The way the human brain works never ceases to amaze me, especially when I realise how tortuous are the paths of my own thoughts. Take this morning as an example.
From Tuesday, the rate at which Value Added Tax is levies has been increased from 17.5% to 20% and my daily fish wrap (and probably all the other rags as well) has been burbling on about the increase in the cost of living resulting from that, price rises obscured by that and other price rises that have nothing to do with that. This morning, the paper compared the increase since a year ago in the price of bread - 4.9% with zero rate VAT, oil - 15%, and VAT - 2.5%. But hold it! my brain said to me. VAT has not gone up by 2.5%. Yes, the rate at which it is charged has gone up from 17.5% to 20% - but that is actually an increase of more than 14%. I put that thought to the back of my mind and read on.
The article went on to relate how people in China are anxious to improve their standard of living and how the number of cars on the road is increasing faster in China than in any other country, how many more Chinese are able now to afford meat. My first thought was that it is good to know other, heretofore poorer people are able to enjoy a standard of living nearer mine. But that led me on to the thought that as more and more people across the world are able to enjoy a higher standard of living, so the world's resources will be consumed at an ever faster rate.
And not only the finite resources such as coal and oil. There will be increasing pressure to expand farmland, thereby devastating more wild areas (including the already dwindling rain forests). It won't be just farmland either: there will be more land needed for housing, more concrete poured on the land for roads etc etc.
Mankind will, I think, find this problem escalating at an ever-increasing rate as higher standards of living lead to lower mortality rates.
I hope that somebody will, someday, be clever enough to find the solution. I know it won't be me and it probably won't happen in my lifetime, but I hope for the sake of my grandchildren that a solution is found and the quicker the better.
It is amazing how it works. Upon reading your second paragraph, the first thing that popped into my mind was that I wouldn't have expected much more from a journalist re: the increase in VAT.
ReplyDeleteThen by the time I'd typed that out, my mind had moved on to other thoughts and I totally forgot whatever else I was going to say.
My point exactly.
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