Did you know you can buy a motor home big enough to park your car in it? Just think about that for a second. Here in America we have developed to a point where we park our cars inside our bigger cars. Yes, our cars have garages.
Some might see this as a symbol of proud US prosperity but it gives me the unnerving feeling that the end is nigh.
Adam Smith's economic principles of the invisible hand, free markets and the division of labor have driven the US economy to dizzying heights, so much that we’ve reached a point of catastrophic success. We've become so successful with capitalism that a shadow factor has entered the stage--unbridled greed--and it's chipping away at our economy. The sub-prime credit crunch is just the beginning.
We as Americans consume so much that we've heavily indebted ourselves to pay for Seven-brand jeans, pimped-out Hummers, home theater systems, spring break, sickeningly large motor homes and a million other trifles we want but don't need. US GDP growth is driven largely by debt, which is why the stock market soars each time the Fed cuts rates.
Now don't misunderstand; I'm all for greedy capitalists, but only the ones who can pay cold cash for the stuff they lust after. When Adam Smith wrote "Wealth of Nations", I think he pictured capitalism serving a society where people focused on their needs, not one where they mortgaged their futures to buy singing mounted fish or diamond-studded teeth grills.
This is capitalism-extreme, hijacked to the outer frontiers of where it was intended to go.
