pow.thumbnail.gifSometimes we’ve got problems we just can’t fix.  You or someone you love is sick, and no, there isn’t going to be any miracle, just a long painful death.  Or you lived in Europe after the fall of Rome, and no, nothing you do is going to stop the fall of the Dark Ages.  Or you lived in Somalia and the only decent government of the last 20 years is about to be overthrown by Ethiopia with American blessings and air strikes, and it just doesn’t matter what you do, you’re not going to be able to save the best thing to happen to your country in ages.

The US and Canada aren’t like that.  Neither country has any problems it can’t solve if it is willing to get off its butt and do what it takes.  That’s something a lot of countries, probably most countries, can’t say.  They are battered by winds not of their own making, their rigging is shredded, and the helmsman tied to the helm is about to be battered to death.  The hurricane force winds emanating from the US are going to do them in, and while they might be able to batten down on all hatches and not actually go under, that’s about the best they can hope for.

But the US can fix its financial sector.  The US can fix its industrial sector, starting by restructuring the auto sector.  The US can reduce its dependence on oil and break the oil bottleneck.  The US can break up its oligopolies.  The US can make it so that the economy works for everyone in America again.  All of these things the US can do, all it takes is the willingness to stare long and hard into the abyss and realize that if the actions that need to be taken aren’t taken, no matter how much America’s elites hate them, that the end result will be far worse.

Actions like nationalizing key banks, reintroducing steep progressive taxation, putting taxes on securities transactions, setting a floor under the housing market, getting rid of underperforming executives and so on are all very painful to America’s elites.  But they are available and they can be done.  All it takes is the will to do them.

The same is true in Canada, though not quite to the same extent.  The auto parts industry can be retooled for small turbines and the industries based on that such as micro-power generation, can be owned.  National ownership rules can be tightened and actually enforced so that key industries like our steel industry or power industry don’t get sold to foreigners.  The medicare situation can be dealt with simply by reversing the moronic decision of the early nineties to reduce the doctor/patient ratio and nurse/patient ratio by just not graduating as many.  Subsidize medical school education so it doesn’t cost 140K, and you’re golden.

In both Canada and the US the solutions that will solve our problems are available.  For all that the elites in both countries try and ignore them, they are out there and have been suggested repeatedly.  What is required is, unfortunately, pain.  Elites in both countries have been isolated for too long from the results of their own actions.  They’ve lived in a bubble where everyone they know is doing great, better than ever, for decades.  They’ve lived in a system of learned helplessness where they felt they couldn’t make really meaningful changes, and felt no real impetus to do so.

That’s changing, and both sets of elites are about to take it on the chin.  And that’s good news, because, as Diamond pointed out in Collapse, the number 1 predictor of societies failing to adapt to challenges is if their elites are isolated from the pain that the rest of society is experiencing.

So I’m thankful that some billionaires are losing their shirts.  I’m thankful that some executives are losing their bonuses.  I’m scared and frightened by the unwillingness of DC to make executives really feel the pain of ordinary Americans, but I’m hopeful that soon they won’t be able to cushion the shocks.

Pain’s an odd thing to be thankful for, but sometimes what people need is a good sock to the chops to get them off their butts and moving.  No one needs that more than the elites of both our countries, and I’m hopeful that their multi-trillion dollar efforts to isolate themselves from the effects of their own failures and to load all the pain off onto ordinary Americans are about to fail.  Because only if they fail can they and will they then start to do what needs to be done and to make the sacrifices of their own ideology and comfort that will be required to save both countries from the results of their own actions and policies.

Only a fool asks for what they "deserve".  We deserve everything that is happening to us.  But with a bit of luck, and a lot of pain for those who make the decisions, maybe the mercy of actually effective elites and governments will be available to us.  

I’d be awfully thankful for that.

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