Modern Civilization's Woes

I wrote this for Examiner.com as an example of my 'skills'. I'm hoping they let me do some freelance writing for them!
Let me know what you think of the article! By the way, they said give us something between 200-300 words...and I think I made something around 1,500 words...oops!

As many of you know, both our Country’s citizens as well as nearly everyone in the World, is not dealing with, or beginning to deal with our economic disaster. Luckily, though, Colorado, at least up until now, hasn’t really seen the situation’s ugly face. Highlands (North Denver), as well as the Cherry Creek Country Club has been one of the only places in the entire country where the prices of homes has actually been appreciating rather than depreciating. This might not seem like much of a bragging point, but just consider that the entire state of California is literally weeks away from complete bankruptcy. Also keep in mind that California is just at the forefront of a laundry list of states, banks, insurance companies, and material manufacturers that are lining up in the thousands for a Federal Government Bailout. So, in comparison, Colorado is doing absolutely wonderfully! But, as with all good things, it won’t last forever. Sooner or later, the situation will climb its way up to the 5,280 foot mark above sea-level, and we will all have a rude awakening.
I certainly do not write this to frighten anyone, although as everyone has the right to be frightened, and in my opinion it is just good common sense. I write this to inform. The first step to preparing for a problem is to figure out what the problem is. We can’t do anything until we get that far. So take this as a warning that tough times are coming, and relief isn’t anywhere in sight yet!
Now, for those of you who don’t know, or those of you who are a little confused on the subject, the Global Economy is dealing with three very serious issues at the moment. The first being what started the situation, The Mortgage Market Collapse. This was caused by an already failing economy though, in my opinion. Because of an already failing economy, and inflation (the creation of new legal tender by the Fed which is injected into the economy, making said legal tender less valuable than it was before the new injection of bills.) many people defaulted on their mortgage payments, or in other words they couldn’t make their payments, so the banks foreclosed on their houses. But, because of the failing economy, and because so many foreclosures have been happening, many foreclosed homes were never re-sold, and are still waiting to be sold today, months after first being foreclosed. Because of this the banks are continually dropping the price of the homes, so the people who once owned and lived in them are losing countless amounts of money as the value of certain things depreciates within this situation.
The second situation is the Credit Crisis. This one is fairly easy to explain: In this country alone (the USA), there is at least $17,000 million dollars of credit card debt alone. That doesn’t even begin to get into paper debt (debt directly from legal tender; money). So the idea is that there is millions upon millions of fake money/debt floating around, and that the people who own said money or debt has the ability to call it in whenever they want. So, if even a small fraction of the major holders of credit card debt (companies like Visa, Master Card, et cetera) decided to call in their debts, possibly because they have to, as with most major companies and financial agents they are quickly spiraling towards bankruptcy, most people wouldn’t be able to make the payment (mostly because of the poor economy), which would allow the major company to take material things in compensation for the money which they can liquidate. So, in the simplest terms, the credit crisis is just a house of cards (debt) which is teetering close to collapse.
The third, and in my opinion, most important issue of the economic situation, is also what I believe to be the root cause for the situation! And that is the issue of energy! First, to understand how important this is, it must be explained how our modern civilization began, how it has run, and how it runs today. In 1865 oil was discovered. For those a little unfamiliar this was the time of the Wild West, in other words, hardly a ‘developed’ time in history! For many years oil was only used in very small doses and for very personal uses, such as an oil lamp for a person’s home. But, in the early 1900s Henry Ford came along, and was the first person to use oil commercially and industrially. He used them both in his Model T Automobiles, as well as in the assembly line which made them (Mr. Ford was the inventor of the assembly line, and oddly enough there is still an old Model T factory in Denver, at Broadway and I-25) This was more or less the beginning of modern society and was the real push that the industrial revolution needed to really take off. Now, with Fords automobile a reality, many things were made possible. Things such as allowing people to move out of the cities and into the suburbs, which in turn created thousands of jobs for people to build homes, roads, parks, and other such things which became its own foundation for more progresses which have helped us get to where we are now, the pinnacle of modern civilization. Now, because oil was one of the original catalysts for our progress, it was seen as miracle goo, and was and is used in almost EVERYTHING we use. From concrete to plastic, I literally mean that almost EVERYTHING requires oil to some extent. Purifying water, making electricity, growing, harvesting, and shipping food…almost everything! And not to mention technology! Tech takes more oil than anything else, and we make more technology (plastics) than anything else! What I am trying to say is that modern civilization completely relies on oil, closely followed by coal, and natural gas. The reason I believe it is the fundamental cause to our economic situation (rather than our flawed system of Modern Money Mechanics, which does play its own part in the trouble!) is simply because oil, coal, and natural gas are finite commodities. All this means is that there is only so much of the stuff, and that someday it will run out. Now, I believe that we hit the half-way mark in 2005 for all the oil in the world. In other words, since 1865 to today, we have taken out just over half of all the oil within the Earth’s ground. But, we have taken out the easily accessible half, and now we have to work twice as hard, and spend twice the energy to get the same amount of oil, simply because it is now twice as hard to find. So, modern societies primary commodity (the commodity which it most primarily runs off of), is quickly becoming a non-profitable business.
Now, something must be understood about Capitalism to help you understand what a serious situation running out of profitable oil is! Capitalism is completely dependent on one thing: Progress! Capitalism has the bad tendency of building debt upon debt upon debt (a VERY fragile house of cards). The only thing that keeps this debt from needing to be paid back is progress. In Capitalism we achieve progress through profit. So if there isn’t any profit, there isn’t any progress, and if there isn’t any progress the house of cards folds in on itself and we have a catastrophe on our hands! Now, back to unprofitable oil: If modern society’s primary commodity (oil) is no longer profitable, that means that progress will begin to slow (which is what we are seeing across the world right now), which means that the house of cards will be responsible for its debt, and not having the means of paying all of it back, will simply fold in on itself (sounds like the current credit crisis, doesn’t it!?).
So I don’t believe that we are in this situation because of a flawed economic system (even though ours is extremely flawed!). I believe that we are just feeling the burn of Capitalism without progress. And I strongly believe that the only thing that will save us is what has always saved us and made our lives more convenient: Technology. But unfortunately all the major investors and investment banks are putting majority of their funds into weapons and defense technologies rather than alternative/renewable energy technologies. We as a species, not just as Americans or Coloradans have a serious hill to climb, and I assure you that we can only make it together! But hey, for now, just enjoy the fact that Colorado hasn’t been hit too hard by what is going on! And beyond that, the only thing we can do is to prepare ourselves both physically and psychologically, as well as doing the good deed of sharing this information with others.
As John F. Kennedy once said:
“…I am asking for your help in the tremendous task of alerting and informing the American people, confident that with your help, man will be what he was born to be: Free and Independent!”
-Stephen Alexander


Discuss!