Nearly all of us have been raised, from birth, to believe that there is no limit to economic growth, and to believe that everyone can have more and more and more - everyone in the world can have more 'stuff' - better cars, better food, computers, houses, education, better EVERYTHING, and that this will always be true - the world will always give more and more and more possibilities - no matter how many of us there are. There will always be more, more, MORE!
But all this belief in perpetual growth was only possible when it was us who were growing, and when we were taking from everybody else. We could feel that the world permitted infinite growth, as long as we could go anywhere for the fancy things we all wanted. Teak wood, ivory tusks, diamonds, whatever.
Then came the idea of free trade, and 'outsourcing' and 'right-sizing' (firing workers to hire people abroad for a fraction of the wages. It didn't take long to put the American worker in the dung-heap of history. Russ Perot was right - there was a giant sucking sound, but most of us somehow didn't hear it.
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