great depression or great potential?

 

Riding the ExpressBus from JFK to Grand Central Station yesterday night, I listened intently to a mobile conversation behind me that really resonated to a nameless West-coaster. New Yorkers are going through a ‘Great Depression Part II’, he said to his Florida-bound family members. Coming from London, Lehman Brothers associates crying outside their offices seemed a distant and possibly distinctly separate event from what’s happening in NYC. Could my indifference be because my industry isn’t going to get hit anytime soon–or vice versa?                                                      

I’ve been told I should be excited there is less money flowing through the economy. It prevents waste and out-of-control consumerism. Obviously, without the extra capital, useless and frivoulous could be entirely phased out–like the new urban chic culture has made remade, reused products cool and trendy.  Like in every economic crisis, we set our funds away for the necessaries, like food and beer. Let’s just be real; this is always the case.

I admit I have a bias; I’m an eternal optimist. Nevertheless, is this economic downturn a sign we should be investing our time and energy into something more ethical and even more innovative and slightly radical? Rather than investing money into dodgy ethical practices, we could decrease consumption and invest our time into new socially- and environmentally-responsible ventures. Decreasing consumption could be the best way to increase equality amongst poor and rich, considering what a fellow blogger, Anah Shah, noted from the World Bank, about consumption and inequality.  Unfortuntately, I could not find the graphs’ location on the World Bank website.

 

When comparing these indicators against World Bank Development Indicators, 2008, on pg. 124, we can see there might be a connection between the fact that increased consumption and has led to increased incidence of climate change. The below graph is available here.

 

Unsurprisingly, this might be a great addition to my argument that in fact this ‘great depression’ might leave room for potential entrepreneurs to come out of their shells and re-invent themselves in the new green economy.

Depression or not, I think today might be the best day to go out to the park and have a lie in the grass. Ah, the beauty of consultancy.

~ by Erica Grigg on 23/09/2008.