The Great Reset? (Part 2)
(Click here to read part 1)
Absolutely. Will it be led by political leaders? Not likely.
One thing we have learned from politicians is that they are incapable of managing money at any level of government. In fact, they are the biggest wasters of money on the planet and should not be trusted with a dollar. It's the entrepreneurs that will lead the recovery. Business leaders make the money, politicians control the money.
There is a theory called the Conflict theory, which concludes that within a conflict there are two opposing forces. On the one side is the thesis and on the other side is the antithesis. As both collide the ending result will be a synthesis. Rarely does one side win. In a sense, there is a compromise.
Progress in society is the constant refining of this process. A recent example of this is the war on Oil and Gas over the past decade. On the one side, there is the Energy industry and the other side is the Green environmentalist. For a while, both will hold strong opposing views, and both will dig in their heels, but eventually, each side will realize they are not going to win and will negotiate on their position and we will end up with some kind of a compromise. The thesis and the antithesis at work. What will emerge is a compromise and a new energy sector that is more green, responsible, and possibly more equitable for everyone. That is yet to be seen.
This process was taking place before COVID and is now being accelerated. There's no stopping it. In fact, it has always been happening to some degree. The world's economies have been hamstrung by the pandemic and every country is looking for ways to rebuild. My personal opinion is that there will be a new economy that will emerge and it will be some kind of a compromise. We are heading for a great time of prosperity as this synthesis of ideas collides.
I think a better term may be The Great Collision.
There are major trends that are emerging and will continue to emerge. Technology: Everything is experiencing a shift in becoming more advanced and efficient. How we communicate. How we eat, what we eat, how we shop, how we go to the doctor, how we learn, how we work, the cars we drive and the list goes on and on. Clean energy: Alberta is on the verge of being a world leader and provider of clean energy. The implications of 5G are too profound to even describe. Big data. This is one of the biggest areas of growth within the technology field.
An Example of Big Data:
Both Nancy I have the Tim Hortons App. We use it to order our coffee and collect the points to get free coffee. Every Monday morning they give us a unique challenge where if we make a certain number of purchases we will earn bonus points. For example, if we make 3 purchases of $3.00 or more after 11 am we'll earn 60 points. They can now track our behaviors and target the right kind of ads to encourage us to buy more. We each get different challenges and offers every week, based on our activities of the previous week. This is Big Data in play.
We are constantly being analyzed and data is being collected from everything we do. Artificial intelligence, AI, is becoming so advanced that Amazon can predict what you are going to buy before you buy it, and they will have it shipped to the nearest fulfillment center before you have even made the purchase.
We are heading into one of the most interesting periods of history unfolding before our very eyes, which leads me to my last point.
Conspiracy theories will always abound.
Some are baseless and some have merit. Anyone trying to build an audience today has to tap into a world view and exploit it. They can easily and quickly gather information to support their worldview and just as easily and quickly spread it across the internet and build an audience of people who share that worldview.
If you build an audience you can monetize it and sell them anything and everything. Costco has been doing this for 3 decades and amazon has the same model. We pay Costco a membership fee to be marketed to with 1000's of products. Amazon prime is the same. ($8/month for free shipping, music, and movies). Wheel of Fortune has a newsletter sign up at the end of the show. Why in the world would anyone need to be on the Wheel's newsletter? I don't know. Why are they doing it? So that they can create loyalty and get permission to sell you stuff.
Every conspiracy theory is someone's attempt to gather and build an audience. You will have a difficult time building an audience with a centrist perspective. That's why we have so many political parties - each represents a segment of society and a worldview.
I am not going to explore the merits of every theory; it would take forever.
Don't live in fear.
Fear paralyzes us. We become frozen and unable to respond. When we do respond, it is usually the wrong action, because we are making a fear-based decision.
The unknown provides the worse kind of fear. Uncertainty breeds fear.
A lack of understanding produces fear.
The best way to combat fear is to get informed. The best way to get informed is to develop critical thinking skills. the best way to think critically is to get perspectives from more than one side or angle. Anything is possible, but what is the probable outcome? Based on a set of circumstances, what is the likely outcome?
Fact-checking has become a new catchphrase lately. For many years now, perception is reality. The truth or facts do not matter - it's perception - it's what people perceive to be the truth. The problem is that many people will make conclusions based on headlines or a 60-second news story. You'll end up living in an Echo-chamber, which is a virtual reality social media realm where you read and feed on more of what you consume. It is based on a confirmation bias - you will get more of what confirms your preconceived bias, or world view.
The COVID pandemic will have a significant impact on the entire globe. No doubt about it - the world will be restructured because of the economic, social, political, and health implications. There was a change taking place before this happened and now the change has been accelerated.
We can only live our lives and make decisions based on the information that we have available to us at this moment. As we get new information we can make adjustments. I don't recommend any type of investment changes due to the Great Reset forum. I would wait to see what comes out of it and what the reaction is by political leaders from around the world. Personally, I live my life with an element of skepticism about everything and want to gather as much information as possible before making conclusions.
My training as a financial planner is to gather all of the information about a client's finances, goals, and values. I then do quantitative and qualitative analysis. With this information, I can then come up with possible solutions and options and conclude with my recommendations. I would encourage you to do the same in your life as you analyze the events of our time.
The world isn't coming to an end, yet. However, this may very well be the most interesting and exciting days of our lives.
All the best,
Willis J Langford BA, MA, CFP
