politics, triggers and intelligence

One of the problems with quantum movement of economic and military situations is the existence of triggers.
When those are pulled makes a difference in how the disaster plays out.
This blog and the books available at moftheg.com are designed to be triggers, although when and if they will be effective remains to be seen.  Uncle Tom's Cabin is evidence that a book can act as a trigger.
Facebook showed where a "system" could trigger political change.
Other triggers effect the iniitation of  situations.  There was the battle of thermopole which was a timing trigger, the assassination of arch duke ferdinand which was an initiating trigger.
The war with china was triggered by many things.  Perhaps one trigger was the opening of china by Nixon.  The weakening of the US under Johnson who initiated the big society and the expansion of the US military to increasingly substitute military might for economic might.
This led the way to two far reaching problems.  It created a government supported political block and it provided an alternative to minimal wage and piecemeal work which was not only viable but in some ways superior, such as providing free or heavily subsidized health care, housing and food and opening income opportunities in the black market by paying people to have hidden income streams, essentially supplementing criminal income undertakings like gangs, drugs, and the like since those people could work and be paid by the government only for un-reported income.
The war, when it is recognized, must include making difficult choices which will effect this vulnerable block and the shift which will be necessary to create work but also opportunity for this artificial voting block.
What would trigger this change and what triggers eliminating entitlements would leave and the results are the intersection of short term and immediate intelligence.  To compete with China we need to understand and prepare for these immediate and long term  triggers.