SHUTDOWN

I get heated, maybe a little too heated, but when I see the world that I live in and how badly we are in need of change, I get this way. I realize that the model is broken, our way of life is unsustainable, and collapse is imminent but I struggle to find evidence in my own daily life. What will be my first experience in this collapse? “Ask and you shall receive” or so the saying goes, and I can no longer deny it, it is at my doorstep. Minnesota, the state I live in has shut down its government. What does this mean? How will it affect my fellow Minnesotans? How will it affect my friends? The people I love?
Democrat, Republican, these words should be synonymous with corruption. I don’t care about the bickering and name calling these two antiquated groups continue to display. Minnesota is essentially in this position because these two sides cannot agree on $1.8 billion in spending and neither side can agree on how much more they want to tax us whether or not the tax is for the top 2%. Oh, and in case you didn’t notice we’re all still paying a silent tax, otherwise known as inflation, but I digress.
Our government closed all but critical services and some reports estimate 20,000 – 36,000 government employees could potentially be laid-off. The Star Tribune reports that the newly unemployed government workers will continue to receive health insurance. Care to guess the price of this? Get ready for some serious sticker shock…$4.7 million a week. That’s a lot of money and pissed-off people and some serious fuel to the fire.
According to the Brad Schrade of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Tax payments will continue but they are so understaffed that the state stands to lose about $52 million. Road repairs have been stopped. This is especially critical in my opinion due to our long and harsh winters. Will anyone be able to get to work if this goes on longer than expected? Here’s something I thought you might like, I pulled it directly from the Minnesota department of transportation. “Due to the shutdown of state government services, web pages have not been updated since 5 p.m. June 30. Email accounts and telephones are not being monitored and messages will not be returned during the shutdown.” Forget Ghost Town how ‘bout a “ghost website”!!
State parks where Minnesota makes a considerable amount of revenue will be closed until further notice. Rest areas are closed as well and I had heard that it cost the state government $5,000 to close the 60+ fully equipped rest areas in the state and $10,000 to reopen them. Here’s something pulled directly from the Minnesota department of transportation website. If all of this doesn’t tell you the system is broken, I don’t know what will.
It is day 7 here and I could go on and on but I’ll tell you what, it just got a little more uncomfortable here. Maybe we can get people to realize that our current government never truly cared about them. Maybe people will begin to realize that Collapse is coming whether we like it or not. Maybe this will make people realize that we need to evolve together, peacefully. Only time will tell and I hope I’m there to witness it.
Here’s some helpful websites about the shutdown:
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/06/13/minnesota-government-shutdown-faq/
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/58107_Page3.html

http://www.collapsenet.com/worldnewsdesk/commentary-analysis/guest-features/item/1208-shutdown-7-july-2011