Thursday, August 18, 2016

David Korten — A Living Earth Economy

A viable human future requires a radical change in the way we live. Currently, we humans organize to make our living as if we were money seeking robots inhabiting a dead rock. The result is a dramatic and growing imbalance in our relationship to the rest of nature and to each other that drives toward social and environmental collapse.
The increasingly dire consequences stir a human reawaking to the truth of our ancestors: We are living beings born of and nurtured by a living Earth. And that changes everything.
Effective action toward a living Earth economy depends on our recognition that the imbalance is:
1. Extreme, growing, and a threat to human species viability: Globally, we humans consume at a rate 1.6 times what living Earth can sustain and the combined financial assets of the world’s 62 richest people equal those of the poorest half of humanity— 3.7 billion people. 
2. The consequence of an economic system organized and managed to maximize financial returns to financial assets. The greater the financial return, the greater the concentration of financial power, leading to political corruption leading to rules that favor owners over workers and limit environmental protection. The problem is systemic.
Public policies designed to accelerate GDP will likely exacerbate the imbalance unless they advance an equitable distribution of ownership participation and the embrace of social norms supporting small families and modest lifestyles.
Far from being a model for the world, as many of us once thought, the United States exemplifies the problem. If each of Earth’s 7 billion people consumed at the rate of the average American, it would require four Earth’s to sustain them.…
Living Economics Forum
A Living Earth Economy
David Korten


Andrew Anderson said...

Public policies designed to accelerate GDP will likely exacerbate the imbalance unless they advance an equitable distribution of ownership participation [bold added]

Thus the need to eliminate government subsidies for private credit creation since these allow those with equity to avoid sharing it but instead use that equity for the basis for loans of what is, in essence, the legally stolen purchasing power and investment opportunity of the less and non so-called credit-worthy.

Shorter: There's very sound reasons for "Thou shall not steal."

Matt Franko said...

What about " Thou shalt stone sodomites" ? How about that one?

Matt Franko said...

"Thou shalt not eat shrimp"?

Andrew Anderson said...

From the New Testament:

Revelation 9:21
and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts. [bold added]

Ryan Harris said...

Why shouldn't we waste and pollute?
Why don't we murder?
Why should we be equal?

It's not religion or law that makes it right or wrong, but right or wrong that makes the religion and laws. So why should we care? We all agree and feel that we should, preserve life, minimize pollution and promote equality as much as possible, but where does it come from. Is it irrational human emotion? Self preservation, a social survival construct. You can't logically say it is an absolute truth.

I can grow used to cutting off a chickens head, yanking a head of lettuce from the ground in a violent act, mashing up a viable potato or eating an almond that could become a tree. Life is precious until we get hungry, so murder is okay generally and waste a necessity and beings are never equal when my stomach is churning. So where does it come from.

Roger Erickson said...

"Where does it come from?"

One summary idea is that it comes from recombination.

And various recombinant proposals don't impress anyone unless they're thinking ahead. WAY ahead.

So far, that seems consistent with all of history.

Currently, it seems only to be a question of integrity, & honesty. That and flat out ignorance in the face of overwhelming educational capabilities.

A human mind is a terrible thing to waste? Yet that doesn't stop us. Not in the least.

Maybe it's periodically about letting us teach ourselves tough lessons.

As in, enough rope to hang ourselves?

Matt Franko said...

Nobody is effectively challenging the status quo Roger....

There may some people out there who think they are challenging the status quo but they are not challenging it effectively.... Their efforts are to no effect....

Calls for a complete review of all tactics..

Matt Franko said...

"So where does it come from."

Well Paul taught it would come via grace (unmerited favor) while AA and his ilk think you would just read an old defunct Hebrew scripture and try your best to follow the rulebook outlined within via free will .... It's a 2,000 year old dilemma....