Change is a pain. C'mon, admit it. Unless you're one of those hardy, adventurous souls who's currently stuffing your backpack for a long trip to the Arctic - oh, yes, after quitting your job and kissing your family goodbye, that is. The rest of us, sad to say, prefer the comfort of driving the same route home from work most days. Even if we hate to admit it.
Well, here's news. Obama and McCain are mouthing the right words. "Change is coming!" Etc. Only thing is, the changes they're promising probably aren't the biggest curves ahead. Don't spend your tax break yet.
No, the changes ahead will be more profound. Our basic confidence in the great economic engine isn't gone, but it's shaken. People are actually thinking about (next time) buying homes they can afford (and heat), about the merits of state colleges for their own offspring, about getting a smaller car, wearing a sweater (mittens??) at home this winter, and perhaps even buying less stuff in case times get worse.
The amazing thing? This may be all for the good. In our rush to trash our planet, we in the U.S. have consumed oil and gas, cows and fish, plastic, and ice cream (oops, that's just me) at a truly alarming rate. What we're seeing now is LIMITS. Limits that will prod us toward changes we've resisted, as a nation, as businesses and as individuals.
As in...
-All that money Wall Street was flashing around? Lots of it was fake, a bubble, a myth. The way it was "made" was something no one really understood, and now much of it is gone - actually GONE.
-Peak oil? How many of us have skimmed the articles and turned the page? Yes, Virginia, we will run out.
-Spending as fast as we earn? Oops. Not so smart.
I don't think the American way of life is doomed, or that we'll be living in huts in the dark anytime soon. Instead, I think we'll need to look at how money, honest money, is actually generated and at how our incredible inventiveness can help us come up with technologies and systems for a more sustainable, perhaps more sensible, world.
It could be fun. Really.
Why, is that optimism I detect???
ReplyDeleteIn a previous entry you wrote about riding out the economic ups and downs over the last few decades, and it just reminds me how, in many ways, the economy cycles like everything else in nature. We're presently at that uncomfortable peak (or perhaps crash is a better word) in the cycle where we went too far in one direction. Like, er, a forest fire that will eventually lead to new and better growth. I may be pushing the boundaries of this metaphor a tad...
...but balance will come again, eventually. And it would be nice to figure out the magic formula that actually KEEPS us in a comfortable economic balance (hopefully by the time I retire!), but... well... I'm still a bit of a pessimist. Ask me again after the election!