Right now, we are still in the early days of the petrol crisis and the financial crisis that will surely follow. No one can be sure what lies ahead. The one sure thing is that we can't rely on the old ways to get us out of the mess.
Also, we can't rely on one thing that will solve all our challenges, be it a technology, a person or some other "answer". In particular, relying on a government, whether of the right or the left, will simply magnify at least some of the mess.
So what is the answer? Us - the people. There are already creative people making a difference in so many ways to so many areas. Some years ago, I changed my outlook on life, from "realistic" to positive. As a retired accountant, it has been amazing to me just how many solutions I have noticed to so many business issues.
Not every idea is successful, but success often comes after many failures.
One of the biggest obstacles we face is the success of people who've gone before. In so many areas, people are successful early on, and their venture grows. So often, founders lose control of their ideas, and the result is the original venture loses sight of its vision. One example is the food industry, where today, worldwide, a relatively small number of businesses control most of the world's supply. This has been seen locally by recent closures of parts of Watties and McCains.
The same applies to the oil industry, although it has long been dominated by the seven sisters. Today, we have various alternatives, but again, none of these is "the answer". The answer is surely moving to a better mix. Electric cars have become all the rage, but it surely needs to be recognised that on their own, EV's are not the future. Just today, I read a brief comment by an insider that many of the cheap Chinese imports they repair, often only a year or two old, are falling to bits within a year or two of the repair.
How should we support our Kiwi businesses at this stage? Are subsidies inevitably the bad thing we're told (especially by ACT)?
I don't know, and I'm not clever enough to even be aware of some of the solutions. But neither are our politicians (from both sides). If we want solutions that worked in the past, perhaps politicians can deliver. But if we want different solutions for a different future, surely we need different ideas?
Of course it's a massive job, but there has to be a way forward that does not continue widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots.