Lessons from Iceland

[Jemima]

I was fascinated with this blog post from The Resilient Family:

http://www.theresilientfamily.com/2011/11/another-option/

Iceland was the first country to go belly-up and it looks like they tossed the old system and started over. Not a bad idea for the USA, IMO.

Also please note the lack of coverage from the lamestream media. >:(

[Zoebird]

i admit, i am proud of the little nation. :)

[Yossarian]

Iceland has less people than Peoria IL. If you want some interesting insight on Iceland and the debt crisis you should read Boomerang by Michael Lewis.

[gimmethesimplelife]

This to me gives me some hope, amazing, people actually thinking outside of the box and striving for some sane solutions.....At least somewhere out there people are trying. Rob

[Gregg]

Interesting article, extremely slanted, but interesting. The line that grabbed my attention most was, "we are told that things will be much worse if we let the people who took the risks fail". I think that is a popular spin right now here in the US as well. Entrepreneurs and their backers are people who take risks and I know a lot of them. I don't know any that expect a bailout if they fail. As a general rule that group wants less government rather than more (in the form of a safety net or any other way). Too big, too smart, too pretty to fail is ridiculous and not at all an example of capitalism at work. I totally agree with the notion that anyone responsible for criminal activity or extreme breaches of fiduciary duty should have to answer for their actions, but we should also let companies, like children, suffer the consequences of their actions.

Comparing Iceland to the US is, to say the least, apples to oranges. The US economy is about 1,200 times the size of Iceland's. We could simply default on our debt and refuse to repay it, just like they did, but why on earth would we? Unlike Iceland the US has the resources to service our debt and even eliminate it if we wanted to. Our debt is roughly equivalent to the GDP. Theirs was approximately 6 times GDP! We can correct where we are headed, they were simply too far gone.

[bae]

I have been semi-seriously investigating moving to Iceland. The lure of geothermal power is strong, real estate prices are very reasonable, and immigration isn't all that hard. My wife is concerned the weather might be too warm compared to here though :-)

[Zoebird]

i agree gregg -- i wish they would correct the way that we are headed, it's just a question of how. i think there's a lot of disagreement on how.

a middle path that i see is certain restrictions on the banking/debt/what not industry PLUS a reduction of overall government spending. One thing that i think the republican party needs to abandon is their so called "national security" bent, or rather, their "supporting democracy abroad" process, or rather their "lets go to war whenever and call it "supporting democracy abroad" or "national security" process." This expends a HUGE amount of money in military (and has it's own, obvious, corruptions at SO many levels) and creates major budget issues. I suppose you can say i'm more of an isolationist.

Aside from that, if we ARE going to do bailouts, THEN i think we should be bailing out the common man who suffers (a la saudi arabia) rather than bailing out big businesses that should be planning better. I noticed, for example, that ONE automotive company did NOT accept any money from the auto-bail out, and you know why? Because apparently they ran their business more conservatively and with greater fiscal responsibility. Which, it turns out, is the way that *i* run my very tiny little profit making company.

I think the thing that frustrates me is that -- mid 1990s, we actually had a balanced budget and a surplus. So what the heck happened? I'm not going to blame any particular party, because that would just be splitting hairs at this point, but *seriously* it is entirely possible to get out of debt and run a balanced budget.

There's HUGE bloat in the government right now (at every level) including what various politicians, etc are paid. I think that there are government departments that are unnecessary (homeland security is perfectly managed between CIA and FBI, imo). And certain acts (patriot act) that need *serious* reconsideration.

I also am inspired by the way that Iceland handled things -- because ultimately it was theirs to handle. It goes to show that you CAN change the way things are going, or what may be "inevitable" and so on and so forth. It just goes to show that the people -- regardless of parties or what have you -- CAN make a difference and CAN speak up and so on.

Also, we did consider going to iceland as well. they're quickly moving beyond oil, as well -- using hydrogen instead. they have a lot to be proud of. :)

[HappyHiker]

Thanks so much for posting that link to the article. Fascinating and hopeful article--made me want to move to Iceland! But, too cold...if only we could have the true change that the citizens there are spearheading. It's so very different from the way we do things...a government by the people and for the people? What a novel idea...where have I heard of that concept before? A shame it's not in effect in the states...

[razz]

Neat article to read

[Jemima]

Iceland has less people than Peoria IL. If you want some interesting insight on Iceland and the debt crisis you should read Boomerang by Michael Lewis.

I sometimes wonder if that's the problem: our government was designed for a country of thirteen sparsely populated colonies and it just doesn't work on a much larger scale.

Thanks for the lead on Michael Lewis. I put Boomerang on my Wish List along with some of the others he wrote.

[Jemima]

I have been semi-seriously investigating moving to Iceland. The lure of geothermal power is strong, real estate prices are very reasonable, and immigration isn't all that hard. My wife is concerned the weather might be too warm compared to here though :-)

The thought of moving there crossed my mind, too. Could it be...Galt's Gulch?!?

Love your avatar!

[bae]

The thought of moving there crossed my mind, too. Could it be...Galt's Gulch?!?



I did at least go so far as to start looking into learning Icelandic as my next language. It doesn't seem all *that* far from Old English, so how hard could it be? Plus it would be great to be able to read the Íslendingasögur!

[Gregg]

Plus it would be great to be able to read the Íslendingasögur!

Being typical Nordmenn, we decided to wait for the movie.