The Economic Problem
Societies around the world are being disassembled to make countries
'competitive' in the eyes of international money lenders. Their approval
is considered necessary to continue growing. We feel problems would be more
efficiently solved if decisions were based on sustainability (see below)
rather than the perpetual expansion of economic activity.
Ignoring social and environmental well-being is dangerous!
The depreciation of education, health care, environmental protection
and other services diminish the well-being and resilience of human communities.
Fear of job loss is destabilizing and unemployment leads to a wide range
of social ills.
Spending cuts result from a mistaken
focus on expanding GDP:
The GDP accounting system is
biased and misguided and is the source of many problems.
Policies based on sustainability
will provide for human need more effectively than those presently serving
the expansion of GDP.
Two points support this view.
A) The present
system of accounts is flawed in two serious ways:
1) What it counts.
2) What it does not count.
B) Following advice based on the flawed accounts results
in smaller revenues than needed to maintain society.
1) Corporations pay less
tax than they used to.
2) The 'new economy' of financial trading
is largely un-taxed.
3) Governments pays interest to private banks when it could
pay interest to itself through the national banks.
Living within our means
While asserting that our mistaken accounting system is responsible for
hard times in the midst of abundance, we have to acknowledge one premise
of the cut-back mentality. We do have to live within our means. Our
means, however, are the constraints of sustainability
not the figures calculated using the heavily biased system of national accounts.
Reframing the notion of 'our means' in this way would be a public relations
victory on the side of survival.
Examples of policy measures that can or are
being taken to advance sustainability:
Waste taxes in Europe.
Making Markets Work for Sustainability: a
review measures to make the best price reflect the most sustainable choice.
Deduct environmentally sustainable living
expenses from taxable income.
(For an excelent look at problems within the financial system, go to the Web
Site for COMER the Committee
on Monetary and Economic Reform.)