Economics = Mutual Provision
Human beings are successful because we can refine our ability to do a few things and then trade with others, who have refined other skills, making it possible for us to benefit from far more talent than we could ever acquire as individuals.
We have come a long way from the clans and tribes within which our ancestors provided for each other. Mutual provision today includes a majority of the planet's 6.8 thousand million people.
Because of the enormous size of the present system the global economy has become increasingly abstract and removed from its impacts on local communities, the land and other life forms. Underlying circumstances have changed fundamentally; human activity has gone from inconsequential to being a major disrupter of community cohesion, natural resources and ecological life supporting systems.
Without an equally fundamental change in our economic structure we are in danger of overshooting planetary limits and collapsing.
"Life, Money & Illusion" looks at:
Articles on related matters:
- Economic Concern- Problems caused by mistaken goals.
- Economics is 3/5ths of Ecology - an easy way to remember the needed change.
- The Invisible Hand- Justification for present system.
- Supply and Demand - The elegence of Markets and some problems.
- The Genuine Progress Indicator- A better way to measure long-term well-being.
Reduce, Reuse, Recession - A warning from the economic cycle.
Making Markets Work for Sustainability - a look at policy options drawn from The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken and For the Common Good by Herman Daly and John Cobb.
How Economic Growth has Enriched the Few, Impoverished the Many and Endangered the Planet. - a précis of Richard Douthwaite's book The Growth Illusion.
The End of Shorter Hours - When we chose consumerism instead of increasing leisure.