.

When one more straw on the camels back breaks it.
You could call that the 'viability threshold'

Here are some minor but obvious examples.  There is no need to
hair split these for obvious exceptions.  the examples are
used to illustrate a more general principle:

Say a given person needs 2500 calories a day to be healthy...
and some of it has to be fruits and vegitables.

Then his income is cut 10%.. he now can afford 2,000 calories
a day, but its mostly greasey fast food and no fruits and
vegitables... he will have crossed the 'viability threshold'..
that tiny change in income can take him from progressing and
viable...to slowly going south...

he will get fat, loose his stamina and health, get sick...
loose income..   that drives the ability to eat well even
lower... he gets physically worse.    It goes south.

His entire family suffers. His kids now underfed do poorly in
school.  A million exceptions for sure...but this an example
of the commonly seen mechanisms.

the negative ramifications become limitless if you give it
some thought.

Why?  When did it start...it started with a 5 or 10% cut in
income.. that put him on the down side of what I am calling
the 'viability' threshold.

When did the 5 to 10% cut in income begin?   The govt spent
too much so printed more money, purchasing power dropped by
10%  (actually since 1999, by 15% a year. on such as homes,
fuel and medical costs)

   ****

A thinking person can see this in all areas...

say a service contractor with work in the city...can do 3
small jobs a day, billing 6 hours.. but spending 10 hours
counting free quotes and travel etc. so he is maxed out at 10
hours, stamina fades and all that.      So he lives ok on the
6 hours.

He is above the economic viabilty threshold... he buys tools
that keep him doing well.

then the city increases parking tickets from 15 dollars (1998)
to 85 dollars, 2005... and makes sure that he can't even slow
down in the city without getting 200 dollars in parking
tickets ... or his truck towed unless he parks in city
parking...  8 blocks away from any give job.... and lugs 200
lbs of tools to each job.

Fine..thats life in the city.

He can do two jobs a day now... he drops below the viability
threshold.

now leaving all the snitty little details asside...  it is
that type of thing, a small percentage loss, that drives a
larger bulk of activity from viable...to non viable.   This is
true in countless areas...

An entire viable elephant can be taken down with just one
ounce of lead you might say.

To use an analogy....In a culture, that lead might come in the
form 500 smaller BB's... its all fatal none the less.   Even
if the body doesnt drop when when the first BB strikes or the
city taxes rise a dollar above net income levels.   that
dollar..can put a much larger cash flow across the negative
margin.

for instance a man hits his kid in the mouth just one time...
knocks out a few teeth is all...not much blood. the kids
attitude may change a little.. it puts him just a millimeter
south of the viabilty threshold.. not enough to notice...but
south...early in his life time... that shapes the next 80
years.

The slippery slope.    We know how that turns out...we see
countless examples.

Another example:
A man needs so many calories of good food a day to stay
healthy.. cost per day say its 10 dollars...     1 dollar is
cut from that budget... two apples and a small salad are
eliminated... one greasy hamburger is added so he feels
full... that puts him on the down side of the threshold...

A juror may wish to decide if that affects his wife, kids and
neighborhood or not........ and the taxes paid to run
government.

Two apples.  One dollar for a good man, not the type that
would have spent it on crack and a shiv.  But a good and
decent man trying to raise a family...

Once on the down side of the ability to sustain a working
posture....  and production....  ability begins to decline...

that cuts income further.  Now the second hamburger is
dropped... and less protien ... and now a lot noodles and
grease.

His musculature fails ... he becomes unable to produce
efficiently.

Diabetes follows... and we had no clue why.    Of course there
are reasons why.     He lost a dollar of his income, just one
buck....or was ignorant and failed to eat well, he was
ignorant for many reasons, some work too hard to have the
energy to do research or understand actual issues.... it went
south from there.

Accordingly any tiny change, a faint loss of income, or a
trace level of added ignorance, abuse etc..and you see very
very little change immediately... the person is still right at
the threshold...it all looks fine.   But its absolutely not
fine.

A closer look, and it is observed that he is now just a
millimeter south of sustainable viability.... it goes south
fast from there.  Its caled the 'slippery slope'

It is for these reasons that any incriment of abuse from
government or elsewhere. a spouse, an employer or ones own
ignorance.... can take any situation from viable to non viable
to disaster.    That one tiny incriment if it occurs in the
threshold area, can push a person to the negative band.

  A close look will reveal that most people are in the
threshold and below threshold areas....  in many aspects of
their lives.

For instance say the guy is rich.. not anywhere near the
economic viability threshold, but he is hateful...is is
vicious..and sees no good in others.

Such a man is on the threshold of killing himself with his own
bile... he gets a tax audit.. that puts his health totally
south.... then the business collapses.

It has happened thousands of times.

This is why that extra time one spends waiting in traffic can
lead to the collapse of an entire culture so to speak... at
some point the efforts and costs of production falls one
single penny below what is needed to sustain operations....

... collapse begins there.

A year later costs exceed net production by 10%... borrowing
puts it farther south, all on the slippery slope... work is
sent to china... the blue collar class can't earn above the
viability threshold... or pay taxes... the tax base collapses,
govt ends up with lots blubber, corrupt  and with no hope of
recovery.

that is the history of nations.

These tiny abuses, such as bogus tickets...or a corrupt court,
or one cop retiring at a cost that sucks up the tax base from
10 city blocks... just to pay that one cops retirement...  all
of that, even though minor in itself... is the factor that
pushes a situation south...    below the viability threshold.

Personally in the US this is an epidemic problem.

What one can do:

Take care of yourself..  without great health you will go fast
onto the slippery slope.  thats first.   Live under a bridge
if you must but get your rest and eat well.   No matter how
rich you get if you do not take great care of yourself...  it
all goes south.

Take care of ones associates..family and business relations
etc...with those strong, they will be there and able to keep
you successfully engaged.   Work only with people of the same
bent or the 'takers' can put you personally below the
viability threshold.. must taking 10% of a projects income, if
it puts cash flow below costs of operations, can begin the
bankrupcy cycle.

If the govt comes and wants the money you need  for heart
medicine, or some decent food and a great movie needed to keep
your interest up in life...  Think twice before cowering if
fear or working 16 hours a day while eating  junk food in
order to oblige them.

Those are the harbingers of black death for any culture.

You do your glorious government no favors in the end by
allowing abuse that forces you below the viability
threshold... then to personal non production and collapse...

that only decimates a nation.

Phil Scott
(415) 927 7573