The obvious: similar to the USA, and much of the rest of the world, the global economy is in a real state a funk. The reality: this funk is just the tip of the iceberg, and a real societal shift is in order to revive the world from these doldrums. We are currently in this crisis due to several factors, most of which lie in big government and big businesses’ ability to make so many wrong decisions in so short a time. Big gov. begets big biz, and vice versa. Big businesses’ pursuit of justifying the bottom line to their shareholders by any means possible, and Big government (ie. the Bush and to a lesser extent the administrations prior) with their inept ability to control such larceny, as well as feed it. Case in point the debacle of invading Iraq, and the ensuing largess of money spent by the government, and subsequent abuse of this money as big business and big government “rebuilt” Iraq. Another case: the inability of the U.S. Government to intercede in the bilking of millions of soon-to-be-homeowners, who had no business buying a home.
This drives home another important factor driving our global economy south. As they say, “it takes two to tango.” Citizens of the world, whether American, South African or Irish must consider their individual hand in this melt down.Whatever the cause of this global economic calamity, we are in this mess and need to right this ship before we spiral into a potential global Ice Age. I believe an Irish lass summed it up best, speaking in relation to the frivolous over-consumption of goods (sound familiar) in their country: “”As soon as we got a whiff of money, a lot of us ran ahead of ourselves,” said Lucey of Trinity College. ” I think we need a period of pain and reflection. We need a period of frugality, of reality.”
We elect our government, we play into big business as we continue to buy, buy, buy “stuff”, with no thought to future consequences; because, while we may be in a temporary lull financially, we are in store for an impending global dilemma that will make the current economic uncertainty seem trivial: The Destruction of the Planet, and the consequence of this on the generations to come.
Does this generation want to be known as the generation that failed the world miserably? Time to buck up, make sacrifices, conserve, preserve, and help that neighbor you were once envious of ________.