World 2.0

The United States is the greatest country ever, and there will be no threat to our supremacy for a century and more. The Cold War brought our civilization to the brink. But that was almost two decades ago. There are no more threats. Afghanistan, Iraq and North Korea are mere mild irritants.

What about that feared China? Their one child policy means that the country will get old before it gets rich, as vividly portrayed by The Economist in their 25 June 09 issue. Why? In 2000, ten people supported one retired person, or a ratio of 10:1. In 2050, China's could drop to 1.6:1. So let's say they change this population policy. Japan in 2050, with no such restriction, is nevertheless expected to drop to a ratio of 1.7:1.

Could Russia re-challenge? Probably not, as their maximum population, which was once close to 150 million, could well drop almost to 100 million by 2050, and will then have fewer people than Vietnam. The USA is projected to reach 400 million by mid-century.

All that said, we are not perfect... In fact, we are incredibly imperfect. I quote the final two paragraphs of my 19February09 article in the Huffington Post:

To summarize, the majority of Americans believe in both creationism and an afterlife, the potential of some sort of religious doom, and think they are not causing global warming. So the title of this article should have been: "Creationism, Doomsday and the Afterlife," to more closely reflect life in the USA. You now should have a better understanding about why we are in deep...(feel free to add your own odious term). So what has this got to do with the economy? Go back to the beginning and try again, or revert to my earlier HuffPost introduction to this subject.

Did we become the greatest country ever because of our beliefs? Certainly not entirely, which gives me hope that the best is yet to come.

More recently, I have agonized about the inability of our Congress and President Barack Obama to take any true progressive action. This leads me to another quote:

Thomas Jefferson, along with James Madison worked assiduously to have an 11th Amendment included into our nation's original Bill of Rights. This proposed Amendment would have prohibited 'monopolies in commerce.' The amendment would have made it illegal for corporations to own other corporations, or to give money to politicians, or to otherwise try to influence elections.

If only Jefferson and Madison had prevailed. This quote was extracted from a paper offered by Jay Hanson. As I don't seem to have a solution, and he thinks he has, I can only urge you to read his concept entitled, America 2.0.

What we really need is a World 2.0, for we do have problems -- huge, global ones. That grand recession was just an appetizer. Peak Oil and Global Warming are like twin asteroids already in close striking distance. Chapter 1 of my Simple Solutions for Humanity (see box below) provides the beginning outline of such a concept. The problem, of course, is how to strike sufficient fear to compel meaningful decision-making. If there is no Cold War and no real world threat to our freedom, why don't we just shift all our expenditures from war to these looming cataclysms? Ah, that is my original HuffPo of May 29, 2008 entitled, "Well, Barack, We have a Problem," posted during the heat of the Democratic Presidential Campaign.

But even if Obama and the well-meaning Democrats rode into power, the fact of the matter is that millions did not perish this summer from excessive heat and there is no discernible sea level rise. It is thus an easy prediction that our combined governments will only wave hello at Mother Nature from Copenhagen in December. That is the flaw that World 2.0 needs to overcome: society can presently only react when it is too late.

 

 

Comments

[MAustin]

Well said.

[Patrick Takahashi - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks, Madeleine. But World 2.0 has no yet been developed, so, maybe someone out in the virtual world can be inspired to take it from here.