This is the basis of our economy: more and more affluence, more and more money sloshing around. The more money people have, the happier they will be. And happiness is what it is all about.
And there is now way out of this vicious circle. We are locked in until some limiting factor, or factors, brings on an economic collapse. The reasoning is simple: nothing can grow forever, eventually it runs out of resources. Everybody agrees, but insists that we are nowhere near this limit. CO2 levels, they will insist, are nowhere near their limit - and trying to limit them is foolish.
I think they are locked into an eternal growth pattern, and feel they are now free of the limits imposed by Nature. They have become super-natural beings - and they like being that way. In fact, when a society reaches this stage, when it feels it is all-powerful, it is already on the way down.
A society on its way down indeed. This feeling of being all powerful is one of the reasons that a mounting National Debt bothers no one in power. There must be a feeling that even large debts can't stop progress, and even if it does, someone will have the answer just when we need it.
ReplyDeleteHistory, especially one of hyper inflation, doesn't apply to us for we are special. No one notices that our current war in Afghanistan may be our last official use of the military because the US may cease to exist way before the war is over.