BRICS is like that episode of Friends where it’s revealed that Phoebe moved out of Monica’s apartment weeks ago while secretly moving one piece of furniture at a time yet, self-absorbed and controlling Monica has absolutely no clue. Now, imagine that Phoebe isn’t only moving out, she’s dumping the U.S. dollar, moving in with new friends and losing Monica’s phone number. The Friends theme song says it best -“So no one told you life was gonna be this way…”. In the past the U.S. may have used lethal coups and assassinations to punish smaller countries looking to free themselves from the U.S. dollar but, BRICS is already far too big to coup or asassinate away. It just left Monica’s and already claims influence over 27% of the global economy (31.38 trillion USD).
Phoebe is made up of China, Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa and she’ll soon be joined by applicants Iran and Argentina. In the wings: Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Senegal, Uzbekistan, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Malaysia and Thailand have all expressed a desire to join her. And who can blame them? She’s beautiful, single and “very bendy”. Even without Iran and Argentina the IMF says Phoebe already represents 41% of the world’s population. That’s a huge chunk of the population but, that kind of fecundity is to be expected from a surrogate who birthed triplets for her weird brother Frank. Think 41% of humans isn’t much influence? The Roman Empire at its peak governed 21%. The Umayyad Caliphate charmed 30%. The Qing Dynasty only counted 35%. So yes, BRICS is already doing something no single human influence block has ever done, and it’s growing. They set up the NDB as an alternative to the IMF. They’re stress testing the Yuan and MIR payment system. They’re even dreaming of “new” Olympics. Why is your media not talking about BRICS?
In contrast, Monica’s G7 countries of Canada, France, Germany, UK, USA, Japan and Italy represent 17% of the world population and 41% of its global economy (47.82 trillion USD). Yeah, pretty gross parallel, right? Monica only represents 17% of the population yet she’s spending trillions on NATO proxy wars and ‘Hootie & the Blowfish’ tickets. Meanwhile her dad gives her a free Porsche for her birthday and she’s illegally subletting her grandma’s rent-controlled NY loft with Rachel! Seriously gross, like 41% combined world GDP gross vs. 27% for Phoebe. That sounds impressive until you realize wars, cancer sufferers and oil spills drive up GDP the fastest. So Monica has more money than Phoebe but her nominal share of world GDP represents her active spending not her quality of life. Monica spends a ton on things she doesn’t necessarily need (like those boots that made her feet bleed) and unlike fertile Phoebe, Monica and Chandler can’t even conceive. They’re forced to adopt. This certainly does not help Monica’s growing labour crisis.
Remember that episode of Friends where Joey forms a protest group with Phoebe and Rachel? He complains that, as working class friends, they can’t keep up with Monica, Ross and Chandler’s spending. BRICS vs. G7 is a lot like that. Much like Joey’s big Italian family, BRICS represents nations with the largest working class populations. They’re ethnically diverse and driven by farming, mining, service and manufacturing. Their energy and commodity-driven economies make everything the world needs. The G7 countries represent white Western cultures with billionaire wealth classes. Their dwindling populations enjoy privilege and white collar jobs yet, produce almost nothing. They’ve outsourced much of their manufacturing and for years they’ve failed their farmers. Monica now turns cheap food grown by BRICS into expensive gourmet dishes. Her G7 Friends make and spend more money but, are they headed into a bright and prosperous space aged future, or a humiliating and water-poor earth surface future?
Space is the final Friends episode in which Phoebe BRICS and G7 Monica still talk to each other. It’s terse and it has to be translated into English but, they do at times talk. Assuming that BRICS keeps growing and refining her legal, military and trade resolutions, what does Phoebe do with space? Well, you may want to immigrate to Russia or China now, if you wish to participate in a fully developed space program. Phoebe will dominate space. The bad news is, much like Joey with a plate of fries, she’s not in the mood to share. Yeah, she’s still bitter about Friends stuff. Phoebe may even claim mining rights to the entire solar system. What about SpaceX? Get real. As soon as Elon Musk gets fed up with the U.S. he will depart for greener pastures. Everyone knows that Elon returns to South Africa before building the first deep exodus ships. (He does this in every universe where he doesn’t develop a serious heroin problem.) BRICS is the future of space and any country that wishes to exit earth will need its blessing.
