Chaos in the world
QUESTION: Masters, all over the world people are losing their jobs and many families are falling into poverty. Pundits call the global recession a “cyclical problem” and speak as if an economic downturn is a “necessary cleansing” for business and social institutions. But surely the poor don’t need to be taught a lesson for the failure of capitalist consumerism?
ANSWER: Your exasperation with the current world condition is so pervasive that you are combining everything that is going on at this time into one huge pot. The economy is “in the toilet” as they say. This refers to the fact that the good times that have just passed are gone and people are looking at a new cycle of standards. They are being confronted with the reality they have created and not the dream world they and major manufacturers envisioned for them.
In a large number of situations business had been so good that the average wage rose above parity with the work being performed. Workers, finding themselves with potentially extra and sometimes even unlimited cash, decided that it would only continue to get better so they became flagrant consumers. Into the house came the flat screen TV, video games for the kids, new and better clothes, and don’t forget the new car for the garage—and all on credit anticipating the bright future. Financial institutions fueled this teetering tower by readily offering more and more credit even if it was apparent that borrowers would be unable to repay.
Businesses hired more staff than was needed to do the work, extended themselves in the credit market for improvements, expansion, even redecorating that was not necessary, blasted the new consumers with advertising, and consented to sizeable raises for employees … and then the money ran out and the true situation of the economy took over.
Yes, you may call this cyclical. It is a necessary cleansing of erroneous concepts. But every soul is exactly where it contracted in advance to be. Many soul journeys are occurring at this time so that they may experience this turmoil and chaos. To say that a particular business, financial institution, or employer is responsible for what you observe is seeing only the impact on an affected individual.
While the process that you see is a seemingly Earth-destructive phase, it has no more impact than the industrial revolution, the first world war, the extinction of the dinosaur, or the proliferation of the Internet. Part of each soul journey may be rich or poor, master or slave, easy or difficult—all decided by freedom of choice.