I’ve always wondered how one can be on a tight budget and yet have large amounts of money for emergencies, or even just urgencies. One can always scrounge up something for medical bills or even new technology or a gift. What I find even stranger is that the many can do the same thing. I was reading that the current US credit bailout already costs more than World War II, and less than the inflation adjusted cost of the Louisiana Purchase, Marshall Plan, Moon Race, New Deal, Korean War, Vietnam War and Iraq War combined. Despite producing nothing especially cool at all. By the same token, Sri Lanka is spending something like 1-2 billion dollars for this war with a GDP of about 32 billion, and a trillion other problems.
Even during the cease-fire we had a ton of urgent social and infrastructure problems require attention, but they all kinda disappear in the face of the war. Or maybe they don’t, perhaps the attention just shifts. I’m just wondering where the money comes from, and if anyone really understands what’s going on. I mean, the people that had money obviously don’t, cause they’re unemployed now. In fact, Sri Lanka – by choosing to remain isolated and poor – has not fallen as badly as many countries, having no perch from which to tumble. Which makes you wonder about the wisdom of anything.
But regardless, lately it feels like my entire adult life has been the steady disbursement of the idea that adults are in charge. None of this budgeting going on anywhere in the world makes sense, and I’m not inclined to trust the powers that be more than common sense anymore. I just wonder where it’s all going to end, and what the future will look like.
One thing is for sure. The future is not going to look like pre-millennial Columbus, Ohio. Per capita resource consumption in the developed west is going to have to drop drastically, even as it rises in the emerging world, eventually reaching some kind of sustainable equilibrium. Or planetary bust. The rising price of energy, the crumbling fortunes of Detroit automakers, the capital markets going haywire, the escalating sense of insecurity and paranoia – I believe these are all in some way related to this epic global adjustment. A tipping point has been reached, and that is what we are now living through. It’s been a long time coming, and it may get rough from here on out, but the brakes are broken and there’s no stopping now.