Discuss: Building an Anti-Economy

I’m sorry, but is this a new idea? There’s still an old 1970’s era co-op floundering just outside my town, but it is a failure in its economic independence based on the known fact that such systems inherently implode due to “opportunists” looking to leech off the hard work of others with no meaningful input into the system, not to mention the fact that the criminal element will never be erradicated, even in such a holier-than-thou environment. Haven’t you seen the movie “The Village” yet? You can’t escape sin and evil—it’s inherent in human nature. Plus, haven’t the Amish already perfected this? (Again, see PA a year or so ago when a crazy man shot up an Amish schoolhouse.) They share labor and material goods. Heck, my mainstream church does the same, with 4 families helping my family build a new kitchen and bedroom in my house in exchange for other services and materials. Again, this is just positing old, flawed ideas with a new name. Congrats on your nomenclature originality! That’s all this article and “movement” offer…

Not ever in the course of human history have so few people been so greedy by having taken surreptitiously and then hoarded so much wealth that rightfully belonged to so many other people.

Clearly and evidently, the colossal global economy is an ever-expanding, artificially designed, manmade construction. For whom does the world’s human economy exist? To fulfill the wishes and insatiable desires of those with ill-gotten gains? Only to provide security for the greediest among us?

And, of all things, for many too many leaders of my not-so-great generation of elders to extoll the virtues of their unbridled avariciousness and applaud each other by passing out ‘awards’ to each other for the triumph of their greed, all of this is plainly outrageous.

In light of what has occurred in the both the financial system and the real economy in recent years, can someone please explain what the terms “fairness” and “equity” mean? Can anyone find examples of these phenomena in the distribution of wealth by the organizers and managers of the world’s human economy today?

Who knows, perhaps change is in the offing.

Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population, established 2001
http://sustainabilitysoutheast.org/index.php

Underwhelming…everything that is possible to do for ‘Nowtopia’ is because of the ‘progress’ that the industrial economy has made possible…including the Internet and this comment.

Thank you for casting some light into the Tunnel of Gloom.  Today, my newspaper’s headline said that the markets had crashed, declining more than 700 points.  Soon, I realized that the paper was from September 17, 2008, almost three weeks ago.  Those in fear will try to scare and stampede us all, if for no other reason than Misery Loves Company.  Of necessity, we all must find new ways to live our lives in the coming years.  The most profound change shall come through the raising of human consciousness.  Talk is cheap.  Each of us must lead by example.

Hi friends,
thanks to everyone for some thoughtful comments, and even the haters are welcome. Of course the fundies of the right are sure that everything we have was produced by the fetishized social mechanisms that they give real agency to, as opposed to the rest of us who are grasping for our OWN agency, our daily ability to make (or unmake, or remake) the world with our own activity. The guy who spewed on about Africa should read “King Leopold’s Ghost” as a starting point for a more honest appraisal of the role of business and “markets” in the “development” of Africa. I very much appreciate the time each person has taken to reflect on my short essay. It’s part of a longer book, Nowtopia, and I urge you to check out the full argument. Nearly every objection raised here has been addressed in the book (though I can assure the right-wingers they needn’t bother as they are unlikely to let go of their religious beliefs about markets and human nature), esp. the ones about the failures of small coops and collectives. I don’t harbor any fantasies that the activities I write about will necessarily survive, or that the specific efforts are the only path, or even the best path, to a more thorough-going transformation of daily life. I see them as examples of interesting “behaviors”, ways in which people’s activity prefigures a deeper challenge to the direction and organization of life as imposed by the logic of capital… My blog is a further place you can read my ongoing rumiantions on these topics, and more, and I look forward to meeting you all in person some day!
warm regards,
—Chris Carlsson

What we’re seeing hear is nothing short of amazing. We’re seeing company executives use the government as personal bank accounts and leave tax payers holding the tab. 2007 was a farce and now we’re paying for all the excess leverage.

Dear Mr. “Stock Trading”, Is that your real name? I know it is stressful out there in your profession, but let’s not turn this discussion into a mainstream, old energy event. BTW, if you are unwilling to use your real name, should we care about your opinion?  If you want to know who I am, go to http://jamesmcgillis.com... Nothing to hide.

The global economy is saved, now how about turning attention and financial resources to saving the Earth from a meltdown?

It looks as if the Wonder Boys on Wall Street, who caused the current disaster in the world’s financial system, are going to rescue the family of humanity from a meltdown of the global economy. 

Is it too much to ask some of these multi-billionaires to provide wealth to save the world from the global “meltdown” of Earth’s ice pack that is occurring in Greenland, Antarctica, the high mountain ranges from the Arctic Cordillera, to the Andes to the Himalayas?

Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
established 2001
http://sustainabilitysoutheast.org/index.php