I don't want to upset the Americans here (Well, maybe a little
), but personally I hate the American economic model and the way it is gradually taking over the entire world.
Actually, it's not so much the economics of it (capitalism has it's advantages) but the culture of rampant consumerism that comes with it: The unquestioned belief that economic growth is good and that any price is worth paying for it - The idea that it is better to produce, market and sell crap that no-one wants or needs simply to keep money moving around within the economy than it is to produce nothing at all. It strikes me as a lazy and morally empty philosophy to live by - it's certainly highly inefficient and environmentally unsustainable.
People talk about "economic growth" as if it is necessarily a good thing. Why is it? Is ecomic growth actually benefitting mankind? The world economy has been growing and growing for decades but the gap between rich and poor just gets bigger: The sum of misery on this planet increases exponentially. The economy that we have been growing (Like the flesh eating plant in "Little shop of Horrors"
)is a hungry monster that just demands to be fed more and of the world's resources- not to mention the human cost: The increased stress and pressure in workplaces and job markets; The meaningless redundancies just to keep share prices up; The third world sweat shops, The marginalisation of those people who are unprofitable (ie the elderly; those too disabled to work); The social stigma for those who can't afford the latest bit of advertised uselessness; The fore-mentioned human rights abuses ignored for the sake of profit... the list goes on. This is the price that consumerism and economic growth demand. Is it really worth it? What do we get in return? All the very best for the ultra-rich. Diminishing free time, increasing stress levels and a placatory amassment of material goods for the working masses: Misery, exclusion and poverty for the rest. And that's just in the industrialied world - Don't get me started on the [BIG NUMBER]% of the world's population without clean water or a hope of an education.
People talk about progress, but who can actually say what we are progressing toward? I can't say for sure but it's certainly not the altruistic, utopian future I read about in sci-fi novels.
I realise that I am posting questions and not answers - I'm not clever enough for answers - but I think that the world needs to stop for a minute, decide just what it wants to achieve, and then look at whether or not what we are doing is actually taking us toward that goal.
Of course, it ain't gonna happen...
[ 08 April 2002: Message edited by: dogscoff ]