The coming era of do less with less

I predict that the ongoing underground economic funk is going to result in a "do less with less attitude" going forward.  Sure, the stock market is at peak values and yes the headline unemployment number is low (although thinking people like Peter Schiff call that number blue smoke and suggest we use the so called U6 number of ~11% as the real unemployment rate).  But the middle class has fallen off the table onto the floor and we are now a nation of have a lots and have very little; the middle ground has been decimated.

Today's evidence point for this thesis is Trump's declaration that NATO countries will have to pay more else the US will do less.  But NATO countries all have their own economic challenges so paying more of the huge US warmongering budget is not going to fly.  Those countries were getting what they were getting at the price they were getting it at for a long time and they are not going to easily agree to the price hikes.  Not because they don't want to but simply because other things will rate higher in the budget discussion than the US's protection racket.  After all, defense budgets are insurance and insurance is for the rich.  The poor don't care if they are insured or not if the alternative is to become even poorer due to high insurance premiums.

Bottom line, they took what they were getting because it was a cheap deal but Trump is not going to have any pricing power in the protection racket market these days.  In fact, if he doesn't watch it then he will find some NATO countries telling him to take his ass out of their strategically located country.  Trump acts like he is in a position of power here but I don't see it like that. 

None of this is any good for the military industrial complex folks.  That tree thought it was going to grow to reach the sky and many fools believed it could happen but there is a limit as to how much money people will waste on military budgets and I think the American people are about fed up with paying that bill, even if all of it just went onto the country's credit card.

America, it's time to get used to the new normal of doing less with less, just like the rest of the world.