President Biden and his people. Their salvation lies in space.
This is a one world with one clear leader
This line from US president Biden’s statement after Thursday’s dastardly terrorist attack on Kabul was striking, “I will defend our interests and our people with every measure at my command”. US troops who died in the blasts were clearly Biden’s people but were the 130 Afghans flocking the airport to be taken out of Afghanistan and most probably to US, who died in the same blasts, Biden’s people? Of Course not. But would these Afghans, had they been alive, mind, if Biden would lay claim to them in some way?
Ask the same question to people standing in long queues in front of American embassies in developing countries for getting work visas and see if they would mind being called Biden’s people?
Ask the same question to factory owners in China and Taiwan and see if they would mind being called Biden’s people?
A country which controls about half of the world GDP (~25% directly and ~25% indirectly through G7) is bound to be the defacto capital of the world and it can’t afford to have its interests much different from the interests of the world, more so, when it is struggling to keep its economic engines, which fuel its ambition to force its writ on the world, in top shape. These faltering economic engines are as much the result of its global expansion as they are of its old zero-sum understanding of its “interests” and its “people”.
The world needs the leader as much as the leader needs the world
A section of people in US believes that globalization took opportunities and wealth away from them, perhaps they are right partially, but their thinking that solution to their problems, created by globalization, lies in restricting the borders and going back to pre-globalization era is wrong totally.
Globalization is an irreversible and ongoing process. It is going on since the dawn of civilization; modern western multinationals, in their quest for new markets and new consumers, only expedited it.
The ancient and medieval waves of globalization were all uni-directional where one party forced itself upon the unwelcoming and unwilling second party in a zero-sum game. On the other hand, the modern multi-national corporations driven globalization can be said to be at least partially bi-directional despite major push coming from the one party while the other party, even when appearing to be welcoming, being actually cajoled into it. But here the other party also had decent enough chance of benefiting from it (at least on paper) and many like China and India did benefit from it enormously.
This globalization is faltering because those who are on the driving seat still see the world through old prism of zero-sum game. A game in which they want to win at the expense of the world. They remain aloof to the repercussions of their decisions on the people of the world and ignore the yearning of the masses of the large part of the world while keeping their resources, expertise and general wherewithal underutilized which is actually giving rise to growth challenges not just in their own backyards but also in the rest of the world.
Here, without going deep into the underlying political, social, technological and economic phenomenon, it is perhaps safe to say that the world is getting specialized. One part of the world has already become the factory of the world, whereas one other part has already become the IT service center of the world. Similarly other parts are also quickly trying to find their niche. But no part of the world is doing what US has not already done before or where US is not involved either as a consumer, supplier or a leader of some sort.
In a nutshell, people of the world depend on the projects which people in US initiate and they look forward to US to keep initiating these projects to keep their economies going. Niche for people of US is innovation and leadership but for various structural reasons US is not able to initiate enough activities to keep either its own or world’s working population fully occupied giving rise to relative stagnation in US and the world.
Multi-generational futuristic global efforts led by US are the way out of stagnation
We can’t have infinite growth in a world with finite resources but if we look beyond earth then suddenly resources don’t look that finite and growth prospects don’t look that bleak. However, going beyond the shores of the earth is not that economical in conventional sense as leaving the gravity is exorbitantly costly and no current business case has positive return on investment.
However, if we take into account a multi-generational time period and factor in the cost of status quo (all the wars, unrest and other troubles of varying degrees which are bound to follow), even return on investment would start looking rosy.
Now given that it’s nearly impossible to get politicians of any other country enthused about this adventure without an external pressure, only hope is US. In US there are enough space, technology and future enthusiasts who can build the favorable public opinion and exert pressure on their politicians to start thinking for solar system dominance and not just global dominance.
Once US directs all that printed money which is currently doing nothing but inflating the assets into space ventures the entire global economy will get invigorated, productively employing US expertise in leadership, management and Hi-Tech innovation and rest of the world’s expertise in manufacturing, IT and other labor-intensive work.
The above may seem a little outlandish to many and specially to those who haven’t paid attention to human history. Stagnation (or stagnation coupled with inflation, the stagflation, to be more technically price) almost always brings unrest and wars. Both the world wars, revolutionary wars in other parts of the world and even American civil war are testimony to that. Fortunately, now earthlings have a choice either go in the ditches or go in space. Right choice here can resolve most of the problems of the US and the rest of the world. President Biden! only you are in a position to make the world pick the right option, you better not let us down.