Like Living In a Loony Bin

The industrialized nations are in the midst of an economic crisis for the first time since the oil shocks of the 1970’s. That determination was made by the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), an organization of mainly wealthy, industrialized nations. The crisis will raise unemployment by nearly 2 percentage points, according to its experts. In order to prevent the collapse of the whole economic system, hundreds of billions in public funds are being given to financial concerns. There’s a real shocker. And nearly every responsible economist and politician is calling for definitive reforms so we can quickly put an end to this misery.

That’s right where the problems begin, because the suggested measures are absolutely hair-raising. It’s imperative that consumption be fired up again as quickly as possible. They can’t come up with anything more intelligent than that. That’s elitist tunnel vision at it’s most inexplicable. Mass consumption, especially consumption paid for with borrowed money, is precisely the reason we’re in this mess to begin with. Now they tell us mass consumption is the best way out? And if the insolvent Americans are too under the weather to do it, then the Chinese or the Indians should jump in to get demand cranked up again. Or that’s the general idea.

Again, the European Union is told to dampen down goals for the environment because that’s a luxury, the Germans continue to call for the marketing of cars that nobody really wants any more, and the international energy agency IEA warns in their latest report that investment in oil production has to be increased from $390 billion to $600 billion to insure cheap oil to lubricate the world economy. It’s like living in a loony bin.

Naturally the world can’t double efficiency, switch over to renewable energy and achieve comprehensive environmental protection in just a couple of years. But there has to be a start somewhere. That will require research, experimentation, green taxes (oil, meanwhile, has gotten far too cheap again), and the public must be gradually convinced to support it all.

We know from experience that crises can produce new solutions to problems. Unfortunately, it looks like our best possible opportunity will just be frittered away.