The Economy

28/9/08

In order to 'stimulate the economy' jobs were moved abroad, public spending was cut, nations gave up their sovereignty. We even trashed the planet and gave up our own common sense, and it still wasn't enough to ensure that the global economy (likened to a bicycle rider) could keep on rolling - shame it never learnt to balance the way they do in the circus...

Sure there will be pain and suffering for many - but in the end money is a fiction - it's an arbitrary way of deciding who gets what - and if the system goes into total meltdown, it would be possible to formulate a new way of distributing the stuff people need.

Not so with the planet, which is also on the brink of total meltdown. Unfortunately, unlike the financial system, Planet Earth is more than a figment of the imagination or an article of faith - it exists in the physical realm and will cease to, in a meaningful way for us, unless we look after it.

Obscured by the ups and downs of Wall Street is the news that methane is bubbling up from the sea-bed in what is a probable sign of the onset of catastrophic global warming - if there was ever a time to remake the global economy on truly sustainable lines, it would be now.


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