The Coming Collapse: A Polite, Elderly Robber

"I entirely concur in the propriety of resorting to the sense in which the Constitution was accepted and ratified by the nation. In that sense alone it is the legitimate Constitution. And if that is not the guide in expounding it, there may be no security for a consistent and stable, more than for a faithful exercise of its powers. If the meaning of the text be sought in the changeable meaning of the words composing it, it is evident that the shape and attributes of the Government must partake of the changes to which the words and phrases of all living languages are constantly subject. What a metamorphosis would be produced in the code of law if all its ancient phraseology were to be taken in its modern sense. And that the language of our Constitution is already undergoing interpretations unknown to its founder, will I believe appear to all unbiassed Enquirers into the history of its origin and adoption."
--James Madison, letter to Henry Lee, 1824
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The Coming Collapse of the United State

"Get ready for a wave of very polite, awkward robberies as people who lived their entire lives thinking that the government was protecting them find out, one by one, that they have been robbed blind for decades and will be desperate to do anything to get food on their tables for themselves and their families.

"Those who live inside the US may think that things aren't getting that much worse because they live within the system and it happens so incrementally that you may not notice the change. But for someone who only visits once or twice per year it is very obvious just how quickly things are declining.

I return, very happily, back to the freest country in North America, Mexico. At least there when you get stopped by the police you just give them 100 Pesos ($8) and have a good smile and a laugh. And when you leave a bar with your drink in Mexico the only thing you are bound to be confronted with is by some pretty young girl asking you if you'd like a plastic cup with some ice for the road!"