Do you want to know when the "economic collapse" is going to happen? Just open up your eyes and take a look. The "economic collapse" is already happening all around us.
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Many people talk about the coming economic collapse as if it is some massively hyped event that they will be able to point to on the calendar, and a lot of writers spend a lot of time speculating about when exactly and precisely it will happen. But the economic collapse is not a single event. The economic collapse has been happening, it is happening right now, in front of our very eyes, and it will be getting a lot worse.
Britain, or better the Bank of England, had to admit that the economy had shrunk and that there is no prospect of any growth for the next coming year. The problem is our obsession with growth anyway, to be very honest.
However, it is not the lack of economic growth anyway but the fact that the economy is collapsing that is a problem. The answer is, however, not more money thrown at it to grow the economy but a new economic model, one that considers people and the Planet.
The collapse, which is not just coming but here already, and happening in stages, and there is very little that we, as individuals, can do about it (bar prepare) and regardless of what our governments are trying to tell us there is also no way that we can buy ourselves out of the downturn by spending more and still more on things that we do not need.
Over the past 40 years, the United States and Europe have piled up the greatest mountain of debt in the history of the world, and now a tremendous amount of pain is heading our way. Economic conditions in the United States and Europe have already deteriorated badly and they are going to continue to deteriorate. Nothing is going to stop what is coming, regardless of what, as I said, the powers that be would like to have the people believe.
Many people, far too many, in fact, and the governments to boot, are still in denial about our economic decline. Some people still believe that everything is going to be just fine and that the government or this or that international body is going to sort it out. Right, and I have got some ocean front property to sell you in Arizona.
Most people are way too much involved in themselves that they cannot see what is happening, especially those that have a good job and still make a good income. Americans, especially, are so isolated to events around the world that it is, at times, entirely unbelievable. But then there are indeed people in the US that have never been outside their own county and state, let alone the country and the media certainly is not in the business of educating the masses.
While some other writers would like to blame Obama for all the ills of the US economy and the country the fact is that he was not in charge when the banks played a dangerous game and collapsed, and neither is he in charge of the European Union where the Euro is about to go to the dogs. The latter may not be all that bad a thing despite of the problems that may result from a collapse of the Euro initially and even a collapse of the EU, should that happen.
The entire capitalists economic system, based on more and more growth in order to sustain itself, is not sustainable and economic growth is not sustainable anyway on a finite Planet.
We need to rethink our ways of doing things, our ways of living and working, and the ways of our economy.
This, however, will mean that things will get a lot different and that things will get more expensive. At the same time, however, products will then be made again at home, very locally even, in such a way that they can be repaired and maintained rather than having to be replaced every year or so.
Our economy has gone, since about the middle of the last century, from one that was sustainable, more or less, to one that is not sustainable as it has been geared to more and more consumption and that consumption has been created by the fact that repairability of products was nullified.
Today there is hardly any electronic product that can be fixed, and the same goes even for shoes, boots and many other things. So-called shoe repairers cannot sew the mid sole of a boot; all they can do is stick rubber soles to a shoes or boot. Furniture, unless handmade and very expensive, is made from garbage and falls apart often when moved more than once or twice. It certainly cannot be repaired. And the list goes on and on.
Any wonder the economy, which was created to be reliant on more and more and ever increasing growth, is in the mess that it is in.
When I grew up a car was driven almost to the point when it fell apart, after having been fixed again, and again and again, and the same was true for almost anything else. Today, however, all people can think of is tossing something when it is no longer the newest, and replacing it, whether a PC, a bicycle, a sofa, or a car, and everything else in between. Not that things can be repaired in the first place; they cannot anymore, in the main.
The economic collapse is here, it is not just coming at some date in the future, and the economy is slowly but surely going down the tube and there is absolutely nothing anyone can do about it. The system is simple irreparably broken and needs to be replaced. All we, as individuals, can do about it is prepare and get on with our lives by also becoming part of the solution. By demanding a new system and a new way of doing things. Growth is not what makes the economy. We need a steady economy to protect everyone, including the Planet.
Don't look for the economic collapse at some distant date yet to be determined. Understand that it is happening, in increments, all around us, and prepare.
© 2012
