it doesn't add up...

[miriam_e]

See if you can make these numbers add up, because I sure can't.

• There is a set amount of money in the world. It used to be based upon gold. That is no longer so, but the amount is still unvarying. This has to be because if more money is printed then inflation goes wild and the economy crashes completely. I'm sure you've seen those pics of people taking their weekly pay home in wheelbarrows when Hitler tried to solve his government's money problems by simply printing more.
• Inflation is reducing the value of money over time as people continually jostle for bigger cuts of the pie.
• Increasingly larger parts of the money pie are going to a smaller number of rich as the gap between the rich and poor widens... causing much of the middle classes to become the new poor in the process.
• The number of people on the planet is continuing to increase.

What I can't figure out is how we can make this a safe and equitable world if we continue on anything like our current trajectory. How can we prevent what is likely to be a bloody uprising when the number of those without resources reaches a critical level? As far as I know, in all of history brandishing weapons has never worked as more than a temporary measure... and generally one that gets the rebels even more angry. The only way I can see out of this dilemma is to begin truly sharing knowledge and resources. Maybe there is still time. I'm a little worried that this is the fall of the Roman Empire all over again, to be followed by hundreds of years of religious dark ages. ...And we all know what fun that was. {Sorry about posting a depressing piece... but hearing about the decadent excesses of current governments and big corporations while people starve and die all around them kinda does that to me.)