The Market Economy and its Connections
One Caveat: I am not an economist
I'd been thinking about the cooperative economy and where it fits into the overall economy. What follows is an explanation of the above graphic and sort of a commentary on this thing called the Human Experiment. At some point, I'll add arrows to show resource flows.
The Market:
The market is the sum total of human economic interactions. A large part of this is the Debt Market and that includes student, credit card, national, mortgage debts and global infrastructures such as CDO's and the Speculation Market.
Resources:
As you can see, the resources we have to work with are less than The Market. At present, we don't have enough resources to sustain the current economy. This is because the next bubble, The Competitive Market operates through consumption of those resources. This is a large part of the dynamics existing within the larger market and the "resource market". The Local Market is a subset of the Competitive Market and has been largely co-opted by the Competitive Market (big box stores, online globalization, etc). Still, in some local markets, creativity and clever financing has allowed the local economy to thrive in some places. In some areas, a large part of the Local Market is the Cooperative Market. Several questions assert themselves at this level:
Some Commentary:
Using as we do now, more resources than the Earth can supply sustainably, how might we proceed?
(1) Dystopia. A popular topic in literature. The crash can come in several forms and sometimes together. Pandemics, Nuclear Exchange, Mass Starvation, Non-Nuclear Global War. A whole range of processes that I think we should avoid. It would solve the resource use problem though.
(2) Science Fiction? Or Science Fact in the Making. Here's an article to think about? Some claim that within 20 years we will be on the asteroids mining and consuming asteroidal matter; mostly hydrogen and oxygen at first. This will keep the competitive market churning along.
(3) We could go retro. Can you imagine the world's population using 1950's level of resources? No more I-Phones. This would be a repair and Shareable economy with some amount of Steampunk and Repurposing. How many people are willing to give up on the gloss of their current technology and actually wear out their shoes?
(4) Turning Waste into Resource. Cradle to Cradle. The "Technosphere". We could go far with this but will it happen in a competitive model or a cooperative model?
More commentary later...
The Market:
The market is the sum total of human economic interactions. A large part of this is the Debt Market and that includes student, credit card, national, mortgage debts and global infrastructures such as CDO's and the Speculation Market.
Resources:
As you can see, the resources we have to work with are less than The Market. At present, we don't have enough resources to sustain the current economy. This is because the next bubble, The Competitive Market operates through consumption of those resources. This is a large part of the dynamics existing within the larger market and the "resource market". The Local Market is a subset of the Competitive Market and has been largely co-opted by the Competitive Market (big box stores, online globalization, etc). Still, in some local markets, creativity and clever financing has allowed the local economy to thrive in some places. In some areas, a large part of the Local Market is the Cooperative Market. Several questions assert themselves at this level:
- Is the cooperative market (C.M.) a subset of the competitive market?
- Is the C.M. a structure that will in time supersede the Competitive Market?
- Will the C.M. act like a seed or a cancer cell?
Some Commentary:
Using as we do now, more resources than the Earth can supply sustainably, how might we proceed?
- Do nothing and wait for the crash
- Seek resources off planet
- Find ways to use fewer resources
- Find ways to use resources more efficiently
(1) Dystopia. A popular topic in literature. The crash can come in several forms and sometimes together. Pandemics, Nuclear Exchange, Mass Starvation, Non-Nuclear Global War. A whole range of processes that I think we should avoid. It would solve the resource use problem though.
(2) Science Fiction? Or Science Fact in the Making. Here's an article to think about? Some claim that within 20 years we will be on the asteroids mining and consuming asteroidal matter; mostly hydrogen and oxygen at first. This will keep the competitive market churning along.
(3) We could go retro. Can you imagine the world's population using 1950's level of resources? No more I-Phones. This would be a repair and Shareable economy with some amount of Steampunk and Repurposing. How many people are willing to give up on the gloss of their current technology and actually wear out their shoes?
(4) Turning Waste into Resource. Cradle to Cradle. The "Technosphere". We could go far with this but will it happen in a competitive model or a cooperative model?
More commentary later...
Food Wars: The Global Battle for mouths, minds, and markets
A Summary
The Agenda Proposed
- Integrate Public Policy Across Sectors (Health, Environment, Trade, Transport, Regulation, Welfare, and Education)
- Integrate Between Levels of Governance (Global, Regional, National, Sub-National/Local)
- Reinternalize currently externalized costs so that consumer prices are real, fair, and operate properly for market efficiencies
- Ensure Primary Growers receive decent returns and living wages, in contrast to today's for high-profits and value-adding to be done off the land
- Take a long-term approach to reform of food-systems, and frame this to be delivered in incremental short- and medium-term actions
- Link eco-systems and population health
- reform and revitalize policy institutions to make them fit for purpose, and use the full range of policy mechanisms to delivery the above.
Paradigms
Output = Health
Pesticide Use Artificial Fertilizers Corporate and Nation-State Led Commodity Markets 1950's - 2010's Corporate Subsidies Biotechnology Genetic Modification Hi-Tech Approach Custom Diets Monsanto and Cargill Corporate Subsidies Links Population and Health Small-Holder Based Regional and Locally Based Bio-Regionalism |