After the Berlin wall came down and Soviet Russia shortly afterward... I remember thinking at the time - "well, Capitalism is next." Of course everyone else in the world - went along thinking "Whoooo - capitalism has won - whooooo. Greed is good. Therefore the best form of capitalism is unfettered free market laissez faire Capitalism. Full steam ahead!". Ending with the utterly
bizarre belief that a country's best interests are served by allowing a very small handful of individuals to become super-rich (-and get away with paying less and less in any taxes) while the number of poor grow and grow...
It's taken a few years for the cracks to show - Capitalism is nothing but adaptable - but we're all now reaping the folly of the last 20 years.
I wouldn't care so much if the writing wasn't on the wall for all the world to see for decades. One of the glaring examples being the Energy Oil crisis of the 70s. There was a brief blip when America had to endure sudden sky high oil prices - and they endured a few power cuts. It should have been then when masses of research and development should have been poured into alternative cleaner energy production. But the OPEC countries brought the price of oil down again and the world breathed a sigh of relief and went on it's wasteful gas-guzzling ways... Ending with such things as the popularity of the 4x4 SUV as fashion accessory and now shortly after China and India wanting to copy everything it's seen happening in America and Europe for the past 40 years. (IE. Everyone there having their own motor car.) Just at the time when we in the West should maybe copying what China used to do and replacing a lot of it's cars with bicycles!
Anyway - my point is we're about 20 years behind were we should be with greener technologies. Too busy partying I guess.
Special report: How our economy is killing the Earth - opinion - 16 October 2008 - New Scientist
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