A fool's paradise?

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Monday November 14, 2011 · 6:16 AM PST

2011/11/14 · 06:16

As I read the New York Times article New Austerity Incites a Bitterness the Postwar Generation Did Without I came across the following

Now, the point of departure is prosperity, a fool’s paradise in which Europeans came to see affluence as a state of being, a birthright.
As politicians slowly and reluctantly confront the reality that the bounty days are over, what makes the challenge so explosive is not simply a question of economics; it is one of expectations and cultural divides.

The the operative belief is that"markets made the bad habit of living beyond one’s means simply too expensive." The underlying fallacy is that we and/or Europeans were living beyond our means.

Let me take one example of how this belief comes into focus. The US had a housing bubble. Today houses stand empty as opposed to filled with people who need housing. One might think that owning an empty house that is producing no income when many people desire homes is nuts. It surely is nuts. Why aren't prices or rents reduced until someone who needs a house either rents or buys the house? Clearly the owners are nuts and living beyond their means. Yet those owners of empty of empty homes are considered to be the sane ones.

The problem is not that we were/are living beyond our means. The problem is that we are not living up to our means. Many more products can be produced including food. Everyone in the US and Europe can live comfortably with plenty of vacation and time for their families. In twenty five years this could be the world and better than that in twenty five years we can be reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Why aren't we all working towards these ends?

The answer is the self fulfilling prophecy that "the reality that the bounty days are over." The people who believe this self fulfilling prophecy are living in a fool's paradise."

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