The events that spurred over the last few months of 2008, has left a subtle message in my head about how the world will function in 2009 and beyond – we're all going to be barbarians again.
But not like the barbarians of the past – who only had a piece of animal skin to protect their bodies and a spear made of wood and stone as a weapon; we're going to be barbarians with bullet proof gear, hi-tech navigation and killing machinery. ID tagged, controlled set of human killing machines fighting against each other because some asshole leader asked to.
And in the entire gambit, there lies undercover economy that's making money out of selling weaponry (to both the fighting parties). And personally I feel that economy is none other than the US.
The country is in trouble, and it rightly deserves to be in one. In a flat world, if they decide to be the 'guy-who-bullies-everyone', it will fall in trouble.
US has a political stronghold on the middle east, because the Sheikhs have agreed to retain the dollar peg despite the economic slowdown all across the world. And with the oil prices falling less than $50, I think its high time, they de-peg it and not lose out on a falling dollar.
US is also highly skewed towards choosing whom to protect and whom not to. The moment the Mumbai blasts happened, within no time Condoleezza Rice flew down to New Delhi, asking Pakistan to surrender the terrorist outfits etc. I mean, hold your horses lady! Nobody's asked you to come! And just a month or 2 later, when innocent residents of the Gaza strip are being massacred in broad day light, no one has the balls to go out there and ask for some peace. They're sitting pretty in their offices giving random statements, asking Israel to stop bla bla bla!
And despite being harsh on Pakistan they also need the country to help eliminate all terror outfits in Afghan etc. Personally I feel Pakistan is in thick soup. On one hand it has a world power up its ass, and on the other its got a bunch of radicals who're asking for protection, and on the third its got its own economy to handle with a current inflation rate of 26%! In reality its more in Pakistan's favour than India's not to wage war against each other.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, free market economy was the way to go (but really did we have any other choice!). It seems after what has happened; even free markets are not really worth relying on. Adams Smiths' invisible hand suddenly became really invisible… Free markets don't really give an equal chance to all countries. The ones that are incompetent fail and get battered. Some also have to face injustice. And the radicals (terrorists) rise out of those countries that have faced injustice in the free market economy. They're looking for vengeance and getting their dignity back. As a world economy, one can collectively just weed these radicals out. But when things like religion, previous relationships with those battered countries, and threats of destructive attacks come into the equation, people sissy out and do their own thing.
Adam Smith said that, in a free market, an individual pursuing his own self-interest tends to also promote the good of his community as a whole. However, to me the statement is only almost correct. Only difference is, that pursuing one's own self-interest doesn't 'always' lead to the good of his community as a whole.
Damn you free markets!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment