If Not Now, When? – Feel It?

This is where we find out who has been paying attention or not. This is where we see if we walk throughout life with our heads down not seeing anything else but that which is right in front of us or whether we can see what is going outside of 2 feet in front of us. Have you noticed what has happened over the past, say, 4 years? Have you seen any change in the way people think and act? A change in the weather? The way the planet feels and operates? Have you noticed what is changing in politics? Our economic system? If you answered yes, you have been paying some attention. If not, look around, it’s right in front of us loud and clear.

The most obvious changes have to be in regards to the world economy. Since the crash of 2008 the world economy has been hit with a serious lack of growth and has not been able to find its way back to solid ground. With countries like the United States, who play a major role in the world economy, struggling as much as they are, it is clear that we are headed for something that will inevitably change the way the world operates. Every major economy is an integral role within the world economy. Because of the way the world economy is designed it requires each key facet to be in place or else all other facets suffer immediately or eventually. This isn’t as hard as economists like to make it sound either. It’s a very simple puzzle based on the relationship all markets have with one another. For example, Asian countries relying mainly on exports rely on countries like the United States and Canada, who import a great deal, to be healthy. If they are not importing then those countries are not receiving enough income, hurting their economy and eventually rising their overall cost of production which in turn affects their economy even more. Just looking at this small triangle of countries you can see that if any one of them were to be removed in some form of economic downturn all others are greatly affected. The relationships they have to one another based on cost and import/export make them all an integral piece of the puzzle. It’s very rare that a country can solely rely on itself to keep its economy running strong.

When we look at Europe right now, what is happening? Countries are in so much debt they are on the verge on defaulting. Not being able to meet financial demands of many contracts is where many governments sit in European countries. And guess what? Within Europe many of these countries own facets of another through bought up debt. Meaning one countries asset is the survival of another countries economy. Should It default, the country who owns assets in another, suffers loss as well.  This is very similar to the reason for bailouts in the US. In both cases, with Europe and the US, bailouts took place because the default of the institutions or governments bailed out would have resulted in a collapse of the system. Of course this only means that those in charge of bailouts are simply buying more time. The reason the financial world is in this state is not because it is a good system that can revive itself, but because it’s designed to eventually fail. This is where we are at –the point of failure. Bailouts will only keep buying time within a dying system.

As a result of what has taken place within our financial markets on this planet we have had riots and protests in several countries across the world. Undoubtedly the largest protest being the Occupy Movement which started on Wall Street in September 2011. The Occupy movement is simple. Large numbers of people have taken to the streets to occupy financial centers in cities across the globe. They are asking that fairness, equality and justice be returned to the system. This movement is taking place in well over 1000 cities across the planet and is growing by the day. When you have that many people standing up and choosing to do something, you have to ask yourself, what is happening here? Are we headed for something big? Or is this going to fizzle out in a few weeks time?

Looking at the growing awareness taking place across the planet we are seeing a greater number of people beginning to see how our world really works and who’s behind it. This ever expanding awareness is and has been gaining momentum for some time. One can only come to the conclusion it’s only a matter of time before something pops off.

Which of course leads you to the next question: what is the solution to our current world? If it all comes down, then what? What does it look like? This has been the question being raised for a couple of years now and many have brought forth ideas and potential solutions –most of which come from good intention. But can these really work? Or are they simply a repeat of what we have now, but in a slightly different form?