The Economy

In times of economic collapse, the great danger is that the world will fall into war. That’s what happened after the crash of 1929. The collapse had its roots in the dire poverty of Germany in the 1920’s, the rise of socialism in that nation, and the “Take-the-money-and-run” mentality of the Wall Street capitalists who confronted the socialists and communists at the end of the roaring twenties. By 1931 the Japanese invaded China, and by 1936 the Germans were conducting military tests in Spain in preparation for World War II.

Sane people do not want war. World War I happened because of a key political assassination that brought down the house of cards that was European royalty. But World War II happened because of financial collapse from which the world could not recover. Things were so bad that people in Germany were looking for a savior, and they followed a murderous despot to destruction.

Currently in the United States, citizens are taxed on everything. There is an income tax, a sales tax, a property tax, a hotel tax, an estate tax, a “sin” tax, a capital gains tax, and a corporate income tax, among others. The sham from government is that the economic situation is improving. People should believe that as soon as they internalize the sincere belief that Tinkerbell will be coming to save the nation next Thursday. The government made similar announcements throughout the 1930’s.

It seems unlikely that there will be any true economic recovery in the near future, despite the government’s pronouncements to the contrary. Lincoln said essentially that you can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. The unemployment rate is increasing and Wall Street is being propped up with government bailout money. Still, economic recovery isn’t an impossibility; the economies seemed to recover after the 1987 crash.

There is great concern over the environment, but if the world falls into war, the effect on the environment may well be catastrophic.

The governments might consider big space exploration projects. One useful exploration project would be to further explore sources of water in the solar system. What is known is that there is much more water than was estimated back in the 1950’s when space travel began. Though it’s expensive, it would stimulate economies as much as the insurance company bailout. It’s better than letting the bankers give themselves $100 million bonuses for standing there and taking government bailout money.