It's NOT the end of the world as we know it

[Wilko]

I think there are problems sure, western governments are increasingly bloated and parasitic and they threaten to bleed their hosts dry. But, I don't think it's fatal, I think private sector innovation, technology and productivity will manage to outpace the public debts and liabilities - despite an aging population and despite "the best intentions" (shudder) of government. I expect absolute standards of living will continue to rise globally and in the West - though there will probably be some relative shifts and a slightly different equilibrium at the end of the day, big whoop.

I just don't think we're headed for economic/societal collapse in five, ten, or twenty years. There will be changes sure, but America will still be recognisable as America, Europe will be recognisable as Europe, and Australia will still be Australia. None of this excuses the lamentably stupid economic and social policies that are currently being pursued in the West, but I have faith that the intellectual and economic energies of the private sector and the entrepreneurial class will pull us through regardless.

I note that our own Australian economy is 13% larger than it was pre-GFC, and this is in spite of the destructive economic policies pursued by our own government. Naturally the incumbent government is taking credit for the extra wealth that was created in that time - facepalm. But this is a good demonstration of what I'm getting at - the private sector is still (thankfully) able to generate wealth faster than our reckless governments can waste it.

 

[Down Low]

Investors are spooked by Apple raking in the billions and sitting on the cash. If you buy a share of AAPL, you're basically buying into a mutual fund, and riding along with their brokerage decisions. Ipad isn't selling well, and Iphone 5 isn't selling as well as investors hoped. The market's saturated and Apple has no new products to be released in the next couple of years. When you consider that Intel's last fundamentally new CPU design was the Pentium 4 -- and Netburst Architecture was a dead end -- the peaking of the smart phone market is truly frightening. The next few years look pretty grim.

 

[Bible_Belt]

The IBM 'build a smarter planet' commercials where the trucks and forklifts drive themselves make me think of all the jobs that are going to disappear within the next twenty years. There's over ten million truck driver jobs in the US right now, maybe twenty million if you count forklift and equipment operators. That's 1/7th of all US jobs disappearing because of just one new technology.

 

[Deep Dish]

Wilko:
I just don't think we're headed for economic/societal collapse in five, ten, or twenty years. There will be changes sure, but America will still be recognisable as America, Europe will be recognisable as Europe, and Australia will still be Australia. None of this excuses the lamentably stupid economic and social policies that are currently being pursued in the West, but I have faith that the intellectual and economic energies of the private sector and the entrepreneurial class will pull us through regardless.

Excerpt from Reason magazine:

Public opinion polls yield a telling schizophrenia. Asked where the country is going, respondents lean toward doom and gloom. When contemplating their own prospects, however, a majority expects to be better off in the future. The first question rests on the dispiriting reports people hear and read, the second reflects their personal experiences. The poll data, with its dichotomy between societal and personal prospects, suggests that being better informed might not produce peace of mind. These days, with the intrusion of so many media, it's almost impossible to be blissfully ignorant of the seamier sides of society. We're overwhelmed by the negative, including a steady drumbeat of reports that living standards are declining. That message sounds loud and clear, drowning out all the evidence and experience.

...Part of it may lie in human nature. Today's imperfections are confirmed by daily trials and tribulations at home and at work, or the media's latest reports of murder and mayhem. Many of us forget the turbulence of the past -- the wars, recessions, scandals, crimes, and human failings that come with every age. We remember the past in a hazy glow of good feelings. In the 1990s there's a nostalgia for the 1950s and 1960s as more peaceful and prosperous times. Yet those eras had plenty of horrors -- the threat of nuclear annihilation, an unpopular war in Vietnam, racial strife that erupted into rioting, assassinations, and political hanky-panky.

http://reason.com/archives/1995/12/01/the-good-old-days-are-now​

I agree. Life may change but I don't think the sky is going to fall.

 

[alphamailman]

The nation of England might as well just sink deep into the ocean as it stands.

 

[backseatjuan]

Our world can not work without war just like our financial system can not work without collapse and just like our economies can not work without resources. Eugenics is a real gray horse that humanity is facing today. The fluoride is still in your water, the hormones are still in your meat, and the bread is still genetically modified. Just like our bodies are still can not survive long term space travel. Eugenics and trans humanism. The new race 666, and the pale horse. It's in the bible.