There was an article in the Star on Thursday, 27.11.08 on the issue of the Great Depression in 1929 in the United States. The question that was asked was whether we really want it to happen? The employment rate spiked up to nearly 25% and the trading between nations nearly became a standstill. It was bad and it didn't just affect those who were in business but affect the whole nation including the poor. The poor became poorer and the reach became a bit poorer.
In reference to my earlier posting title Appetite for Destruction (http://kruel-legalcat.blogspot.com/2008/10/appetite-for-destruction.html), I think some people are so afraid of failure that they think when something bad happens especially economically, the world would end. Just to make a point, the Great Depression didn't kill or shut down the whole world. It just hit the biggest country who was strong financially but was so into themselves that they were taught a lesson in humiliation. The world did not revolve around them. They have the biggest PR machine in the form of movies, tv shows, radio, porno, sport stars and anything that you can imagine which could generated publicity for itself. That particular country sells an idea. And it work...
People believe what they sold and what they are still selling. Yes, they even call it the American Dream...
Read Michael Crichton's State of Fear in which he had a theory about the environmentalist and he was commenting on the doomsday scenario promoted by so many people. They were saying that the world is in a downward spiral and the end is nigh. Crichton presented the fact that what the environmentalist is saying had happened thousands of years before and the world is still here. It is not too farfetch to think that a large economy may one day be cut into pieces and another large economy takes its place. There are other civilisations which had flourished before and still surviving now. They may be called the new economic frontiers but they have been around for a lot longer than the one we call a superpower now.
Again, people need something shocking to happen before they realised there are better alternative than a free market where the term 'market forces' is everything. Free will has never been in question as much as now. How about Islamic finance? Isn't there a chance salvation may come from the most unlikeliest place?
As a final morsel in this food for thought - Where is Rome now? What they always say is Rome wasn't built in a day. What they forget is that it also took some time for Rome to be destroyed. When it was destroyed, it was not in decline, it was flourishing...
1 comment:
We need a balance of regulation and free market mechanisms so as to say in this current situation.
The forces will pick itself up , lets say in around a year from now.
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