The Economic Collapse & Michigan's Future
Let's face it, we are now well on our way to the collapse of the global economy and all that it provides. We depend on the global economy for food, housing, medical care, education, jobs, entertainment, simply everything. And it looks fairly clear that the risk of this all ending soon is growing by the day.
The global economy is determined by money, energy, and will.
Right now, we find that money is unstable. Interest rates bouncing up and down. The money supply contracting and expanding as banks write down losses, and governments create money to replace that. This combined with the great majority of economic players (all of us) cutting back our expectations for the future, and thus cutting back on our spending. Everyday, another company reports bad numbers, or another major layoff, or something else that spins into this ever changing menagerie of chaos.
This fatal weakness of the global economic system was discovered as it became apparent that the energy supply would be unable to continue to fuel the predicted global growth. Peak oil, the maximum rate at which oil will be (or has been) extracted from Earth, was both the fear and the cause of the huge price spike seen in oil prices over the past several years. Now, as oil prices drop to less than 40% of highs, major long-term energy projects, essential to the global economies revival, are being postponed, delayed, and canceled. These projects take years to come on line, and it is becoming more likely that the time and capital needed to bring and keep these projects online will be unavailable.
This leaves all of us who depend on the global economy for our very lives in a very serious, critical situation. This is not to say that there aren't hopes and possibilities that are not so dire, but for those, planning is not necessary. They are the surprise we all dream will come. No, what thinking and planning we need to do is on the other side, the side of crisis management, for something that looks more and more likely to happen.
Emergency in Michigan
Michigan is in a particularly dire situation. Michigan imports from other states and countries almost all of our fuel: natural gas (80%), oil (97%), coal (100%) and uranium (100%). This means that in order for Michigan's economy to continue, either Michigan must secure flows of these energy sources into our state, we must rapidly curtail energy use, or we must rapidly increase internal energy capture from the on-site sources we have available.
This future we face may be split into a number of different scenarios, and these scenarios should be focused on providing the bare essential needs to all those that live in Michigan. Michigan's major vulnerabilities are in the areas of food, water/sanitation, and heating/maintenance. We need to be able to feed our families, keep them healthy, and with warm safe places to stay.
One of the most appealing and positive outlooks for is that Michigan take control of it's own future. This would be achieved by acting to drastically reduce fuel consumption along with the related loss of money out-of-state for the purchase of this fuel, the transition of the Michigan auto manufacturing/parts/dealership system into a renewable energy system construction industry building systems for installation in Michigan. The use of various laws, state initiatives, a feed-in-tariff, a state owned bank, and a plan that included all Michigan residents would be necessary.
Note: This is not a fully complete article, but it is published here for archival purposes.
The global economy is determined by money, energy, and will.
Right now, we find that money is unstable. Interest rates bouncing up and down. The money supply contracting and expanding as banks write down losses, and governments create money to replace that. This combined with the great majority of economic players (all of us) cutting back our expectations for the future, and thus cutting back on our spending. Everyday, another company reports bad numbers, or another major layoff, or something else that spins into this ever changing menagerie of chaos.
This fatal weakness of the global economic system was discovered as it became apparent that the energy supply would be unable to continue to fuel the predicted global growth. Peak oil, the maximum rate at which oil will be (or has been) extracted from Earth, was both the fear and the cause of the huge price spike seen in oil prices over the past several years. Now, as oil prices drop to less than 40% of highs, major long-term energy projects, essential to the global economies revival, are being postponed, delayed, and canceled. These projects take years to come on line, and it is becoming more likely that the time and capital needed to bring and keep these projects online will be unavailable.
This leaves all of us who depend on the global economy for our very lives in a very serious, critical situation. This is not to say that there aren't hopes and possibilities that are not so dire, but for those, planning is not necessary. They are the surprise we all dream will come. No, what thinking and planning we need to do is on the other side, the side of crisis management, for something that looks more and more likely to happen.
Emergency in Michigan
Michigan is in a particularly dire situation. Michigan imports from other states and countries almost all of our fuel: natural gas (80%), oil (97%), coal (100%) and uranium (100%). This means that in order for Michigan's economy to continue, either Michigan must secure flows of these energy sources into our state, we must rapidly curtail energy use, or we must rapidly increase internal energy capture from the on-site sources we have available.
This future we face may be split into a number of different scenarios, and these scenarios should be focused on providing the bare essential needs to all those that live in Michigan. Michigan's major vulnerabilities are in the areas of food, water/sanitation, and heating/maintenance. We need to be able to feed our families, keep them healthy, and with warm safe places to stay.
One of the most appealing and positive outlooks for is that Michigan take control of it's own future. This would be achieved by acting to drastically reduce fuel consumption along with the related loss of money out-of-state for the purchase of this fuel, the transition of the Michigan auto manufacturing/parts/dealership system into a renewable energy system construction industry building systems for installation in Michigan. The use of various laws, state initiatives, a feed-in-tariff, a state owned bank, and a plan that included all Michigan residents would be necessary.
Note: This is not a fully complete article, but it is published here for archival purposes.