One Big Happy Fraud

Churchill is credited with saying, "Capitalism is the worst system, except for all the others". Whether it is an accurate quote, or even Churchill's, is debatable. Our capitalistic model is certainly flawed though. We are: One Big Happy Fraud.

Bernard Madoff recently exposed himself as a fraud. A runner of a Ponzi Scheme, relying on growth through a continual pool of new investors to keep the machine oiled and running. Tough economic times outed his scheme though, and exposed the man to us, and we were dismayed as to how something like this can happen. Many banks, GSE's and other financial institutions have likewise been exposed as fraud....cooked books, over-leveraged and holding assets that were not readily quanitifiable.

And when we look into our own mirror, we are likely face to face with someone living beyond our means, hoping a paycheck isn't missed or that unforseen financial contengencies don't derail our highlife. We are in a house that is too big and expensive, driving cars that fit out neighborhoods status level, and carry maxed-out credit cards. We too, as a citizen of this Capitalistic democracy, are mostly frauds.

We are living the Growth Model Ponzi scheme.

From local governments seeking to attract more businesses or populace, to the state level and on to the Federal level, we are only in "good times" when we have economic growth. Economic growth is largely and ultimately tied to population growth. You can have pockets of growth without population growth - from increased productivity and taking business away from someone else - but these are not sustainable and mean that somewhere, or someone, else isn't growing. The "good times" have rolled in the south and on the coasts due to population growth. See Michigan as the alternate model and what circumstances they find themselves in.

And, we can't grow population forever, it is an endgame that is destructive to us as a species and to the planet that we inhabit. We have to find "good times" that don't tie into a GDP number that is consequetively positive. We have to find sustainable economics....and for that I think we need to look backwards in time in order to move forwards. Making local economies more self-sufficient, locally produced food and products, higher utilization of local labor and talent...go backwards to the good old days knowing the Ponzi Scheme we are living is ultimately destined to fail.