I have been watching with both interest and concern the unfolding events in Greece. It seems to me that which ever way the cookie crumbles there is trouble in store. While I appreciate the problems that would be caused if Greece went bankrupt I fail to see the sense in throwing good money after bad. Perhaps I am being simplistic but if Greece already has debts which it cannot service no good can come of lending them even more money in order that they can pay us back an instalment on the debt they already owe.
Since it seems almost certain that Spain and Portugal will follow the same route where and when do we draw the line. What I find appalling is the inevitability of the whole scenario, the idea that countries can share a currency on equal terms when there economies are so diverse borders on insanity in my opinion; but what do I know, I have no specialist knowledge in financial matters, just a degree in common sense.
For nations such as France and Germany to tie their respective economies to these poorer less stable ones seems rather like tying ones life raft to the sinking ship of jumping out of an aeroplane tied to a boulder, there can be only one result. The world economy is in a dreadful state and no nation is immune from the catastrophe that is sure to come sooner or later. It is built upon a system which has failed in the past and as the earth's resources dwindle things can only get worse.
What we should be doing is paying less attention to profit and loss and concerning ourselves with survival, not financial survival but our survival as a species. Prices will continue to rise as both fuel and food become scarce, this is already happening in some parts of the world and the state of the global economy will not mean very much when these things run out altogether, and it is upon these commodities that our economies are built. I short we are pinning all our hopes upon a house of cards and there can be only one end.
While governments joky for position in the pecking order for purchasing food and fuel from the countries that still possess them the cost of these things rises higher and higher. Now it will not matter who has what if no one can afford to buy it. What will happen if the price of food and fuel continue to rise as they have in the past couple of years, how many of us will be able to afford even a rudimentary standard of living. The countries which still possess oil run the risk of being invaded by others desperate for supplies, if you have any doubt about this you have only to look at what is already happening in the Middle East.
The consequence of attempting to maintain the worlds crumbling economies in the face of earth's dwindling resources is to awful to contemplate. It is time for the governments and the people of all nations to bite the bullet and admitted to themselves and each other that thing must change,drastically and soon. It is in every ones hands to stem the tide by taking less and giving more.
This week I have been sickened to watch an event staged close to my home extolling the virtue of expensive cars. Thee tickets this Salon Prive event cost up to £250 and most of the cars are gas guzzlingmonstrositiess both ancient and modern. He people who are attending this event are not the type to worry about having enough to eat or being able to heat theeir homes in winter, in fact they probably belong to the bunch who got us in to this mess in the first place.
Now I don't know about you but I object to being told to tighten my belt while having to watch such a display of atrocious ostentation, I like millions of others have to live on a small fixed income and I am finding it hard to keep going in the face of rising food and fuel costs.
I should be even more angry however if I was one of the millions of people who are starving to death and having to watch their children die of want.
I have sited this one event but you and I know that it is by no means an isolated occurrence. It is all very fine for those in privileged positions to talk about everyone tightening their belts to save the country from bancrupcy, it is a pity that they do not pracctice what they preach.
Large companies and corporations, banks and to a degree even governments have for years convinced the general public that they cannot live without the latest this or that in order to make more money for themselves for make no mistake they are rich because we made them rich. Governments are culpable as they too have ,in order to look successful allowed massive borrowing to fuel the rampant consumerism with is killing our planet and crippling our finances.
People feel pressured into making purchases in order to feel successful, when are they going to realise that “Life style”is not something you can buy.
“My sofa is so last year” you hear it all the time. So off they go to the shops with their credit cards to purchase the new sofa, car or kitchen appliance, they may feel good for a while but for how long.
Speaking for myself I would not be at all comfortable in a smart house full of new furniture and a new car in the drive if I had to worry every month when the bills arrive. The tragedy is that this behaviour has been encouraged in every way by those in authority to the pint where even our children fell pressured in to plaguing their parents for this or that in order to fell they are the equal, or more to the point the superior of their fellows and once they are on the slippery slope it is almost impossible to get off again.
A man goes out to work to earn a living for his family but ||I wonder how many e=realise that they are made slaves by the aspirational world in which they are forced to compete. The trend in recent years to treat the purchase of a house as an investment rather that the purchase of a home in which to live happily and bring up afamily is a sorry symptom of this pernocious disease. Aspiration has become a dirty word and is responsible for much discontent. No one, no matter how pro is immune from this pressure,even a woman shopping for her families food with little money to spare can be conned in to making the small purchase of some new make-up of hair care item when she is bombarded with advertisments telling her that she will be more attractive when wearing the product. Weather it is a new sports car of a bottle of shampoo the trick is exactly the same and it sucks!
The only way to win as some one once said is not to play. It is becoming obvious even to those in charge that things cannot go on as they are. What they are doing now is making sure that when the excrement hits the fan they will be all right and damn you Jack!
There is no easy way out of the mess we are in and apportioning blame helps no one, so why are they trying to blame us? Things are bad and what ever we do now they are bound to get worse for quite a long time . It is well past time when our government and indeed governments all over the world stopped trying to stem the haemorrhage with a stoking plaster and face the truth, because weather they like it or not the good time are over and will probably never return.
We have a young generation of people all over the world who have no hope and that is dangerous,when people have nothing to lose they do desperate thing ans who can blame them.
Our children cannot afford to buy a home, they can not afford to have families, what price “Life style” for them and their future.
This is not a lecture, it is a plea for common sense from every one before it is too late and I suspect that it is a hopeless one, yet think of this, what future is there for any of us unless we change and unless we make those who run things change first of all? It is up to all of us , if we want to survive to make this happen after all to have a little less is better than to have nothing at all.
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