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Economic Multipliers (92)
Do you know what these are?
They help CREATE wealth in systems.
Doomsday thinking is not an economic multiplier.
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The world is not going to end.
Future generations will always find ways to laugh, play, love, develop relationships and have kids.
‘Broken’ things might someday be fixed.
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The world that I grew up in no longer exists. The world that my parents grew up in no longer exists. And the world that my grandparents grew up in no longer exists.
For probably the last 500-1000 years (as a non-historian, I’m giving myself a lot of room), each generation could make this statement.
Every generation has found ways to ignore the advice of previous generations (see P.S.). Every generation has managed to repeat some of the mistakes of the generations that have gone before. And every generation has still endured. (see P.S.(2))
The world is not going to end.
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Do I think the generations of Americans that are coming right after me will on average have a ‘harder’ life?
My gut reaction is to say yes: Our ‘leaders’ still think that subsidizing ‘entertainment’ with tax dollars constitutes long-term wealth creation.
But the quality of life for future generations depends on a lot of things … most importantly HOW those individuals think:
Will kids recognize the value of all the wealth donated to thrift stores and sitting in their grandparents and parents garages and closets (and sometimes even curbside) and take advantage of it to create their own economic multipliers? I hope so.
Will the approximately 225,000 people who make over a million dollars per year start ‘sponsoring’ the development of orchards in the approximately 35,000 cities and towns nationwide in public areas where high school students could take responsibility for maintenance to provide food for community outreach programs? I hope so. In that way, kids would learn how to plant and maintain their own orchards, if they ever so desired.
Will extension offices, universities, and botanical gardens help sponsor gardens for elementary and middle school kids, with the food production and processing for storage integrated into their educational programs and the food channeled into community outreach programs? I hope so. In that way, kids would learn how to plant and maintain their own gardens, if they ever so desired.
Will people ‘show up’ for the neighbor(s) they never really liked when some crisis occurs? I hope so.
Given that tools are very inexpensive today in comparison to years ago, will communities set up tool ‘libraries’ (or borrowing centers) so the most motivated but the least able to afford them can get work done? I hope so: The wealthy person or business owner will always buy their own tools anyway and people who get a chance to try out things many times buy them. Likewise, wealth creating items amazingly many times create wealth and tools tend to be wealth creating items.
Will young people look at the changes which are occurring in the world and recognize the opportunities as well as the perils? I hope so.
Will technology become the force that it could be and help people solve problems versus create them? I hope so.
Will societies learn how to ‘tap into’ the knowledge bases and time of all the retired people and find ways for them to continue to create economic multipliers? I hope so. (Grandparent reading and playground monitoring programs, thrift store collections, helping children and grandchildren get financially grounded, ride share programs for people who need to get to appointments or the store, scientific research in ‘underserved’ areas, etc., etc., etc.)
Will kids see not just ‘garbage’ when something breaks or becomes obsolete but a source of energy or materials or an opportunity for another person who doesn’t see the item as obsolete for them? I hope so.
Will the individuals who have the resources to hire people to do work do so (instead of expecting everything for free)? I hope so.
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The United States is a mixed bag: You can have pockets where it is impossible to imagine there is anything wrong with the world and pockets where it seems like everything is wrong with the world.
When everything is wrong with the world, I believe the greatest shortage people have is one of time: There never is enough time to address and compensate for all the problems.
In some ways, we have let the development of poverty encroach upon bases of wealth. If we are really lucky, the youth of the nation will realize that the best approach is to let the development of wealth encroach upon the bases of poverty.
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The generations coming after me are creative, energetic and from my perspective, more focused on creating tangible things which will benefit not just themselves but other people.
In a world where it would be great if everyone ultimately had more opportunities, that is exactly how it should be.
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P.S. When you need land for people and development and natural disasters are always an unknown amount of time away, it can seem impossible to heed ‘ancient warnings:’ Would you let large tracts of land sit undeveloped knowing that a natural disaster might not occur for another 200 years?
I found it fascinating that markers were erected along the coastlines of Japan (some estimated to be 600 years old) that basically say: ‘Do not build below this line.’ High waters from the most recent tsunami did not reach those lines but much was ‘erased’ that was built below them.
P.S.(2) I never expect other people to believe in God just because I do but since I do, I believe that God made the world fairly easy to understand. Mankind has survived and even thrived for thousands of years without a lot of technology or even a lot of formal education. This simple accomplishment either proves that the world is fairly easy to understand or it proves that it has always been filled with veritable ‘geniuses.’
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