Economic Transition Should Be A Natural Progression

In the Beginning, Everything Is New

Economic transition should be a natural progression less altered by government intervention. This thought is reinforced by the history of government intervention which reveals the failings of government to be efficient. I had to go deep into the archives of AdvancingTime to find this piece. It looks at the natural transition and progression in the economy that takes place when allowed. It is important to revisit this concept of economic evolution to understand what may be the best path forward.  

The goal of this updated piece is to focus on  how we might view a developed country versus one that is in its early stages of economic development. To do this, it might be helpful to think of a country in the early stages of development as a newly planned development on the edge of town. In the early stages of development, a great deal of money is spent on building the infrastructure necessary for the planned community, this includes roads, bridges, utility lines, and moving dirt. All this may go on for many years as homes and commercial buildings are constructed, all this creates jobs and new investment opportunities.

At Some Point, Focus Moves Towards Repair And Restore

At a certain stage of development, we reach a tipping point and a change takes place in the nature of how we spend our resources. As developments mature over time a larger percentage of outlays are spent on things like maintenance, updating, and upgrading existing buildings and infrastructure as needed, windows and roofs weathered by nature are replaced and parking lots are repaved and sealed. Rather than pouring money into strictly new construction, we find as an economy matures its rhythm changes and the focus should become sustaining what has been created to maximize our prior investment and extend its use. 

An example of the natural transition that takes place over time is how during the early 1900s just after the automobile became popular among the masses garages began to appear in cities. These replaced the structures built for horses. In the neighborhoods being built at the time garages were constructed for one car and fairly narrow to accommodate the cars of the time. When cars became larger and families started owning more than one automobile these garages were no longer adequate and had to be enlarged. This example is used to highlight the fact that as lifestyles change neighborhoods change and evolve to better fit our needs and desires. 

Over time with each new invention, we alter our homes and the economy as well as a way of adapting to the new realities life fosters upon us. In a perfect world, we would see developed areas not only continue to be maintained but steadily evolve and move forward. Construction tends to reflect the lifestyles of those living during the planning and building phase. Rather than bulldozing these buildings, I contend it would often be better to upgrade and preserve the best characteristics unique to the era in which buildings were conceived and do so in a way that makes economic sense. When it comes to buildings this means things such as adding insulation, replacing windows, or upgrading electrical panels.

Much of mankind has adopted mantras such as "move forward or die" and "newer is better." These often repeated sayings tend to be short-sighted and discount what those before us have brought to the table. Failure to recognize this economic transition and reflect upon the natural progression of society ushers in conflicts and even war. Part of this comes from shortsighted politicians trying to produce the ever-growing growth we have been told the majority of voters want. This shortsightedness helps to explain why here in America we never hear politicians on the national scene call for conservation unless it is during an emergency. Consumers conserving, reducing waste, and any talk of government austerity usually conflicts with the goals of lobbyists hell-bent on creating growth at any cost.

War Is Wasteful And Disrupts The Natural Progression

The idea that the way to grow is to increase our population is flawed. Simply adding mouths to feed and efforts to merely add new workers to replace those retiring creates additional demand but is flawed and shortsighted and ignores many other problems. Just getting bigger is not always better and we must recognize even trees do not grow to the sky. At some point, we must face reality. War is often the byproduct of such growth and war has proven to be a poor answer to creating a better world. The bottom-line is we should focus on a transition toward a future that is sustainable over the long term.

When it comes to the economy, the pathway of natural transition means finding new ways to manufacture and deliver goods. Unfortunately, the shift from a growth economy to one that is sustainable over time is very difficult to make for many countries. Change can create a slew of social as well as economic problems. Sadly, we find that today the trend, often driven by governments trying to stimulate growth, has become to encourage a total remove and replace. This is seen in the way new regulations make things  obsolete. 

While ending the life of structures and systems prematurely may create jobs it also creates a lot of waste. Such waste is not new. We witnessed a huge amount of waste years ago when America rapidly switched its broadcast system from analog to digital, and hundreds of televisions were dumped into landfills. It seems that today this is again happening as we are pushed into electric vehicles.

The world of tomorrow will create many new challenges as automation reduces the need for workers. This will cause us to struggle with creating jobs that make people feel useful and create lives that have a purpose. The toxic mix of big predatory companies and big government interrupts the natural transition and overpowers individual choice.

When discussing such things it is easy to extend the conversation to things like income inequality and even more interesting issues. Such as, what do people deserve from society merely because they are born? Do individuals have an obligation to give back to society and not simply take and make demands upon it? These are questions we will continue to grapple with going forward and most likely the correct answer is embedded in reflection and thought.

 

(Republishing this article welcomed with reference to Bruce Wilds/AdvancingTime Blog)