johnhemming2 wrote:Little John wrote:johnhemming2 wrote:
And I always thought you had the view that austerity was a political choice rather than something driven by economic necessity. Welcome to the club of rational people.
It's both and I have never indicated otherwise.
It cannot be "both". It is either optional or necessary.
There are those that believe in monetary policy and those that believe in a "money tree" policy (ie money grows on trees)
I thought you (along with Varoufakis) were of the latter category. Clearly you don't actually know what you believe (other than banning me from saying you are wrong).
It is both because, clearly, the coming decades will mark the beginning of a long descent from the hydrocarbon based industrial age. With significantly less energy available (and consequent access to other key resources) food and other key commodities are going to become scarcer. A die off, in simple terms, is unavoidable with significant hardship for those who survive and remain. That said, the only pertinent question that remains is how the hardship to come is distributed; equitably or inequitably? To some extent, a degree inequity of distribution is inevitable. Not everyone can be saved and that is the harsh truth of it. Put bluntly, we cannot save the world. However, within given jurisdictions, some semblance of equitability can still be achieved. Further to that, if it is not achieved, then we will sink into anarchy and fascism. Ordinary people are amazingly adaptable and tolerant of privations
so long as they perceive those privations to be fairly distributed. That old truth is how we have historically managed to stick together as country in times of severe peril.
However, we now have an overlord, international capitalist class who have no particular national allegiances and who have apparently forgotten the old lessons. Aided and abetted, of course, by supine technocratic lackeys such as yourself, John Hemming. They will relearn the lessons of history or they will be replaced by either the proletariat from below or from fascistic strongmen from their own ranks. Clearly, I have my own preferences as to which of those succeeds. Your preferences, at least on the face of it, seem less clear. Either you believe that BAU is still more or less possible to continue from this point, in which case, you will obviously disregard any and all of the above. Or, you accept that above is coming, in which case, your preferences are clear. I suspect the latter, You seem like, from what you have posted on this forum this far, a man who will support whichever power structure you think will be of most benefit to you.
