The Economic Double Standard

The inequity of the economic double standard existing between the worlds general populous and their respective governments and financial institutions is untenable and is about to come apart at the seams.

If the average individual or businesses make ill informed or rash financial decisions, then they only have themselves to blame and will ultimately bear the consequences of their actions; they will lose their wealth, property, businesses and will probably be forced into bankruptcy as a result. Nobody can really argue with that scenario as it has always been that way; they are the rules of the game, no harm, no foul.
That is until the recent past, where the rules and the playing field have been radically changed. The inequity and double standard arises when the burden of government and other institutional conglomerates miscalculations, debt, and greed, are solely and disproportionately applied to individuals who had no control or bear no responsibility for the actions undertaken by them.

As a general populous the world over, we are being forced to pay the debt and interest on $38 trillion of public loans we did not want, negotiate or sign up for. Why! Because global governments in their infinite wisdom made the decision for us.

The act of trying to borrow ones way out of debt is incongruous with all the laws of finance, yet governments the world over are doing  just that. Why? Because they are petrified of the only other option; allowing society to realign itself to become a saner, reasonable, moral and more rational, value driven civilization. It will happen, this realignment is the inevitable consequence of decades of social and economic malfeasance by both governments and financial institutions the world over. The general populous also have to shoulder some of the blame, because they have allowed themselves to be sucked into this delusional morass of modern day commercialism.

We are living in a society, obsessed with money; businesses and individuals alike act solely for profit, everything they do has an excessive emphasis on making profit. Society as a whole has lost its way, the things that should matter don’t and the things that shouldn’t matter do.

Life should be about the things that make us happy, contented and fulfil our needs and not about the incessant pursuit of intangible assets which add little or nothing to the quality of our lives. Just take a look around you; of everything you can see what percentage of those items does one actually need to live life in relative comfort and harmony. We are continually being cajoled into buying stuff (I use this word because anything we don’t need in the true sense of the word is STUFF) that has absolutely no practical use in our everyday lives.

We have become a hedonistic society of self gratifying, self indulgent, pleasure seeking humans who do everything to excess. All in the name of commercialism.

As an example we drive cars, with a multiplicity of body shapes, different engine sizes, performance ratings, and roominess why? Transportation is transportation whichever way you look at it; the reality is we need the ability to get from A to B, safely, economically and in relative comfort. We have speed limits which restrict our top speeds; then what is the point of owning a car with the capacity do travel at over twice those limits. The fuel we use to power our vehicles has draconian levels of taxation applied to it all in the name of energy conservation, and pollution control; it is all about big business, taxation and money, none of it makes any sense.

The bottom line is money is a great slave, but a terrible master. Unfortunately as a global society we are the ones who have become slaves to money, and all the worthless accoutrements that it can buy.

Billions of people face decades of personal and family hardship because of the reckless actions of the worlds banking and financial service industry. Draconian levels of taxation, vicious cuts to public services and devaluation of our personal wealth will be the order of the day; the question becomes, will the general public meekly lie down and accept the medicine being doled out by governments or will they react and demand radical change to a morally and financially bankrupt society.

I don’t know what the future holds in store, but I do know society cannot continue on its current path without serious consequences.