In my opinionated opinion the current state of the economy is those who are greedy bocoming too greedy and going beyond the natural division of wealth which is something like "One fifth of the population have four fifths of the wealth" I cannot know the figures but it was probably more like one twentieth having nineteen twentieths. So suddenly economies around the world could not sustain their greed. They had gone beyond demanding what there was. At first this was hidden in accounts and the rapid transfers of monies but then it came to light. The banks are toppling.
Has this made the greedy see the light? Has it hell! Directors who are leaving like drowning rats are grabbing severence fees etc. that most of us would never earn in our whole working lives. So who will pay for it? Not them! No one has the balls to turn to these people and say, "You made this mess now take your family and go live in some affordable housing while we convert the rest of your assets into something that will save the country!" In spite of promises these peoples greed has remained unchecked! Why? Because they had the power to bring down individuals and whole governments. Why? Because the wealth they controlled could do that. Now though there is a chance. Their power base is weakened. The bold should step in! "Hello Mr. Brown! Are you prepared to win over the whole of the downtrodden, taken advantage of, more than four fifths of the country and penalise these greedy crooks? Heavily!"
In the meantime the current plan is for us, the taxpayers, to foot the bills and most likely will result in us just getting a worse time, struggling to survive until the upturn when, if we are very lucky, we might just get back to nearly as good as we were when this all started. "You! Members of Parliament! You can change this by taking the most off of those who have most. Making sure that those who have had an easy time of it over the last 20 years or so while the rest of us have struggled are the ones who do the paying. After all they have more than the rest of us put together!"
-------
The above was written shortly after the bubble burst. Now (Feb 2009) I see no reason to change it. The government is pouring more of our future money into the pockets of the bankers, urging the banks to loan more to get the economy going.
Now I have a conspiracy theory. Not much good if I keep it to myself so I will share: Notice how smaller businesses in the high street are folding? Especially those in direct competition with the really big boys - the ones big enough to survive the economic storm. Let us look at a big supermarket. Yep is sells almost everything - including financial services. Oh yes! It also owns a few high street names. (check up on the businesses that form part of the groups that include Sainsbury or Tesco and you will see what I mean. For example, who owns Boots?). Now what if these huge company groups that control so much of our lives and economy and yet have no national boundries and so no responsibility to any one nation, what if they deliberately caused the crash to happen? Look ahead and you can see that at the other end of the crash they will still be trading with a much smaller and much weakened competition. Woolworths died because 1) it became a shoddy shop without direction or soul and 2) it could not compete with the big supermarkets. In Lewisham the turnover and profit of the Woolworths branch drastically dropped (I am told by staff) when Sainsbury started selling most of the type of goods they sold but cheaper. Said a Sainsbury spokesperson, "Our sales are up on those types of goods so we must be doing something right!" That if you think about it is a direct admission that they are working to take the trade of others. Notice how the power companies are rolling around in obscene profits? A bit of investigation shows that they are all 'investing' in the large international companies, i.e. bankrolling them through this difficult time.
How to Rule it all.
1 - be a large investor in a multinational - so large you have a recognized control in it.
2 - de-nationalise potentially large profit makers like the power companies, as well as getting controlling services dealing with communications, transport and media out of the control of the government.
3 - make unions ineffective.
4 - cause mistrust and fear within the populace to increase desire for the good life which is advertised as attainable through your products. This causes debt as people have to buy what they cannot afford but demand drives prices up causing more to be borrowed and so on. With the demand for loans increasing make the rewards for those at the top in banking great while their bank expands its loan market.
5 - prepare for the coming crash by making controlling companies like power start to rake in huger than ever profits.
6 - wait for the coming crash. Make sure none of 'your' people (conservatives and right wing labour) are in charge when it happens.
7 - allow the government to throw peoples money away in attempts to restart an economy now invisably under your control.
8 - allow the economy to restart when most opposition has collapsed.
Points 2, 3 and 4 were worked on in the Thatcher era and 5 was rolling well under Blair.
As a conspiracy theory I think it is quite good!
Smokescreens
I suspect we are in for another tightning up on our freedom as the news media seem to be pushing more on the stories that play to the general fears of the populace and various ministers and spokespeople are talking up the possibility of terrorist attacks. This has, at least since the Thatcher era, usually resulted in more of our civil rights removed - pushed through in a kind of "if you don't let us do this you are allowing more terrorism/incresing risks from the sexually depraved/letting all types of crime rise and so on."
One day someone is going to point out things like before the 60's, when we had more civil liberties, were resposible for our own children but able to let them play out (in spite of more dogs mess and supposingly lethal play parks) and folk were not likely to go to the courts at the drop of a hat:
there was more respect for authority and each other
there was a lot less "binge" bad behavior
people were far more likely to help each other
folk in communities knew each other
It was common to greet figures of authority verbally when passing them in the street etc. It was in fact common to greet most tradespeople as well. Usually by the time we had walked from our house to school of a morning we had said, "Good Morning!" to at least half a dozen people because of their job rather than because we knew them. It was not hard to get to know the police in Sheerness then as there was but a seargent and a couple of PCs. Around 1957 in Gypsey Hill in London where we were staying with relatives we were returning home around 10pm when a teenage girl who had had a few too many to drink actually asked us all if we would see her home as she was drunk. She apologised for her state. My uncle took her to her home, even though he did not know her at all, and delivered her up to her parents who thanked him rather than treat him with suspicion. When we lived in James St. in Sheerness there were three houseboun folk and at least two people mentally incapable of looking after themselves at our end of the street. During the day the housebound folk were rarely alone and we all looked out for and helped the others. A lot of 'crime' that would likely result in custodial sentences these days were dealt witrh by the community. Two examples, A young lass decided to "borrow" someone else's bicycle. She was caught with it and made to return it. For the next few months, each Saturday she would turn up at the bike's owner's house and clean and oil the bike. Two lades around 20 years had an arguement over a girl. It turned nasty and they started to fight. No one joined in but no one moved to stop the fight either. Nor would anyone unless there was something really foul or unfare - e.g. someone pulls a knife or attacks the other after he has given up or fallen down. As it was one chap broke the other's leg. Since the other could not work he was made to give half his pay to the other chap until he could return to work. Community policing - done quietly, instinctly and in such a way that children just see the respect and care for others.
Now the state is expected to do everything, offers of help are turned down with suspicion, most kids knowledge of the outside world is picked up via the media and through car windows apart from when at school so when they hit teen they are not street savvy and do not know how to entertain themselves properly. Thus many turn to sex and booze and try to act out incident filled lives - just like on the soaps on telly!
Society
Kids stabbing each other. Prisons over full. HIV worse than predicted. Yobbish behavior at public events. Drug addicts at all time high (number of, that is!). Road Rage. Could go on.
Can no one see all of these things are connected? This is only a start of breakdown of society and the actual trends that are causing it MUST be reversed if we are to survive. Forget the economic crisis. If this is not dealt with there will just be lawlessness.
OK so why is it happening. Studies way back in the 50's predicted its like if we allowed excessive advertising. Suppression always gets a negative reaction and we are one of the most suppressed countries in the world. I think that if the dictoral laws of councils were taken into account we would be the most suppressed. We are getting the advetising telling us we deserve things we cannot afford and at the same time restricted freedom through law and manipulated social values. Why was more advertising allowed on TV? Why was the Sunday trading laws relaxed? Why has the working patterns of people evolved so that all night trading is desirable? Having only essential services running outside of strict limits meant that people allowed for this and planned their time better. With less advertising was less desire for things that could not be afforded. This desire has led to increases in petty crime and for those that were not very good at that, afraid of society, or who wanted to duck out of responsibility for lots of other reasons, the rise in drug abuse. On top of this, along came the liberals and the Thatcher government, one lot saying don't punish them just explain to them the error of their ways, and the other lot saying grab what you can! Forget morals! Earn for yourself! The young people from than have grown up. Many have no idea of responsibility. They cannot run their own lives and yet are producing children and failing them. Drugs are an escape! A significant one. Suicide another - on the increase as oblivion is better for many than trying to go on.
Somehow we have to reverse this. Not fiddle with ideas but take drastic steps. Punish folk for things that matter. Get good examples back into life. Just as a minimum wage is enforced, reverse anti social laws like longer drinking hours and Sunday working. Get shot of feeding kids reality TV and Soaps - many believe them to be normal, i.e. the way life is and so conduct their lives with amorality and conflict. Ensure that councils and the government start acting like public servants. Get people outside and socialising - this means reducing a very false fear of violence and crime for the majority of the country. Yes! Every now and then a child will be kidnapped or whatever BUT this is very minor compared to the number whose lives are ruined by advertising and crap TV combined with irresposible parents. Reduce advertising on TV and kill off channels that just sell stuff. Allow teachers to be protected for giving reasonable punishment. Make school through to university meals cheaper than crap snacks and make it cheaper to send kids to school than to let them skive off. Get the pricing of drinks to a level where folk can afford no more than a couple a night. Disallow cheap drinks promotions in pubs, bars and supermarkets. Pubs and bars can attract folk through food and entertainment. Ease up laws on pornography and regulate rather than ban both drugs and prostitution. Punish people that buy cigarettes and beer for kids because the kids cannot buy it for themselves.
All of those measures - small and big will help to bring back respect and values. The rest is down to education. Adults cannot get respect from kids, for example, unless they collectively act in ways that earn respect. Such ways must be shown on TV through decent programs. Such ways must show through the reporting in newspapers and articles and stories in magazines. Such ways must be shown through how we all treat each other.
A New Era?
OK so two black guys done well! Lewis Hamilton has become the first black formula one world champion and a few days later Mr Obama became voted in as president of the United States of America. Hang on a minute! If this is a new era with tolerence then how come there is a 'Race Storm' surrounding Lewis? Now I was going to say that the whole race thing was being blown up and out of proportion by the press and go on about them but, while on the bus I heard two guys talking and one said, "When it comes to racism against blacks, how come a white guy plays it down while a black guy says it is serious?" I am white. Now it may be that what was done in Spain was not meant to be offensive but many people were offended and so, deliberate or not, it was racist. Lewis has answered this in the best way he could by becoming champion. He is a worthy champion and I am pleased for him.
So is it a New Era in America then? Only time will tell. I hope so.