Economic Downturn

Editorial, March 14, 2009

20 Positive Benefits of a Depressed Economy

  1. The middle class will be reduced to the level at which I've been living the last 50 years. Welcome home!

  2. With so much idle time on their hands, the unemployed will be more likely to read Ferment Magazine or my other writings. (Though with less money available, libraries may have to close down.)

  3. Instead of receiving plastic electronic gadgets for Christmas, children will have to start making their own toys. This will increase the intelligence of the next generation.

  4. Poverty is always a shot in the arm for the Radical Left. (Alas, it also helps the Extreme Right!)

  5. Our government will send less money abroad, in the guise of foreign aid, to prop up military dictatorships.

  6. Cutting wild dreams, ambitions and goals (so often derived from the most banal level of the imagination) down to size will leave more mental and emotional space for living and thinking.

  7. The man in the street has already begun to debunk economists, always a good sign.Hopefully, after that, they will get around to the psychiatrists

  8. The LHC which to date has produced no results, will probably have to be scrapped. Mankind may stop looking for the Higgs boson, which is certainly (in the quantum sense!) a good thing for the fate of the universe.

  9. In general, gigantic science investments may be replaced by more small-scale affordable research projects. (However, it was pointed out to me that poor countries often invest in grotesquely over-priced prestige initiatives , like the jumbo jets purchased by small African nations one can traverse by bicycle in a day.)

  10. The society will consume less and recycle more.

  11. One should keep in mind that a poor person, in addition to having to cope with starvation, also can't afford to indulge in the vices that are killing him.

  12. Public transportation will be re-vitalized. This cuts down both on pollution and gas-guzzling

  13. Poverty gives one the moral high ground: a true blessing for a society that invests so much time and money in trying to feel good about itself.

  14. The widespread contagions of mediocrity and boredom may actually decrease a bit

  15. Global warming should decelerate and may even be brought under control. Then all we need worry about is the next Ice Age and Asteroid.

  16. The brain-drain of professionals from the Third World to the Developed World may diminish, come to a halt, or even be reversed.

  17. Fewer cars on the road mean fewer traffic accidents, bad news for the AMA and the insurance companies.

  18. Even the medical profession may call for universal health care, as more and more "responsible" citizens decide that it's preferable to skip out on their medical bills than be honest and die in the streets.

  19. The capacity for waging war should decrease. (Unfortunately there are too many persons in high places who believe that a good war is the best way out of an economic decline. The Solution: send such people to The Hague!

  20. The homeless, jobless masses will organize to bring about Utopia!:

From San Diego out to Maine, in every mine and mill, where workers strike and organize, that's where you'll find Joe Hill!
Hip, hip, hooray!!!

Comments:

(1) I just want to comment on two points:
Item 12, while attractive, will be difficult since municipalities are actually cutting transit subsidies because of their budgetary problems. The feds, however, will spend hundreds of billions on highways as make-work projects.
As far as Item 16, the US, at least, has already gone far to solve that problem by treating foreign scientists as potential terrorists. After going through all the hoops of getting their first visas, they have to go through it all over again if they go home to visit their families or for vacations. As if they might have become terrorists in the meantime.
Mike Barr. mathematician, MicGill University

The following two comments are printed without attribution as I wait for permission from their authors:

(2) Excellent points, Roy, but one you missed - the wealthy and powerful will become much stronger, since they will now have to walk, being unable to afford taxis.
It has been a blessing to those of us on New York's Lower East Side who have seen our neighborhoods gobbled by massive high rises - a terrible "movement" by the real estable operators which has now come to a halt.
And even though we have no money, it may still be possible now to afford an occasional night out at a restaurant.

(3)"...Our government will send less money abroad, in the guise of foreign aid, to prop up military dictatorships..."

Apart from Israel, Roy.

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