So that was 2008

 For me 2008 was the launch year for this blog, the year China impressed the world with its ability to match and better the West in spectacle and ability to deliver in Western terms. It was also year that the American people may finally have rejected the “American Way” and its consequences to the world’s economy, ecology, stability and future. The Obama phenomenon is mostly about a new chance to rethink some of the old ways and it will have the powerful impetus of the break down of capitalism to drive this forward. I do however have some slight deja vu moments in writing this that remind me of the Blair opportunity that has proved to be largely but not entirely wasted.

 I only have an old fashioned “O” level in economics but there does seem to be a number of fundamental flaws in the simple supply and demand market process and I recall upsetting one of my tutors by challenging this some 45 years ago. The world does not have unlimited resources: if money represents a means of exchange for goods and services then you cannot invent money by typing in zeros on a keyboard. Then, there is the motivation side of the equation. Are we really only motivated by increasing our bank balances. I do not subscribe to any particular religion but I could not accept that there is not a spiritual reason for us living and working. We have just celebrated Christmas (or should I say eXmas) but how many of us couldn’t wait to get to Woolly’s to take advantage of the loss of an icon and many jobs? The problem is we mostly do not make the links between opportunities to benefit from personal gain and the real cost to others whether the virtual slavery that has produced much of our imported goods or now more directly the impact here at home when it all goes belly up. Mrs Thatcher was famously misquoted as saying that “there is no such thing as society” well actually she was close to prophesying where we could be if there is not a proper response to the global position we now find ourselves in.  Gordon, bless him, and other world leaders feel duty bound to try to prevent an even worse scenario. The truth is that it is not a British problem or an American one but a problem for an expanding human race that is running out of space and maybe time to find another way.

A personal view of course, but maybe we should be looking after the fundamentals rather than the mechanisms of managing our joint wealth. Maybe if we looked more toward saving the planet and all its inhabitants then methods of exchange and transferring the limited real wealth that we all borrow/share during our lifetimes we might find better ways towards a more sustainable life support system that we call Earth.

Thank you for reading this.

Happy New Year (forget the “and prosperous” let’s concentrate on the Happy for once!)

Thank you to those who have contacted me privately as well as those who have posted comments. Please feel free to continue to do so. Finally may I thank all of you who have helped me in so many different ways this year, and there are many of you, some not realising just how much.