10 Predictions for 2023
’Tis the season for another year of BS
It’s not uncommon for people to take stock of their lives as one calendar year ends and another begins.
Some make resolutions while others simply vow not to make the same mistakes that got them into trouble the previous year.
As for me, I’m going to predict what 2023 has in store for 99 percent of the U.S. population, i.e. those without any political power.
My predictions for 2023 aren’t scientifically based.
They are founded on the fact I am a breathing human who has paid attention to how the political duopoly has served their corporate masters and fellow oligarchs since the early 1980’s, to the detriment of everyone else.
Oh, and I am capable of critical thinking, so there’s that.
So here’s my top ten list — in no particular order — of how regular people will continue to get screwed in the new year: (and tidbits on how to cope).
Mainstream media will step up its efforts to divide people
They will have no choice.
Many people are waking up to the reality the mainstream media’s only purpose is to scare, divide, gin up, and panic viewers between commercials.
American Journalist Andrew Callaghan, who runs a YouTube channel with more than two million subscribers, recently schooled CNN talking head Don Lemon on that very point.
And Lemon, predictably, did not take it well.
CNN will never invite Callaghan for another interview after that nationally televised smackdown.
It’s surprising the network didn’t experience “technical difficulties” like it has so many times when a guest went rogue.
Cable networks and legacy media will double down on their efforts to control the narrative and vilify anyone who doesn’t go along.
Politicians of both parties will send billions to Ukraine
American politicians of all stripes are like your Aunt Clara, who always saves the best gifts for peripheral relatives or non-relations.
U.S. politicians continue to give Ukraine billions of tax dollars without batting an eye while telling residents of Houston, Detroit, Flint, and several other big cities to boil their water.
And start a GoFundMe for medical bills.
And nuke your future by taking out student loans, most of which carry comparable interest rates to home mortgages.
And expect Congress to break labor strikes and side with management, and fine people for feeding the homeless.
But to complain about politicians’ generosity to others is selfish.
After all we have the “privilege” of living in the richest country in the history of the world.
Economic recession will worsen
I say “worsen” because we already are in a recession. I don’t need some self-appointed “expert” to tell me what’s what.
All I have to do is fill up my gas tank, go grocery shopping, pay my rent, and eat at a restaurant to tell me the economy is shit.
And also look at my sorry-ass paycheck, which remains woefully inadequate when compared to inflation.
The worst part is the recession has been triggered not by inflation or the ridiculous assertion that people have too much money, like the so-called experts (i.e. shills for the oligarchs), assert.
No, greed is why we are suddenly paying more for essentials.
And because our corporate-bought government refuses to do anything meaningful about the price-gouging, things will only get worse in 2023.
And like The Elf on a Shelf, solutions to the current recession will be elusive, especially when those in power benefit from artificially prolonging it.
Government will bail out banks, Wall Street
Just like in 2009 when Obama bailed out the law-breaking banks and gave struggling Americans the middle finger, President Biden and Congress will rush to the aid of their wealthy friends when the stock market crashes and/or their profit margins shrink.
But you and me? We will get nothing or next-to nothing, and we will be told to be grateful.
The federal government is like parents who favor one child (corporations) over another (the rest of us). It’s like your big brother getting a new car from Mom and Dad for Christmas while you open a pair of second-hand socks.
Seems equitable.
The worst part is those with Trump Derangement Syndrome and the Vote Blue No Matter Who crowd will waste time defending their favorite politician, failing to realize for the umpteenth time that the elite class stick together to protect their own.
Gas prices will fall to $3/gallon nationally
And we will like it. Not only that, partisan party hacks and Americans who still believe we live in a democracy will praise it.
They will give credit to the president, to OPEC, to whomever while ignoring the reason they were paying $7/gallon in the first place: corporate greed.
Full stop.
The public will suffer from collective amnesia, forgetting we paid a national average of $2.47/gallon for gas as recently as 2020.
Paying an artificially inflated price at the pump is like receiving a fruitcake from grandma on Christmas Day, survivable but barely palatable.
“The Squad” will defend funding wars and a police state
Listen, a woman that looks sharp in a business suit on the cover of Vanity Fair (AOC) is above criticism.
Wrong.
We should hold ALL politicians accountable, whether we like them, think they are good looking, or appreciate when they play act as if they are fighting for regular folks.
They aren’t. None of them are.
In fact, they despise us, especially when we dare to question them.
The only time they — including the media-contrived Squad — vote against military spending or increased police budgets is when they know their vote won’t matter, i.e. when their party already has in the bag the votes to pass legislation without them.
Other times, they wimp out and vote “present” to avoid voter accountability.
And before you leave a comment defending The Squad by saying, “Well, what have YOU done to make the world better?”
I will give you my candid response:
“I do not have the political power Congress members do, AND I didn’t run for office, criticizing military and police budgets only to cop out and vote for them.”
I do not suffer fools gladly.
Student loan payments will resume
They are tentatively slated to resume June 30, 2023, and I predict they finally will.
There’s really not much to say about this prediction other than weed will be your friend.
Lots of weed.
It will be a sure way not to care when your phone starts ringing off the hook with calls from Uncle Sam.
Don’t worry about having no money for pot. Just find a friend of a friend of a friend who can score you a good deal.
About half of student loan borrowers will default
The good thing about weed is that you won’t care about the potential fallout from not making student loan payments.
Chef’s kiss
The government suspending loan repayments for nearly three years has taught borrows an important lesson: The federal government doesn’t need their money to operate and even more revealing, to give foreign countries billions in aid.
The government was making a healthy profit off the backs of student loan borrowers and likely will be loathe to lose that income stream.
Sure, the government can garner wages.
Let them.
And good luck with that, since nearly 50 million Americans are in student loan hell.
Americans will accept oligarchs’ abuse
Americans are that rare breed that prides itself on being able to “take it.”
The problem is they are taking it from the very government that is supposed to serve them.
While there have been small signs of revolt — Starbucks’ employees unionizing in several stores and Amazon workers striking at various locations — management still has the upper hand.
It certainly helps when managers have bipartisan government support to break strikes.
And most Americans shrug and say, “Oh well. I don’t have a union where I work” and then post a selfie to Instagram or a photo of the cherry pie they just baked to Facebook.
Crimes of theft will skyrocket
Have no fear. A gun will solve the problem, like it does with so many of America’s problems.
Of course, I’m kidding.
Kind of.
It’s the solution conservative politicians will suggest and their followers will embrace.
Both already do.
But both willfully ignore most property crimes are caused by poverty.
So solve poverty and you solve property crime.
Not all of it, of course.
There are always outliers and other social-economic forces that contribute to it (education levels, for example).
But to alleviate poverty would make too much sense. Homelessness and hunger are profitable policy decisions that benefit the uber-wealthy.
Bonus prediction: Russia will be blamed for everything
Just like The Brady Bunch’s Jan who would exasperatedly cry “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia,” American politicians invoke “Russia, Russia, Russia” whenever questioned about the billions spent padding the accounts of defense contractors (and corporate donors) such as Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.
It gives them carte blanche to ignore the needs of their constituents while simultaneously gaslighting them.
It’s a win-win situation, especially when they can get a large segment of Americans to turn on the other and call the latter selfish for wanting to help those struggling at home first.
All this chatter drowns out the fact the Pentagon just failed its fifth audit in a row.
Where’s our money really going?
No one knows, but you damn well better have a blue and yellow flag waving from every social media profile you own, you fascist!
Aw, America.
Happy New Year, everyone!
©Yvonne C. Claes, 2022. I own this content. You can share my column, but make sure my name is left on it. If you don’t, be prepared to deal with my copyright attorney. Thanks!
