{"id":7641,"date":"2015-04-28T05:30:49","date_gmt":"2015-04-28T10:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=7641"},"modified":"2015-04-28T05:30:49","modified_gmt":"2015-04-28T10:30:49","slug":"opinion-how-this-debt-addicted-world-could-go-the-way-of-the-mayans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=7641","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: How this debt-addicted world could go the way of the Mayans"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 id=\"article-headline\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.marketwatch.com\/story\/how-this-debt-addicted-world-could-go-the-way-of-the-mayans-2015-04-27\/print\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"article-template opinion\">Opinion:<\/span>\u00a0How this debt-addicted world could go the way of the Mayans<\/a><\/h3>\n<p>Paying a high price for too many elites and their \u2018frivolous cravings\u2019<\/p>\n<article id=\"article\" class=\"with-hero \">\n<figure class=\"hero-figure has-caption\">\n<div class=\"hero-image-wrap\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"article-image ZH\" src=\"http:\/\/ei.marketwatch.com\/\/Multimedia\/2015\/04\/24\/Photos\/ZH\/MW-DK442_mayan__20150424191053_ZH.jpg?uuid=34acac60-ead7-11e4-a0db-69339479e4cd\" alt=\"\" \/><cite>Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/article>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">Nowadays many countries\u2019 social and political structure relies on debt-driven consumption and increasing levels of entitlements.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Blame the policy makers. To drive economic growth, boost living standards, and manage growing inequality, policy makers have used debt and monetary tools to create economic activity. This has resulted in excessive borrowing and imbalances in global trade and capital.<\/p>\n<p>Governments played a part, too, allowing the buildup of social entitlements to win or maintain office. Private companies also encouraged the growth of employee benefits to avoid immediate pressure on wages as well as boost current earnings and share prices.<\/p>\n<p>But such expensive commitments were rarely fully funded.<\/p>\n<p>Rather than deal with the fundamental issues, policy makers substituted public spending, financed by government debt or central banks, to boost demand. Strong growth and higher inflation, they hoped or believed, would correct the problems.<\/p>\n<div class=\"inset video-inset\">\n<h6>Barron&#8217;s Buzz: Who&#8217;s optimistic now?<\/h6>\n<p><time>(2:57)<\/time>This week&#8217;s Barron&#8217;s features the result of a survey of money managers and a look at Amazon&#8217;s cloud services. Barron&#8217;s Jack Hough discusses. Photo: Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The current state of affairs echoes Archaeologist Arthur Demarest\u2019s observation about the Mayan civilization: \u201cSociety had evolved too many elites, all demanding exotic baubles\u2026all needed quetzal feathers, jade, obsidian, fine chert, and animal furs. Nobility is expensive, non-productive and parasitic, siphoning away too much of society\u2019s energy to satisfy its frivolous cravings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Opinion:\u00a0How this debt-addicted world could go the way of the Mayans Paying a high price for too many elites and their \u2018frivolous cravings\u2019 Getty Images Nowadays many countries\u2019 social and political structure relies on debt-driven consumption and increasing levels of entitlements. Blame the policy makers. To drive economic growth, boost living standards, and manage growing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7],"tags":[195,4993,2384,4994,4992,1266],"class_list":["post-7641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-survival-2","tag-debt","tag-debt-driven-consumption","tag-elite","tag-entitlements","tag-mayan","tag-social-collapse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7641"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7642,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7641\/revisions\/7642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}