Profits From Paranoia

President Obama has already had an indisputable stimulative effect on the American economy. His election continues to spur increased gun sales and booming profits for gun manufacturers. This article speculates that the boom could continue even if wacko fears of Obamian "big government" subside if people grow more fearful of a societal meltdown reducing the country to a "Mad Max" state of affairs. That attitude is really no less crazy than fears of an Obama dictatorship, but there's always the possibility that it could be a self-fulfilling fear. Since many Americans already have an "every man for himself" mentality, it's probably easy for them to imagine that principle becoming a concrete law of physical survival on short notice. I just wonder if it was like this when Franklin Roosevelt took office. I suspect not, though that may have less to do with any difference between FDR and Obama than with the way that American culture has changed from then to now. It's a subject worth further study if the stats are available.