Why ask "Where are we heading", doesn't everyone know the answer, that we are not heading anywhere?

One day, our human body will no longer accommodate us.
One day, the whole human race would be a gone episode.
- and however the future unfolds, this is still going to be true.

We do not have a future - but we do have a present, and we can make use of this present to complete things, so that when our time comes, our life will be truly complete and we will not be missing anything.

The issue is not about which is better - such as more technology or less technology: We are born into a given world, which at the time is the only world we know and we set out to complete and fulfil our experience of it based on our early impressions. Instead, the issue is about change and when do we finally declare: "enough is enough!", because the faster this world changes, the harder it is for us to complete anything, so we are left with so many loose ends, so many open cycles, so much unfinished business, that we end up in a mess.

This world cannot be made better forever - it will come to a close. The question for us is how we can end it gracefully rather than frantically, both as individuals and as a whole society.

From Roman texts to Greek writings to Mesopatamian records we know that the elderly have always claimed that the world is going to hell in a handbasket and that the youth are out of control.

I expect that the reason we look backwards to a world that seems rosier is that its a time when most of us were full of hope and eagerness ourselves:- our dreams lay shiny and bright in front of us, we were in love or felt loved by parents and/or family and, considering we were bulletproof, were unaware of the dangers all around us.

The unromantic, pedestrian lives many of us were destined to live hadn't blunted our enjoyment or anticipation.

I cannot think that the 40's (world war 2),50's (Korean War), 60's (Vietname war), Wide Boys, Teddy Boys, Mods & Rockers, Klanners, gangs, Mafia, The Berlin Wall, Castro, The Cold War etc. etc. were viewed with any more approval by the old folk than are these days. I certainly never heard my own parents claiming those were the Golden Ages.

Where are we headed? Well since those times we have eradicated the epidemics of diptheria and polio that decimated the First World at least. Infant mortality rates have gone up, education is regarded as a right and not a privilege, standards of hygiene have improved, the streets are cleaner, and living standards that were considered permissible for the lower echelons are now condemned as slums. I think we're headed towards a cure for cancer at least!

We live healthier lives for longer too. So I reckon we're also headed for a longer period of looking around us and asserting that the collapse of the sky upon our old gray heads is imminent!

Given the exponential affects of global-warming and the current geo-political situation, I can't help but wonder if, by the time the bill comes in for these massive debts, the restaurant may well be shut, and it's customers rubbing sticks together somewhere dark and damp!

Is there someone out there who can explain to me logically, exactly where ALL the "lost", "missing" money has gone to.

We see the Banks and some very big companies being given a monstrous hand-out across the world,....hand-outs of Taxpayers money, and inevitably it is the Taxpayers who will have to repay this money to these governments in the way of increased taxes and increased costs of consumer goods!

Can someone convince me that we are not just victims in the biggest scam ever perpetrated on the innocent victims of a Capitalist society way, way out of control?

While we are on this subject of missing money, ....is there anyone out there who knows exactly what happened to the proceeds of the money derived from the sell-off of two thirds of Australia`s Gold Reserves by the then government of Paul Keating?

Maybe I am just dumb and ignorant, but if I am, then so are the majority of Australian citizens who do not seem to know where the "missing" money has gone to!

It's really quite simple, Cuphandle

>>Is there someone out there who can explain to me logically, exactly where ALL the "lost", "missing" money has gone to.<<

It never existed.

If you recall the starting-point of the current financial meltdown, it was the "bad loans".

If you lend me $1,000, and I promise to pay 5% interest, that loan has a "value" of $50 a year, over and above the grand itself.

You might decide that you want to cash the loan, but instead of asking me to repay it, you sell it to Maximillion, who is looking for a nice safe $50p.a. earner. He's happy, with a steady income from my loan, you're happy because you have your capital back.

If I continue to honour the debt, continue to pay the interest, all is well with the world.

Unfortunately, these folk could not afford the repayments.

Meanwhile the Banks had simply invented a value for them. They parcelled them up into bundles, gave them a Triple-A rating, and traded them between themselves.

The "money" itself never came into being, it was entirely fictitious.

Unfortunately, these loan parcels continued to be bought and sold. Pension funds were stuffed full of them. Companies bought them as "securities". And money was borrowed against them by ordinary folk, who went out and spent it... money that didn't exist in the first place.

Back at first base, the borrowers were defaulting, giving the loan a value of whatever the security (the home) happened to be. Which was heading south at a massive rate of knots, thanks to the sheer number of these little schemes that were unwinding.

There's a bit more to it, in the form of other dodgy financial instruments that compounded the problem.

But the key is that the "money" itself never existed.

Unfortunately, now that the pyramid has tumbled, the money needs to be created in order to fill up the hole.

Hence all these plans to print "real" money, which is just another way of borrowing, and give it to us to spend.

Cuphandle
The world seems to go in cycles of excesses. Greed and excess is what bought down the Roman Empire and French royal family. The upper echelons can only get away with so much before the system crashes which is what we are witnessing now with the GFC.

Satyajit Das on ABC's Q&A last night spoke of a need rethink the current growth models when talking about managing economies. The Greed is Good mantra is being derided now that the inevitable consequences are for all to see.

There is some hope that the greed cycle will diminish but it will only happen with both the government and private sector on board. I don't think the private sector will go quietly but with some well-targetted regulation that won't strangle enterprise we may just see a better and more positive future ahead.