The Real Big Bubble

There is considerable talk of a stock market bubble that has burst, much like previous times when markets were pushed too high by investment over-confidence. Meanwhile much of our society is in worry mode about our finances, family, and life in general. These are both confusing and stressful times. However the financial and general circumstances might be quite different than in previous downturns.

Over the past many decades in the developed world, we have created a major bubble consisting of smaller bubbles regarding commerce and consumption. So many excesses have been pumped into our lifestyles under the intense pressure applied by corporate marketing.

Democracy's 'free enterprise' has been too free as it has allowed the corporate world to design our social standards to their benefits. We have been convinced that we require more of just about everything, much of which is non-essential or promotes unhealthy or stressful living.

At the helm of this social titanic are greed and profit and the lack of laws to control them, or the will to enforce those that exist. The ideology of commercialism is totally devoted to maximizing profit. It is allowed to grow with little obstruction and in such a way that social abuse for personal or corporate gain becomes more acceptable with each passing year. Competition for consumers' money, to increase shareholder value, continually strengthens. This has some very undesirable effects as the persuasive methods used become more intense and less ethical.

The results are obvious. We have been living in an era of 'too much' and we are going to pay the price one way or another.

Too many too large corporations produce too many goods and services that do not have positive value to society or may even be harmful. The costs of material and wages is wasted these whereas they could be directed to producing more goods and services that have social and family values, such as in education, health, peace, poverty, and world friendly projects.

More and more newer products and services are unimproved, of poor quality, defective or unworkable, but profitable to sell. This results in too much waste that depletes and spoils our world's natural resources. The hours we work to purchase these things are wasted time and money.

Consider some of the material things aggressively marketed and sold to us that are excessive in quantity, size, style and cost. Proud possessions such as cars, homes, clothes, appliances, gadgets and toys. Increasingly these have too many features so they can be proclaimed 'New and Improved'. There are too many varieties of the too many products, which might not differ significantly but sell more and waste more retail space.

While often exorbitant riches are too easily or unjustly accumulated by some, others live in devastating and cruel poverty.

Will pumping money into this faltering system, to encourage buying to boost the economy and markets, help?

Perhaps, if it is spent to produce that which will be useful and provide true value to our society, the world and our happiness.

Perhaps we will continue along the same path, patching the bubble for an extension of another decade or more of the same.

But to fix this once and for all we also need to return to a more rational way of existing that is satisfying and fair to all, and sustainable. We cannot continue with our high flying market-consume way of living if we want a just society that we can feel good about. Simpler living is the prescription, from the super rich corporate executives, athletes and entertainers, down to middle class citizens we need to downsize our artificial desires. And the lives of the unfortunate lower class must be improved and poverty eliminated.

This will require a new way of thinking about ourselves and our place in the world. It will be necessary for citizens to voice their dissatisfaction with this commercial oriented society. We must insist on strong and innovative systems of government for all people and not favored towards corporations and the elite.