Stage six

From Wikipedia.
Rostow's Stages of Economic Growth model is one of the major historical models of economic growth. It was published by American economist Walt Whitman Rostow in 1960. The model postulates that economic growth occurs in five basic stages, of varying length:

1. Traditional society
2. Transitional society
3. Take-off
4. Drive to technological maturity
5. High mass consumption

Although we are familiar with these five stages we seem to lack economic gurus who are prepared to elucidate the sixth – not publicly anyhow. This one has been with us forever but has always lacked what one might call textbook prominence in the field of economics. Current thinking suggests that the six stages of economic development are –

1. Traditional society
2. Transitional society
3. Take-off
4. Drive to technological maturity
5. High mass consumption
6. High mass fantasy

Although fantasy has been around for a considerable time, it is only in recent decades that its early promise has gained distinction as the final engine of economic growth. I am no economist and can barely begin to analyse the vast ramifications of fantasy economics, but surely there are a number of important fields would-be fantasy gurus might explore.

The European Union
As a fantasist construct the EU is at the forefront of fantasy economics. A bureaucratic structure built to insert bureaucratic hands into national pockets? A rather obvious product of fantasy economics I’d say. Hard to miss that one even though many do but skipping the obvious - that’s the nature of fantasy.

In which case one might assume that such as vast structure with no real purpose apart from weaving bureaucratic fantasies would attract academic interest. One might expect academia to swarm all over it, aiming to harvest new and academically lucrative areas of expertise. Yet we have not seen the overt development of fantasy economics based on the EU as its key paradigm.

This then gives us our first clue as to the nature of fantasy economics. Fantasist thought tends to be covert in that fantasy always masquerades as some kind of reality rather than pure fantasy. In this way, major fantasist paradigms are hidden from view simply because camouflage is a structural aspect of the fantasy.

Climate Change
An important and obvious aspect of the fantasy economy has been handed to us on a plate by climate change fantasists. This development in fantasist thinking is part of a wider drive by the UN to promote fantasy economics on a global scale. However, with climate change we have a similar problem to the EU - camouflage. Climate change is a good example of the phenomenon.

With climate change, fantasist thinking is presented in what now passes for science - such as a sciency death gas emerging scientifically from vehicle exhausts into an atmosphere of sciency drama. Yet although camouflage is essential to fantasy economics, it does present certain difficulties when it comes to academic analysis.

Democracy
One of the great triumphs of fantasist thinking has been the invention of parliamentary democracy. Here we see people elected to do something in government yet as soon as they are elected they go off and do something else. Although the phenomenon is well known its prominence as a product of fantasist thought is perhaps less familiar.

This rather neatly explains the Donald Trump experience. As a non-fantasist candidate Trump was not supposed to be elected as US President. His election represents a clear and unambiguous breakdown in fantasist thinking and the ramifications are still working themselves out.

It is most unlikely that Trump’s election signals the collapse of fantasy economics itself. It is far too well entrenched for that. Much more likely is that it is anomaly which will be analysed and corrected with some new variations on fantasist thought and methodology. Anything else would upset an enormous number of influential people who have bet their futures on fantasist thinking.

Units
A major weakness of fantasist thinking is the lack of units by which the amount of fantasy can be measured over time. One suggestion for a basic unit might be the Dork which would represent one person infected with one fantasy. Obviously a single person may be infected with more than one fantasy so a more useful unit for populations numbered in millions could be the megadork (MD) or even the gigadork (GD). Clearly an undeveloped area of research which may repay deeper investigation.

The end game
The future is impossible to foresee unless one is a committed fantasist, but an obvious possibility is that the sixth stage of economic development will eventually cycle back to what is really the first – hunter gatherer.

All good things –