There are some simple connections to be made here. It all comes down to the fact that resources are limited. It doesnt matter what resources we are talking about, we live in a finite world, and as yet science has failed to come up with any form of energy that does not cost more (in pollution and effort) than it produces. In fact to date all technology simply degrades the world we live in more.

Now i can hear you saying what has this got to do with economic crisis. It is directly relevent because if we accept that resources are limited and that our current social and economic structures rely on growth then we are inevitably going to run into trouble. economic trouble, social trouble and enviromental trouble. Its simply a matter of which happens first, if indeed it doesnt all happen at once. we have a simple choice either live within our resources (which means being pretty damned minimal), or accept that carrying on as we are is effectively going to cause alot of trouble for us and the planet, albeit probably for the next generation or 2 to come.

what we are seeing now is a collaberation of human induced problems. Over population, over consumption and pollution. One of the side effects of this is economic problems, which are only likely to get worse. Put it this way if we were to go back to hunter gathering at our current population level we would run out of food within weeks. Nature (i.e the planet) cannot provide enough for us to live on (at a basic level) without farming. Farming at the intensive level we need to maintain in order to feed the 7 odd billion people on the planet is massively degrading the environment. So we cant carry on farming intensively without ruining the very resources we need in order to farm (i.e 250kg of top soil lost for every 20kg of wheat in america) and our population is set to rise. Thus natural resources are our achilles heal and social systems that treat finite resources as if they are endless (and without any regard for the future) will enevitably fail.

I would therefore argue that whether or not the current crisis was planned in advance is kinda irrelevent, Under our current mode of resource use it is just the logical outcome. the question is what do we do about it? we (and by we i mean the global population) need to drag our heads out of the denile bucket and face up to the situation. Global governments need to be honest with their populations about the real effect of consumerism, its a dead end.

Now dont get me wrong, I'm no hermit living the good life. I do infact have no problem with things going the way they are. I quite honestly dont think it really matters and truly believe that in some respects you may as well enjoy it while it lasts. What really gets my goat however is people profiting from the misery of others and i would suggest that its this behaviour that got us into this situation in the first place.

Profit, is the problem.

check out this link for an explanation of where rampant consumerism goes. its n ot a political statment just a simple explanation of exponential growth.

The Most IMPORTANT Video You'll Ever See (part 1 of 8) - YouTube

(Watch all 8 episodes if you really want to get to the heart of the problem)

Also is you want to see how predictable the current economic problem is check out 'small is beautiful' by Edwarde Schumacher. He pretty much predicted the current circumstances back in the 70's.

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TTR250 - London to Cape Town