The Bank of Finland is saying that 2023 will see a "slight" recession in the country driven by the increasing cost of living, though I suspect that for the average person, it is going to be quite a bit worse than that. It doesn't really matter what the larger economy is doing, it is about what affects individuals and that is going to get very rough. I keep asking myself whether my family will survive the expected onslaught ourselves.
The global economy is an absolute shambles of a system and the more global it becomes, the more intertwined business, the greater the volatility will be. There are obvious benefits and "cost savings" in centralization of the economy but the costs for error are absolutely enormous, as when the code fails, it fails simultaneously across everything, all at the same time. And, there is no correction for it, so all that can happen is that the governments centralize it further through taking on more debt and kick the can down the road for the problem to be someone else's.
However, due to the increasing interconnectedness, the kicking of the can doesn't kick it too far down the track at all, meaning that the next cataclysmic economic event is never that far away and, it is going to be worse than the last. It is a spiraling race to the financial bottom, that will increasingly result in social fracturing and increased violence, like a return to tribalism, applied at the global level.
Combined with social disconnection, this results in all kinds of issues that will increasingly impact on our well being, where rather than moving toward systems that improve us as a group, we will becoming increasingly isolated, with more and more dropping out of society, creating issues at every level of existence.
As far as I see it, at the moment, we are much like a failed experiment, collapsing in on itself through mismanagement and poor scientific process. Looking at what is going on in the world really does make me believe that we are likely in a simulation after all, as what kind of organic group of people would choose to live this way? And it is a choice.
But, people don't seem to care about what the meta direction actually is and instead, we focus our attention on our own little corners of the world, distracting ourselves, placing blinkers of entertainment over our eyes so that we don't have to look at the shit that we are wading through and, is getting deeper by the step. At some point though, something has to give, where the issues become so painful and we are suffering so much, that we can't ignore it any longer and then, under duress of circumstance, we act. And when under stress, we act poorly, especially since we have chosen to give up our ability to control our emotions and actions and instead, live in a reactionary cycle, driven by what ever impetus is delivered into our awareness.
Rather than focusing on building an economy that actually works for us, we have bought into the world of focusing on social movements of symbols and catch phrases, while the things that affect our experience, are stolen from beneath our feet. We are giving up ownership of the material world that matters, in exchange for an emotional world that doesn't. It is much like paying money to a church to get into a heaven that doesn't exist, with many of these social movements very much being run like religions, without the longevity or even the illusion that there is a better outcome to be had - just endless skipping from one social trend to another, each designed to make us feel one side and part of a group that doesn't actually exist.
It is a pretty bleak picture in my opinion, but my opinion doesn't count for much. Many people I talk with would far rather put their stock into the distraction activities instead, so they don't have to stare into the uncertainty that is this world. Perhaps this is what humans are naturally designed to do though, as we have an imagination that can allow us to both create solutions to problems and, give ourselves illusions to avoid acknowledging them.
Don't worry, things will all work out for the best.
We keep telling ourselves.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]