The Mass Consciousness Media is promoting Mass Delusional Hystrionics!

Here’s my new definition of the “study” of Economics - and yes, I have a degree in economics so I’m qualified to redefine it:

Economics is the study of self-fulfilling prophesy in action. ~ Robert Geiger

As an internet marketer and publisher, I’m trying to resist the temptation to “cash in” on the “recession” as the recession is as state of mind within a worldwide macroeconomic structural resettling of things into a new equilibrium.

And given that we’re all about finding a spiritual and physical equilibrium in our worlds, how about we just acknowledge that we’re shaking out some past based excesses and in transition to a new, higher state of world economy? Doesn’t that sound better than “recession” I mean, are we really going backwards, ceding back, withdrawing?

Economists define Recession as a period in which economic activity measured in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declines for at least 2 quarters. Like any household, for a country, that could be tough if we’ve lived well beyond our means and borrowed heavily. And if that’s the case, some restructuring is in order, only, today, that’s a worldwide event.

So what! It’s been happening all along, and it continues to happen. Things change, technology moves along creating unprecedented abundance, people have “enough” and consume less in mature economies (see “Demand Curve” and “Diminishing Marginal Returns” — how many computers and big screen TV’s do we need?).

What remains is a point of clarification, but not just of dollars and accounts. What remains is an accounting of the worth of human beings. Our world can sustain so many people at varying levels from poverty to prosperity and everywhere in between. There are only so many factory jobs, so many government created jobs.

And if you listen to the media, you get all this doom and gloom… for those in prosperity. Fear that we might go from prosperity to … relative prosperity? …slightly less prosperity?

The parable of the Island….

Once, there was a tribe on an island ruled by a king with people doing what they needed to do so they all could survive and have a good life (to their standards). There were 10 fishermen who provided fish each day for the tribe. They fished with spears and caught what was needed each day.

One day, one of the fishermen had an idea to create a net out of coarsely woven fibrous strands. The net was very successful and now it only took 2 people to catch enough food for the tribe.

Now, here’s the rub. Do they now have 8 unemployed bums who don’t deserve to eat even though there is enough food?

The plot thickens.

A boat lands on the beach with a group of financiers from the mainland. They tell the chief to put the 8 workers to work fishing and they will buy the extra fish for consumption on the mainland. The tell the chief they will pay them with “money” from the mainland. They offer to put the money in “banks” on the mainland and pay the chief additional “interest” on the money for it’s “use” by the bank. The bank will put the money to “work” for the tribe on the mainland. The tribe will become very wealthy.

So, the bank takes the tribes money and invests it in roads, buildings, bridges, local businesses, mortgages for new homes on the mainland, etc.

Everyone is employed on the Island, and the tribe has lots of “money” on the mainland.

What if there wasn’t a mainland? What if the Island was Planet Earth as a whole? This game doesn’t play out very well in the very long run.

We all can see that Technology Creates Abundance. That’s axiomatic. It also creates Unemployment. But isn’t it interesting that unemployment doesn’t create scarcity! All those newly unemployed people and, yet, the production system is still in place and it CAN still produce enough food, water, housing, TV’s, computers, cell phones, mp3 players, …. Isn’t that what Obama said? He’s reminded us of as much on several occasions.

Taken to it’s logical extreme, there’s a problem here. Scarcity goes away. Now, that’s bad for Economics as currently defined - the study of the allocation of scarce resources.

Yes, there is enough for everyone. No exceptions. Think about the Star Trek idea of a “replicator” and unlimited energy. If they existed, why would we exist at all? What would we do then? Why would we work? Does struggle and scarcity have to define who we are? When will we be ready for the worth of a life to be defined by something other than the Protestant Work Ethic?

As we go in and out of recession and prosperity with an ever expanding interdependent world economy, with ever expanding abundance, how we deal with these questions - with our “structurally unemployed” fishermen and our technology driven surpluses - will define a new human consciousness and a world wide human awareness based in possibility, compassion, creativity and generosity.

Now that’s a possibility worth living into. Let’s see some reporting on instances of that vision moving forward on the news. Look for it in your daily life. If you stop looking at the world through fear colored mass media glasses, you can see a whole new realm of possibility - if you allow yourself.

This may not be my most “Practical” post to date, but I can’t help thinking about a bright future of possibilities.

Here’s looking ahead to an Abundant future for us all!