The Blip Report for Tuesday, May 28th 2024

beauties that the earth has lost

Whenever I read stories about how the economy is doing, I never look at so-called profits or GDP, that are based on some algorithm written by a mis-employed former physics major, but I look at the change in people’s lives - for better or for worse.

I read a distressing story about the people in Baltimore - ‘6,000 deaths in 6 years, Baltimore becomes America's drug overdose city’, that shows how the economy has resulted in the deaths of people. But, I read a part that really scared me:

“At least 13 children under the age of 4 have died since 2020 after exposure to drugs. In a city where 62% of minorities live, black men in their 50s to 70s have the highest overdose death rate.”

that the highest death rate is among SENIORS !!! Is this how we treat our elderly people?

And then I found another distressing story - ‘50 is the age when many Californians experience homelessness for the first time. Why there’s a rise in homelessness amongst older Americans — and how it could happen to you’, that says that 48% of homeless people in California are over 50 years old!

And that this problem gets worse:

‘Nearly 1-in-6 50-plus adults currently working or looking for work reported that they weren’t hired for a job within the past two years because of their age’

and their so-called solution:

‘The best thing to do is to try and keep your current job, even beyond 65.’

Again, is this how we treat our elderly people?

And then I read another distressing story about the economy in Britain - ‘Abortions surge past record 250,000 in a single year, with experts blaming cost of living crisis forcing women to terminate pregnancies for purely financial reasons',

'The stories women have shared with us are heartbreaking. The costs of living crisis has placed immense strain on women and families, with too many having to choose between financial stability and having a baby.’

that one in every 50 women in England and Wales between the age of 15 to 44 is having a termination of their pregnancy, mostly because of the economy!

But then I found another distressing story about Japan - ‘How Japan is tackling ‘hikikomori’ – a syndrome that created a generation of recluses’, that

“nearly 1.5 million people in Japan were living as recluses – defined as living in isolation within their homes for at least six months”

and that

“one in 50 people aged 15 to 64 were hikikomori in a broad sense of the term”.

Now, that’s no way to treat our young people.

And I think that the problem with our economy seems to be that it’s a reflection of our sense of pessimism.

And that is why I like to read stories about the growing economy of China, about the zebrafish in space, or about inventing new solid-state batteries, or about archeological discoveries of 2000 year old Confucius manuscripts on bamboo slips, because it seems to be giving young people in China a sense of optimism.

And that optimism is something that all young people, and all old people, (and anyone in between too I guess) have a inalienable right to - and to have the quiet, unstressed confidence and self-assuredness to be able to just sit and wonder about good things, to let their fancy roam free:

… Sit thee there, and send abroad,

With a mind self-overaw'd,

Fancy, high-commission'd:—send her!

She has vassals to attend her:

She will bring, in spite of frost,

Beauties that the earth hath lost …

[from ‘Fancy’ by John Keats]

Have fun. Fancily.