What happens when a Nation State Fails?

What happens when a Nation State fails? One only has to look to modern-day South Africa to see an example. As I am writing this, they are predicting total grid failure. In South Africa today, they are already experiencing daily 10 hour blackouts. Because their current capacity for producing energy is less than their basic needs, it forced them to take part in “Loadshedding”.

Loadshedding means: A constant stream of near-daily blackouts, means millions of people across South Africa are being left without electricity to do even basic tasks like cooking, working, or watching TV.

Supply and demand is a real issue. Not being able to watch TV is not even among the top inconvenience of the South African people. Imagine Hospitals going without power for 10 hours a day. Not being able to refrigerate food for homes and restaurants. Consider that even gasoline, or petro stations, cannot pump fuel for cars because even the pumps are run on electricity. Grocery stores can’t stay open. There are no jobs to be found and crime is rampant.

How bad is it?

Julius Malema said they are facing compete darkness and an imminent threat worse than covid.

Who is Julius Malema?

Julius Sello Malema (born 3 March 1981) is a South African politician who is a Member of Parliament and the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a left-wing party which he founded in 2013. He was formerly the President of the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League from 2008 until his expulsion from the party in 2012. He was an early proponent of proposals to nationalise South Africa’s mining industry and expropriate land without compensation, policy positions that the EFF inherited. As the founding president and “commander-in-chief” of the EFF, they elected Malema to a seat in the National Assembly in 2014. He was re-elected to a second five-year parliamentary term in 2019.In 2012, They charged Malema with fraud, money-laundering and racketeering. After numerous postponements, the case was dismissed by the courts in 2015 due to excessive delays by the National Prosecuting Authority, leading to perceptions that the charges were politically motivated. However, AfriForum announced in 2018 that it would mount a private prosecution of Malema on the corruption charges.

Wikipedia

So I wouldn’t call Julius Malema one of the good guys. He even has rape charges against him, but even he can see that South Africa has become a shit-show. As one commentator said, “If you want to know what it’s like living in a country where the power grid fails, watch the movie Mad Max,”.

Not too many years ago, South Africa was a world power with modern infrastructure. How did it get so bad?

Corruption!

Politicians who are great at campaigning and stirring up emotion in the people but who padded their pockets instead of doing their jobs. The elected officials in South Africa knew for years that their aged electrical grid and power plants needed expansion and repair. But they did nothing and squandered resources through corrupt practices. In South Africa, the electric company is owned and operated by the State.

South Africa is rich in coal, which is its primary source of power. But mismanagement of Eskom, the electric company has its aging power plants running at 50% capacity.

I guess building power plants is boring and not as fun as blaming your political opponent for it. They could auction off the State run power plant and bring in outside capital to reinvigorate the economy and restore power. But that solution is politically unpopular with South Africa’s Communist Party, and the African National Congress, which is in power.

Instead, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is shuffling the proverbial deck chairs on the Titanic by moving Eskom into the Ministry of Energy.

Diana Furchtgott-Roth Forbes Magazine

The Corruption in South Africa seems to be systemic. The people were victims of the injustices of the apartheid. Now they suffer from the injustices of their own democratically elected leaders.

But that cannot happen here in the USA.

Right? Not here in America? In South Africa, instead of focusing on building economic opportunity or a reliable infrastructure, the politicians and activist were focused on Social Justice. That sounds like the USA in 2023, does it? Short-sighted, woke, social-justice-warriors don’t consider the unintended impact on the poor and working class.

For instance, what impact will the push to green-energy and the abandonment of fossil fuels, by 2030, have on the economy? What if we got rid of all combustion engine vehicles by 2030? What is the added demand on the power grid from the electric vehicles going to cost? In 2022, Texas had a rare blizzard and the Texas power grid that relied heavily on wind and solar power was down for days.

What if the green new deal causes Loadshedding in the USA? I’m sure the activist will say it’s a price we have to pay to fight climate change.

How are we preparing for the additional burden on the power-grid? What steps are we taking to prevent power failure like South Africa? What new power-plants are we bringing online in the next seven years to power these EVs (Electric Vehicles)? Where are we getting all the needed silver, copper and rare earth metals we need for the huge batteries that the EVs require? What investments are we, the United States, making in the mining of these commodities?

Government Mandates?

When the government mandates a utopian idea, it usually works the opposite effect. For the poor and middle class, they are leading them to a dystopian reality. When you tell a poor person making $24K a year, you must buy a $70 electric vehicle what is the impact of that? What if he can’t afford it and can’t keep his job because of it? During the pandemic of 2020-2022 the Government mandated people stay home. They paid people to stay at home and not work. Next, we saw a massive rise in inflation for essential goods like eggs, milk and meat.

I don’t give our elected officials in both divided political parties too much credit. They don’t behave responsibly. It seems their only concern is getting re-elected.

If they have no bread let them eat cake.

Marie Antoinette (1755-1793).

What happens when a government becomes parasitical to the people? Governments regulate, build roads, pass laws, stop crime, but they don’t produce prosperity. They can only take from the producers, aka tax payers, and redistribute that money.

Kicking the can down the road.

So congress and the president pushed the debt limit ceiling off until 2025. They didn’t raise the debt ceiling the suspended it. There is no limit to how much money the politicians will spend and print. If you think inflation is bad now, wait till you see 2025! No country in the history of the world has amassed as much debt as the USA.