The Cultural Dimension of Debt

In the past decade, the global economy has seen radical shifts in financial performance and commercial standing of many of the world’s leading economies. Some progressive and powerhouse players on the world stage were imagined by many to lead the human civilization into a new era of prosperity advancement and economic stability. To the shock of many, some of them ended up facing some of the worst if not the worst decline in their history. Financial experts and economists are still divided as to the direct and unambiguous cause as to the meltdown suffered by economies like the United States and Greece. Seldom is the socio – cultural element even considered. The lesson of the past is clear that the rise and fall of great civilizations are in part due to cultural shifts and social transformation. When the US economy suffered one of its worst slumps in its history, the question of consumer behavior was not significantly considered. In turn behavior of individuals is largely attributed to the culture that they are oriented in. The capitalist mentality in many progressive countries often runs unchecked and leads societies to cause the decline of their own wealthy system. It might be asked did they knowingly do this. In many cases, they did not. Rather, a viable thesis is that they were induced to such an end. The fundamental flaw on the socio – cultural level of wealthy, and capitalist countries is that it allows greed to roam unchecked. What does this mean? It allows individuals and groups to pursue financial gain at all cost. This is coupled by the erroneous culture that material gain is the defining characteristic of modern and civilized way of life. Being affluent is not bad but when one miscalculates the reach of his or her wealth, this is when people start overspending to the point that they acquire debt recklessly. This debt in many cases escalates to the point that it becomes a problem of the state. The authorities end up being pressured to bail out these bad debts. This is at the cost of its own economic stability and continuity. Another danger in the modern and once strong economies is the virtual absolute absence of control on commercial establishments. They in turn become prone to abusing the consuming public all for the love of profit. The select few who often are in control of corporations pursue policies to enrich themselves at the cost of others. There is the case of Enron where the company executives acquired significant bonuses despite the fact that the company was losing money. This rampant deification of greed coupled with the institutionalization of the excessive acquisition of property lies at the root of the US recession and the growing instability of the Eurozone. An example set by rich but consistently stable economies is that their people, society and culture are pegged on values, which are not materialistic, and they reject greed. The decadence in terms of culture in many modern societies often translates to economic instability and financial decay on a scale that is unheard of before. This is something that needs to be addressed for these deteriorating economies to truly recover. SAMPLE ARTICLE PSTordilla*11-12-2011