Returning To A 19th Century Standard Of Living Soon?

[Hidden In Him]

Will we be returning to a 19th Century standard of living in the not-too-distant future?

The inflation rate has jumped to a 39 year high, with no end in sight yet. The reason is obvious to those who understand economics. In order to keep economies running smoothly in the aftermath of the epidemic, most nations have begun pumping billions and even trillions of units of currency into their economies, which is now devaluing them at a rapid pace. The US put 5 trillion into their system, and whenever making money out of thin air is adopted as the short term solution for economic problems like what we have been facing, the end result is inflation sooner or later, and this is what we are seeing transpire now.

Will it eventually become so bad that we return to a 19th century standard of living in the Western world? The following is suggested by a prophetic dream posted by a member here a few weeks ago. I will present it in three parts, together with my own interpretation. It has humorous aspects to it, possibly to make it more memorable, but the underlying meaning isn't all that funny. I will present it here as food for thought. Should it indeed be prophetic, we would all do well to prepare for what is coming so as not to be caught off guard by the changes that befall society.

Catfish in the Mercantile Bank Lobby Dream, Part 1:
I am in the lobby of the Mercantile Bank and sometimes I am in line for the teller; sometimes I am filing out paperwork at one of those raised tables in the lobby. There is four feet of muddy water everywhere. The ceiling is about 30 feet tall and the windows are five feet wide and 15 feet tall and they are all around the building. It is sunny out, the sun seems to be in the morning above the horizon and seems to be circling the building every couple of minutes, producing a lot of moving shadows, but also glare off of the gold and silver fixtures. The front door is one of those turnstiles. Not in the water because you have to walk in and go down some steps into the lobby. So we had to walk down into the water.

Everybody is going about their business like this is normal. But they understand that I do not think it is normal because they keep reassuring me that everything is ok. The people are not saying anything to me that could be meaningful. Everybody is dressed in 19th century dress attire, suits and such. My only big concern are my new hunting boots.

So I am standing in line in four foot of water, looking at the Teller behind black rod iron bars, early 19th century style. Then I realize that the Teller is a very well dressed, man-sized cat....what I call golden stripped cat. 19th century style clothes with a cigar smoking in an ashtray. There is one of those large 19th century golden cash registers there to the Teller's left. He is not in the water because other well dressed animals are walking around behind him....not in water....going about their jobs.

The phrase "not in water" is what keyed me off in reading this dream. The expression being "underwater" is a financial term sometimes used regarding owing more on one's home than what it is worth. One article puts it this way:

"Underwater" is the term for a financial contract or asset that is worth less than its notional value... More commonly, the term is used in relation to a house or another substantial asset which has an outstanding mortgage or loan on the asset that is a larger amount than what the asset is worth. "Underwater" is sometimes also referred to as "upside-down." A homeowner is underwater if their mortgage is larger than what the home is worth.
What Does Underwater Mean in Finance?

As the following article from 2017 added, many in the US are actually already "underwater," with more debt than they can service even now:

While the media reports low unemployment and a rising stock market, the reality is that almost 20 percent of the country lives in “Underwater Nation,” with zero or even negative net worth... They’re disproportionately rural, female, renters, and people without a college degree. But the underwater ranks also include a large number of people who appear to be in the stable middle class... A Bankrate survey found that 63 percent of U.S. households lack the cash or savings to meet a $1,000 emergency expense. They’d have to borrow from a friend or family, or put costs on a credit card. Seven percent of U.S. homeowners are underwater homeowners, with mortgage debt higher than the value of their homes. And more and more people have taken on credit card debt to pay the bills.
More Americans Are Drowning Financially in Underwater Nation - Institute for Policy Studies

The above is what I think this dream is predicting, but on a much larger scale. As inflation rates continue to rise, this combined with what will likely be a stagnating economy, will likely lead to only one option: Many will have to keep borrowing against any available assets they have just to make ends meet, and this will eventually mean taking out loans on their mortgages and/or refinancing them until they eventually have zero equity left and their homes go completely "underwater."

Before going on to explain the rest of the dream, the last time the US went into a serious depression was 2007-2008, and it was during this time that a housing bubble occurred. This put many underwater on their homes at that time, because it greatly devalued home market values:

The 2008 financial crisis had numerous effects on the U.S. economy. One such effect was a bursting housing bubble that substantially deflated real estate property values across the market. A primary catalyst for the housing value deflation was loose lending standards for borrowers providing for broader mortgage loan approvals. This loose lending specifically to subprime borrowers led to a heightened number of defaults and foreclosures which effected real estate property values across the U.S. market. This led to a variety of uncommon situations causing losses for borrowers across the market whose mortgage loan values exceeded their home’s fair market value.
What Is an Underwater Mortgage?

The stage could be set for this to happen again, and that on top of potential hyper-inflation setting in. Big money has recently been buying up huge chucks of real estate which is causing home values to skyrocket, but this has now created a precarious situation. All they need to do now is simply reverse direction and start selling at record rates and the bottom could fall out of the real estate market, bursting the bubble, and creating a situation where home prices fall out of the sky, and they can be purchased at half the price of their current value. If I can get around to explaining it later, this may well have been part of the plan the banking elite put into place from the start, going back to well more than a hundred years ago.

A few additional notes on the interpretation of Part 1:

- The sun moving across the horizon very quickly represents the passage of time, which the man who had this dream said is what he sensed as well. It represents going from the 19th century to now, where he has modern hunting boots on, and by that symbolism what I believe is being represented is that the conditions they had then will be what we are returning to in the not so distant future.

- While everyone else is apparently financially underwater and dependent upon the banks, the bank itself appears to be doing exceedingly well. Everything is decorated in "gold and silver fixtures," with the sunlight gleaming off of them. This is representative of the banks getting richer, even as the rest of society is mired in the muck of poverty and indebtedness.

 

[Hidden In Him]

Catfish in the Mercantile Bank Lobby Dream, Part 2:

I notice a swirl in the water between me and the guy in front of me and suddenly a catfish's head pops out of the water looking at me. He has a smoking pipe in his mouth that is apparently not affected by the water.

I say to him, "What are you doing here? He replies, "What are you doing here? You do realize that you are standing in water and your wallet is wet?" I instinctively touched my hip pocket, but then I know that my paycheck and everything was wet and I wondered if they were going to accept a wet check. So while I was contemplating this the catfish goes back to swimming in a circles in front of me. He does not have clothes on. So I start thinking about what he could have to give to the Teller or where he would put anything that he would get from the Teller.

So I ask the catfish, "Where do you keep your money? Do you have a wallet?" He looks at me like I am dumb and says, "It is in my stomach. Were else?" And he looks over at the Teller and says, "He scares me." ....a cat LOL. I just nod my head. So I stand there a while and eventually ask him, "What do you do with money?" Again he looks at me like I am dumb and replies, "I keep it in the river bank." I chuckle and reply, "No what do you spend it on?" He replies, "Fish futures." Again I chuckle and had to ask, "What is fish futures?" He explains that it is wagers on the death of things.

Interpretation:
The man asks "What are you doing here?" and the catfish's reply is incredulous, asking him, "What are you doing here?" and reminds him that he is underwater and even his check is wet. This is to say that his check is already spent because he is so deeply in debt, making the question, "What are you doing here" almost like saying "What do you think; what are all of us doing here?" It speaks to the fact that indebtedness to the banks will be so common place that no one will think anything of it, hence why everyone assures him that things are "normal" when he can tell that compared to his time it most certainly is not.

The dreamer is a Christian man, and the catfish represents yet another Christian, as fish are a common representation of this going back to ancient times. But as the dream progresses it becomes apparent that this in not a godly man. In the next part, He will admit to being a predator just like the banks are, and that he eats "dead fish" off the river bottom. His evil intent starts to become clear even in this section, as he admits that he invests in "Fish Futures," keeps his money in "the river bank," and makes wagers on "the death of things." These appear to be terms describing financial investments, and more particularly the practice of denominations allowing parishioners to donate their homes to the church, with the transfers taking place after death.

The Catholic church has already set up a situation for members to make home donations. Particularly with a Residual Interest Donation, the member can actually make a capital gain by donating their property while still reserving the right to live in it until their death. Other denominations may follow this potentially lucrative pattern as conditions become worse economically, and churches themselves begin struggling to make more ends meet.

From the Catholic Register:
Gifts of a residual interest in real estate:
Another way to make a gift of real estate to charity is to make a gift of a “residual interest” in property. This gift allows the donor to continue to use the property for his or her lifetime. The gift occurs on the date of the gift of the residual interest, not on the death of the donor, so a charitable donation receipt can be issued on the date of the gift of the residual interest. The value of the gift will have to be determined by someone with expertise. The fair market value of the interest will depend on the fair market value of the property, current interest rates and the life expectancy of the donor. A gift of a residual interest can result in a capital gain.
What to know about donating real estate

The scribes and Pharisees engaged in a very similar practice during New Testament times, and Jesus identified it as a very wicked thing to do. They were covetous (Luke 16:14), and Jesus condemned them for endorsing the practice of declaring one's property "Corban," meaning a "gift" to God." By this practice, Jewish religious leaders were confiscating the houses of such men after their deaths, and leaving their poor widows homeless and destitute in the process. As Jesus warned the disciples, "Beware of the scribes who like to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces, and the highest seats in the synagogues, and the best places at the banquets, yet who devour widow's houses, and for a pretext pray at great length. These shall receive the more strict judgment." (Luke 20:46-47). As He also warned the Pharisees directly, "Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and 'He who chastises his father or mother, let him die the death.' But you say, 'If a man shall say to his father or mother, "What you might have derived profit from through me is Corban," that is, "an offering,"' and you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or his mother." (Mark 7:10-12)

According to one online article on this subject:
"Anything dedicated to the temple by pronouncing the votive word 'Corban' forthwith belonged to the temple, but only ideally. Actually it might remain in the possession of the one who made the vow. So a son might be justified in not supporting his old parents simply because he designated his property or a part of it as a gift to the temple, that is, as 'Corban.' There was no necessity of fulfilling his vow, yet he was actually prohibited from ever using his property for the support of his parents." (Corban, Biblehub.com)

This then, was a means by which Jewish religious leadership were enriching themselves at the expense of the poor, who might have stood to potentially inherit the properties of their fathers and husbands after death, but now would not. This makes those who will engage in this process just as predatory as any bank would be, though it will be couched in language which makes both the church and the donor appear "righteous" for doing so, because it is all supposedly being done "for God."

Other notes on Part 2 of this dream:

- That the cat bank teller scares the catfish in this dream is representative of the fact that the banks will indeed be predatory, even more so than the religious leaders and institutions represented by the catfish. Once landowners go completely underwater and can no longer refinance or take out any more loans, they will no longer be able to borrow on their property and their homes will become the property of their bank by default.

- The catfish's reference to that he puts his money in "the River Bank" may well be a reference to the coffers of his own Christian denomination, through which he and those with him will invest in more "Fish Futures."

 

[Hidden In Him]

Catfish in the Mercantile Bank Lobby Dream, Part 3:

I say, "What?" He replies, "I eat dead things on the bottom of the river." I cringe and say, "Yuck!" And so he gets a little huffy and asks, "Oh really, what do you eat that is alive?" I chuckle again and replied, "I guess not a lot." He then says, "We are a lot a like, we both live off of death." And he seems to notice my clothes and asks, "Why aren't you wearing fancy clothes?" I said, "I am not doing anything fancy." He says, "Everything is fancy." And then he asks why people wash their clothes? "Cause we do not want to stink," I answered. "Well you all stink anyway! I can smell everything. If you all did not wash your clothes, you all would stink and it would just be normal." OK, I replied and then asked, "Why are you concerned about people washing their clothes?" He replies, "They use clean water to wash their clothes. They are wasting clean water and they stink anyway."

There are other fish in the lobby. We never move in line and the catfish and I never get to the Teller.... There is a phantasm about this dream. There are other fish or something else in the water that I am feeling is not good... and the dream ends. I have had this dream reoccur.

This last part is the toughest to interpret, but at the current time I believe it simply serves to all the more confirm that the Catholic Church will be the primary culprit in using this practice to effectively rob Christian families of their inheritances. It is suggested by how the catfish tells him, "I smell everything! and you all stink." Catholic priests encourage parishioners to take confession, by which they essentially end up knowing everyone's business. The knowledge that "all fish stink" is thus likely a reference to that we all sin, since stench is a common metaphor for the spiritual uncleanness which we must all be cleansed of. But the catfish seems to be making the contention that regularly cleansing oneself through confession never actually does anything to make anyone not stink, and this is a waste of time in that sense; that Christians ought to accept their sin as natural, for that if they did, "all would stink and it would just be normal," and there would be no need to make oneself appear "fancy" before others. It is an appeal to humility, but in the wrong way, by accepting sin and one's spiritual stench as a normality rather than teaching it should be resisted. This in fact is somewhat indicative of many of the more mainline denominations, who are with increasing frequency embracing even sins like homosexuality as if they were "normal" now.

Notes on Part 3:
- Catfish are a species that do indeed feed off of other fish, including dead fish:
Do catfish eat other fish? Yes, they do. Catfish in fact eat other, smaller fish species. They will eat those fish species which are available in their waters, including shad, perch, bluegill, drum, buffalo, small carp, and all other kinds of baitfish. Some catfish are likely to eat dead fish too.
https://www.slo-fishing.si/fishing-for-beginners/419-do-catfish-eat-other-fish

I should also add that I posted a thread on this last year that dealt with the subject of being wary of debt now, and that the answer will be to give ourselves to prayer, so that HE is the one guiding our every step through the entire process, and we arrive safely on the other side. I will post it together with the quotes on how to proceed in Christ through prayer and trusting in the Lord in a later post.

If I receive anything more in this dream, I will post it. All are free to comment.

God bless,
Hidden In Him

Original thread:
Being Different From the World

 

[Hidden In Him]

One last note: 50 years ago, MIT conducted a computer study which predicted the collapse of modern society would arrive by the year 2040. According to a follow up study done earlier this year, we are actually ahead of schedule on one of the worst case scenarios.

To avoid a lot of technical, somewhat long-winded discourse, skip to 15:09+, where he makes the contention that we could be in the throws of a total collapse within 20 years: