Out of the Box Problems …
But Only
“In the Box Solutions”
are offered up by our would be presidents and their parties.
A few of our Out of the Box Problems:
Global Climate Change
Peak Oil
Bird Flu
Global Credit Crisis
Backwards Communications Infrastructure.
An electrical system that wastes at least 70% of the energy it uses
Smoldering National Urban Crisis
A corrupt, profit driven election process
The attack on our Constitution
The Looting of America by the Insurance Companies
A failing healthcare system
These interrelated and interlinked systemic problems, of course, require “Out of the Box” solutions. That is, more of the same old same old will not get us out of the messes they got us into. So why are we not seeing new ideas that get us out of the collapsing box we are currently stuck in?
Perhaps it because they are not supported by the legions of lobbyists in our Capital nor by the “main stream media”. Perhaps because our current leaders can only see what they have learned to believe in the last century? Further, it is no accident that we are encouraged to “go shopping” and not to think critically. When we do apply critical thinking to our actions to learn from them, we are too often called “terrorist sympathizers, un-American, Communists, and all of the other “bad names” the reactionary forces can muster.
We are currently trapped in a box controlled by a regime imposing a perfect storm of: Ideological hegemony + Greed + Hubris. This deadly witches brew acts to inhibit social learning by blocking viable adaptations. Thus we are NOT, can not be, a learning organization and are destined to die off as the the “fitness landscape” changes and we can not.
Unless we can reject greed, hubris and break free of the ideological hegemony imposed by the current ruling elites. Can we? Will we?
4 comments permalink | Jock Gill | Climate Change, Culture, Democracy, Election
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Excellent,profound & a timely theme….we should really think deeply on these…irrespective of our own predictions, prejudices and mundane political priorities.
Next week I am one of the 36 (three dozen) intellecuals invited form around the world by the Congress of Planetary Initiatives, 2007, in Salt Lake City to discuss those issues and topics which have to be takled about by our generation in order to think ahead positively with hope. It is a unique conference in that it specifically asks us to dwell on matters that are significant for the peoples of the world. I would certainly raise these points in my oral presentation and hopefully write about them in the near future.
Cross posted from Dewayne Hendrick’s list.
[Note: This item comes from reader Ken DiPietro. DLH]
A debt culture gone awry
By Hamid Varzi
Friday, August 17, 2007
TEHRAN:
The U.S. economy, once the envy of the world, is now viewed across the globe with suspicion. America has become shackled by an immovable mountain of debt that endangers its prosperity and threatens to bring the rest of the world economy crashing down with it.
The ongoing sub-prime mortgage crisis, a result of irresponsible lending policies designed to generate commissions for unscrupulous brokers, presages far deeper problems in a U.S. economy that is beginning to resemble a giant smoke-and-mirrors Ponzi scheme. And this has not been lost on the rest of the world.
This new reality has had unfortunate side effects that go beyond economics. As a banker working in the heart of the Muslim world, I have been amazed by the depth and breadth of anti-Americanism, even among U.S. allies, manifested in reactions ranging from fierce anger to stoic fatalism. Muslims outside the United States interpret America’s policies in the Middle East not as an effort to spread democracy but as a blatant neocolonialist attempt to solve its economic problems by force. Arabs and Persians alike argue that America’s fiscal irresponsibility has forced the nation to seek solutions through military aggression.
Many believe that America’s misguided adventure in Iraq was a desperate attempt to capture both a reliable source of cheap oil and a major export market for the United States.
The United States borrows a whopping $2.5 billion daily from abroad to service its burgeoning debt. In order to continue borrowing at reasonable interest rates America needs to retain credibility with its overseas creditors, especially Far Eastern nations running huge trade surpluses. A cessation of foreign lending would force the Fed to raise interest rates to attract money, precipitating a collapse of the already weak housing market and pushing the economy into recession.
This is why the Chinese, in particular, have threatened to retaliate against proposed U.S. trade sanctions by reducing their $1.3 trillion in dollar holdings.
The U.S. debt situation is so grave that the Chinese would not even need to “dump dollars” to precipitate a meltdown but could simply refuse to extend further credit: They could cease purchasing additional Treasury Bonds and Treasury Bills, without selling any excess inventory. China has the far stronger hand, because a run on the dollar would merely reduce China’s gigantic cash surplus while increasing America’s debt burden to astronomical levels.
U.S. debt affects all nations, but in surprisingly different ways: Third world farmers suffer from the effects of gigantic U.S. farm subsidies aimed at reducing the trade deficit, while Russia has actually profited from America’s lack of discipline.
Flush with funds generated from a decade of trade and account surpluses, Russia views U.S. sensitivity to its expansionist energy policy as a response to America’s own failure to reduce energy waste and exploit alternative energy sources when it had the opportunity to do so. In sum, American economic decadence has become a source of Russian strength.
America’s supply-side economists argue that there is nothing wrong with going into debt, but this is valid only as long as a nation and its consumers are gaining something in return.
What have Americans gained from their nation’s mountain of debt? A crumbling infrastructure, a manufacturing base that has declined 60 percent since World War II, a rise in the wealth gap, the lowest consumer-savings rate since the depths of the Great Depression, 50 million Americans without health insurance, an educational system in decline and a shrinking dollar that makes foreign travel a luxury.
The best cars, the best bridges and highways, the fastest trains and the tallest buildings are all to be found outside America’s borders. Supply-siders ignore the crucial distinction between, on the one hand, debt employed as an investment vehicle to enhance competitiveness and, on the other, debt used to pay off current expenses and to create even more debt.
[snip]
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