The world or the Money.

 

The world or the Money.

About a hundred and some years ago, a smart man named Henry Ford introduced the assembly line. Cars were produced up to that point by highly skilled people who understood all the parts and developed their skills over many years. With the assembly line, many workers could learn how to make small parts and fit them together to make the vehicles. Each didn’t know how to make a car. It wasn’t a new idea. The Venetians in Italy did the same to build ships hundreds of years earlier. It was new for now and set up the US on the road to prosperity.

Mr Ford understood a very important aspect of economics. If you produce all those cars, who is going to afford to buy them? He insisted that those who build the automobile must make enough wages to purchase them. Of course, they must first have food, shelter, and other needs. The workers soon had enough money for indoor plumbing, entertainment, and many other conveniences that were invented, manufactured, and sold, creating economic prosperity.

The idea that Henry Ford started spread out throughout the United States fast and growth became synonymous with prosperity. Soon, people understood that increasing the population would catalyze economic growth. America didn’t have the European setbacks of wanting only what was good for its own nationality. They were open to any Caucasian people and made colored people available to serve them. Some races were more or less desirable than others. There were also fewer restrictions on space for growth. Other powers did not compete for space in the country because of its enormous size.

The United States was on the way to becoming a rival to the old colonial powers. New people flocked to get in and they built new economic centres on the East and West coasts. Some people became very rich while others enjoyed the American Dream as people marvel at dreaming about winning the lottery. All the prosperity and hard work didn’t save them from the great depression. Great wars were fought, and those who survived enjoyed a period of pleasant existence. The rich feared the spread of Communism and all were fearful of what Fascism could do. Hitler was fresh in their minds.

A period of peace and prosperity marked the time after the Second World War, even while the Cold War was raging in the background. The working people never had it so good. Now people learned how to use democracy to their advantage while the Elites focused on how to maximise their power and profits. They joined the religious fundamentalists for political reasons.

I remember discussing with fellow workers who were unsure about what benefits to request in the next union contract. Life was good and minorities, including women, felt reasonably good about how things were shaping. We fought, on many fronts, won, and now enjoyed the fruits.

Our European allies, including the defeated Germany, went the Social Democratic way, while America built itself on the Capitalistic model. The problem is that they didn’t read the end of the book about capitalism. Canada tried to stay in the middle lane.

The old British Empire, from which came both the US and Canada, ruled by dividing people. In North America existed many options to divide the population and set groups against each other. There was no firm sense of national unity. All the people had ancestors from many nations. There was no religious unity either. All faiths had strong representations. The elites chose to divide on economic grounds.

Soon we found ourselves in a new situation, with a higher Middle Class and a much bigger lower Middle Class. Blue collar shirts versus white collar shirts. Everyone was no longer seeking a better peaceful life but to climb on others for a higher position on the economic scale. The workers instead of savings had debt limits, while the others had investment portfolios. All wanted more government services and less taxes. GDP rose and resource extraction did as well.

The humans of Earth in the last few generations went on a rampage, exploiting natural resources as if there was no tomorrow. We forgot about future generations and the need for the planet to regenerate while we focused on competing for higher status.

No longer do people consider natural cycles to be the will of God, and we place our faith in our fledgling science. The planet groaned in pain. It gave life to so many life forms that now we are destroying its ability to sustain life.

A good example is oil. It bridged us from animal power to electronics, but now we are wasting it by unnecessarily burning it. The only consideration we have is the price per barrel and the financial dividends to investors or export taxes for governments. When we use all the oil, there is nothing on Earth that can replace it.

It is now the first time in human history that we have to sacrifice for yet unborn generations in the future. We may have to fight for their future. What will we do?

Worlds are created by what we call God. People make money.

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