The South Should Have Won

"Behind every fortune is a great crime" - Honoré de Balzac

The War Between the States was not about slavery. It was about what almost every war is about.

Money.

And as St. Paul wrote, "The love [actually lust] of money is the root of all evil." (Radix malorum est cupiditas - Latin that means "greed is the root of evils." Or, in the proper sentence order, the root of evil is greed.)

Half the wealth in this country is concentrated along the Boston/New York/Washington D.C. corridor. These are the Yankees that started the War Between the States. This is pretty much where the "1%" live.

The death rate among Southern officers - the smartest - was appalling.

How what is there that makes this corridor so rich?

Why, the federal government, of course. Sucking up taxpayer money.

I once had a girlfriend who lived right outside of D.C. - in Maryland - and worked for the feds. She started at $100,000 a year and got a $10,000 a year raise every year.

The South should have won.

The more war, the wealthier this corridor becomes. "Rich man's war, poor man's fight." The Bushes, for example, are not Texans but wealthy New England Yankees.

Governments go through three phases: agricultural, industrial, and when they start to collapse, financial. The latter is always associated with Empire.

We are deep into the financial/empire phase, thanks to that corridor and the people who keep sending politicians there, thinking they'll make a difference. For bad, yes. For good, no.

Let's put it this way: do you really think it would be any worse if they South had won and we now had two countries?

I give us until 2030.

"The business of war is profitable. In 2011, the 100 largest contractors sold $410 billion in arms and military services. Just 10 of those companies sold over $208 billion." - USA Today