Thank dog for friends

It would be hypocritical for me to thank God for friends, even if she were responsible, since I have spent vast expanses of my lifetime disbelieving. But friends are there to kick your perceptions back into line when they periodically drift over the line, like some long distance driver falling asleep at the wheel and traversing over the center stripe. I just re-read my rant about market capitalism, and have to admit I still feel pretty good about having identified the end of this cycle of rampant consumerism, destruction of resources and hollow lending that has done nothing but spiral the whole cycle upwards in a final surge that all but assures its destruction.

However, one must be careful when making conjectural statements, especially when dealing with friends who will actually parse them and consider each aspect of what you've laid down in print. OK, not print, virtual print. You've laid down a hieroglyphic trail of electrons that convey meaning to others. Whatever. Thinking people will react. And here's some of that reaction:

'. . .It is not necessary to have a growing population in order to have economic growth, nor is it necessary to plunder the planet's resources in some destructive fashion. And yes it is possible to keep lending to someone and expect full payment eventually, so long as that someone is making effective use of the credit to create more wealth (more additional wealth than could have been created without that credit).

Lending to an addict doesn't fall under that category. Pointing a finger at the futility of lending endlessly to an addict, and then generalizing the results of such lending to support an argument against market Capitalism is I think, one place where your logic unravels in this rant. Another is the bit about the manufacturing model being unsustainable. Efficient manufacturing is going to continue to be absolutely essential to the success of our efforts to turn around our problems.

You also lose me when you talk about money being loaned to/by China. By what mechanism has the entire planet sent its saving to China? By what mechanism has China put more money into the hands of (primarily) American consumers? The way I see it, foreign investment in Chinese manufacturing has been entirely voluntary, based completely on business decisions about cost of goods, and has resulted in substantial profits for those investors and for China. As for the Chinese loans to America (which HAS become a credit addict), who's more to blame for the consequences, the Chinese who have been buying US government issued securities, or the people squandering the borrowed money on programs that will in no way ever increase productivity here in America, thus helping to ensure that the debt will keep becoming ever more difficult to repay?

OK, I still say the current cycle is broken. Even tonight, as our pundits discuss the sinking of consumer confidence to the lowest level recorded since the beginning of the confidence survey, we are still reminded that 'consumerism makes up two-thirds of our economy.' Am I nuts in thinking this has to change? I think not. And when thinking about all the jobs in China that revolve around producing what amouts to worthless crap, I think all that has to go. I think the grand poobahs of China need to redefine the meaning of work just as badly as we need to rethink our patterns of behavior. True, it is not manufacturing per se that is obsolete; it is the creation of meaningless objects slated for planned obsolescence that is so obscene and unsustainable. Hooray to the new year. New thinking. New Plan. New President. Nu?