An Economic Recovery Plan:
A most unusual dilemma facing the American Public today is the inability for most of us to take an intelligent position on specific programs to solve global warming, the economic crisis, the varied genocidal conflicts across the globe, terrorism, etc. When someone asks if I support the Obama economic stimulus package I just shrug. Even those with advanced degrees on the subject differ. It is simply over my head. But not surprisingly I see the problem in a much larger context, a context which I think is logically defensible and within the limits of less professorial economic wizzardliness.
For there to be economic recovery in America, and elsewhere across the globe, there are essentially 4 factors which hold the key. It starts with controlling, and in fact reducing, world human populations. In the absence of this there can be no recovery. All the other major problems facing humans at this stage in the evolutionary period originate with overpopulation. It is overpopulation which harms the atmosphere, drives climate change, depletes our natural resources, is driving a record number of species into extinction, and pits one group against another in a battle for scarce resources, whether these battles be over food, land, housing, health care, whatever----overpopulation is behind all of it.
The second factor is resources. Without the efficient use of the natural resources available for our current population, there is no way all humans can live a decent life. The imbalance---the difference between the affluent and the poor is so great today that social upheaval is a virtual given. This disparity, between the haves and the have nots, will drive terrorism to ever more sophisticated and indefensible levels. All the smart missiles and all the bombs amassed by the all mighty will become less and less useful to control foreign populations. We already saw that in Vietnam, the Russians saw it in Afghanistan, and the U.S. is seeing it now in Iraq and Afghanistan. When it comes to bringing any kind of peace and prosperity to situations like Haiti, the Congo, Somalia, the Palestinian West Bank, New Orleans, inner cities across our own land, etc. we have become more the problem than any solution. And this is sad, really sad.
The third factor is empathy. The hostility between varied religious groups, the rich and the poor, political adversaries, workers versus management, varied culture vs varied culture, and nation vs nation has never been so angry. The great battles on a battlefield or at sea between uniformed national armies is pretty much a thing of the past. The battles now have settled into the trenches with unidentifiable enemies who wear no uniform, and are less and less likely to be authorized by any established government.
The fourth factor is a more fair distribution of national wealth. There is nothing wrong with accumulated EARNED wealth. The problem begins when the accumulated EARNED wealth is allowed to accumulate as INHERITED wealth. The amassment of wealth in the hands of inherited clans is simply a poison pill to the economic well being of society in general. This accumulation of more and more wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer has been the down fall of just about every civilized society in history. When this first occurred in our own country, in the late 1800's and early 1900's, stiff inheritance taxes were imposed to break up massive accumulation of wealth by families. Today 1% of the people in the U.S. own 90% of the wealth. I always wonder about this figure, but see it all the time in varied forms sometimes it is 1% or 5%, but no matter, the problem is self evident. And it is simply unethical. Wealth should always be EARNED. Bill Gates has more wealth than the accumulated wealth of the bottom 20% of the countries in the world (or the bottom 20 countries in the world, forget which) and for his son to inherit this kind of wealth is an ethical abomination. Andrew Carnegie had it right---aside from modest transfer of wealth to family offspring, all other wealth should be returned to the society form whence it came so that the less fortunate have a chance to acquire earned wealth.
FURTHER ELABORATONS:
Let us face the truth. There are not enough planetary resources available here on this earth for everyone to live the kind of life many Americans now live. So one can just forget the babble about what kind of government, or which religion, or which ethnic group can bring peace and prosperity to this or that land. They can't. It is sadly illogical to think they can. The lines are every day being drawn in the sand, technology is increasingly available to give dissidents---over this or that issue---across the globe, the ability to sabotage the lives and material structures of any perceived enemy, and the enemy is increasingly the haves or the have nots.
Those who pass off these tough economic times as just another cyclical recession to be rode out with patience are, in my opinion, wrong. The causes of this global recession are far different from the causes of economic recessions of the past. The differences are listed above. If you wanted to run, get away, start anew where the hell would you run? There are no more unpopulated continents to escape to---Africa, South America, the United States, Canada, South Pacific Islands, Australia---you name it----the escape routes on this planet are closed. Exotic lands, with strange people, and unique cultures have succumbed to global common denominators. Land in about any major airport or city anywhere and you would be hard put to say what continent you have arrived on---and you could stay in the same kind of hotel or eat at the same kind of restaurant or drive the same kind of car as most any place else. We really are all in the same boat today if you are among the affluent anywhere. Many of today's affluent, of every ethnic and national ilk, travel all over the globe all the time. But hidden within all this affluence and extravagant lifestyles are economic pressures that are rather quickly reducing the advanced civilized countries to third world slave labor economies. Aside from the moral depravity of using slave labor in foreign lands to produce cheap goods for the affluent across the globe, this practice alone ensures the disparity between the affluent and the poor will grow exponentially, in every country across the globe. Despite the arrogant ignorance of people like George W. Bush, it is us---the current affluents of the world----who are running but cannot hide, have amassed wealth which we cannot protect from the growing masses of have nots, and in the end---with no control over population pressures----chaos of the nature seen in those countries we frequently have invaded, will be generated from within our own population. Non living wages can never be a widespread reality without the bubble bursting. Instilling in the young across the globe the idea that violence is the solution to conflict is, by any realistic definition, a self destructive policy. You might be able to kick the shit out of a few and get away with it, but you cannot kick the shit of the many, in more and more places, with more and more deaths, wounded, displaced families, homeless families, unemployed persons, and all this mixed with religious intolerance---- and expect any victory. When George Bush talks of victory it is the usual George Bush talking out of his ass. Anyone who envisions a peaceful and prosperous Iraq from all of this use of violence to subdue whole populations has the brain power of a shrew. The national political mentality in the whole Middle East is simply REVENGE. All else is secondary. Justice is defined as revenge, politics is defined not by socialism or capitalism, or monarchy or any other form of government but by REVENGE and CONTROL over your enemies and control over the wealth of your country.
Human life today, for all of us, has been reduced to some sort of abstract notion that applies within the small self centered radius now defined by family values. 100 million people will starve to death in the next few years and it becomes just another statistic which applies to some one else's back yard, someone else's family values. We killed 2 million Vietnamese in the name of necessity, will reach that goal in Iraq even if others have to complete the massacre themselves, and now we are being told that 'victory' in Afghanistan necessitates leveling that country into the stone age. It is already in the stone age thanks to a century of occupation by varied foreign armies. The industrial military complex grew to exactly what Eisenhower feared, and this monster is now completely out of control, driving our foreign policy like some sort of modern Attila the Hun. God save us all, at home here, and those abroad.
With the above bleak, but I sense nakedly honest appraisal of our human species status at this point in evolutionary history, I now attempt to list the actions for any real economic recovery.
Every single nation on this planet ought to be required by the UN to implement realistic and effective population control measures. Ancient religious dogma be damned. The idea that God has ordered the human species to self destruct is absurd. "Go forth and multiply and have dominion over other animals" was written back when there were few humans on the earth. Like in many other areas of human behavior, human religious prophets and authors of various ilk, have weaved together a wide assortment of dogmas that have nothing to do with ethics and everything to do with nonsensical rituals and behavior restrictions. Now nations across the globe, in the interests of human survival, must find the strength to declare human survival trumps religious dogma, that the good of mankind super-cedes religious dogmas. Being limited to bearing and raising two children is challenge enough and should be enforced. If a couple wants a larger herd of kids to raise let them adopt. How this is to be enforced is up to varied nations. China enforced population control measures and it's economic fortunes rose exponentially, albeit they still have a long ways to go or they will lose every bit of the progress. Failure to implement population control measures should result in world wide economic boycott and a refusal to grant passports to any citizens from such a country. There can be no fooling around with this problem. If it is not already too late, the time is short. No one is saying here that the human species will disappear, but Mother Nature bats last, and every species which becomes overpopulated has been depopulated in the cruelest of fashions. Man is the first species with the intellectual capacity to control it's own population growth, and failure to do so by putting our heads in the sand and wrapping ourselves in warped religious dogma is a pathetic betrayal of our innate ability to problem solve.
The second problem---that of protecting natural resources of the earth---is really a matter of efficient use of available resources. That some people cannot live like human pigs at a trough when it comes to the use of our natural resources is a no brainer. That time is past, given the current population on this planet. Some wasteful extravagances need to be curtailed so others can have access to these resources. The wasteful use of oil these past few decades by arrogant self serving notions that we 'have to have' large gas inefficient SUVs because a family might once in a while need to haul something is just pitiful. Maybe, just once in a while, they can rent or truck or have something delivered. Maybe, just once in a while, profits should bend to the common good. Natural resources should not be a play toy of private enterprise, manipulated by unscrupulous corporations to pile up huge profits via unrestricted capitalism. The people should own the natural resources and that means government owned. At least then people have the opportunity to vote out of office those who abuse our natural resources. We have had a ghastly picture of what happens when private enterprise, self regulated, depletes our natural resources for outrageous profit. If there is going to be a global economy, which is inescapable, then there need be global regulation of natural resources. How best to do this is for others smarter than I to figure out. But it just has to be done.
And finally, empathy for others has to become the operative force in human ethics. If we let the evolutionary law "survival of the fittest" operate as it does with the lower species, most of humanity will suffer cruel consequences, and increasingly large numbers of people are already suffering such consequences. Yes, sanctity of life is sacrosanct. Not just our own lives or the lives of others just like us, but all life generated by God's created evolutionary process. For life on this planet to be properly respected requires responsible human reproduction. Not reproduction left up to the whims and hormonal urges of momentary passions, misguided ignorant baby machines, and macho nitwits. Accepting responsibility is always a prerequisite for human evolutionary progress. With lack of human responsibility comes the endangerment of massive portions of the human species.
Aside from responsible reproduction humans have an ethical responsibility dictated by the universal innate moral principle of the Golden Rule---do unto others as you would have them do unto you. We all know that, Barack Obama knows that, and Barack Obama got elected because the better angels of our collective human ethics overcame our collective self centered indifference and distrust of others. But vague empathy will not be enough, and only time will show how much real empathy in meaningful, sharing, and protective ways can be harnessed and properly directed to salvage a future for life on our planet.
All of those lucky enough to be among the affluent need to seriously accept when enough is enough. When population is under control more can be back in; but until then, enough need be enough for the affluent, so enough will be enough for the non affluent. Materialism as the God of our actions needs to give way to empathy for others as the God of human salvation---literally, not in some sort of vague ethereal religious way seeped in rituals and prayers and gated off, one way or another, from the realities of human desperation across our globe.
CONCLUSION:
We cannot get the answers right until we frame the questions properly. So far we treat the symptoms with patch work quilts of temporary alleviations. We have become masters of the Ultimate Stall. Our vision is myopic, it is fatal to future generations and large segments of our current generation. James Baldwin said it best, although referring to race relations instead of these problems: "This failure to look reality in the face diminishes a nation, as it diminishes a person, and it can only be described as unmanly.....If we are not capable (the human species) of this examination, we may yet become one of the most distinguished and monumental failures in the history of nations,"
