They say that those who do not know about the past are doomed to repeat it. Now I do not claim to be a prophet or soothsayer, but I do know a little about recorded human history. We are currently in very turbulent times, and many say that we are in uncharted territory. For those people who do not quite understand what is going on and think that they are not smart enough to comprehend the situation, I say it is actually fairly simple. While reading the following I ask that you keep a few things in mind.
The wealth of an economy or nation does not depend on the value of its currency or the amount of currency an economy or nation has in it. The true wealth of an economy or nation is reflecting through the productivity of its population.
Once the Earths population surpasses its carrying capacity, war and famine bring things back into balance. However, through technological innovation the carrying capacity of the Earth can be raised.
Historically there have been only two classes, the working class and the class that controls the means of production or the “bourgeoisie”. The bourgeoisie lives off the labor of the working class, and in the past they were called kings, queens, and nobles. In present times the bourgeoisie titles are corporate executives, CEOs, and majority stock holders.
The Great Depression of the twentieth century, the World Wars of the twentieth century, Bretton Woods New Hampshire, and 1971 the collapse of Bretton Woods when Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard.
There are two types of people in this world, knowledgeable people and intelligent people. The difference is intelligent people are able to apply their knowledge to solve problems.
The way I see it, we have two paths we can go down right now. Either the isolationist path we took before World War II, or the global path we took during and directly after World War II.
The Isolationist Path
Our government continues to do the same thing it is doing right now, pumping money into the countries financial system, which will drive inflation and devalue the dollar. Because the U.S. economy has transferred from a manufacturing economy to a service sector economy the Christmas season will save the economy for a while longer, or will be the straw that breaks the camels back. If the money the government pumps into the financial system does not free up credit so that the American consumer can buy, millions of jobs will be lost in the service sector come the first of the year 2009. When more jobs are lost more mortgage loans will be defaulted on and also student loans, which will make the value of the dollar drop even further. As the value of the dollar goes down the Chinese currency will go up (if they let it), and China will replace the U.S. as the consumer center of the world. If the economic turmoil continues and gets extreme in the U.S., some will push for a major war against one of the enemies of the U.S. so that the war economies can jumpstart production. If the people become completely distrusting in the political and economic leader’s capabilities there will be civil war and lawlessness, and new or old radical ideas to stabilize the country like Socialism, Fascism, or Communism will take hold.
The Global Path
As the industrialized nations of the world realizes that the current economic situation in the U.S. is also a global crisis they decide to call together delegates from around the world to come up with a plan to stabilize the world economy and reinstate the global regulations and stability that Bretton Woods provided after World War II. However like Bretton Woods many of the underdeveloped countries of the world will be either left out or not given a very big piece of the pie. Unfortunately for the Developed world many of the underdeveloped states are Islamic, and religious rhetoric combined with economic hardships will make political unrest even worse for western friendly Islamic governments. As many Islamic people take to extremism due to the resentment of the economic one-sidedness of the industrialized nations, pro western governments will be overthrown and the oil spout will be shut off. When either this happens or Israel is attacked the world will once again be thrown into a world war because many will see signs of the end and the major religions of the world self fulfill the prophecies of Armageddon.
Now both of these scenarios are extremely pessimistic, but they could happen if we all do not take precautions and prepare for the worst. What ever does occur, it is sure that we need to remember the mistakes of the past so that we do not make them again. We must also remember that the Human race is in this together, and it is going to take hard work, cooperation, and shared sacrifice to make it through without a catastrophe. Furthermore the only way to avoid a global disaster is for everyone to be accountable for past mistakes, and realize greed is not a sustainable concept. Finally try to take everything with a grain of salt, and question what you hear from your leaders. Just because the perception of our leaders is that they know what is best does not mean that is true. The same is true for silent people who think they are smarter than our leaders. If that is the case, maybe they should have campaigned then they had the chance, or do so now. In this day and age, there are plenty of ways to campaign. Not all of them have to do with politics.