Global debt recently reached over $300 Trillion and is rising faster than ever. The U.S. claims a lion’s share, about $90 trillion, making it largest debtor nation in history by a long shot. The majority of this debt was created just this century, with most of that since the 2008 financial crisis. Since then, we have been on a debt binge, which means we need to create credit in ever more creative ways – monthly payments for everything at higher costs! Among the most impressive innovations of the 21st century has been in the mechanisms for creating credit (finance everything, subscriptions). We use a debt-based currency system. That means, every dollar you hold is someone else’s liability (debt), and since we are pulling from the future, it is likely that person is not even born yet. BUT in order to keep this whole thing afloat we need more, always more, debt and more mechanisms to create credit, even if that means consuming the prosperity and wealth of tomorrow today. We are participants in a very sick and pernicious system, no amount of virtue signalling is going to save us from the sins we are committing.
When future generations look back at this period, particularly here in the U.S., they won’t just be living with the consequences of their wealth having already been consumed (stolen), but in awe of the extraordinary waste. We didn’t build or create anything! Do you see any well maintained or state-of-the-art infrastructure? We certainly have spent “roads paved with gold” money. Instead, what we already had is falling apart. Beyond the digital, we have accomplished very little this century.
Digital has a lot of complications for humanity, it furthers the perceptions that we are products, commodities, as easily replaceable as a swipe. That is to say the digital social realm further corrodes the soul that our culture has already toxified. A culture controlled by profit, power, and self interest, not one seeking beauty or truth. We are looking outside of ourselves more than ever – dehumanizing ourselves. Western civilization unwittingly made a Faustian bargain that was all predicated on treating ‘money’ like an unlimited resource, providing the foundation for various forms of corruption, including moral and spiritual. We did exactly what everyone in our situation would do, we filled the holes in our soul with cheap stuff from China (aka landfill economy) and blamed others for the resultant dissatisfaction that comes from a lack of meaning.
Now we are caught in a trap now, the economy is a giant debt monster spewing waste and it needs more just to stay alive, always more. Expect more reasons for ‘needed’ emergency spending measures by central banks and governments in response to something dire (pandemic, climate, war, economic, etc.). History proves that after an empire has devalued its currency to the point where faith is lost, bad things happen. A major economic crisis or collapse in combination with a declining empire is a recipe for war and mass human tragedy. This undoubtedly is our future unless folks wake up.