World in Crisis – who do we blame?

These past two years have been one of the worst economic times the world has seen, well, not really the world. I say that because most of the world, (about 80% lives on an avg of less than $10 a day), is poor. But these past two years have been terrible on the privileged sector of our planet, countries that call themselves “Developed,” - developed more in the art of exploitation than anything else.

Anyways, two years of economic downturn and the people and media have been out writing articles and ripping governments and financial institutions left, right and center. Well, don’t get me wrong, I’m not sympathizing with these scamming fiends, but I think there is more to it than just these people or institutions.

It’s easy to say, I can’t pay my mortgage for my beach side mansion because the government didn’t foresee this future. But it’s difficult to accept that you made a mistake by spending the money you didn’t have and not saving.

The “developed” world citizens have always been spending more than they make, leaving themselves in credit card, mortgage or other debts. Only if they had learned to live within their means, which they still haven’t, then this would never have happened.

The problem is not just these spending habits, but a deeper issue is the lack of acceptance. As soon as we are in trouble we look to push the blame onto someone else. But what about what you have done, do you ever reflect on that. That is a deeper issue which no government stimulus package will ever be able to resolve.

Even if we do manage to get ourselves out of this current economic problem, there is no saying it won’t happen again, unless people learn to live within their means.

The developed world spends and lives the way they do because they can and the developing or under-developed countries can’t because they can’t afford to. But switch the world’s economic powers and make the poorest countries the richest, and they too will lead a wasteful and prodigal life.

To live within your means and to spend only what you have is the only way that our world can survive and sustain itself, not only economically but in all aspects of life on our planet.