WHY IS THE GLOBAL ECONOMY LIKE THIS?, a damned good question too few seem to ask themselves

WHY IS THE GLOBAL ECONOMY LIKE THIS?
CORNELIS BAL
Partridge Publishing Singapore
$3.92 Kindle edition, available now

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: Have you ever wondered just how our current global economy came about—and how its laws and regulations rule and influence our lives?
In this commonsense discussion of world economics, author Cornelis Bal presents a brief exploration of these questions and offers suggestions for how we might change our economic system in order to improve our lives. His explanation draws a comparison between the laws of nature and the laws of economics, considering how the rapid development of technology in the last century has drastically affected how we work and live and these technological developments will continue to influence our lives beyond imagination in the very near future. Rather than presenting elaborate mathematical models to support his conclusions, he relies on straightforward language and observations that anyone might make. Bal explains that the present global economic system does not seem to have a sustainable future unless we make drastic changes, we will continue to experience increasing anarchy.

My Review: Super basic, entry-level discussion of a complex problem aimed at complete novices to the topic.

Although the economy is growing, the number of people and corporations involved in the money-generating process is shrinking. This means that the number of people depending on the people generating money will grow, leading to an imbalance.

See? We're talkin' basic-basics here. Most anyone reading my reviews will smirk and pass on, utterly uninterested and unmoved.

BUT!

Author Cornelis takes us on a whirlwind tour of the world as it is. The concepts are barely sketched in. The issues are skeletonized. The usefulness of the piece is to present barebones basics to the absolute novice to the topic.

The economic laws have been created by a relatively small number of people who had and have both the power and selfish interest to create the rules and regulations as we now know them. ... The first question I ask is this: why do we continue to accept current economic rules and regulations without question?

Do you begin to sense the reason I wanted to bring this to your attention? And, for the persons not of a progressive bent, the author offers this self-assessment: "I want you to know that I am not a socialist; I am a realist!", and to prove it, he goes on, "The design parameters of any new system must include greed and envy otherwise it is bound to fail." This, he asserts, is what sunk the "communist" experiment in the Soviet bloc. Since I agree with that assessment of the USSR's primary failure, I am willing to suggest an audience for this short, inexpensive piece.

Is your high-school kid or college freshman driving you bonkers about how awful everything is (like this is a newsflash to adults, but hey, we all start somewhere)? Give them this short, readily understood piece. Then they can go to bat with better questions. And really, isn't that all we can ask of each other? Ask better questions and find better answers, case by case and bit by bit?