Is There a Long Term Upside to the Present Economic Downside?

Today the world is plagued by a serious economic down turn for about one third of the world's population. Another one third are experiencing slight economic decline. One third remains in abject poverty and that has not changed for a long time. The so-called advanced economic sector of the world economy of which the USA is a part, is entering, arguably, the second Depression in a slightly more than 75 years. We had been told by our political leaders since FDR that steady economic growth interrupted by periodic "corrective recessions" of very short duration was the norm. Now it is appropriate to question this premise.

The capitalistic system is based upon the assumption that individual decisions, unfettered by government regulations, within open competition to supply products will result in the highest standard of living for everyone. The most efficient producer will always provide the consumer with the lowest cost product if the same rules of competition applies to all. This idyllic dream has long ago become a fairy tale. International monopolies control the production of virtually all consumer products. These monopolies produce products where labor cost is the lowest and where regulations and unionized labor is forbidden. Open and free competition no longer exists in the so-called advance countries in the world that sells to the rest of the world.

Furthermore, the concept of consumption of all and any products is the fundamental basis of economic growth is another fairy tale that is totally bankrupt. This concept is rooted in the archaic belief that resources are unlimited and that more of everything is the best possible gauge of human progress.We have been sold this bill of goods for more than 150 years (in the USA. These hollow words of politicians and corporate leaders have been debunked by reality. The working people of the world are now suffering because of the doomed illusion that prosperity is assured by consumption of more material goods, that are not essential for a good life, but indispensable nonetheless. We have been duped by our political and corporate advocates of profit based upon raw greed. The current economic turbulence will not be brief nor reversible if we continue to follow the path that unbridled consumption by the wealthiest countries is necessary to revive the economic fortunes of the world's populations. Unfortunately we are being told this by virtually all world leaders. Open your eyes and ears and use your God-given brain to cut through all this beguiling baloney.

However, there is a long term attainable goal that will provide human purpose based upon communion with nature and each other. We must become tuned to the commonness of human life and natural gifts and blend them to create a world that is based upon working for the common good of all. We must stop demanding more of everything and measure our true needs based upon necessity, not desire. We cannot sustain a world based upon consumption for the sake of consumption. The concept of a forever renewable basis of consumption is just as fraudulent as unbridled consumption. We must all accept the inevitable truth that the Earth's resources are limited and consumption cannot be unlimited. As the old saying goes, 'There is no such thing as a free lunch."

The current political climate in the world is based upon the belief that if we regain our past consumption practices the world will regain and its upward economic trajectory. If the world economy regains its upward path in this manner it will be short lived and another, and perhaps the last great Depression will befall the world and the eventual consequences will be unimaginable.

We have the power to change but only if we as a world collectively admits that generating economic wealth by resorting to unlimited consumption amounts to self destruction. The challenge that we all face is to establish a reasonable life quality for Earth's inhabitants based upon equitable use of our planet's limited natural resources. The upside of the present economic downside depends upon our ability to fundamentally change. Can we?