How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Economic Meltdown: Part II, The Future

Here is a run-down at some potential long-term changes that, if they come to fruition, could mean real hope for the future. And we have the economic crisis iceberg to thank, at least in part, for making them possible.

On the Economic Front
1.) Milton Friedman and his fanatical free-market disciples have gotten the comeuppance they have long deserved. Say goodbye to unregulated derivatives, unregulated hedge-funds, naked short selling, golden parachutes, priceless office trashcans, and off-shore corporate tax-havens; say hello to a boring banking industry that poses no systemic risk to the economy, consumer protection for usurious credit card practices, and the closing of corporate tax loopholes.
2.) When you say “hummer“ I no longer think of the four wheel vehicle…! Say goodbye to SUV dominated roads, Enron dictated energy policy, and a non-viable American car industry; say hello to low-emission vehicles, cap-and-trade, wind and solar energy, and all things green.
3.) Get rich quick is out. Good old-fashioned hard work is in. Our future will not include nearly so many condo-flippers, day-traders, internet/house/credit bubbles, credit-default swaps, or 100k first-year-out-of-college jobs.

On the International Front
1.) Economic dire straits have already transformed, and will continue to further transform, our foreign policy for the better. Moral crusades are so 20th century. We no longer have the luxury to contemplate what we might LIKE to do (overthrow every tin-pot dictator in the world, bomb Iran into submission, ignore the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, push around Russia and China, turn Afghanistan into a flowering democracy, etc.). We are now forced to think only about what we MUST do, and what we CAN do.
2.) The need for frugality in government will eventually mean a much reduced military budget, thereby further eroding the militaristic culture at home and adventuresome foreign policy abroad.

On the Domestic Front
1.) OBAMA, baby! The election of Obama, which was greatly assisted by the economic meltdown in the middle of the election home-stretch, means so much for the future it is hard to count the ways. I’ll let you make your own list.
2.) The idea that “America is in decline,” which was evident well before Bush’s re-election in 2004 but could not be acknowledged unless you wanted to be labeled as “unpatriotic,” is now one of the dominant narratives of our time. This (albeit belated) recognition that America will not always be the only cock of the roost will concentrate our collective minds on how to prevent America’s relative decline from turning into an absolute decline—think, “the decline and fall of the American experiment.” This means we will give serious thought to the paltry state of education in this country, we may have greater recognition that we need sensible immigration reform (being a “nation of immigrants” has always been a great strength of America since new arrivals often bring renewed cultural and economic vitality to a community), and we will have a more humble and sensible foreign policy, discussed above.
3.) In the arts, poverty breads creativity, as this NYTimes article highlights.

Thanks to this economic crisis, America will be a place with smaller cars, smaller McMansions, a smaller financial industry, a smaller military, and full of people with smaller egos who are less militaristic. Yes, we all have smaller bank accounts. And that sucks. But at least we will be getting something for our money: a new and improved direction for the country.