The Age of Uncertainty

Karen an I are in the process of retrenching as we live out our remaining years while navigating troubled waters. We have recently arranged for in home care and assistance. Though a Godsend, we now find ourselves dipping into savings to get by. (Not to worry, barring an economic collapse, we should be fine.) We have had to cut back on things like travel, leisure, dining out, charitable giving, and helping family members.

            We see some dark clouds in the future. I retired under an archaic public pension system that virtually no one is still paying into. For now, it seems safe, but the system has few advocates left. The current wave of anti-government populist nationalism will probably create some instability in all our lives. Perhaps ours more than yours.

            I expect the cost of living to go up dramatically as tariffs are imposed and workers are deported. The air and water will get dirtier while temperatures rise bringing more adverse weather events. Farmers will adapt to changing conditions by finding new ways to raise new crops. Safer areas will see an influx of climate refugees. Energy prices will continue enriching the oligarchs, Russians, and Middle Eastern potentates. They will have increasing sway in domestic and world affairs. People will continue to feel that their governments don’t care about them. The right to freedom of expression will be constrained by social pressures if not by legal means. Governments will become more authoritarian. Pressure groups will seek to impose their values on others. No country will step forward to promote world peace and human rights. Whole populations will find themselves increasingly marginalized.

            Here at home the economy is about to go through considerable disruption. Tariffs will raise prices and result in retaliatory tariffs on our exports. Any jobs created by domestic protectionism could be offset by decreased sales of American goods overseas. Income disparity will continue to increase. Hunger and homelessness will be on the rise.People who can no longer afford health insurance will get sicker. Social unrest will get uglier.

God help us if another airborne virus strikes. There will not be enough mask wearing, social distancing, closures, or vaccines to protect us. Waters will rise as more glacial ice melts. Kiss the coastal areas goodbye if Antarctica’s Doomsday Glacier slides into the sea.

I no longer see myself as part of the solution to the world’s problems. Like you, I have concluded that it is now every man for himself.

Good luck. I’ll see you on the other side, if there is one.

LDT November 12, ‘24

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