Plenty has been writen about the global financial crisis and plenty is being written about an early casualty of that crisis, Iceland. All my people that hate to hear me gush about Iceland and who know very little about it are now reminding me that Iceland is in trouble. Almost as if to give me the proverbial ‘I told you so’. Most people have no clue where Iceland is much less what this crisis means to them or anyone else. Some actually have a financial clue.
But I was thinking…. The world has been investing in the wrong thing. We’ve invested in money. It doesn’t matter if it was real estate, stocks for this commodity or that pension fund; the only concern was value and what it would bring in the shortest time. We only wanted the money. The name of the investment was unimportant. We have no motivation to do what is beneficial or useful, only in how much money it represented, real or more often imagined and inflated. Last man in is the looser.
It is time to invest in things that matter. Things that bring true prosperity and a better future. The money will follow. So for Iceland I would now invest in a lot more greenhouses. And as many things that will sustain a population and be sustainable for the next generation. That idea has worked very well it seems for the Icelandic energy sector now that electricity and heat are a cheap and plentiful commodity. That didn’t happen overnight but you are way ahead of the rest of us on that. Do it again.
Bailouts and protection rackets only serve to perpetuate the same mistakes and thoughtless short term choices. The bubble has burst. The western model that only works with perpetual growth and over consumption isn’t sustainable and certainly not kind to mother earth.
