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“Speaking of nukes” I said once my brain had returned to the previous topic left hanging in the air. “What about that Wimins nuclear strike thing you started on before we veered into this thought stream?”
“In 2013 America was still growing. There were 13.2 births per thousand people and only 8.4 deaths. Within three years we will be looking at less than 5 births per thousand and the death rate will remain about the same. The construction business will plummet because we will quickly have more available housing than there are people to occupy them. Much of the country will become like Detroit is today, dozing under entire subdivisions because there is nobody living there and the city cannot maintain services for unoccupied dwellings. Retail industries selling home owners stuff to put in their homes will start going under.”
“You see” she continued. “Economists and governments base their policies on perpetual growth. It’s a flawed assumption. When a population begins to shrink rapidly the policies and economic models fail spectacularly.”
“The press is all up in arms about Russian hacking and other interference in the last election” she continued without missing a beat. “Now they have a nuclear weapon of our own making. They don’t have to attack candidates. Now they can wipe out America by planting thousands of stories of “inappropriate behavior” getting more guys lives ruined. They can even go old school and just pay women to make the claim. Let’s face it. Every woman who has ever dated has had a guy try to put the moves on her when she wasn’t in the mood. Hell, she might have went along with it and enjoyed it then changed her mind years later. I certainly have. It doesn’t matter. Once this pendulum starts moving a bit faster, those women who don’t have the lives they wanted will start blaming the men in their past. Then the proper incentive will be offered for them to come forward.”
“In short,” she continued, “men are going to be saving money by not going out on dates. Tissue sales will sky rocket and every industry based on growth will collapse. It’s getting really hard to pick dividend paying stocks now. Trying to decide which companies will be decimated by this new trend in America. The twenty-something males hooking up via apps need to hope this all gets sorted out before the women they are hooking up with become thirty-somethings unhappy with how their life is going. The era of this being mostly angry old white men is about to be over.”
“Not exactly what one expects to hear in a stock prospectus” I offered.
“It’s what is needed if you don’t want to fall victim to the next crash” she responded. “I wish you could talk to Ingrid McGinnis. Not only is she a riot, she has figured out what caused all of this.”
“Oh really?” I questioned.
“It’s her story to tell, so you have to ask her for the prospectus. She works at the union hall on the other side of town. Really great person. She lives in ‘The Neighborhood.’”
“Isn’t every neighborhood referred to as ‘The Neighborhood’ by the people who live there?” I asked.
“Maybe, but everyone who grew up here calls where she lives ‘The Neighborhood.’ It’s not an overly wealthy part of town, but most everyone wanted to live there when everyone had jobs. Mostly Irish and Italian Catholics. Very old school. Quite a few Jewish families have moved in there for the same reason, it’s ‘The Neighborhood.’ Some of their kids went to my school.”
Melony continued “I never knew anything about Jewish people, well, besides history class, until I met the kids from there. Do you know they have this one holiday or holy day where Jews aren’t allowed to own yeast and I think some other things. The family which owns the bagel shop downtown lives in ‘The Neighborhood.’ Each day, before the holy day, that family sells the shop to this Italian family which also lives in ‘The Neighborhood’ for one dollar. The Italian family gets a refresher course in how to make all of the stuff the shop makes then they operate it the entire next day. On the following day they sell it back for one dollar.”
“I always thought that was so cool” Melony said in a dreamy kind of high school girl way.
“How so?” I asked genuinely interested.
“As far as I know theirs is the only religion which mandates the existence of at least one other. If everyone was a devout Jew each year they would have to waste massive amounts of yeast and other things. I mean, nobody could own a company which makes yeast, could they? There would be months where people couldn’t get any bread. In World History class you learn about the Ottoman Empire, Less Than Great Crusades and basically every other religion trying to be the one religion which ruled the world, but that can’t happen if your religion mandates another religion exists to fulfill the duties of this holy day. Every religion needs to have such a holy day.”
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