Good Morning America, it’s Friday and your King of Simple News is on the air.
I’ve never cared about money. Oh sure, when I haven’t had any at all it became a little tense, but I’ve never been obsessed with hoarding dollars as an exchange for freedom. Some would argue that money can buy you freedom, but I don’t agree.
Perhaps I’m somewhat atypical in this respect, but if I had been offered a million dollars to stay in the Navy for four more years, I would have declined the offer. I didn’t want to be in the Navy. I don’t trade money for life.
Too many Americans would trade their souls for money, which is why we have adopted unchecked capitalism as our economic basis. But what about those who will come after us, arriving on a burnt out planet? We threw their souls into the bargain and they didn’t even get to vote!
As I watch our government leaders stray further and further off the sustainable path, an important question comes to mind. If our economic policies are so superior and if unchecked capitalism works so well; why is it failing?
The answer is of course, that it was designed to fail. Nothing can grow infinitely in a finite environment.
So here is the bigger question; how can we insist that the remainder of the world adopt our form of government and our capitalistic ways when we are failing? “If you don’t want to be like us and cast yourself into a hopeless scheme of growth and debt, that’s fine; we’ll just come over there and kill you.”
The U.S. has been insistent that everyone join our party. You know, shop till you drop. We weren’t even smart enough to see that if everyone did what we do, it would severely shorten the economic façade that we live under. Unfortunately, China and India took us up on the deal and now we are incensed that they are consuming massive resources. Well duh!
The U.S. has clearly overstepped our bounds. We see ourselves as being right and anyone who wants to argue about it can talk to Sgt. Rock of Easy Company. “We’re peaceful people, but don’t provoke us by not accepting our standards.”
Not all people of the world want the same thing and not all Americans want the same thing. I had an excellent licensed real estate assistant at one point that I paid a salary plus a percentage of my commissions and 50% of everything that she listed and sold on her own.
After a year or so I began to note that if I dropped the salary and raised her commissions that she would be making considerably more money. She would also be assuming more risk. No commissions, no pay. I thought that I was doing the right thing by offering her what had already proven to be a better deal. She was horrified at the prospect. There were no guarantees. She declined the offer.
I would have jumped at the chance; but that didn’t make her wrong. She simply wanted a guarantee; I’m a risk taker.
America can’t assume that one size fits all and that we are the standard that the world should subscribe to. After all, if they do, they too will spiral hopelessly into debt while attempting to redefine the principals of physics.
Wake up America, the insane are running the asylum.
