Winds of Change.

The feeling is growing in me that, in a world run by sadists, psychopaths, technocrats, and the big corporations, the winds of change are strengthening. It's happened before, of course, just not this quickly. And change isn't necessarily a bad thing. Indeed, a state of flux has ever been natural to the progress of life and reality. But natural change tends to happen slowly and allows for adaptation, and one of the things which most concerns me is the battle cry of politicians everywhere now: 'We must have growth.' They mean economic growth, and that's where the problem lies.

 

As I understand it, economic 'growth' is based on the amount of money in circulation (and we may conveniently forget that money doesn't actually exist for the purpose of current concern.) This is where the epidemic of consumption mania comes into the picture.

Britain's new left-leaning Prime Minister is saying a lot of good things in his attempt to level the playing field a little, yet even he is now attacking the state pension -- not radically or immediately, but he's put the cards on the table. And there have been others recently who have railed that the state pension is too much; the country can't afford it; honest, working people are going short while the pensioners get richer. Richer? I don't think so. 

 

The real reason for attacking the state pension is the simple fact that pensioners are the least active consumers, and so -- if my understanding is correct -- they're the least likely to contribute to economic growth. Why keep the pensioners (who have, let's not forget, spent fifty years or more working and paying into the system through national insurance contributions) comfortable when what growth really needs is tax breaks for younger, middle class working people. They're the ones who are driven by expectation to spend £1000 on a new smart phone every two years instead of three; to buy 60" TVs to make their living rooms look like cinema auditoriums; to buy newer, more prestigious cars so their social status gets a boost; and so on. The fact that they're burning themselves out and often neglecting their children just to keep up with the consumption game is sidelined in favour of the growth imperative. Lifestyle is everything now because the elite want it that way.

(I'm even tempted to ask whether economic growth has any actual value at all, but I'm not an economist so I decline to expound upon the question. My best guess is that the presumption of necessity is inevitable in a free market economy, but not so much in the sort of mixed economy we enjoyed in the UK before Mrs Thatcher shackled us to America's coat tails.)

That's just the start of my feelings about the winds of change. Technological overkill is another, but this post is too long already so I'm going to shut up. I think it's at least three weeks since I stroked a friendly dog and I'm feeling denied one of life's real essentials.