Economic Collapse Is On Its Way (Hooray​!​)

from The Cracks Start Appearing by Active Minds

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about

The capitalist system we live under seems to lurch from one crisis to another. Yet those in charge do not want to ask the fundamental question of whether or not it’s realistic to expect to keep going on the way we have become accustomed to.
In a globalised economy, we now see that the increasing numbers of people throughout the whole world both want and expect to achieve the sort of material wealth that we in the West have been taught to aspire to. And who can blame them? But for how long can we just go on ignoring the fact that so many will inevitably end up as losers in a world dominated by the economics of competition? And for how long can we blinker ourselves to the fact that we are compromising our future by tearing into the world’s resources at an ever-increasing rate?
Whilst sticking plaster solutions may keep temporarily preventing the crisis from becoming a collapse, surely that collapse will inevitably have to come unless we change our economy in a fundamental way. And would that be a bad thing? If environmental destruction and global poverty on a catastrophic scale are the results of the system we have now, then why are we as a society too afraid to challenge its very basis?
Instead, we are terrified of recession. The very mention of the word on the news sets the doom-mongers wailing and the finger-pointers looking for somebody to blame. But realistically, in a world of finite resources and increasing technology, surely it’s only sensible to expect a future where’s there’s less work and less possessions to own. Does that have to be such a bad thing? If we plan for such a reduction in economic activity in such a way that the workloads and rewards are shared more fairly, then that would be a future we could really aspire to.
But no - we’re still stuck in a society where the benefits accrued from greed are admired, and where everyone is kept running on the hamster wheel to keep the whole shit system running for fear that if it slows down they’ll be amongst the unfortunate ones to fall off. The result is a society in the UK where the inequality between rich and poor is growing at a faster rate than anywhere else in Europe, and where significant redistribution of wealth is a concept which almost no politician is willing to promote for fear of being ridiculed.
This is not a system worth keeping.

lyrics

Capitalist economy grows like a cancer as everyone strives to put themselves first. Limitless growth on a finite planet - inevitably the bubble will burst. Competitive instincts fuel over-consumption. The rich get richer as we all get sucked in. Will things only change when the cracks start appearing? If so, then I can’t wait for them to begin. Recession - the scourge of conventional theorists - means less work to do and less things to buy. That’s nothing to fear, if we share things more fairly. Do we have the will and the vision to try?

credits

from The Cracks Start Appearing, released December 19, 2014

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