Last Wednesday evening I was at a small(ish) gathering of about 50 owners of SME’s as news came through of the US election result.
It seemed everybody in the room was aghast.
Not only at the result, but at the size of it, and the continued failure of pollsters to even get close to calling it. This was despite the money and media time spent discussing, dissecting, and forecasting in the lead-up.
Now the question of the week is ‘how will it affect us?’
Speculate all you like, but the only thing we know for sure is that change is happening at an accelerating rate around us.
A quick look around the web at election results around the world over the past decade shows a consistent pattern: Voters are an unhappy and vindictive lot, increasingly demanding change that the established body politic fails to see and respond to. The result is that the global political status quo is heading for the round file. In its place is a fragmenting and polarised electorate providing fertile ground for dissention.
Look at what has happened in Australia over the last 20 years.
The Labor party currently holds the prime ministership with 33% of the primary vote at the last federal election. The coalition in its various forms scored 36%. Greens 12%. One nation 5%, United Australia 4% with 10% rats and mice. Since 2007 when Howard was dumped by the electorate, we have had Rudd, Gillard, Rudd, Abbott, Turnbull, Morrison, and Albanese sitting in the ejector chair. 7 changes over 17 years. Hardly a picture of stability, and who would be certain that in March next year we will not have another change.
We are at an inflection point.
Irrespective of who holds sway in the big house, climate change will march ahead, as will the changes wrought by technology. Conflict will increase in direct proportion to our inability to control it. The location of world manufacturing will continue to swing towards Asia as the compounding effects of Wrights law combined with technology turns the so called ‘western world’ into a manufacturing shadow of its former self. New materials emerging from AI driven labs will goose the rate of innovation in climate tech, zero carbon footprint, and the electrification of the world, while the social fabric is torn apart.
My generation, and the one that follows, which is largely now running the joint, are leaving a legacy for my grandchildren that history will judge poorly.
