I take it back

Once upon a time, I expressed a desire to live in Iceland. Unfortunately, these tough economic times have been even tougher on Iceland, what with the government collapsing and all.

Our government came close to dissolving. It looks like that won't happen, however, now that the Liberal party has a new leader who's decided he'll support the Conservative budget. Many people are upset with this about-face by Michael Ignatieff.((Especially Jack Layton: "Blast! My evil plans foiled again! Nyaaah!")) Since I don't understand economics and don't know how to manage money, the best I can do is shrug and hope that our government isn't planning to do anything silly.((Read: We are. So screwed.))

Meanwhile, I plan to switch back to the barter system. Think about how much the barter system benefits from the digital world! I don't have to trade chickens; I can just trade electrons with you. It is, by definition, electronic currency. If you prefer a rarer commodity as a currency, you may also trade positrons. Be careful with those, however, as they are liable to annihilate electrons--so I'd keep my bank accounts separate, if I were you.

Now that we are indubitably living in the End Times, we should kick back and relax. The world's ending, so it's not like there's much of a tomorrow to worry about, now is there? Regarding the afterlife, the majority of the world's going to be wrong in any event. So pick a religion (or a non-religion) and stick with it; it's not going to matter much in the end.

And since you won't be around, this is a great time to take out more of those credit cards the banks eagerly thrust into your hands. You might be saying, "Wait, isn't that how we got into this mess in the first place?" That's true, but we've dug the hole so deep there's no getting out of it, and when that happens, you might as well keep digging.

You can then use the credit cards to buy every one of those products advertised on TV. You know the ones I'm talking about: infomercial products, the kind with the toll-free number at the end and the fast-talking voice that informs you about doubling your offer for free (plus expensive shipping and handling fees). If you're like me, you've often wished your job consisted of ordering those products just to see if they really work as well as advertised. Well, thanks to your fraudulent credit cards, you can!

This massive buying spree using fake credit will keep the delivery companies going for the next ten or fifteen years until the evil army of robots rises up and destroys us. Survivors will be utterly and mercilessly destroyed, since robots aren't evil overlords and don't make the same mistakes.

So thanks a lot, Iceland.