Message to the West: 'You're poor now so live like poor people'

[Emperor_of_Algol]

According to former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, the message is simple but devastating: Europe must face up to the new economic reality.
"Europe... has lost a lot of money and therefore you must be poor now relative to the past," he reasons in an interview with BBC World Service's Business Daily.
"And in Asia we live within our means. So when we are poor, we live as poor people. I think that is a lesson that Europe can learn from Asia."

snip

"You refuse to acknowledge you have lost money and therefore you are poor," he says.
"And you can't remedy that by printing money. Money is not something you just print. It must be backed by something, either good economy or gold."

snip snip

In particular, he believes Europe and the West must begin the long slow process of restructuring their economies to reduce their dependence on the financial sector.
"I think you should go back to doing what I call real business - producing goods, providing services, trading - not just moving figures in bank books, which is what you are doing."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16918000

I think he actually makes a lot of good points here. Of course, what he says is also valid for some economies in Asia (not just Japan), especially given current trends, but I don't think it can be emphasized enough how broken an economic system which relies on false value is. And this seems to be a distinctly Western phenomenon. Also:

"I think you have paid your workers far too much money for much less work," he says.
"So you cannot expect to live at this level of wealth when you are not producing anything that is marketable."

Sage advice, indeed.

[analrapist]

"I think you have paid your workers far too much money for much less work," he says.
"So you cannot expect to live at this level of wealth when you are not producing anything that is marketable."

Sage advice, indeed.

This totally applies in the US too. Any given office has a dozen people doing the work of three. Half of them are minorities, gay, fat or Jewish.

[scourge]

Message to the East: you are inhumane. Here have eighty million of our liberals. Problem solved all around.

[Archidamus]

In particular, he believes Europe and the West must begin the long slow process of restructuring their economies to reduce their dependence on the financial sector.
"I think you should go back to doing what I call real business - producing goods, providing services, trading - not just moving figures in bank books, which is what you are doing."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16918000

I think he actually makes a lot of good points here.

You and me both. The first step is annihilating Facebook.

[duamtef]

Give away our liberals, that's awesome! Send them all to China. They will be really grateful once the rapes stop. If they stop...

The West ate up all of its wealth going liberal, and now there's nothing left. Liberalism is just a 2,000 year trend that makes people think they're precious.

[lafindumonde]

I do believe Materialistic Globalism is the West's main export. It keeps our printing press running.

I do expect to see within my lifetime a major economic collapse and lifestyle readjustment. Very curious how the Zombies react to having their free money cut off. Expecting either riots or increased/total militarization of major cities (think South America, major protection in rich central areas with total no-go slum zones surrounding it).

Edit: Proof - http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/02/08/lapd-pioneers-high-tech-crime-fighting-war-room/

[Conservationist]

It's like we imported colonial wars back into the US.

Colonial war: a few white people in a desolate outpost oversee 100,000 starved primitives who fight back using self-defeating, suicidal methods.

Current reality: a few white people in a desolate outpost oversee 100,000 starved primitives who fight back using self-defeating, suicidal methods... in Los Angeles.

Blade Runner here we come! Or more likely: Brazil.

[scourge]

If you want a glimpse of the future for the US, UK, etc. all you need to do is tune into what is going on in Greece.

Greece is financially bankrupt, like all Western countries.  They just happened to get there first.

So what is going on?

If we use my friend Dmitry Orlov‘s five stages of collapse as our reference, Greece is at stage 4.

• Financial collapse.
• Economic collapse.
• Political collapse.
• Social collapse.  <– Where Greece is
• Cultural collapse.

What does social collapse mean?

In the case of Greece right now, it means people turn on each other:

http://www.resilientcommunities.com/avoiding-social-breakdown/

[analrapist]

Is this a repeat from 200 BC?