West coming down while east is going up

[harrydevries]

There is a development going on in the world that is at least "in my view" very interesting and maybe even weird.
That is the third world in general and the developing world (second world) is growing tremendously in welfare and economy, The middle class is growing exponentially and businesses are booming. Wages are also tremendously on the rise in countries such as Indonesia and other Asian countries as well as in most of South America.

Africa is following suit also.

On the other hand there is the West. The USA is suffering and limping from crisis or recession to recession. The Government debt is unsustainable and also the private debt. The same goes for the countries in Europa (especially the EU). Canada is doing really bad. The only western country that seems to still be doing relatively ok is Australia. In the same time the middle classes in the west get a tremendous beating and many become poor.

Is this a natural phenomena or is something else and very sinister going on???

Most people will say it is a natural thing, that it is just happening and there is nothing to be done about it.
I don't know however, would central banking and the ability to print money out of nothing have something to do with it??
Could there be an ultra rich small group of people who control central banking worldwide (because it is a fact that most central banks in the world are owned by one and one single corporation) who are so powerfull that they can influence complete economic processes into the direction they want, and could they have decided that it is time for the west to come down and for the rest of the world to go up??

Or is this just a conspiracy theory?

 

[mat]

Maybe something to do with a man in the East working for $3 a day and a man in the West demanding $100.
Or How about a man in the East doesn't work and gets nothing a week and a man in the West doesn't work and gets $100s in welfare.
Or even the money spent on infastructure, roads ,rubbish collection, government quangos, national health etc.
The truth is the West can not complete with the East, simple economics.

 

[Markit]

"Or is this just a conspiracy theory?"

Yes, I think it is - it would be in some way comforting to think that someone wiser and more farseeing was pulling the strings - regardless of where the strings go.

Fact is that having worked for and with some of the companies/organizations that are usually considered to be pulling those strings I gotta say that it's all chaos. If there ever was a "master plan" it died the day after that meeting was over - killed by "events, dear boy, events" the thing Harold Macmillan is reputed to have feared the most.

 

[Lovegrove]

Glad to hear everyone thinks Australia is doing OK - unscathed! Try living there? The cost of living is through the roof & getting worse by the day, talk to any "joe average", not many outright home owners, and probably never will be, electricity, council rates, petrol, groceries etc., etc., is enough to make the "lucky" country, anything but that......whilst I love my home country, too rich for me!

 

[hinakos]

Im confused as to why OP thinks the east is on the rise.

Sure the west is in trouble, but the east isnt any better.

Population is on the rise in the east, thats about it.

Corruption in Indonesia and several other of the Asian countries i've worked in over the last 10 years is at an all time high.

Its true more money is being spent in the east than previously....but most of that is from big multinationals cashing in on cheap labour and lax safety / environmental standards compared with the west.
Just because it seems that more money is being spent in the east, and more cash being injected - that doesnt mean the east is on the rise.
That money goes to a very select few.

Singapore is about the only nation in the east thats really on the rise, and thats due to a combination of a strong engineering sector assisted by cheap bangladeshi / indian labour and solid financial sector.

China is a basket case.

 

[gilbert de jong]

singapore without money/investors from abroad would be nothing...
what about India and china ?

 

[ferdie]

I think the real problem is that the west has put too much emphasis on the financial and service industry, which only makes the prices goes sky high.

In the old days if you wanted to be rich you have to produce, and a lot of Western countries only grows by consumption and the unemployment is rising
More people working in the service industry means everything is getting expensive because the chain is longer and the salary is higher, based on that alone all the moguls will start moving their production to the east.
One quick question : How much big factory was shutdown for the past 10 years in your area? How much new ones open?
That alone is a bad sign of economy declining in a country.

China is growing and also India, some are saying they profit on cheap labor, but that is wrong.
Other than cheap labor, the raw materials are much closer if shipped there than Europe or USA and the government in the east are easier to "handle" because everything can be fixed with a sum of money.
And all of that haven't counts the big population as a potential market

 

[hawtdawg]

The worldwide economic situation continues to be uncertain, and not only in the West. There is simply too much instability which is compounded by shortsightedness by the powerful central banks around the world. The OP states that South America and Africa are "following suit" in his analysis of 3rd world and developing economies, but this is simply too broad a statement. Those two continents are composed of a myriad of different countries facing individual economic, political, social, and cultural crises whose resolutions remain unclear. One thing is clear, though: none of this will ever stay static, meaning the future is unpredictable.

 

[davita]

Meanwhile, according to Oxfam, 85 people own the top half of the world's assets while 50% of the world own the rest. Oxfam: Richest 1% own nearly half of world's wealth

I'm trying to be Numero 86 but seem to be languishing in the 4 billion 800 million group.

edit. Oooops! apparently there are now 7 billion people in the world...that's different from last time I looked...Heh! don't blame me it's not my fault...but it does look like I'm down the ladder a bit...maybe in the top 6.500000000000000000....help! does anyone remember the Pi constant, I recall 3.142?

sorry matsaleh...I edited after you gave me 'like'.