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As I watch on TV the highly varied “protester groups” demonstrating on the streets of London, I am reminded that today indeed is April Fools Day for the whole thing has the air of a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. What do Anarchists, Green Movement, Peaceniks, Old People who have lost their savings, people who have lost their jobs, people who blame the Bankers…have in common ?

What remedies would suit them all ? Is there a universal panacea ? The answer of course is no because most are just wanting to go back to how things were 18 months ago and the “usual protesters” are hacked off because the economic downturn has made them irrelevant. For them, its a bit like Hunt Saboteurs suddenly finding out that everyone has given up hunting with hounds – it’s bloody tough having both your job and raison d’etre taken away from you…

What Is the Youth Protest ?

If you were part of some “Green Movement” like Plane Stupid, Friends of the Earth, a Believer in Global Warming and so on, then the economic downturn serves your purposes to a tee. Fewer planes will fly to carry people on business or holiday. Much less fossil fuels will be burnt as people count the financial cost.

Raw materials will not be dug out of the ground because of falling demand, fewer things will be manufactured and therefore there will be far less pollution. In simple terms, what protests can never achieve as quickly has been done by a financial crash followed by a trade one in less than 18 months – a brilliant result for these campaigners with little effort, isn’t it ?

For the Socialists, Anarchists and “The Continuity Communists”, nothing that keeps this world together both economically and socially, is a “good result” so there will be no pleasing them either way, misery needs company plus their theme song: “I love the sound of breaking glass”.

The Mr & Mrs Average Protest.

As for the angry citizens, what are they really complaining about ? If you stop and think about it for a moment there are only two main gripes: The Government and the Financial Institutions which Mr & Mrs Average “trusted blindly and without any critical appraisal being applied”, have let them down. These ‘authorities’ have led them over the edge of a cliff and they, Lemmings as they are, have followed them over it.

I have no sympathy what-so-ever for them these are the same people who would have bought Tulip Bulbs. The House Price bubble was obviously overblown by 2002 and just kept on going but sad fools as they are, they smugly counted their ‘profit’ as their property increased in nominal value or, scrambled to “get on the ladder” at evermore ridiculous prices. What they all really want is to turn the clock back a couple of years so that they could continue living in their fools paradise or in their dreams, bail out early.

They will bitch and moan but will they get involved in politics, will they even bother to cast their vote at the European Elections or the next General Election ?

A Very Personal View

A few thousand years before the birth of Christ, an Athenian said; “What we need most today is to want less.” That applies even more in today’s world. Don’t get me wrong, the flash cars, houses, clothes and so on, if they come your way due to your hard work, is fine, enjoy them but don’t let them be your goal, they are all ephemeral, they will pass, become dated and lose their attraction.

For true peace of mind or perhaps to phrase that better, a solid platform upon which to build your life, there is only one thing that you need and that is, the ability to pay your bills, it is as simple as that. This doesn’t mean things won’t fluctuate, they do because values can also fall as well as rise and the ‘cushion’ for that is living the “financial life” you have rather than the one you aspire to.

Broadly speaking, I have managed to do that over the past 20 years or so but obviously it isn’t easy and has had to be managed at different periods on sums ranging from as low as £50 pw through 150 and in the best times +£2,000 pw and yes, the latter was a lot more fun and a darn sight easier because I didn’t “spend up to that level” !

So What is this G20 About ?

Well actually, not a lot to do with the above as such in fact, there is only one thing that is connected and that is the matter of jobs, employment, individual economic opportunities, call it what you like because the historic problem with “armies of the unemployed” is they have too often become real Armies and wars have followed.

There is a theory that ultimately all wars are really based upon the conflict of commercial interests rather than any declared ‘high principles’. Such wars are fought over territorial disputes, access to natural resources, old grudges even and all will declare “God is on our side…” The pattern is as old as the hills, neither Poitiers or Agincourt were the first and won’t be the last either, when the population gets very difficult at home, take them abroad to fight the “Foreign Oppressor”.

People pour over history and the 1930s about how this or those mistakes led to the Depression going on longer than necessary but the truth is that where it all led was likely far more significant, The Second World War. Ultimately what these people are meeting and talking about is how to share out the pain whilst the global economy reshapes itself.

This will take a little time as old business models change and evolve from a high volume + low unit price world to lower volume + high quality + higher unit price model where “craft” will become desirable once again and many items through a modular design, upgradeable and repairable. The effect of this will be to increase employment whilst also reducing the constant waste of finite resources.

The Best Immediate Solution…

Complete the Doha Round on Free Trade, abolish the majority of farm subsidies and open up the western markets to food producers in places like Africa which will encourage their economies and reduce the number of economic refugees fleeing to Europe.

Yes it will cause a lot of pain in the farming industry both here, in the US and in the EU but these “domestic producers and consumers” need to grasp that “Less is More”, higher price but higher quality too, it is the only thing that fits in with a future that saves the planet, the economy and staves off a major war.

Will this happen ? Sadly I suspect not for one, President Sarkozy of France has back peddled on his vow to reform the French economy, he is hardly likely to have the courage to face the farmers… And there are many others like him right across the globe.