Why PIGS won't fly

A popular acronym used in publications like the 'The Economist' and 'Harvard Business Review', granting some form of financial authenticity - it refers to the economies of Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain. Widely considered to be derogatory since as true as it is, no Communist likes to be called 'Red commie' and no Eastern European wants to be known as 'Polack'. But why is it that the West is involuntarily falling to its demise and Asia isn't capitalizing on it?

The West has had its 15 decades of fame, the British Empire colonized a few hundred states, the US was able to coax most of South America and miscellaneous Far East nations into doing its bidding and generally the imperialists of the past and present generation have had their fun in the sun, but that's being slowly overshadowed by the rise of Asian Economies. 'Chindia' is set to become the next global superpower by 2020 if only they had more cooperative governments and a slightly more ideal bureaucratic situation. The unemployment rate in Greece is ~50% (official figures may say around 28 but we know the truth).  The average age of Europe is increasing, mortality rate is falling (who knew it could be a downside), lifespans are disproportionately increasing and as a result the economies of former superpowers and G-8/EU nations are falling massively in productivity. As Asia's youth becomes more educated and people are beginning (albeit slowly) to realize their true potential, it's no wonder that international schools in Thailand and Malaysia are no longer craving Caucasian teachers to educate their youth about international politics and business.

The only problem is, the world as a whole is awful at globalizing effectively. If the entire world had the youth and workforce of Asia and the political systems of a successful Western nation (an amalgamation of any and all successes would be best since no single nation is an ideal example as of now) , the global industry would be at its productive peak, with literally no room to improve. But alas, what nations focus on is how impressive they look in comparison to other (competitive) nations. How Pakistan has more black money than India in Swiss banks and how the Cayman Islands is releasing confidential bank information to the IRS in order to support their deeply rooted causes. And to fund Obamacare of course.

Another problem is that, with the severe inefficiency of many Asian governments (with most leaders being products of top western universities , imagine that), we are still trying to match the west in terms of Human Development Indexes and GDP's instead of focusing on how we can concentrate the youth into being intellectual powerhouses that overshadow their western counterparts in any and all aspects. The quintessential example of what is falling in the west is Harvard University's course on Economics and Philosophy, which is taught by a Bengali Nobel Prize Laureate - Amartya Sen. If that doesn't represent the fall of the Allied Powers then i don't know what does.

- Introducing Mec, our new contributor.