The first four days of this weeks have been a roller-coaster ride in the financial markets. It is a fight between those who think the world in falling into an abyss and those who think the world is finally recovering. They are both wrong.
The world is on a sloping path toward less. We are rapidly depleting our resources and will soon find ourselves having to get along with less. But that does not mean we are falling into an abyss. It means we will have to learn how to live on less, using less, and receiving less. It simply means less of everything.
The world is not going to recover in the sense that the economy (some call it GDP) will keep on growing and growing. There is no real way for the housing market to recover -- we already have too many houses for those who can afford them. We cannot export our way out of this mess because our production costs are already too high to compete with the rest of the world. Recovery is a dream word from the politicians who want everyone to believe they have a solution.
What we need is to find a better way of living sustainably. It will at least help for a little while, but in the end we still have the three cats eating our lunch, or maybe eating us.
sam, the Prudent RVer
