I was going to write something well informed, factually supported and scathing. I was going to try and write something neutral and unbiased but I can't, in fact no one can;no one is neutral or unbiased when it comes to existence. The great crash of the 1920's was a credit lead, consumption based catastrophy; monetarism and Reaganomics/Thatchersim was a return to those same dark days and the same thing happened again; 3 mile island and chernobyl warned us of the perils inherant to nuclear energy, and we have been warned about the dangers of a laissez faire attitude towards our planet and it's natural resources. We all know it, and that's the saddest thing of all.
I don't think I would be as concerned if this had never happened before and I wouldn't be so concerned if there weren't any genuine and realistic alternatives; but there are and we know about them too.
I'm going to put some links up so that you can see what I base my opinion on so you can read them and make up your own mind but my main reason for believing in realistic alternatives is more emotive.
Firstly, I do not accept that it is morally permissable to make people pay such a crippling price for what is ultimately the failures of our leaders, both political and commercial. Secondly, we would all do ourselves a service by trying to gain a better understanding of how governments perform the function of borrowing money and how we regulate the financial markets, I think you will be surprised how arbitrary these systems are;
withdrawing the investment in the public sector and the third sector, coupled with a lack of imagination and a will to reform the financial services industry, compounded by crippling our human capital with personal debts for higher education whilst looking at an ever decreasing and narrowing job market, are all contributing to a massive material debt in the future. And we all know this aswell in our heart of hearts.
Industry and manufacturing are the area's in which a long term and healthy economy can be built; it provides an employment, skill and knowledge based foundation on which the rest of the economy can be built. The environmental concerns, that we are now all painfully aware of, could be used to kickstart a resurgence in the "white heat of technology" that has served mankind so well in the past, but the main hurdle to jump is our own culture and attitudes towards ourselves, each other and the rest of the world.
Untill we, as a people, stop valuing our petty material desires over and above that which is truly important (or at least what should be) we are doomed in the truest sense. The way we idolise and aspire to the vain, venal and materialistic is truly a disgusting sight; it's not the money, cars, holidays, handbags, sex, houses and status symbols that are the problem; it's our attitude towards them that is problem. With all this in mind maybe you ask why I think anything can change and my answer is becasue the problems are not external, they are internal. If we change, everything else can change. I am convinced that if we can open up and free our minds, our arses will have no choice but to follow. Or are we really that stubborn?
http://www.neweconomics.org/
http://www.theworkfoundation.com/
http://www.jet.efda.org/
