APEC 2024 Peru. Biden shafted to a corner in the back row. Xi in front row next to Peru's President
1/25/2008
Whither Singapore?
We are entering a watershed in our history. We have gone past the days of nation building and are looking at new goals and heights to scale. The days of the founding fathers are about over. It is time to ponder where we are heading?
The earlier days are simpler. Economic growth and filling the stomach and a roof over our heads. Now economic growth is not everything. There are more choices, right choices and wrong choices. Oops, let me backtrack a bit. Economic growth or more money in the pocket is still very important.
Yes we have plenty of choices that money can buy. We are now in the phase of looking for the good life. What is the good life? All the glitters, all the wine, women and song.
This is like the prime years of the Tang Dynasty.
As I have said before. Most people get it wrong when it comes to economics, and specifically when it comes to the political economy.
ReplyDeleteMoney is simply a medium of exchange. If you were stranded on a deserted island with 1 billion dollars, you couoldn't buy food to survive because there is no one producing and selling food. So although money is important - for the society to function - it is certainly not "the end". Even as "means to an end" it occupies a space, not the total space.
For the 'real' people in a society - the folks with 'real' lives meaning they have specific individual purposes for each of their lives - the state, country, government, society... i.e. the large impersonal faceless "collectives" are w3ay down on their list of "priorities".
Real men and women concern themselves with their own lives and the lives of those they love and who love them - their family and friends.
If you are spending more time worrying about the govt, your cuntry and politics than you are on yourself and your family, you are a sad, shallow lonely bastard who needs to be smashed over the head with a hammer (to wake you up), so that you will notice what are the most important aspects in a human life - yourself and your kin.