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So the economic standard envisioned for the New Global View (NGV) by the planners and seers of the day was naturally expected to be more like some kind of trade-off between the roaring twenties and the great depression of the thirties, which was the only life experience they had to draw upon.
In fact there was a very real concern as to how to avoid plunging back into a pre-war global depression once the millions of soldiers, sailors and airmen returned home.
Well, a very astute promotion of two radically new ideas saved the day: living on credit (borrowing on one’s future worth); and creation of demand for manufactured goods and services for the sake of convenience. It was an ingenious, and daring, new departure from traditional average American pay-as-you-go austerity, which had been reinforced greatly during the Great Depression and then the war years.
Both credit and convenience have become intrinsic expectations, a birth-right even, for the American generations that have grown up in the last fifty years. Credit has become a potential problem (See a backgrounder in The Confidence Game - Part 2 ) for our economy. And convenience, which has spawned the throwaway culture, threatens our environment. These expectations for the other 95% non-American population of the globe cannot be met, and therein lie the seeds of destruction for the NGV in it original form.
The rest is history for us. We of course can see clearly the yawning gap between the new American middle class that emerged post-WWII as it raced ahead, and much of the rest of the world. Hind-sight, as they say, is 20/20.
Unfortunately for the American middle class, today’s power elite sees them as an obstacle to leveling the playing in a way that is advantageous to it.
To be continued …
References:
The Rise and Fall of the American Middle Class: The Big Idea.
The Rise and Fall of the American Middle Class: A Faulty Foundation.
The Rise and Fall of the American Middle Class: The Seeds of Destruction.
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Posted By: AZ Moderate Posted on: Jun. 20, 2006 at 11:26 AM  5 Comments
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Jun. 20, 2006 at 05:37:10 PM
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| Much rests on future advances in science and enlightened interactions with the environment and each other. There has been many other times in the past where mankind's needs have outstriped the available resources, and man always pushed outward to resolve the disparity. Indeed, the disparity may have been the driving force for this expansion of humanity across the globe. What is different today is that we are running out of globe. Eventually even our best conservation will fail us, although it may buy the crucial time we need to achieve a more permanent solution. If we as a species content ourselves with being consumers and not producers, and prefer dogma instead of intelligence and creativity, then we are doomed to the inevitable adjustment downward for all of mankind. I don't think this has to be our destiny, although it seems more and more likely given the direction we are going. Let us say that we has arrived a crossroads as a species, where our intellect will either destroy us or save us. The choices we make in the next 100 years are probably the most crucial choices that we have ever faced. Doomsday scenarios run the gamut from Malthusian overpopulation (with consequent endless war and starvation) to a large asteroid/cometary impact devastating the biosphere in one spectacular and brief cataclysm. Will the salvation of mankind over the next millenium be found in a dramatic change in global geopolitics and a drift toward enlightened world governence, or will it lie with our eventual expansion into space and other worlds. I think the answer is a combination of both, because we will not likely achieve the later (given the hugh technological and economic barriers to be overcome) unless we achieve the former. Or perhaps our salvation as a species will be found in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Guess where the Leader of the Free World thinks our salvation lies. O.K., enough philosophising. |
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Jun. 20, 2006 at 06:41:44 PM
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| Yes, ChrisAndy. That sums it up, although the devil is in the details. I think MoronInCharge has a refreshingly optimistic outlook. Looking at recorded history, the pendulum swings back and forth between the good guys (the creators of our constitution and Bill-of-Right and the seers and planners of the NGV for instance) and the evil doers (you know of whom I speak). It does seem that down through history just when the evil doers appear to finally be having their way with the Lords creation, they are shaken off with Herculean effort and mankind achieves new higher levels of civilization. Perhaps these cycles are inevitable and necessary for the advancement of the human species. It seems to thrive on strife. We are in dire need of that Herculean effort right now. The danger is that the evil doers will have their finger on the nuclear button long enough while the pendulum has swung in their favor to achieve their goal of sending us back to the theocratic stone ages. That is their goal for mankind. That is their mission. It is what the evil doers need to validate their existence. |
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Jun. 21, 2006 at 07:47:28 PM
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| Your re to my post, on Faulty Foundation: A congruent topic that I would like to spend more time on in the future is this: There were two embryonic elements that got this NGV off the ground; the Marshall Plan to help Germany, and indeed Europe, rise from the ashes of war that so completely buried it; the occupation, rejuvenation and return of Japan to her people. Lead by America, both of those defeated foes became beacons of democracy and economic powerhouses: Germany as a sparkplug to a war crushed Europe; Japan as a particularly close Asian ally and partner to the United States. The leaders of that day had vision far far superior to what passes for American “leadership” today. The baton has been dropped – and lost in the tall weeds of zealous agendas spawned of errant ideologies. But don’t get me started… Amen Mody, This is a great series, and I love the suggestion for me to get off my lazy arse and do a series on the World Bank/ IMF/ Bretton Woods/ Gold Standard/ Bank of England. So when will I sleep. And on the Marshall Plan and the lack of any leadership today, not true. In the 1980's, seeing the plight of some os the poorer neighbors, the world's greatest leaders saw the need to invest in them, to bring their standards up, thereby creating customers for their own goods and services. Unfortunatley, those leaders were French and German, and the nations they aided were Spain, Portugal, and Ireland through the fore runner of the EU. It would've been nice if Reagan, Papa Doc Bush, or Bill Clinton had had the vision to do the same... Imagine Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama with economies with double digit growth rates, GDP going from 10% of the USA's to 90% in 20 years, burgeoning middle classes buying Fords, and Chevys, Dell Computers, with MS WIndows Operating Systems... thats what happened to Ireland. The truly sad thing is every year we don't go to Mexico with this type of Marshall Plan, this gets delayed for another year. |
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Jun. 27, 2006 at 07:19:41 PM
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| OOOOOPPPSS!! I had several screens up and got my feet tangled up. I attached the following comment erroneously to “Make No Mistake, Illegal Aliens are Not the Problem.”. Sooorrrryyyy. _____________________________________________________________________ When will you sleep Phaedrus? How about at your keyboard. I’ve taken more than one nap at my keyboard. Your point about the European leadership and the EU is well taken, as is your point that they are not OUR “leadership”. My concern is primarily with our very own abysmal bunch of miscreants that bask in their own private tax supported power trip at the expense of our nation. And your suggestion for a Marshall Plan for Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama is right on track. In fact there is a series of editorials in The Arizona Republican, starting Sunday, on the subject of helping Mexico. The first installment is “A richer Mexico would benefit the U.S.” at [link:www.azcentral.com] You may not agree completely with The Republican’s suggestions on how to do this – I sure as Hell don’t – but at least we are on the same side of the street on this issue. I have also written to this subject in the distant (a few months ago) past. It is “Make No Mistake, Illegal Aliens are Not the Problem.” and it can be resurrected from the archival obscurity at [link:www.voiceofarizona.com] The gist of it is to be found in this excerpt from that article. __________________________________________________________________ The solution to the illegal immigration problem has three dimensions: o enforce our current laws to the hilt; o control the border decisively; o develop and implement a long-term Marshall Plan for Mexico. __________________________________________________________________ |
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It has become apparent that consumption and the wasteful lifestyle of the American Consumer cannot be replicated by the other 95% of the world’s population. It appears that we may have created a monster in raising the rest of the world’s expectation that they too would share in the “American Dream”.
Conclusion: The American Consumer’s standard of living will have to be adjusted downward to the rest of the world’s level if we are to achieve the NWO’s original goal of a global economy. That process started mostly unnoticed in 1980 and will not become apparent to the Average American for a couple of decades. Once it is in an advanced state where it is recognizable to the Average American, it will be too late. We will have effectively jammed the Stick up the Average American’s ass.
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Is that about right AZ Moderate?
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