Economic Incompetance
The 1930s were a critical period in the World’s history. Everything seemed to go wrong. And one of the biggest things to go wrong was the Great Depression. All of a sudden, for no apparent reason, the economic situation became desperate. And there was no way to fix it.
The world was in the grip of forces it could not understand – and, it was told, it must not understand. Any idea that the people - who after all, were the ones most affected – must be in control of their economy – were squashed immediately. The Economy (not their economy) must be in control.
Eventually WWII came along – and solved the problem – for America, which became the strongest nation in history. The rest of the world did not do so well. But Americans could overlook this easily – simply by ignoring anything that happened beyond its borders.
This was the world I was born into (in 1936). A world that was in the process of destroying itself – although this was not at all obvious at the time. But destroy itself it did. In a series of wars – including, most importantly, the Cold War.
Our technical competence (with the Computer) is amazing – and we should be able to use it to understand our economy. But instead, our social competence (including our economic competence) has become almost nothing.
This does not make much sense.
Few know what’s going on, and even want to know. Those who think they know, don’t and the ones closest to the truth have mostly given up. But I say ignorance is bliss and that there’s beauty to be found in simple pleasures like reading and writing and a good cup of coffee. Cheers!
you might enjoy reading “The Revenge of Geography” by Robert D Kaplan
I looked at the book on Amazon. I’m sure it has appeal to many.
But I have a small mind, the product of my childhood and my working life in America. Which resulted in a lot of emotional scar tissue. I have to concentrate on that.