Tom Friedman Questions Basic Economic Assumptions - CALL CONGRESS RIGHT F(&&%^(G NOW!!!!

[hatrack]

:rofl:

Let’s today step out of the normal boundaries of analysis of our economic crisis and ask a radical question: What if the crisis of 2008 represents something much more fundamental than a deep recession? What if it’s telling us that the whole growth model we created over the last 50 years is simply unsustainable economically and ecologically and that 2008 was when we hit the wall — when Mother Nature and the market both said: “No more.”

Ed. - emphasis added

We have created a system for growth that depended on our building more and more stores to sell more and more stuff made in more and more factories in China, powered by more and more coal that would cause more and more climate change but earn China more and more dollars to buy more and more U.S. T-bills so America would have more and more money to build more and more stores and sell more and more stuff that would employ more and more Chinese ... We can’t do this anymore.

“We created a way of raising standards of living that we can’t possibly pass on to our children,” said Joe Romm, a physicist and climate expert who writes the indispensable blog climateprogress.org. We have been getting rich by depleting all our natural stocks — water, hydrocarbons, forests, rivers, fish and arable land — and not by generating renewable flows.

“You can get this burst of wealth that we have created from this rapacious behavior,” added Romm. “But it has to collapse, unless adults stand up and say, ‘This is a Ponzi scheme. We have not generated real wealth, and we are destroying a livable climate ...’ Real wealth is something you can pass on in a way that others can enjoy.”

EDIT

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/opinion/08friedman.html?em

[burythehatchet]

1. Tom Friedman, just 30 years behind the curve. I really can't stand this clown

this whoracle proclaims these grand ideas that have been the staple of liberal thought for decades.

[MarjorieG]

2. We could reflect on it in real time and apply regulation and oversight.

But, true, paper and leveraged wealth is not growth that is good for the planet and other considerations.

[burythehatchet]

3. What if the crisis of 2008 represents something much more

Yeah, "what if" Tommy.

[Mika]

4. I don't think that carting around the kids in DVD fitted Yukons, owning large plasma TVs, or..

.. the latest China made track lighting/sneakers/mp3/4vid player, etc etc is creating "a way of raising standards of living that we can’t possibly pass on to our children", while the whole time all of that activity, stimulated by the well advertised concept that it is "raising our standards", was really destroying the future of sustainability of jobs/economy/environment.

The entire concept of having more = raising of standards is a sales pitch not based in reality.

[Mist]

5. If "the mustache in search of a brain" has noticed problems, it's worse than we thought. nt

[Donnachaidh]

6. What - Mr. *Globalization Cheerleader* having a public epiphany?

F*ck you Friedman. Perhaps we should take all the remaindered copies of *The World is Flat* and pound them up YOUR ass.

THIS is a guy who should be introduced to the stocks -- the physical kind, set up in a public square. :grr:

[Gregorian]

7. I had to read the replies here before I realized what was wrong.

I agreed with the article. And kept saying to myself that it was stuff I've been saying for literally 30 years. Oh, I see. It's so radical that I'm reading it like it's on the back of a cereal box. Radical? How about mundane at this time in history.

Sadly, this is an example of why I am even less optimistic than many. If we continue to respond to symptoms in situations where symptoms are exhibited way too late for any reasonable action to have any reasonable effect, then we're truly in deeper trouble than people realize. And I'm talking about the things he barely mentions in passing, and the things that even the most concerned on this forum (even!) don't get. Population. Population. Population.