iamom | the sky is always falling, really

Only shortly after arriving in LJ-land wayyyy back in 2000, I found an insightful economist and banker by the handle of

aldoushuxley who has kept me abreast of the best and the worst (but often the worst) of current economics ever since. A recent post of his includes a quote from a former US Federal Reserve Chairman that has clearly spiritual undertones to it, in my eyes. Here's the quote:

"Below the favourable surface [of the economy], there are as dangerous and intractable circumstances as I can remember.... Nothing in our experience is comparable. ... But no one is willing to understand [this] and do anything about it. ... We are consuming ... about 6 percent more than we are producing. What holds the world together is a massive flow of capital from abroad. ... It's what feeds our consumption binge... the United States economy is growing on the savings of the poor. ... A big adjustment will inevitably become necessary, long before the social security surpluses disappear and the deficit explodes. ... We are skating on increasingly thin ice."

-- Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker

I just can't help thinking that the orientally-minded among us have been making this same observation about our society for years -- nay, decades! What Volcker says above is a real truism, to be sure. We could all benefit from a downgrade in our goodly consumption. The earth would benefit, the poor, everyone. And like some environmentalist whose name I can no longer recall once said, it's only when we will really NEED to change our consumption habits that we will.

We just haven't needed to do so yet!