The Problem:Origins

Zardnaar

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As some of you know I tend to look at big picture stuff and historical patterns. Current issues like the culture war, Trump etc to me are distractions the underlying cause has not been addressed or recognized.

This thread is that. Where do the current world's problems originate from? One could argue since the industrial revolution or even settling down so I will nail I down to reasonably recent times.

That is the 1970's. The distrust and the seeds of the current generations problems were down then although you could argue the cause and effect was the 1960's as well but the changes date from the 70's.

The catalyst was the Vietnam war. The distrust of the modern US government dated from that era, one can look at vaccine pushes in the early 60's for example. A lot if right ring militia types date from returning disillusioned Vietnam vets.

The 70's also have the stagflation and economic problems. The push effect which lead to the 80's. Modern neo liberalism theory was cooked up in the mid 70's which lead the Reagan, Thatcher etc in the 80's.

Finally the other cause was related to the Vietnam War and the rise of the finance sector. Nixon in 71 started deregulation that dated from post 1929.

In effect it was the start if reversing the positive effects of the New deal and post WW2 economic prosperity and a return to the deregulated 1920's.

The rise of the finance sector also coincides with the end of empire for the UK and the establishment of offshore tax havens with links to London. Without those links and reputations no one's gonna hide there money in banana republics. Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Jersey they're "British" enough.

They did this to funnel money to New York and London to prop up the dollar and pound to finance the Vietnam War. Doesn't matter if the money is dirty via drug trade or crappy regimes in Africa.

Of course the finance sector doesn't really produce anything, manufacturing can be outsourced, labour can be imported. The economy as such is held up by shuffling money around to lend out to others wash rinse repeat. Essentially gambling with very little consequence if you screw it up.

So there you go. @red_elk the Soviet Union for the cost of a few MiGs and other weapons in effect defeated the western middle class. Of course Russia's resources are hiding in tax free offshore accounts probably in the Caribbean, Switzerland, and London. Urrah Putin and Co. Of course the Soviets also defeated themselves as well so there is that.

The powers that be are the bankers and accountants in the finance sector along with their paid political stooges and propped up autocrats. The right are 100% compromised the left not as much but there's only so much they can do even if they win election.

Which they're not that good at. Pretty much everything is tied back to that unregulated greed. Climate change, Fox news, the rise in extremism due to economic disparity.

Doesn't really matter if you're in liberal little NZ, "evil" USA or autocratic crappy regimes in Russia, China or even North Korea. They all use the finance sector to hide money.
 
Everything was all cozy before the big bang, we were all cuddling in a giant ball of love like a bunch of cute kittens. Everything went to **** from there.
 
“The good old days!”

When I was a kid, they were the fifties, now they’re the seventies. My parents were probably told the twenties were the good old days too.

Of course the finance sector doesn't really produce anything
A bridge or a telephone doesn’t produce anything either.

All of these things work in tandem to improve productivity; I’m not saying everything should be finance, but the financial sector does contribute to the efficient allocation of resources—arguments about tax havens and overpaid fund managers are kind of a sideshow. I don’t think it’s socially good so to speak to have too much into one area, but it can’t be written off as unimportant.

I don’t know what history of Nixon being a deregulator you’re also referring to; he was the one that said we’re all Keynesians, closed the gold window, and imposed wage and price controls. Looking at America, the deregulation I recall started with the trucking and airline industries under Jimmy Carter. Carter was absolutely right to do so: the Civil Aeronautics Board was a cabal that made flying an upper-class luxury and trucking was also subject to artificial barriers to entry that raised consumer prices.
 
For the most part people problems originate with people. They always have and it is unlikely to stop. Every generation or several generations under go stresses that disrupt or change the local, regional or national, and now international, culture and economic life. We are a cantankerous bunch that are quite happy to crap on our friends and neighbors as much as we are likely to help them. It is esy for us to look back 75 years and track various events that did this or that; going further back we usually lose the threads of event details that were disruptive. The seniors living in 1900 I'm sure, could have written out a litany of detailed events that derailed their lives and changed their world in huge ways. History tends to gloss over the past and summarize events that took years to unfold into a short paragraph. Our troubles seem to always stem from: selfishness, greed, control, lust for power, etc. It is the manifestation of those traits that fuel change and disruption.
 
Everything was all cozy before the big bang, we were all cuddling in a giant ball of love like a bunch of cute kittens. Everything went to **** from there.

Capitalism and hierarchy.

Both of these are as accurate as each other, which kind of highlights the fact that you are asking the wrong question. To try and answer "Where do the current world's problems originate from?" just ends up in unanswerable philosophical questions of causality and responsibility.

The important question is what can I/we do to solve the problems, and make the world a better place? That is the big question, and one that we have to answer one way or another. It is difficult though.
 
You'd need to be specific about which of the world's problems, there are a lot of them and they interact complexly

I tend to be suspicious of grand narratives that seek to attribute all problems to a single cause and you probably should be too. That way lies a lot of blood and dead bodies generally speaking.
 
I came to a conclusion, about a decade ago on this very forum, that Trust lies at the source of most human problems. So, OP :thumbsup:
 
You mean misplaced trust?
No, thats somewhat specific, although it falls under the general concept of Trust. What I mean is the general attitude that makes us maintain armies so that we are not murdered by enemies we can't trust, keep our doors locked for the same reason, write down contractual obligations so that we can check on them and enforce them if need be. Most of the resources on our planet are being spent due to lack of trust in one another. It is natural, but it would be so much easier to deal with cosmic issues if we were able to overcome that. Not at the expense of being stupid too (that would be nice).
 
Humankind is a parasite. The problems began with it, and will end with it.

Problems are only problems as a concept in human minds. At least, as far as we know. Doesn't seem like the broader universe cares, and whatever extent we're "parasites" to a non-living object will, unless our version of parasitism spreads off of Earth, be a wash in a few billion years when the Sun cooks the place regardless.
 
Humankind is a parasite. The problems began with it, and will end with it.
I'm sure that flies getting eaten alive by spiders and locust swarms devouring entire ecosystems and virus and accidents and everything bad will be solved when mankind disappears too :rolleyes:
 
I'm sure that flies getting eaten alive by spiders and locust swarms devouring entire ecosystems and virus and accidents and everything bad will be solved when mankind disappears too :rolleyes:
Those aren't problems except, perhaps, in our eyes.
 
Probably in the flies eyes as well.

I doubt flies share a conceptualization of "problems" similar to humans. The vast majority of animals (probably) can't. Some do learn tool use or make reliable associations of "safe vs dangerous" with particular individuals...some degree of in-advance anticipation. So maybe those have "problems" in the human sense of the word, even if it's not as complex as we might think of them.
 
I doubt flies share a conceptualization of "problems" similar to humans. The vast majority of animals (probably) can't. Some do learn tool use or make reliable associations of "safe vs dangerous" with particular individuals...some degree of in-advance anticipation. So maybe those have "problems" in the human sense of the word, even if it's not as complex as we might think of them.
The problems are the same, not getting eaten and making babies. It is just that humans do it through things like conceptualization, and flies take a different route.
 
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