At the turn of the 20th century, there wasn’t a more cosmopolitan city in the world than Vienna, Austria. The city seemed to be brimming with thought leaders in medicine, science, and art. Ideas spilled out from this Central European country like an ever melting ice pack streaming down the Alps and flooding other nations with its ideas. Vienna at that time was the capital of the Austrian Monarchy, then nearly a thousand years old.

But then it stopped being the center of progressivism and culture. It took a sharp turn in the wrong direction. Right before this shift in 1933 when Engleburt Dolfuss took power with Austrofascism; there was a brief period of extreme tolerance for the time. This tolerance for radical thought from all corners of the intellectual spectrum allowed something else to fester and grow. Tolerance fed authoritarianism. And pretty soon Vienna wasn’t tolerant at all. It became oppressive of any thought that didn’t align with its leaders. Then worse, of course, when Nazi Germany absorbed the country.

With all the crazy news stories flying around these days, bombing my mind, I’m torn between turning down the volume and burying my head or amping up the noise so that I’m not blind to what’s taking place. Most all of the news stories I come across are antithetical to my thoughts on government and my identity as an American; without turning to politics, I’ll leave it at that—no, wait I won’t leave it at that.

Not this time.

I have to let out how I feel, and I have a blog…so I might as well use it to release the thoughts that have been swirling around my mind the last few weeks. This post is directly related to personal finance, maybe more personal, but finance and our government go hand in hand and I can no longer sit idly by without typing a few thoughts..

Nobody likes change. Good, bad, fast, slow; it’s uncomfortable. And change is indeed taking place in my country.

The seeming craziness of today makes me think back to other societies that have made ‘the turn’ from one thing to another. Looking back it’s easy to say, oh of course that happened, and here’s why. In the moment, for those people who lived in these places and anyone alive during those times of change, it didn’t feel inevitable. Nobody knew what was going to happen. Nobody thought that a huge shift or cliff edge was near or even possible to fall from.

There’s a book a read I few years back titled The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig that I think about often. Recently I re-read a few chapters of it, again it captivated me, particularly the first chapter titled The World of Security. Zweig was born almost 100 years before me, Zweig in 1881 compared to me in 1983. And in the span of 100 years from when Stefan grew up, to when I did, the world could not have changed more dramatically.

Stefan was a Jewish writer who grew up in Vienna, Austria. This autobiography of his was written in 1942 and finished one day before Zweig committed suicide with his wife in South America, having fled Nazi Germany. It’s a memoir and utterly compelling in every facet for me. Not only does it give significant insight into one of the most dramatic periods in the 20th century, it also sheds light into daily life in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Specifically Vienna in the late 19th and early 20th century.

But it’s not the ideas and progressivism in Vienna and Austria as a whole that captures my attention. It’s the sense of everlasting security that its residents felt, and the transformation from that city to one utterly destroyed, and in many ways the epicenter for the disaster that took hold of Central Europe, then the world, in the 19th century.

The first chapter is jarring for me, because this is exactly how I feel in America. In some ways, reading history is curse, and in this case it is for me because I see the potential of what humans are capable of doing in the name of power or casting blame. It’s not often that I quote such a long few paragraphs from other writers, but I feel compelled to share this right now.

Here’s an excerpt from the first chapter of The World of Yesterday:

When I attempted to find a simple formula for the period in which I grew up, prior to the First World War I hope that I convey its fulness by calling it the Golden Age of Security. Everything in our almost thousand year-old Austrian monarchy seemed based on per- manency, and the State itself was the chief guarantor of this stability. The rights which it granted to its citizens were duly confirmed by parliament, the freely elected representative of the people) and every duty was exactly prescribed. Our currency, the Austrian crown circulated in bright gold pieces an assurance of its immuta­bility. Everyone knew how much he possessed or what he was entitled to what was permitted and what forbidden. Everything had its norm its definite measure and weight. He who had a fortune could accurately compute his annual interest. An official or an officer for example, could confidently look up in the calendar the year when he would be advanced in rank, or when he would be pensioned. Each family had its fixed budget, and knew how much could be spent for rent and food, for holidays and entertainment; and what is more, in­variably a small sum was carefully laid aside for sickness and the doctor’s bills, for the unexpected. Whoever owned a house looked upon it as a secure domicile for his children and grandchildren; estates and businesses were handed down from generation to generation. When the babe was still in its cradle, its first mite was put in its little bank, or deposited in the savings bank, as a “reserve” for the future. In this vast empire everything stood firmly and immovably in its appointed place, and at its head was the aged emperor; and were he to die, one knew (or believed) another would come to take his place, and nothing would change in the well-regulated order. No one thought of wars, of revolutions, or revolts. All that was radical, all violence, seemed impossible in an age of reason.

This feeling of security was the most eagerly sought-­after possession of millions, the common ideal of life. Only the possession of this security made life seem worth while, and constantly widening circles desired their share of this costly treasure. At first it was only the pros­perous who enjoyed this advantage, but gradually the great masses forced their way towards it. The century of security became the golden age of insurance.  One’s house was insured against fire and theft, one’s field against hail and storm, one’s person against accident and sickness. Annuities were purchased for one’s old age, and a policy was laid in a girl’s cradle for her future dowry. Finally even the workers organized, and won standard wages and workmen’s compensation. Servants saved up for old-age insurance and paid in advance into a burial fund for their own interment. Only the man who could look into the future without worry could thoroughly enjoy the present.……

It is reasonable that we, who have long since struck the word “security” from our vocabulary as a myth, should smile at the optimistic delusion of that idealisti­cally blinded generation, that the technical progress of mankind must connote an unqualified and equally rapid moral ascent.  We of the new generation who have learned not to be surprised by any outbreak of bestiality, we who each new day expect things worse than the day before, are markedly more skeptical about a possible moral improvement of mankind. We must agree with Freud, to whom our culture and civilization were merely a thin layer liable at any moment to be pierced by the destructive forces of the “underworld”. We have had to accustom ourselves gradually to living without the ground beneath our feet, without justice, without free­dom, without security. Long since, as far as our existence is concerned, we have denied the religion of our fathers, their faith in a rapid and continuous rise of humanity. To us, gruesomely taught, witnesses of a catastrophe which, at a swoop, hurled us back a thousand years of humane endeavour, that rash optimism seems banal. But even though it was a delusion our fathers served, it was a wonderful and noble delusion, more humane and more fruitful than our watchwords of to-day; and in spite of my later knowledge and disillusionment, there is still something in me which inwardly prevents me from abandoning it entirely. That which, in his childhood, a man has drawn into his blood out of the air of time cannot be taken from him. And in spite of all that is daily blasted into my ears, and all that I myself and countless other sharers of my destiny have experienced in trials and tribulations, I cannot completely deny the faith of my youth, that some day things will rise again-in spite of all. Even in the abyss of despair in which to-day, half-blinded, we grope about with distorted and broken souls, I look up again and again to those old star-patterns that shone over my childhood, and comfort myself with the inherited confidence that this collapse will appear, in days to come, as a mere interval in the eternal rhythm of the onward and onward.

 To-day, now that the great storm has long since smashed it, we finally know that that world of security was naught but a castle of dreams; my parents lived in it as if it had been a house of stone. Not once did a storm, or even a sharp wind, break in upon their warm, com­fortable existence. True, they had a special protection against the winds of time: they were wealthy people, who had become rich gradually, even very rich, and that filled the crevices of wall and window in those times. Their way of life seems to me to be so typical of the so-called “good Jewish bourgeoisie”, which gave such marked value to Viennese culture, and which was requited by being completely uprooted, that in telling of their quiet and comfortable existence I am actually being quite impersonal: ten or twenty thousand families like my parents lived in Vienna in that last century of assured values.

I live in this world of security right now.

Everything feels secure. It feels so set in stone that nothing can or will change it.

As secure as my world feels, it’s good to have a wake up call by reading this. It reminds myself it can all go away at any time. As a minority in this country, an ethnicity that is centrally focused on in today’s headlines as causing excessive ‘crime’ and economic hardships to other citizens, this is a reality check. What I thought my country was or was headed towards, may not have ever existed.

In my world view, the United States are supposed to be the good guys: pushing democracy, aiding impoverished countries, fighting radical terrorists, a shining example of what free markets and trade can do for a people…it doesn’t feel like we’re any of that right now.

With advisors to our president giving Nazi salutes in public. My federal government backing and supporting ultra right wing groups in Germany. The sudden turn on our allies and NATO, bullying other smaller countries dependent on us. The president passively aggressively joking to annex certain countries, much like Germany’s leader in the 1930’s. Paraphrasing Hitler’s quote’s when talking about immigrants ‘poisoning the blood of our nation’. Talks of a third term. The current administration openly questioning our Treasury department, hinting at fraud with no proof. Hinting at a potential debt default.

Things just don’t feel right at all.

It would be over dramatic of me to compare directly my country today and that of Central Europe before the World Wars; or to even propose we are headed down the exact same path. There are a great many differences that caused the tide of right nationalism now and then. The punishment and economic consequences of losing a world war and having the world cast blame on a single side evoked anger within German society, that eventually gave birth to the national socialists.

There’s no having lost a world war that is causing today’s shift in my country. Instead, something else was lost to those who voted for the nationalists in power now. While I read the news, I can’t wrap my head around what it is. Part of it is this country is so huge, that I know I’m caught in an economic bubble that doesn’t reflect the other economic bubbles that voted this in. Some people feel left out of economic opportunity, and so blame must be cast. The eye of Sauron has been turned onto immigrants. Brown people who look just like me. And so a racist has been voted in.

I just can’t understand it no matter how much objective empathy I try to have.

Despite the worrying headlines, markets are trucking along despite the volatility of what appears to be anti-growth policies. My net worth is continuing to expand. The European stock markets are finally picking up and having a wonderful year. I’m glad that I’m not invested solely in the US equities, though a majority of my assets are VTSAX type funds.

A few of the policies coming in from the federal government have impacted my company. Projects that were on the cusp of getting the green light are now gone due to cuts or threats to cuts in federal funding. My own company has shifted in response to the government’s ant-DEI policies, now mimicking the other corporations that have bellied up to the nationalists in office. What felt like safe public projects that would carry my company through this slow economic time in the Bay Area is now all in question. It feels as though San Francisco and California are prime targets for the current administration to cut funding and open investigations into. Which will hurt building out here.

In 2022, California paid $692 billion in federal taxes to the Federal government. It received $609 billion in federal funding, making the difference $83.1 billion dollars; making California the biggest contributor to the federal government. If we exclude COVID funding, that makes the difference even bigger. The biggest contributor to the government is now the target of the government.

Then there’s the attacks on the unions. The firings of the independent NRLB–congressionally mandated terms for some that would last till 2028. Labor won’t survive the administration by keeping their heads down. But I feel like nobody is pushing back.

My livelihood is now at stake because of the policies of this current administration. Costs are rising for construction materials sourced from overseas, and the project I’m on has a finite public budget. These poor small companies who are locked into contracts with set sums, must now bear the brunt of these rising costs or face violating legal agreements. Things felt like they were taking a turn for the better for construction in the Bay too. What a shame.

Not fair I say.

But fair doesn’t matter. “Life’s not fair” was a common saying burned into my young brain as a kid by my parents and teachers. It’s absolutely not fair, so I save my money and invest, hoping that I can level the playing field.

It’s times like these I’m glad for my savings. Though my money numbers on my screen only mean as much as the trust our system is built on. I have to have trust and faith in the system because there’s no other choice. I’m not for a second going to change my strategy for investing because of these crazy headlines.

Going through this at the moment feels scary for a person in my demographic, but on the other side it might only be a blip. COVID and 9/11 were like this. “If you’re going through hell keep going” is the quote attributed to Churchill, whether he said this or not, we’re all going and we’ll see what’s on the other side in a few years.

The ground is shifting.

The world is changing—for me and my ideals, it’s changing in the wrong direction.

Maybe this commentary on the right wing nationalists that have taken over the government in my country don’t belong in a personal finance blog.

Maybe I’m overreacting.

Maybe it’s just my anxious nature worrying about things out of my circle of influence, again.

However the next few years turn out, in this moment my government it feels dangerous, and I won’t be silent about it. I will not be a collaborator. I object to what’s going on.

For one, it sure as hell affects my finances (which compared to everything else, might be the shallowest take)–and my family. Despite my dramatic takes; I’m staying the course for a few more years before I can exit, not only my job, but the country that has left me.