: The truly frightening part of HSAN-CIPA is that since children cannot feel internal pain, they cannot tell their parents or their doctors when something is wrong internally. Often, they must fall critically ill before internal problems are surfaced. Worse, they often die from fatal injuries and infections that feeling pain would have prevented. So the next time you feel pain, also feel gratitude for the fact that it is keeping you safe. “

I heard a story about it, I think on NPR, but it was labeled a “non-event” because of the margin of Obama’s victory. It is another example of how little things change. After the 2000 debacle, there was a hue and cry to eliminate it, but that didn’t last long. The public is short on memory and long on apathy… but that may change in hard times, if we really have any on a widespread scale.

“Perhaps they realize our economy will languish for years, but if they can spread the suffering out over a long enough time period, then we will be like the frog in the pot of slowly heated water: we will not react negatively to it and the stability of the nation will be preserved”.

Agree with the foregoing. And add the fact that Bush will be long gone before the true cost of this mess becomes obvious to the majority (so why should he care?). As for those in Congress (e.g., Frank and Pelosi) who will probably still be there many years from now, it’ll be a simple matter to point fingers at someone else, or to argue that “no one saw it coming”.

this: “So, in your view, will we survive and grow stronger in body, mind, and character, or will it be the end of us as a nation?”

Is The Q:. We, each, and Every, Need to Answer. If we thought we were going to get, Political, Change, by the results of Nov., We need to start Thinking.

As an aside, anybody catch the coverage of The Electoral College? was there any? no? telling..

I am very bullish on commodity prices during 2010. But I’m not all that bullish on commodities over the next four months. Over the next 6 months (at least), there’s not going to be much difference between “nominal” data and “real” data.

@KJ Foehr…
““Pain-free” is just an euphemism for dead.”

Yes, that would be true. But that is the goal, not the actual outcome. In my view, pain can’t be eliminated, we can only reduce it and, as a consequence, raise the pain threshold such that what was previously not painful now is. Thus we become increasingly weaker and more “spoiled”.

and

“Their attempts at pain elimination will ultimately fail, as always, and will accomplish the exact opposite of their intent. The pain will ultimately be greater for having spent so many resources trying to forestall it.”

So, in your view, will we survive and grow stronger in body, mind, and character, or will it be the end of us as a nation?

“Pain-free” is just an euphemism for dead. But you are correct. Virtually all of the developed-world’s governments do everything they can to eliminate pain, yet pain is our only hope for salvation.

Their attempts at pain elimination will ultimately fail, as always, and will accomplish the exact opposite of their intent. The pain will ultimately be greater for having spent so many resources trying to forestall it.

“… Why the government does not let bankruptcies happen AND THEN make sure the process is orderly with government financial assistance is beyond me.”

IMO, the governments refusal to allow companies to fail is partially a reflection of the pain-free ethos that has grown in this country in recent decades, e.g., eliminating the pain of corporeal punishment in schools, painless dentistry, social promotion in schools, grade inflation in colleges, and generally giving all individuals the right to a physically and, more relevant here, emotionally pain-free life, everywhere: in the workplace, social interactions, business transactions, on the playground (bullying), and even in the playing of soccer where scores are not kept in order to protect children from the pain of loss. Pain has become unacceptable in this country.

This expanding “right” is supported by threat of lawsuits where large cash judgements are often awarded for “pain and suffering”. While this trend is not entirely bad, it has become so pervasive in the culture that it has made us weak and over confident to the point where we have lost much of our ability to endure hardships.

So TPTB are trying to minimize the pain for all of us that they believe would arise from the collapse of any large corporation, and in another serious depression that might develop as a result of too many bankruptcies. They allowed it happen with Lehman, but I don’t think they liked the pain that resulted and so they are not going to let it happen again.

As my father, who was born in 1921 said, “This country couldn’t stand another Depression; people wouldn’t put up with it.” He sensed that people had grown too weak and that there would be chaos, riots, and starvation, perhaps leading to the collapse of our government. I think TPTB fear this too, thus they are doing everything they can to avoid any sudden pain. Perhaps they realize our economy will languish for years, but if they can spread the suffering out over a long enough time period, then we will be like the frog in the pot of slowly heated water: we will not react negatively to it and the stability of the nation will be preserved.

W.C. Fields said: “Never give a Sucker an even break”

the sad thing is, of course, We’re being made the Suckers..

If we only had ‘The Owl’ about, to tell us how long we’re going to last..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fGTUFqPJo4
30 seconds..