Time for a Reset?

I was reading a pretty funny article today talking about the global economy resetting, because while stock prices keep climbing, real wage growth keeps falling in comparison and at some point, it will all have to come back to reality. Obviously this isn't the funny bit. The funny bit is that they were presenting it as if it is something new....

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Literally.

The line after this title is:

The idea that the globe is rapidly approaching a point of no return is not limited to fringe internet economists. The International Monetary Fund shares similar sentiments.

Well - now that the IMF has acknowledged it, it must be true.

None of this is new information.

And it has been obvious for many years that we are heading toward a point of economic no return, because of the blatant greed of the system that we keep supporting. A system that eats itself without reservation, because the only incentive is to maximise wealth, without tying it to anything that matters or forces it to adjust and recalibrate - like human wellbeing. Instead of adjusting to maximise wellbeing, the economy adjusts to maximise wealth. It is like the thought experiment with an AI that is told to maximise paperclips, it will eventually consume everything, including us, to reach its endless goal.

There is no such thing as wealthy enough in this economy.

And I am not talking about individuals either, who might get to a point of so much wealth they don't want any more. I am talking about the need for constant growth of the economy as an indicator of success, where there are constant cycles and adjustments made to devalue and crash money and the economy so that more money can be generated and amplified and used to take more and more power and control, so more can be made again.

Corporations never say "we made enough last year, let's keep it at this level" - it is always looking for another ten percent, another twenty. But if a company grows at 10% a year, it is going to double its size every 7.2 years. For a little perspective, if we were to double the population of the earth in the same time frame, every woman would need to have over four children in that period, and almost no one could die.

So when all companies are looking to grow. All governments are looking to grow. All investors want their ROI to grow, and all people want their wages to grow and everyone wants to buy more, and have more, and do more, and... Well, you get the picture right, it is unsustainable.

But when it comes to the economy, it is possible to keep it growing by continually devaluing it, because none of the money is real and isn't tied to anything. More can be printed, more can be created through fractional reserve lending and interest rates, more can just be pulled from thin air, whenever it is wanted by some people. And because it doesn't need to be mined, it doesn't need to be produced, it doesn't need to be attached to anything, it can all happen without the average person being aware of what is actually going on.

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