different point of view part 2

Ok. I admit. I haven’t picked up a (Time or a Newsweek magazine in a very long time. I read the Economist and the Guardian and Pravda and Financial Times (among several international rags) to get a global perspective.  So when I picked up a Time magazine out of curiosity it provided a slightly different perspective for me.

This one has “the decline of Europe” on its cover.  And I picked it up because it was so obviously American focused versus what I currently read. And it was enlightening in its perspective. Did I learn anything ?  Nope.  But the perspective was interesting.

And while a lot of people could get grumpy with me I decided to put this post right after my Pravda post. Because it makes the same point.

Whether we like it or not, even in the flat world of internet and youtube, our media shapes our point of view.

We may dislike what we read in the Pravda but what makes our media “righter” then theirs.  But more importantly.  It shapes the majority’s thinking.  It is just a guess but the readers of my site are a minority.  We happy few probably scan a variety of global perspectives and develop our own point of view.

But.  We are a minority.  We aren’t any smarter than other people. We are just different.

The truth is the majority of people read only Pravda (Russian), or Guardian (English) or USA Today (online or paper) … all depending on one’s locality.

And the reader doesn’t cross over.  And most readers only get one perspective.

And because that is what most people take in that is what they put out in perspective.

Anyway. I read Time magazine.  And it was odd to me.  Because all of a sudden Europe was crumbling (because usa wasn’t there to prop them up) and a variety of issues they were facing suggesting they were screwed (Europe).

Note: that was a very simplistic recap of a long well written article …

Do I agree?  No.

Do I sort of agree? Sure.

They have a nifty graph (which the economist has never shown) showing relative economic strength by country. I cannot show it because I don’t subscribe to Time online but suffice it to say they rate countries where Scandinavian countries move up into the positive upwards left side quadrant and as you move left to right you get Germany, then France and then USA (which isn’t as far to the right lower bad quadrant where Italy and Greece reside.

In the chart I will ignore the quasi socialist Countries (Scandinavian) because … well … they are quasi socialist (which while we in the USA get nervous with that word it simply translates into less economic highs and lows because of the inherent wealth distribution).

Anyway.  Looking at the graph truly made me think about what is happening globally and why it is happening in each country.

And while it is certainly a complex combination of factors and issues I felt like cutting to the chase rather than get hung up on politics and government and taxes and whatever.

The easiest way to say what’s happening.

Germany good. They make a lot of shit.

USA not so good. We make some shit but generate more money in intangible services (we use money to make money).

Greece.  They don’t make shit (except olive oil).

That said.

If you want to be depression free, make shit.  That is my economic lesson for the day.