This is the punch line of a joke two friends invented on a plane returning from Hawaii. It sounds more like ‘I’m a gettin outa here’.
My point in this blog is not a joke.
I want to call your attention to the idea that an entire generation, a president that calls it the greatest human problem, a pope and a globe full of people who believe in human caused armageddon, is a problem.
I inherently prefer theories that explain human behavior based on demographic, economic or technological trends. I’ll buy the thesis that some populations are getting taller because of a Darwinian selection process, if I’m shown the data. I will not accept an explanation based on will power or ideology.
I’ll admit a love of Max Weber and his Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Weber likes the Ethic that uses a view of an afterlife and an invisible state of grace to promote savings. I like Weber but I’ve always sought a better explanation. See this blog for my version of the same subject.
There is one area where I would prefer a tangible, measurable causal force rather than the one that I am resigned to accept.
We have had substandard economic growth in the U.S. for a decade and substandard growth of new businesses. For the world economy it has been substandard for a longer period.
Business start-ups is something I know well. Having consulted several thousand small businesses. Business start-ups power economic growth. People only start businesses in a positive economic emotional environment. That is what the hippie revolution in creating new businesses was all about.
Therefore I have to theorize that the pervasive belief and promotion of the impending global armageddon is thwarting business start-up and is consequently the reason for poor American economic growth and as a result for the even poorer global economic growth.
A personal horizon of armageddon is not one that encourages optimism and economic vitality.
When you and your friends are thinking about the end of the world, it is hard to have children and to start a new business.