They keep telling us the economy is returning to the austerities of that which came with World War II. We have to start accepting that there is truth in this and that as survivors we are all lucky to be alive. The time has come to take stock of what we have and to make the best of this. History never repeats itself as the saying goes, but it does spiral.
Many of us have yet to feel the crunch. Pensions hit. Holes in half built roads. Local coinage used for money in the community as barter systems which is already happening in parts of Britain. Growing our own food again.
As you well know, the construction industry is what really fed the people of this country. And now that main money source has gone and with it the confidence of ordinary mortals who are left clutching on to things that they hold dearest - their savings -in hope that change for the better will come. This happened in 1914, too, when greed turned to desperation as Germany and Italy when collapsed under the weight of horrendous inflation. Starvation set in and nationalism bloomed into the Nazi Party.
What we can rely upon is that the people will pick themselves up eventually, dust themselves down and start again. For a time, small will be looked upon as beautiful. The second World War ended 64 years ago with a couple of atomic bombs on Japan. Will it take another half century to spiral back to what we have just had? Probably not. But the real shift in the global economy is to Asia and middle-eastern countries to which our main assembly and technology industries that we had have moved or will move simply because wages are lower there. Young people coming out of today’s colleges with expectations of earnings in excess of €100,000 will have their hopes dashed.
President Obama has it right. The way forward will be long and hard because the mechanisms that caused the current global economic disaster are many and complex. We may take a Swiss watch to pieces but can we put it back together again? But what about when it is by sledgehammer? KERRUNCH....
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