The Coming Great Disruption

[William M. Davenport]

Intrigued.  What converging global challenges and what consensus thinking?  And what limits are there in the free market that might constrain forced changes?

[Mark Warriner]

William,

Please click on the hyper links and the link to the rest of the post at the bottom of the launch post.

 

Thanks,

 

Mark 

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

The Great Disruption will be over in 2013.

[Mark Warriner]

Based on?

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

… the new normal is not going over well.

[Thomas J. Johnson]

If the sandbox is 10’x10′ and there are 5 toys and 50 kids packed in the the sandbox it gets ugly real quick. If there are two kids in that same sandbox with those 5 toys, a wonderful time can be had by all…

Or another way of saying it; in a world of finite resources, an exponentially increasing population causes everyone to become poorer. It’s not just Obama who’s redistributing the wealth, we’re doing it to ourselves. Pretty basic.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

I’m not saying that it is just Obama, but here in the US we affect policy at the voting booth. You can pitch a tent on Wall Street and the only way that will do anything is how well it affects how and how many people vote. Whether they are on the right or on the left, there will be a major change of players in Washington with a clear message to control corruption, get out of the way of job makers, and control spending.

A lot of this ecomonic mess stems from corrupt people on both sides of the aisle changing rules to gain advantages for people and/or companies in unviable situations or businesses so that they could appear to be making it (Wall Street pigs, FreddyMac, green businesses, people who can’t afford houses, …). When you favor one, you hurt another and most people are sick of it. There will be a major shift in Washington without any doubt. This happens whether the right is messing things up or the left.

Most people are far more concerned with making a living than what height the sea level will be in 2211 at this time. There will be a temporary shift away from anything that is not an immediate threat toward anything that improves the economic condition. I’m not saying that this is right or wrong, just that it will happen.

Like it or not, in reality you have to have wealth to pursue investments in the greater good. That wealth has to permeate society like it generally has in this country for the last 100 years. We have to protect that or nothing else is possible. It is the goose that lays the golden eggs. Whether the goose is truly in trouble or not, people think that it is and will be voting to feed the goose rather than cleaning its nest. The economy will come back because of this.  … then the nest will be addressed like it has been for the last 40 years.

It is not a one or the other thing, but there is necessarilly a shift in priorities from one to the other depending which is in more jeopardy. Clearly, the economy is perceived to be in more jeopardy than the environment in most voters mind whether you want to believe it or not. Wait and see.

A poor economy is the biggest threat to the environment.

[ida]

You should go to China… Your head will explode.

[Mike G]

A poor economy is the biggest threat to the environment.

I like.

[Roland Beinert]

This article argues that we could be experiencing the great disruption, or it could be the big shift: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/opinion/theres-something-happening-here.html?_r=1

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

I’m not saying that a good economy equals good environment, but that without a good economy there is less interest and certainly funding to take care of it. More has been done in the boom years in the US.

China is a country that actually is a good example that when a government and a society are overly focused on economic growth the environment becomes secondary because it slows the growth. We, in the U.S. have had the luxury of being a strong stable and mature economy that afforded us the ability, desire, and will to be responsible. As that situation erodes, the ability and will erodes with it.

I’ve watched as the big black cloud that hung over Boston in the summer when I was a kid has disappeared. The same I can say for the black stripe in the sky from New York that used to occupy the sky here on Cape Cod in the 80’s. I never saw a deer in the wild until I was 18 years old and in another state – now deer graze the lawn of the house that I grew up in. Birds of prey were nowhere to be found, now I see them just about every day. We, in the U.S., have been improving in big ways over the last 40 years. Our wealth allows us that.

[Author]

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