|
LOW CEILING
Wednesday Nov. 2, 2011
column written/ published from my residence in Cranston (SE Calgary) near the Bow River valley
Morning walk: 3C/37F, lightly overcast, traffic light and morning sun lifting gloom away again; Gusta still finding sniffs and goodies left behind by trick/treaters the other night but mostly around the bus-stops . . .
It ain’t over.
It has barely begun.
Prospect of worldwide economic collapse has been on my mind for about a year – as I watch news, read findings of economists and analysts – and over recent events (and their band-aid) solutions during the U.S. debt crisis and the Euro-zone debt-mess. Every time I read a headline or heard a banker or politician speak about how the recession was over, that the world economy – though wobbly – was back on track, I wondered how many of our 7 billion inhabitants actually believed it. Most of those with access to news coverage, were hopefully optimistic . . . and the behaviour of markets confirm confident cautious optimism.
G-20 leaders gather in France; their agenda of steering a leaky boat through the sea of gradual global recovery, derailed now by a confrontation with reality – perhaps a new brand of democracy. Certainly it is reality, as they face a problem that needs solving without cheques, or balances, in traditional terms.
Increasingly very vulnerable yester-year powerhouse economies have their collective hands out to the Chinese for solutions. Complex formulae, finger-crossing and nail-biting is called for. Predictions of what anyone or group might do to send it all askew . . . are just that, speculation, guess-work and hope.
Those who OCCUPY, those who sit marginalized on the sidelines are having a hard time adjusting from a generation-over-generation improvement in standard of living, lifestyle and disposable income. We cannot all live the lifestyle we want if we do not all pay the price . . .
Have you looked at the unemployment stats lately, for Europe, for the U.S., for Greece? There is a political reality at work, worldwide, which is that people are not content with governments, bankers and corporations coasting along, kiting debt into the future and avoiding every kind of pain by financing their way out of it without a corresponding real growth in their economies and, more importantly, real growth in jobs.
I’m no trained economist, but one cannot expect jobs to get created without there being a motive behind it – increased production, profitability, increase in market share . . . or reduced costs, efficiency etc. Jobs get created in two ways; imaginary, and actual.
Any fool (political or otherwise) can incentivize employers or create jobs – but will they last? Will they be sustainable?
Remember chicken little? “The sky is falling, the sky is falling . . . ”
Lately, the term Greek tragedy comes to mind. But lets not blame the Greeks for considering a vote (oh gosh, democracy?) on a bankers-politicians hatched solution when the citizens and politicians of that country are facing dynamics that exist everywhere – a growing gap between expectations and affordable sustainability, heavy debt and an inability to pay. They’ve run out of smoke and mirrors. The Brits, French, Germans and Americans are running low on theirs. The Spanish, Portuguese, Italians are a half-step behind the Greeks, so dominoes can easily fall . . . and we Canadians cannot comfort ourselves as immune.
Those of us with much may find that what we have is suddenly worth less. Those of us with little have not so far to fall. The Greeks are not only facing their reality, they are in the same situation as any other broke unemployed person anywhere on earth – they have to work with what they have and what they have is little, or nothing, compared to what they used to believe it was.
While there will be plenty of blame to go around soon, blaming solves little beyond postponing a hard look at facts, at reality . . .
We don’t blame the weatherman for the weather.
We don’t blame the grocer if our cupboard is bare.
We don’t blame our bank if our account has no money in it.
Blame and investigations of accountability/responsibility are media and politician terms – they have nothing to do with plowing a field, harvesting a crop or making anything. We all, collectively on this planet, need to work more and expect less for it, try harder and not expect overnight solutions to anything, save more, give more, care more . . . and expect less of our institutions and expect more of ourselves.
The sky may not be falling, but to borrow a phrase from pilots and the weatherman, it’s a low ceiling.
Mark Kolke
398,372
Comments Received:
ADJUSTING MY DIAL
Happiness is a choice we make…..each and every minute/hour/day. That is one thing we all have….the ability to choose…no matter ‘what’. Let us all choose to choose what we feel is best for us…..right now and forever, BM, Calgary, AB
DAILY THOUGHT NOV. 1
I love cards too. You are so right with respect to a card being able to say what is in your heart but were unable to find the words for. Cheers, MT, Calgary, AB
BRAIN DRAIN
Great story! … I didn’t want it to end – I wanted to know more, EC, Chicago, IL
| 
