by Charles Hugh Smith
Of Two Minds
It’s time to reprogram the conditions of the economy to serve the many rather than the few.
Star Trek’s Kobayashi Maru training exercise tests officer candidates’ response to a no-win scenario: any attempt to rescue the crippled ship’s crew results in the destruction of the candidate’s ship, while standing by and taking no action results in the loss of the Kobayashi Maru’s crew.
Captain Kirk famously defeated this no-win scenario by reprogramming the simulation to “change the conditions of the test.” This can be viewed as either cheating or as creative problem-solving via “thinking outside the box.”
The Kobayashi Maru is a very apt description of both the U.S. and the global economies, which are currently running a real-world no-win scenario called “Profits, Infinite Growth, Low Inflation, Full Employment.” (PIGLIFE). To win in the PIGLIFE scenario, you need permanent expansion of GDP, consumption, profits and employment and a permanently low limit on inflation. Anything less and you lose.