by Lois Shuck on Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 7:29pm
It's cyclical; the effects sometimes not as far reaching although sometimes further.
There is as natural a cycle to economies as there is to life and death in general.
Bull market always followed by bear, bear followed by dumping recent memory with,
"This could last forever!"
Nothing lasts forever.
We all know that in hard times but not so much when things are booming.
After the last big slump, we put laws into place to reign in the excesses of Wall Street, toxic mergers, risky speculation.
Then America saw a golden age. spurred by the inventions of the industrial revolution being ratcheted up out of necessity. That was extended and expanded by the education and innovativeness of the 'greatest generation'.
In peace and prosperity, we had time to think about improving our world not just feeding and protecting ourselves. The 'greatest generation' gave us the tools and time to do that. They invented and worked for and bought those tools. They enabled us to dream of flying to the moon, curing illness and bringing our brothers and sisters along to share in our prosperity.
And we rose to shatter the impossibilities of the industrial age with tiny micro chips and bio chemical technology. As well, we entertained ourselves as never before on a grand scale and in a personal way. And marketing reached state of the art with the ability to individually target preferences, tastes and whims.
Who wouldn't have been giddy? We said,
"Let's have some more of this!"
But drastic changes create drastic consequences.
It isn't that taxes were lowered, it is that they were lowered too quickly in the space of time by too many administrations, and were never matched with spending cuts.
Instead of going back to supporting a few undeserving freeloaders of the system, a nostalgia many of us would trade in a minute for any tax cut, we must look forward while remembering our mistakes and incorporating new knowledge and advances into the scheme of things.
Will America ever be as it was in the 1950s?
No and that is not necessarily a bad thing. The 50s was before civil rights, womens rights and before the Internet and US manned space travel.
Where are we now in relation to that 'gilded age'?
Technology has allowed us more luxury than at any time in the history of the world, but also has isolated us and compartmentalized us away from communities we once shared. But humans are wondrous social beings, and we've traded the coffee shop for-- the blogosphere: the forum, the chat room and Facebook.
We can still rally together, argue and interact with one another. And with input from more participants including our foreign neighbors.
The renewal of our economy will not come in a political way as much as politics will follow the lead that we the people begin taking.
If you stop and think about it, governors and councilmen and congressmen are nothing more than figureheads anyhow.
As long as we understand we have the reigns, we can and will change the circumstances for the better.
Already , services and products and supporting products have emerged we would never have envisioned in times past.
A guy with a windmill, a girl with a calculator, a team of civil engineers; many cooks will stir this stew. Some laws and regulations will impede their progress, others may ease it.
Trade is as important as ever. And we need agreements that will benefit us the most.
But necessity is also still the mother of all invention.
We need to quit worrying whether we're the greatest, and just put feet on the floor in the morning, comb our hair and wash our face and try to be really good at whatever it is that we have tasked for us today, keeping an ear tuned to the often barely audible knock of opportunity.
There is as natural a cycle to economies as there is to life and death in general.
Bull market always followed by bear, bear followed by dumping recent memory with,
"This could last forever!"
Nothing lasts forever.
We all know that in hard times but not so much when things are booming.
After the last big slump, we put laws into place to reign in the excesses of Wall Street, toxic mergers, risky speculation.
Then America saw a golden age. spurred by the inventions of the industrial revolution being ratcheted up out of necessity. That was extended and expanded by the education and innovativeness of the 'greatest generation'.
In peace and prosperity, we had time to think about improving our world not just feeding and protecting ourselves. The 'greatest generation' gave us the tools and time to do that. They invented and worked for and bought those tools. They enabled us to dream of flying to the moon, curing illness and bringing our brothers and sisters along to share in our prosperity.
And we rose to shatter the impossibilities of the industrial age with tiny micro chips and bio chemical technology. As well, we entertained ourselves as never before on a grand scale and in a personal way. And marketing reached state of the art with the ability to individually target preferences, tastes and whims.
Who wouldn't have been giddy? We said,
"Let's have some more of this!"
But drastic changes create drastic consequences.
It isn't that taxes were lowered, it is that they were lowered too quickly in the space of time by too many administrations, and were never matched with spending cuts.
Instead of going back to supporting a few undeserving freeloaders of the system, a nostalgia many of us would trade in a minute for any tax cut, we must look forward while remembering our mistakes and incorporating new knowledge and advances into the scheme of things.
Will America ever be as it was in the 1950s?
No and that is not necessarily a bad thing. The 50s was before civil rights, womens rights and before the Internet and US manned space travel.
Where are we now in relation to that 'gilded age'?
Technology has allowed us more luxury than at any time in the history of the world, but also has isolated us and compartmentalized us away from communities we once shared. But humans are wondrous social beings, and we've traded the coffee shop for-- the blogosphere: the forum, the chat room and Facebook.
We can still rally together, argue and interact with one another. And with input from more participants including our foreign neighbors.
The renewal of our economy will not come in a political way as much as politics will follow the lead that we the people begin taking.
If you stop and think about it, governors and councilmen and congressmen are nothing more than figureheads anyhow.
As long as we understand we have the reigns, we can and will change the circumstances for the better.
Already , services and products and supporting products have emerged we would never have envisioned in times past.
A guy with a windmill, a girl with a calculator, a team of civil engineers; many cooks will stir this stew. Some laws and regulations will impede their progress, others may ease it.
Trade is as important as ever. And we need agreements that will benefit us the most.
But necessity is also still the mother of all invention.
We need to quit worrying whether we're the greatest, and just put feet on the floor in the morning, comb our hair and wash our face and try to be really good at whatever it is that we have tasked for us today, keeping an ear tuned to the often barely audible knock of opportunity.
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