After the "hard rain's a'gonna fall" Jeremiadic downer of ^zhurnal PopGoes (19 June 2001), how's about some glimmers of moonlight peeping shyly through the clouds? Sure, the "dot-com bubble" economy has a massive deflation still to hit home. But bear also in mind:
- big systems have plenty of inertia — crashes take longer, but are always more gentle than expected
- thanks to our ancestors' thrift, we've got a lot of capital that remains useful — buildings, farms, roads, machinery, and know-how
- most critically, people are flexible — they'll adjust to lower expectations, reallocate resources, and make do with less
The coming decade (or decades) may not be as rich in material goods as many fantasized last year, when techno-mania ruled minds, markets, and media. But progress in knowledge and, if we're fortunate, wisdom, will continue. Human beings around the world are, slowly and with plenty of tragic exceptions, freeing themselves from oppressive governments. There's more sharing of technology, food, and other resources. Perhaps we'll do better now, together and overall, than we would have under a booming economy of distracting toys. Let's hope so.
Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 06:44:26 (EDT) = 2001-06-23
(correlates: Corporate Asset, MyGeneration, DarwinOnTheFaceOfNature, ...)