The 1980s & Big Time Borrowing
The 1980's saw the culmination of the bigger is better, growth and greed
philosophy. Based on the silly assumption that accelerating growth is desirable
or even possible, large scale borrowing became the watchword. Happy bankers
with their eyes closed to reality doled out billions in loans, which now
are impossible to repay and will remain as debts into future generations.
It was really fun to borrow from our grandchildren during the 1980's.
The three categories of sewer pipes down which this money was poured are
1) industrial agriculture, industrial forestry and industrial fishing. The
result was investment in capital equipment to increase productivity and
reduce jobs. We therefore now have overpopulation and underemployment (except
for the fishing industry wherein the resource base and entire human communities
have been destroyed). We also have ruined family farms, lost topsoil, depleted
domestic plant and animal biodiversity, spread poisons over the land, lowered
the water table, drained marshes, exhausted timber supplies and degraded
fish habitat. Much of the industrial-strength equipment bought in the 80's
has still not been paid for and never will be because the economies in the
farming, fishing and forest sectors continue to worsen.
2) The "developing" world was developed in very damaging ways
in the 1980's, on borrowed money. Billions were spent on mega-projects,
very few of which did any good for the vast majority of the people and in
most cases, harmed them. The World Bank loans for dams, for example, displaced
ten million people from their homes, farms and villages. A few people got
very rich and much of the money disappeared into the pockets of the leaders
and their cronies. Borrowing for military build-up in the third world is,
if anything, even more wasteful and certainly destructive. The tragedy is
that the ordinary people of these nations must now suffer under austerity
programmes and struggle with inflation and debt to repay the international
bankers.
3) In the modern industrial world vast sums were borrowed for paper entrepreneurship,
leverage buy-outs and take-overs, many of which were unproductive scams
so that a few could get rich quick. The Savings and Loans scandal is a classic
example. Billions of dollars were wasted and future generations will be
paying for a long time.
The 1980's were a time of fun and profit for a few and for those who give
no thought to tomorrow. This decade was actually one of the most destructive
in world history. Have we learned any lessons from it? Was this a good idea?
Robert Bateman
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