Thursday, May 15, 2008

I have the solution to all of our economic woes, wanna hear?

Have you been around lately? I hear all kinds of news regarding all kinds of crazy things. Apparently the market is crashing. Everybody is pretty sad about it too, we all have to buy our food at Wal Mart and stop eating out. Mostly though, gas prices are on the rise faster than a boy at prom. People are having to squeeze harder on their pocketbooks looking for that last scrape to throw into their car and burn. This is an obvious problem. How can we live comfortably in a world where housing is no longer supplying us with the money allocated for frivolous spending, all while being squeezed to fill up the car we can't afford that gets 4 miles to the gallon that we bought a year ago by trading in our older, perfectly fine car that only had 10,000 miles on it. How can we solve this problem?

Well, I have an idea, but it would mean a lot would have to change, including how human nature works. Knowing this, my plan would solve the economic problems of today, but won't work, because everyone regarded is proven to be to greedy to go about the plan, but I think its worth throwing out into the world anyways.

First, we have to find ways to conserve what we have now. No use fixing everything if we can't figure out how to keep it long enough. That means higher efficiency cars, diversifying our fuel intake, continuing the research into new energy sources, renovating and modernizing current utilities, etc. This is not just a question of conservation, but moreso, for worldwide prosperity. Commodity and resource searches lead to conflict over ownership, if theirs more to be had, then less is demanded, keeping prices at levels that most countries can handle. If we can make all things necessary to life available to all, we can make for a peaceful world.

Second, We have to reduce the span of public trading in the commodities market. If we make it economically viable for companies to stay out of the public market, the resultant profit would be forced back into the company, making for better product and more competitive prices due to a lack of necessary bottom line.

Moreso, we need government oversight into corporations. This also means greater governmental reforms, which would need educational reforms, which would need media driven support, which would mean that the media would need to be reformed, which would mean corporational reform, but I digress. With the privately traded company, we would need to makes sure that the profits are being used properly, maybe a tax on profits and incentives for being without it would be proper.

Why these wouldn't work.

  1. Current shareholders will be reluctant to give up their shares in a successful company. The initiative would have to be enacted within a turnover on the oil bubble, although as long as oil is the lifeblood of the country, that reality is far away.
  2. That said, oil companies have an incentive in making sure that they are the top of the heap in regards to energy consumption. They wouldn't allow conservation efforts to go beyond grassroots organizations,keeping government funds away from these efforts and giving menial amounts of money to them in return, to seem philanthropic.
  3. Wars drive up the cost of crude. Crude is controlled by those who are in warzones. War costs money. OPEC has an incentive, therefore, to never stop fighting within themselves. All they have to lose is some poor kids, while the rich stay on top, earning by proxy.
  4. That said, oil stockholders also have incentive in wars. The stockholders who have the most to gain, and lose, also hold high positions or are on speaking terms with those who do. War over commodities will never end until the war ends. The commodity holders, never want it to end.
  5. governmental oversight would step into the pocketbooks of those in charge. No longer do we have people that want to do their job in the hopes of a better world, but rather, they want to make a ton of money that they won't no what to do with, but that is simply the nature of society, which may need to change in the process.
My last point I would like to make is this. As long as we live in a world that thrives upon the masses unwillingness to think, the few will make the decisions. Those chosen few will inevitably choose to make themselves more powerful. As long as the public doesn't want to look, they won't, and the world will become less because of that. That being said, those in power also have an incentive to keep you from knowing as much as possible. As long as they have control over your lives; what you watch, what you read, what you want, and what you need; they control who you are. Make a conscious effort to understand, or be willed to understand what they want you to understand.