Friday, October 8, 2010

'Dramatically Poisonous Economy" Heading to 'Catastrophic' Collapse, Says Acclaimed Economist

Acclaimed economist Manfred Max-Neef, author of the award-winning book From the Outside Looking in: Experiences in 'Barefoot Economics' recently appeared in a must-see interview on Democracy Now where he says a second, more catastrophic crisis is unavoidable because our economic model is "dramatically poisonous."  Max-Neef explains that "Greed is the dominant value today in the world and as long as that persists, we're done!"  But he doesn't just mean done economically, he means done as a species.
(snippet)
When asked what he thinks needs to change, he replied: "Oh, almost everything! We act systematically against the evidences we have."  He believes the economy will "catastrophically" self-correct and a new model must emerge with principles to humanize the economy in balance with the biosphere. His five principles and values to develop a humanized economy are as follows:
  1. The economy is to serve the people, not the people to serve the economy.
  2. Development is about people, and not about objects.
  3. Growth is not the same as development, and development does not necessarily require growth.
  4. No economy is possible in the absence of ecosystem services.
  5. The economy is a subsystem of a larger finite system -- the biosphere, hence permanent growth is impossible.
The fundmental value that is needed to sustain this new economy is, "No economic interest, under any circumstances, can be more important than LIFE in all its manifestations."

When the engineered collapse comes, we can bet that the corporate-government will offer up their "solutions."  It's not good enough for the Human World Order simply to oppose tyranny; we must also present logical solutions. 

6 comments:

  1. This will be hard for some of the readers to digest.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Human life ,like all other life is a metabolic process.
    Necessary nutrients and energy are extracted by by the work of living matter ,organisms ,active life forms, from the materials in the environment.
    The individual ,whole organism , replaces and renews its body, one cell at a time, when that process stops the organism dies.
    Humans in their social activities have human relationships, including economies ,for organizing exchange between different peoples of the products of their labor -use values- including for the distribution of nutrients and energy, thus there is a social metabolism ensuring survival of the individual as well as the society as a whole.

    If that process stops because it is based on the necessity of profits for invested capital and the economy - the social metabolic process – dies because of lack of profitability the need to make a profit in the exchange of commodities .Commodities are use values produced by individuals for the use of other humans .Markets and money exist to facilitate that exchange.
    The marketing method for distributing products solely for profit motives is proving itself very destructive to the human living environment .
    But if humankind cannot organize a different, better method of distribution /exchange of the necessary nutrients and energy –the products of labor then the species that is enslaved to the economy of capital dies.

    Who will be master here on this metabolic relationship between humankind a part of nature and the rest of nature ?

    Humankind or one kind of a blindly driven economy that was historically created by humankind itself ,or the profit driven economy that shows all the signs of killing off the human species?
    Only humankind , a social species of great creative and productive power ,can make that decision if it is not first killed off by its own old economic system .
    A system that now works mainly for the benifit and profits of a contoling ruling elite .while the majority of americans are being turned into debt slaves to usury ,to the god of profit.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This person is a puppet for the "world government" crowd. His proposed solutions will create the very things he rails against.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What kind of doublespeak is this? Whenever someone proclaims a new way to do something and then cannot allow you to understand what it is you have to ask, what are they hiding? What is this guy's agenda and why must he keep it secret. "We must pass the bill so we can all find out what is in the bill"!

    ReplyDelete
  5. biosphere's..agenda 21er?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Neef has made the most sensible comments I've ever heard about the economy.

    We need to pay attention to this guy.

    ReplyDelete

Everyone is encouraged to participate with civilized comments.