As always, some weather downturns better than others, and the credit crunch has benefited those able to take advantage of it: those with cash, those who provide value and those who said it was coming.
It is unfortunate that at the top of that list are the rich. In other words, the rich have got richer, while everyone else has got poorer. The market turbulence has widened inequality, again. Of course it was also the rich who allowed moral hazard to multiply in the financial markets and ultimately suffer a meltdown of trust and value.
It will continue to happen like this until the rich start sharing, preferably by choice rather than force. Or everyone else starts caring more about what they do with their time and money. If we all buy in to the fantasy of unlimited credit, of buying things we can’t afford, we are just encouraging trouble.
As long as we buy into the dream that “chemicals can improve our diet and health”, that “chemicals and genetic manipulation improve food”, that “creams in a tube make us younger”, that we can have “money for nothing”, that energy is free and doesn’t pollute, that people who make our clothes in developing countries get paid a living wage, as long as we buy in to advertising, we will perpetuate a dysfunctional society and self-destructive humanity.
It’s the story of the king’s new clothes, with Hollywood special effects. We the people have been just as naive and gullible as ever. And as long as there’s a “king” (rich people, companies, governments), the king will survive the meltdown.
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