Populations want to see improvement, staying the same is not acceptable to them, nor is the slow rate of natural advancement due to science. It's impossible for any one country to always grow it's economy at a rapid enough rate and even more impossible for all countries to do it at the same time. If the population isn't satisfied, in a democracy they will vote out a government, in an autocracy they will rise up in revolution. This presents a very real problem for all politicians.
So what amounts to a conjuring trick is the answer, giving the same fast enough improvement repeatedly with steps backward in between:
1950s: Still with rationing and war debt so a low point, poor living standards justified by telling us this is necessary to get out of the mess.
1960s: Rapid growth and a consumer boom compared to what went before, the population occupied and happy.
1970s: Oil shortage artificially created, petrol rationing, power cuts, IMF called in to run the economy, wage increases rigidly limited. 1980 recession created and population told all this is necessary to get out of the mess.
1980s: Falklands war creates national feel good factor, economy booms as Regan and Thatcher print money, state enterprises privatised to get in more cash, population sold shares to make them feel good as part of the City boom economy. Council houses sold to tenants for a pittance to make them happy too.
1990s: John Major recession caused by the 1980s bubble bursting, house prices crash, economy suffers, high unemployment and businesses closing. Low wages and wage increases justified by telling the population this is all necessary to get out of the mess.
2000s: Economy booms as the New Labour government return to the equivalent of printing money by expanding on rising national debt. Consumer boom makes people feel good as their lives seem to improve and Chancellor Gordon Brown keeps telling us how wonderful everything is and what a clever chap he is.
2010s: Economy crashes as borrowing increasing the national debt has to stop and the effects of the sub-prime banking mess start to take effect. Government makes severe cutbacks in services and engineers very low wage increases with high unemployment. Low wage immigrants help to set lower levels of worker expectation. We are told all this is necessary to get out of the mess.
You can see the pattern, a boom is engineered to satisfy the population until it can no longer be sustained, then a crash in the economy is equally engineered with the purpose of taking back the gains the population made, so returning to square one, and the suffering due to this taken to the limits of the population's patience. Then the whole process is repeated, giving the impression of further improvement in life but in fact only repeating what we already had the last time. Politicians say this is the Boom-Bust cycle and pretend it's undesirable and not what they want, when in truth they engineer every step.
Underlying all this is the natural improvement due to the advancement of science, so life gradually gets better over many decades, but the more rapid advances that we "enjoy" are illusory and due to the trick described. There is another aspect to population control, but that is another whole subject to cover at another time.
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So what amounts to a conjuring trick is the answer, giving the same fast enough improvement repeatedly with steps backward in between:
1950s: Still with rationing and war debt so a low point, poor living standards justified by telling us this is necessary to get out of the mess.
1960s: Rapid growth and a consumer boom compared to what went before, the population occupied and happy.
1970s: Oil shortage artificially created, petrol rationing, power cuts, IMF called in to run the economy, wage increases rigidly limited. 1980 recession created and population told all this is necessary to get out of the mess.
1980s: Falklands war creates national feel good factor, economy booms as Regan and Thatcher print money, state enterprises privatised to get in more cash, population sold shares to make them feel good as part of the City boom economy. Council houses sold to tenants for a pittance to make them happy too.
1990s: John Major recession caused by the 1980s bubble bursting, house prices crash, economy suffers, high unemployment and businesses closing. Low wages and wage increases justified by telling the population this is all necessary to get out of the mess.
2000s: Economy booms as the New Labour government return to the equivalent of printing money by expanding on rising national debt. Consumer boom makes people feel good as their lives seem to improve and Chancellor Gordon Brown keeps telling us how wonderful everything is and what a clever chap he is.
2010s: Economy crashes as borrowing increasing the national debt has to stop and the effects of the sub-prime banking mess start to take effect. Government makes severe cutbacks in services and engineers very low wage increases with high unemployment. Low wage immigrants help to set lower levels of worker expectation. We are told all this is necessary to get out of the mess.
You can see the pattern, a boom is engineered to satisfy the population until it can no longer be sustained, then a crash in the economy is equally engineered with the purpose of taking back the gains the population made, so returning to square one, and the suffering due to this taken to the limits of the population's patience. Then the whole process is repeated, giving the impression of further improvement in life but in fact only repeating what we already had the last time. Politicians say this is the Boom-Bust cycle and pretend it's undesirable and not what they want, when in truth they engineer every step.
Underlying all this is the natural improvement due to the advancement of science, so life gradually gets better over many decades, but the more rapid advances that we "enjoy" are illusory and due to the trick described. There is another aspect to population control, but that is another whole subject to cover at another time.
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