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Short-termism drives West to its knees
By David Hill |
August 9, 2011, Tuesday
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THROUGH several decades of disastrous decision-making our Western politicians have made the future for the West an unthinkable economic and social nightmare.
By accumulating vast unsustainable debt accumulation and allowing the capitalist system of globalization to run amok, they have brought Western economies to their very knees.
So much so that the East is now assured of global domination in trade and also tactical warfare in the future.
Who would have thought that 66 years after winning World War II and launching the Marshall Plan our politicians could have made such a mess of things, bringing the United States and Europe would be on the brink of an economic meltdown.
What has gone so sadly wrong and why?
The answers surely lie in the facts that Western politicians are remote from reality, are reactive and not proactive, lack a broad enough spectrum of knowledge (predominately are all lawyers), place too much power in the hands of their richest and the most powerful corporations, do not think of tomorrow and only of today, have too many fingers in the corporate pie and are totally complacent towards long-term socio-economic sustainability.
Corporate greed
Indeed, the short-termism that they have fostered in the interests of Western corporate greed (including investment of trillions of dollars in the East) and quick shareholder profits have ultimately been the reason for our road to economic decline.
In contrast, looking at China with a "command" economy where stability and long-term economic strategy have never wavered for 30 years, it is no wonder that we are in the terrible mess that we find ourselves today and unfortunately, it has to be said, the terrible declining state that we are leaving to future generations.
Politicians should look in the mirror and see who is really at fault with the design and development of this emerging economic abyss that we now all confronting in the West.
Overall, the people have been well and truly mislead, deceived and taken to the cleaners by a politico-economic system that principally supports the rich to the overwhelming demise of 95 percent of the West's law-abiding citizens.
Politicians have to take great note now that they may not be law-abiding citizens for much longer, since there's a limit to what people can accept.
Unfortunately we are facing a "perfect storm," which is gathering apace by the year, one for which our politicians are totally responsible for over 65 years of ineptitude and diabolical mismanagement of our Western nations.
(The author is executive director of the World Innovation Foundation. The views are his own.)
By accumulating vast unsustainable debt accumulation and allowing the capitalist system of globalization to run amok, they have brought Western economies to their very knees.
So much so that the East is now assured of global domination in trade and also tactical warfare in the future.
Who would have thought that 66 years after winning World War II and launching the Marshall Plan our politicians could have made such a mess of things, bringing the United States and Europe would be on the brink of an economic meltdown.
What has gone so sadly wrong and why?
The answers surely lie in the facts that Western politicians are remote from reality, are reactive and not proactive, lack a broad enough spectrum of knowledge (predominately are all lawyers), place too much power in the hands of their richest and the most powerful corporations, do not think of tomorrow and only of today, have too many fingers in the corporate pie and are totally complacent towards long-term socio-economic sustainability.
Corporate greed
Indeed, the short-termism that they have fostered in the interests of Western corporate greed (including investment of trillions of dollars in the East) and quick shareholder profits have ultimately been the reason for our road to economic decline.
In contrast, looking at China with a "command" economy where stability and long-term economic strategy have never wavered for 30 years, it is no wonder that we are in the terrible mess that we find ourselves today and unfortunately, it has to be said, the terrible declining state that we are leaving to future generations.
Politicians should look in the mirror and see who is really at fault with the design and development of this emerging economic abyss that we now all confronting in the West.
Overall, the people have been well and truly mislead, deceived and taken to the cleaners by a politico-economic system that principally supports the rich to the overwhelming demise of 95 percent of the West's law-abiding citizens.
Politicians have to take great note now that they may not be law-abiding citizens for much longer, since there's a limit to what people can accept.
Unfortunately we are facing a "perfect storm," which is gathering apace by the year, one for which our politicians are totally responsible for over 65 years of ineptitude and diabolical mismanagement of our Western nations.
(The author is executive director of the World Innovation Foundation. The views are his own.)
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