mxx1's avatar

Hangover

I don’t think Donald Trump is an anomaly. I think he’s a logical consequence of the circumstances that we find ourselves in.

It’s a perfect storm. Climate change suggests we simply can’t keep consuming all the shit that we’ve become accustomed to consuming.

However at the same time we’re up against resources limitations on many fronts. Some of that is just because we’ve overdone it (eg helium, phosphate) and then there are other factors like competitive access to key resources such as water and oil, which are unevenly distributed around the globe.

The US is buggered in many ways. It finds itself at the centre of a global economy that it helped build, and needs to use that centrality as a source of power while it exists. Because as sure as night follows day, its competitors would prefer it if the US didn’t exist.

So the US has decided to go it alone and fuck everyone else. Why the government there needs to act on behalf of its citizens’ rights to consume remains a mystery. It’s not as though they like their own citizens. They show serious contempt for most of their people.

But even so, they are wedded to project America. Which is effectively anti-European in its vibe.  They are carrying historical cultural hostility to the source of their original banishment to the Americas.

It’s very different to Australia where we laugh at the English for banishing us to Australia, where it turns out we are so much better off than the poor fuckers and their descendants that stayed behind.

Back to America.

They can’t compete with China in making shit. No one can.

But the US has accidentally cornered the useful combination of risk capital and technology. Which has led them to be the tech giants.

It’s not their armed forces that makes them central. It’s their tech leadership.

So they are treading a very fine line, pissing off every trading partner whilst assuming their tech will still be acquired. Their trading partners only need said tech while they are competing in an international environment. If the US destroys that environment, well.

I suspect that quite accidentally Donald is doing his level best to destroy global trade which will drive everyone else to different types of domestic production and consumption. And fuck US tech.

The winner will be climate change and resources.

The losers will be small economies that fall prey to the local mafia.

Overall my impression is that we are seeing the end of the good times, unlimited resources and eternal innovation leading to ever increasing consumption. That’s done because it can’t be sustained and the end was always going to be messy.

As we say, party while you can, fuckers. When the tab comes, that will be someone else’s problem.