Thoughts on what is wrong with modern Western society….

Since the end of World War II in the Western World we seem to have had a philosophy that growth is good. That growth promotes strength. That growth should be pursued at all costs. This has led to the rise of political ideologies that support this mindset. If we look at the major players over the last fifty years we see a consistent trend towards freeing up business and particularly industry from the constraints of governance to increase productivity at the expense of workers pay and conditions. We have seen an increasing marginalization of those who are less productive through health or dis-ability. We have seen an increasing reliance of free market principles and in particular capitalism, and all of these drifts seem to have led us to where we are now, which I think most people would agree is not an ideal place to be.

Post 2008 and the collapse of the banking system, a collapse that has yet to reveal its full disastrous consequences, these having been carefully hidden so far from the general public and even to an extent the media, we have seen a drastic downturn in economies across Europe and America with increasing inflation, which is again poorly reported, increasing unemployment, reductions in government spending, reductions in manufacturing output and in the service sector, falls on stock markets wiping billions of pounds from pension funds, the very pension funds that our governments told us were the way to ensure a brighter future. At the same time that all of this is happening we are seeing our rampant consumption of fossil fuels creating fuel poverty as prices inevitably rise in de-regulated energy markets, and the damaging effects that we have had on our environment.

Is it any wonder that we are constantly alerted to conspiracy theories, that we have a population so fundamentally unhappy that they take to the streets in protest, that we seem to be heading for yet another Winter of Discontent? It feels very much as though our political leaders are either at a loss as to what to do to address the situation, or worse still simply don’t care. It should be noted that there has been a sharp rise in the success of politicians in securing very well paid careers after leaving politics, irrespective of the reason for their leaving. There are so many symptoms within our system of the general malaise, but for me what all of this boils down to is that for the last sixty years we as a population have been carefully and insidiously trained to expect something for nothing. One only has to look at the massive increases in consumer indebtedness, the freedom with which credit was offered through the supposed good times. Bankers get blamed for this greed but I’m not convinced that this is reality.

Think about it, no business likes bad debt, and yet here were banks lending to pretty much anyone with no reference to ability to repay that debt. The banks must have been aware that this was unsustainable and that it was creating a debt bubble that couldn’t possibly keep rising, yet they kept doing it. I can’t help but wonder why…..