Value for money

'Value for money' is the title of this note for a good reason Russia's Nikolai Valuev has just defeated American Evander Holyfield in a match for the world heavyweight or WBA boxing title.

What do you expect, the man is 7 foot tall and has the reach of a kangaroo's back feet (12 cm longer than his opponent,) One is 46 the other 35, I will let you guess which is which.

This is what the world is coming to, the Romans saw it when their empire was ending. They only had bread and circuses for the masses. We have more ambitious fare.

In Australia our Prime Minister is making announcements about billions of dollars being spent on the homeless, he has also guaranteed banking funds and no doubt we will soon see some more bread and circuses type material to help us get through the economic crisis that we are told by everyone else is already well and truly upon us.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, spend spend spend, put a few dollars [or better still one or more credit cards] in your pocket go out and buy all those things you can never wanted never needed, but just had to have.

I'm sure the economy will recover as a result of all this spending that we are doing in the shops right now. That's right folks we can welcome in 2009 knowing that everything is right with the world because Kevin has said so. Well not in so many words, in fact to be brutally honest he has started to make some statements about the reality of life, that perhaps the recession is going to reach Australia that perhaps we are losing the battle because we are not cushioned from the effects of the overseas debacle that has affected all of the first world nations [or words to this effect] to the point where governments are spending billions of dollars of their citizens' money to try and stop the recession from happening and finding out far too late that the recession is well and truly here and the money has gone.

I have no idea where governments find all the money that they're throwing at this fiscal crisis. In Australia maybe there is some truth to the claim that we are only spending the money that resides in our surplus. I'm not sure where other nations are finding their money. In an environment where the Americans have always said that free trade and lack of controls should be the way of the future, because it is the way of the free and democratic ways that are supported by all that is holy in the United States, we have this tragedy where the very lack of controls that were being encouraged seem to have resulted in the mess we now face. Not only has it affected the United States, but it has affected all those countries that put their faith in the United States as a global leader or to be more frank, those that want to participate in the riches that seemed to be flowing towards that country.

It seems to me that from 2009 onwards there will be greater controls over finances, there will be greater controls over banks, there will be greater controls on businesses unless those countries that are currently considered to be first world countries wish to slip back to being third or even fourth world nations.

There is no way of knowing whether we will pull out of this recession, and if we do what the world will look like when we have done so. I'm unlikely to see the end of this process which is why I asked the question why greed has been allowed to triumph, yet again.

In the past we have seen that when people are confronted with opportunities to make themselves rich without any fear of consequences about how they make themselves rich, then some form of disaster usually follows. We have seen this time and time again over the centuries. The economies may have been different the countries certainly were, the systems of government certainly were.

What was really different was that in the Roman Empire and the Greek empire there were slaves. We don't have slaves nor am I suggesting that we should, however what a difference that would make just think of the thousands of people who would need to be supported by the rich in each country of the world. It this the sort of world that we want to happen again? I hope not.

I am not an economist nor am I bright enough to figure out the way ahead I'm just one of those chumps who followed the logic that said if I work hard and I save my money and I spend only on those things that I need then I will be able to have enough at the end of my working life to support me in retirement until I am dead, perhaps there may also be a little left over for other members of my family so that their burden can be eased.

As it happens, I'm not sure what will happen to me and I am certainly not sure what will happen to all my readers, but I know that most people are having a very very good Christmas blowout because this might be the last they see of a "rich" life for a long time.