Gaming The System

The recent (2016 Apr 04) leak of 11 million documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca clearly reveals how dysfunctional the current capitalist system has become.

The law firm secretively assisted the super rich in multiple ways of setting up offshore accounts and funneling personal wealth into tax havens in order to avoid paying taxes. The end result of course is that governments around the globe have less revenue to spend on social benefits while the super rich continue to game the system. Meanwhile the working class and the poor have to endure austerity, hardship and diminishing social services.

Let us back up for a moment and try to reflect on the human social system and how it has become entirely dependent on the flow of money.

In all of human history, there has always existed some form of class structure. Rulers, emperors, pharaohs, kings, lords and nobles have always ruled over serfs and slaves. Later came the mercantile class, land and plantation owners, bankers, financiers, industrialists and corporate rulers.

In our modern capitalist system, serfdom and slavery continue to exist in insidious ways in the form of taxation, interest, rent and debt bondage.

Money is created by the elite ruling class through the channel of financial institutions such as banks, savings & loans and credit. Debt bondage results when debtors are unable to meet their financial obligations as a result of exorbitant interests rates and in many cases fraudulent lending practices by creditors. The super rich needs the working class to propel the production machine. They depend on the consumer class to drive their money making machine.

The rich becomes richer and the poor becomes poorer. To add insult to injury, as the leaked documents clearly reveal, the rich funnel their financial wealth to tax havens around the globe in order to avoid or evade taxes.

The bottom line is, "smart" investing in the stock market, options trading, commodities, mutual funds, hedge funds, foreign exchange, short selling, etc., is all about gaming the system.

Successfully gaming the system puts you in league with the rich elite ruling class who live in luxury on the backs of modern day serfs and slaves, the true productive unit of society.

Kingdoms, empires, serfdom and slavery have been defeated in the past. Modern capitalism will witness its death throes yet. 

If I were Prime Minister

If I were Prime Minister what would I say and do?

What is important to the people of Canada – Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!

Our greatest resource is the people of Canada. We will put working people of Canada back to work. Any able-bodied citizen of Canada who wants to work must be given the opportunity to work.

First and foremost, we will implement a basic living wage to every Canadian citizen 18-years and older. With this in place, unemployment insurance, social security and old-age benefits can be eliminated.

Every Canadian citizen has the right to healthy food, shelter, education and healthcare.

We will put Canadians working in the agricultural industry. We will increase our local food production so that we reduce our dependency on imported food and hence drastically reduce food miles, the distance food has to travel before it gets to our dinner table.

We will put our workers to building more affordable homes. Since we are blessed with an abundance of home construction materials that are renewable, we will coordinate sustainable natural resource development and extraction with our local construction industry.

We will expand our education system with free education from early childhood to post secondary education all across Canada. An enhanced educational system will bring a happier populace, reduce social tension and crime and reduce the need for policing and correctional institutions. We will be proactive rather than reactive.

With our aging population, more universal health care will be provided where it is most urgently needed. We will collaborate with the pharmaceutical industry to deliver prescription drugs and medication in a cost effective manner.

In order to drive our economy, we need a national energy plan. Such a plan will be principled on conservation and use of clean renewable energy. Coal fired power plants and nuclear generating stations will be phased out. The growth of renewable energy is the path to a future of clean energy. We will promote the known forms of clean renewable energy, wind, wave action, hydro-electric, solar and geothermal.

A solid national energy plan would be meaningless if we squander our energy supply. There must be a rational balance between our energy needs and energy wants. Towns, cities, municipalities, industrial and residential users of energy must plan with an eye on conservation. Green energy projects focused on sustainable, renewable as well as energy conservation must be promoted.

Transportation issues with increasing traffic jams and grid-lock are approaching crisis levels. Lost productivity, increasing fuel consumption and rising air pollution are all serious consequences. This can only be addressed by proper city, urban and population planning. Creating local, walk-able people-centric communities in every city and municipality would be our top priority in order to address this crisis.

Climate Change is the elephant in the room. Extreme weather is increasingly more disruptive and destructive to our lives, community and productivity. The financial cost of not tackling the problem far exceeds the cost of being proactive. The short term strategy would be to reduce our dependency on fossil fuel. In the long term we can look towards the day when all fossil fuel will be left in the ground where it belongs.

Finally, we address the significance of the financial sector in our local and global economy. Interest rates play a key role not only on the growth of the money supply but also on the growth of the economy. Our current growth imperative is not sustainable. In order to correct this, there is an urgent need for monetary reform. The Bank of Canada will return to its charter of being the lender to the people of Canada. New rules and regulations will be put into place which will direct how banks, financial institutions and lenders are allowed to conduct business. There will be in place controls and regulations in order to halt predatory lending practices.

On foreign policy, we believe that a sound foreign policy begins at home. We can demonstrate that a progressive democratic government and society works best for everyone. Our foreign policy will be principled on cooperation, mutual respect and non-intervention. Our best export to other sovereign nations is a visible working model of a truly social democratic society based on compassion, tolerance, sharing, openness and fairness.

Global financial collapse is just around the corner.

Within recent times, global productivity gains have been achieved by shifting production to Asian countries, particularly China. At its height, China's annual economic growth reached 14% in 2007 [1].

China's remarkable growth was driven by global demand for consumer products while global expansion was fueled by China's increased productivity. China has quickly come to recognize that this tightly linked synergy has a downside. It is simply not sustainable. Shifting real productivity from 1st world countries to emerging economies does nothing for consumer countries. US trade deficit has cost the US labor force 2.7 million jobs from 2001 to 2011 [2].

Central Banks in developed countries are trying desperately to keep their individual economies from sinking by pumping huge amounts of money into the system. The US Federal Reserve has committed US$2 trillion through Quantitative Easing.  The Bank of Japan has pumped US$1.4 trillion while the Bank of England has added US$560 billion to the economy. [3]

Where is all of this money going? Why is the global economy still staggering?

All the euphoria is in the global financial markets. Stock market indices in the US have hit record highs while real productivity and wages are down. Governments continue to slash and burn social programs, healthcare and environmental protection. Unemployment reaches record levels and global poverty continues to rise. All the quantitative easing in the world goes to benefit the banks and their share holders and the rich who control the government. Unionized labor and the working middle class has been decimated and the gap between the rich and poor continues to widen.

Financial markets and high flying speculation are being buoyed by quantitative easing. That is where all the money is going.

How much longer can this continue?

Two things are looming on the horizon. The global economy will continue to stagnate while governments incorrectly attempt to revive the patient with austerity measures. How long will it take before the working class gets pushed to the limits and would no longer put up with the injustice?

[1] http://www.china.org.cn/government/NPC_CPPCC_2009/2009-03/13/content_17440359.htm
[2] http://www.epi.org/news/growing-trade-deficit-china-cost-2-7-million/
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_easing

Lending money at interest is a sin and a crime and must be abolished

Every textbook of economics begins with the definition of money as being the following:

1. medium
2. measure
3. store

The essential function of money is to facilitate exchange of goods and services. This is the classic textbook first function of money.

The second function of money is that it is a measure of value, which if examined closely, is somewhat dubious.

Every prudent worker/producer wishes to store away a portion of his/her earnings as savings to be relied on at a future time. Money as a store of value is the third function. Whether or not savings represent any real store of value will be discussed later in this essay.

When earnings are stored as savings this has the potential to reduce the money supply. Currency becomes scarce and its value increases. The same amount of currency has greater purchasing power and can be exchanged for a greater amount of goods and services. This is deflation, the opposite of inflation. The simple and obvious solution to this is for the government or banking institution to inject more money into the system.

Since 1974, the Government of Canada has abdicated its responsibility to the Canadian public of putting money into existence. Instead, it has relinquished this authority to private commercial institutions that now create money through the issuance of loans under the fractional reserve banking system.

COURT CASE UPDATE Two individual Canadians and COMER are confronting the global financial powers in the Canadian federal court. The motion before the Federal Court of Canada was heard on December 5, 2012, in Toronto. Press Release (pdf) Amended Court Filing (pdf) Proceedings, December 5, 2012 (pdf)

 

If the Government of Canada were to restore its authority and responsibility, it could direct the Bank of Canada to issue money at zero interest to municipal/provincial/federal governments for public benefits such as education, health care, social services and industrial infrastructure.

Instead, in the current monetary system, all money is created as debt on the backs of the consumer and taxpayer. Interest on loans becomes a debt to future workers and society. Furthermore, the working class is taxed in order to pay interest on public loans which is essentially the working class being indentured to the corporate state.

Consider the worker who attempts to save a portion of her income. If this money is locked away in a savings account, it reduces the money supply and creates a scarcity of money. The lending institution such as a commercial bank can put this money back into circulation by lending it out to private and public borrowers. When the worker retires she may require to make a partial withdrawal of her savings. Since not all account holders need to withdraw all of their savings at the same time, the bank can safely gamble on having only a fraction of the deposits available in cash. This is called the fractional reserve requirement of the banking system. In Canada there is zero requirement. However, a prudent banker would be well advised to maintain a minimum of 10% of outstanding loans available as cash on deposit. This is the basic principle of the fractional reserve requirement.

Let us examine this in simple terms. Imagine that initially the Bank of Canada prints money and puts into circulation $1billion. Imagine that as this money is used to trade goods and services, savers deposit 25% of this total, that is, $250million into savings accounts in various banking institutions. With a 10% reserve requirement, the banks all together can create loans totaling an additional $2.5billion. This is money created out of thin air as credit to the borrowers’ accounts.

Over time, the principal amount on the loan is repaid and the balances on individual loan accounts are reduced to zero. The problem is the interest charged by the banks on the loans. Where does the money come from to pay the interest? The interest is repaid by more loans being issued. The essential point here is that all money created in our present banking system is created as debt which will never be repaid. Our present monetary system is a system of mirrors, a pyramid scheme and a ponzi scheme. This ought to be considered criminal activity and ought be abolished.

The call for public banking

I have presented an outline of how money is created in two different systems. In the public banking system, the government of Canada through the Bank of Canada can restore its authority to create money at zero interest to be used to finance public service, infrastructure and social well-being.

In the current banking system, money is created as loans which is used to pay the interest charges which accumulate in the pockets and accounts of the banks and its shareholders. In this system, money is created out of nothing as a computerized data entry which has to keep on growing in perpetuity otherwise the system collapses. This has become a reality and only now are segments of the world population waking up to this fact.

Where is the real wealth?

At the beginning of this essay I hinted that money as a store of value is questionable. Any money stashed away as savings is supposed to represent wealth or surplus. Money gives the holder an entitlement to goods and services. In reality, money represents a burden on future workers and power to the holder over indentured labourers.

Money created as payment for interest flows back to the bankers and financial elite, the holders of power in government, business and society. When governments, businesses, individuals and the public in general assume a loan, interest charges enriches the banks. We might as well just print money and hand it over to the bankers.

Money created by publicly own banks go directly to the workers and producers of society to facilitate exchange of goods and services for the benefit of society as a whole. There is no need for the transfer of money in the form of interest charges to the banking elite.

If we abolish the practice of lending at interest we would be taking control from the banking establishment and giving it to the working class of society, the true producers of real wealth.

What do we do when the shit hits the fan?

If you think the fiscal crisis or the US National Debt of 16 trillion dollars is something to worry about then you ain't seen nothing yet.

We have a much bigger crisis coming. No. A catastrophe of epic proportions. We will witness a complete meltdown of society as a result of global warming,  financial collapse and social chaos, not to mention the geopolitical quest for world dominance.

Our present lifestyle is killing us all.

Governments, corporations, society and individuals are all to blame for this.

We are the enemy.

By 2050, we will experience extreme human pain and suffering like we've never witnessed before.

By 2100, world population will collapse to under 2 billion.

And yet no one is doing anything seriously about it. We are in denial mode. Severe short sighted thinking.

We worry about deficit, money, jobs and oil.

Wake up folks and kiss your children goodbye.

What can we do about this?
There are steps we can all take to mitigate this, spread the burden and ease the pain.
 

Here are positive things we can all do:

1. Know whom you can depend on when the going gets tough.
2. Know where your food comes from and support your local farmer.
3. Watch where and how you spend your money and buy local.
4. Park your car and walk.
5. Create human scale communities.
6. Build resilience within your community.
7. Join or start a Transition Initiative.

"Limits to Growth" was published in 1970. We have had more that 40 years to reverse the trend towards self destruction. We did nothing and wasted 40 years.

We have passed the point of no return. So what are you planning to do for the next 40 years?

Strikes continue against austerity measures

Strikes by the workers continue to spread across the EU, in Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, France, and UK, in protest against harsh austerity measures being imposed by the governing troika, the European Union (EU), European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Striking is one of the last actions remaining for the working class to take in order to bring social justice.

In reality, the working force can produce enough for every citizen of every country to share, feed and care for themselves and their families. The fruits of their labor are co-opted by the corporations, banks, financiers, investors and money speculators who siphon off profits and stash the money away in off-shore tax-free havens. 

And we wonder why there is not enough money to pay a decent wage?

There is one battle left to be fought – collapse of the global financial system that will wipe out all of the accumulated wealth of the ruling class.

The battle wages on.

Corporations Rule the World

The entire world is headed into three simultaneous monumental crises: financial, environmental and social. The environmental destruction, social unrest and financial collapse are all precipitated by corporate stranglehold on our governments, institutions and global monetary policies.

Guns, laws and money are all instruments of social organization and control. Whoever controls any or all will rule the world. Right now, the military-industrial-congressional-complex (MICC) has it all.

In Chris Hedges latest article, “Colonized by Corporations” (truthdig.com - May 14, 2012)http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/colonized_by_corporations_20120514 he writes,

“We have been, like nations on the periphery of empire, colonized. We are controlled by tiny corporate entities that have no loyalty to the nation and indeed in the language of traditional patriotism are traitors. They strip us of our resources, keep us politically passive and enrich themselves at our expense.”

 “Laws are written to legalize corporate plunder and abuse, as well as criminalize dissent.”

“A change of power does not require the election of a Mitt Romney or a Barack Obama or a Democratic majority in Congress, or an attempt to reform the system or electing progressive candidates, but rather a destruction of corporate domination of the political process... It requires the establishment of new mechanisms of governance to distribute wealth and protect resources, to curtail corporate power, to cope with the destruction of the ecosystem and to foster the common good.”

Our only hope to stop the MICC domination is by revolution of the masses. The Occupy protest we witness now is just a dress rehearsal of what is yet to come. We have already seen the start of this revolutionary process in the “Arab Spring” in Middle Eastern nations. We will see this eventually come to Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy in the coming months. As the walls of the financial-corporate-ruling class structures come tumbling down, this will spread to the rest of Europe and America.

“A revolution has been unleashed across the globe. This revolution, a popular repudiation of the old order, is where we should direct all our energy and commitment. If we do not topple the corporate elites the ecosystem will be destroyed and massive numbers of human beings along with it.”  

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein

“Go ahead and vote this November. But don’t waste any more time or energy on the presidential election than it takes to get to your polling station and pull a lever for a third-party candidate—just enough to register your obstruction and defiance—and then get back out onto the street. That is where the question of real power is being decided.”

Plan A vs Plan B

Columnist Evan Davis on BBC News posed the dilemma "Plan A vs Plan B" to economists Jonathan Portes and Roger Bootle. Is austerity or spending stimulus likely to pull us through the financial mess we are in?

Economics explained: Plan A vs Plan B

There is a joke that goes: If you took all the economists in the world and laid them on the ground head to foot they would still not come to an agreement. It is not a question of Plan A vs Plan B but a matter of understanding the creation and purpose of fiat money.

There are many others who are spreading the word that our current economic system is simply not sustainable. It his high time that we consider steady-state economics. Herman Daly, Paul Ekins, Thomas H. Greco, Michael Hudson, Tim Jackson, David Korten, Mike Nickerson, Jonathon Porritt, James Gustave Speth, Peter Victor, are some of these writers, to name just a few.

We know that people can and do trade without the need for money. We also acknowledge that barter is an inconvenient and inefficient mode of exchange. Money has become the life-blood of our modern economic world. Along with money comes the desire and need to save for retirement, to see us through the final years of our lives when we are no longer fit to labour. Personal saving is no different from business profit. The essential objective of every business enterprise is to return a profit. But saving or profit is real and tangible only if it represents surplus. This is one of the essential roles of money that every student of economics is told. Money is a store of value. In our modern world, fiat money is not backed by any underlying surplus. Instead, money is an entitlement to those who hold it. It is a debt obligation on the future worker. The quest for savings, profit, return on investment, or interest is a gigantic pyramid scheme that is dependent on a growing labour force, consumers, population, liquidation and exploitation of the natural resources.

In reality, neither austerity programs nor quantitative easing will solve the financial crisis. Austerity programs destroy the very productivity of the workforce that is required to create any resemblance of surplus. Monetary expansion only continues to build the pyramid scheme that maintains the status quo for the ruling moneyed elite.

Money, like laws and guns are all instruments of social organization and control. And with all three, those who wield the power will corrupt and distort it for their own self interests.

In conclusion, it is not a choice between Plan A and Plan B, but a matter of understanding money, growth and profit. Money is a human fabrication and a false god. Growth is not sustainable on a finite planet. Profit without surplus is all an illusion.

Pipe Dream to Nowhere

The good news for now is that on January 18, 2012, US President Barack Obama rejected the application from TransCanada Pipelines to build the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to Texas. But now is not the time to celebrate. There is still another battle being fought right here at home in Canada, the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline planned to stretch across Alberta and British Columbia to the Pacific coast.

On January 9, 2012, federal Minister of Natural Resources, Joe Oliver wrote a letter to the Globe and Mail.

On January 18, 2012, Joe Oliver spoke on CBC Radio, The Current, with host Anna Maria Tremonti defending his government's position on the Northern Gateway Pipeline.

What Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver had to say reeks with the stench of dirty oil for big profits for Big Oil companies.

"Unfortunately, there are environmental and other radical groups that would seek to block this opportunity to diversify our trade. Their goal is to stop any major project no matter what the cost to Canadian families in lost jobs and economic growth."

"These groups threaten to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological agenda. They seek to exploit any loophole they can find, stacking public hearings with bodies to ensure that delays kill good projects. They use funding from foreign special interest groups to undermine Canada’s national economic interest."

Joe Oliver states that "radical" environmental groups are delaying the review process.

In the minds of Joe Oliver, Stephen Harper and his government, the Northern Gate Pipeline is a "done deal". The review process is a hindrance to corporate progress. Why have a review process for the public to tell the government it is dead wrong? The review process is there as an opportunity for both sides to voice their arguments. It is the Harper government that wants to curtail the due process in order to accelerate its own agenda.

"In many cases, these projects would create thousands upon thousands of jobs for Canadians, yet they can take years to get started due to the slow, complex and cumbersome federal Government approval process."

What jobs? All of these so called jobs are temporary, transient jobs. Once the pipeline is built, these jobs will be gone. The jobs and legacy that will be left behind will be the ones to clean up the ongoing pollution, contaminated water system, environmental damage and escalating damage to human health and well-being.

"For our government, the choice is clear: we need to diversify our markets in order to create jobs and economic growth for Canadians across this country. We must expand our trade with the fast growing Asian economies."

Nonsense. You cannot fool the public all the time. The Northern Gateway Pipeline and the entire Alberta Tar-sands project is all about big profits for Big Oil Companies. We give away non-renewable resources to Asian countries for what?. We supply Chinese manufacturing industry with cheap energy in exchange for cheap plastic goods that end up in landfill after less than a year of usage. We are not creating jobs in Canada. No, we are exporting jobs to China.

The Keystone XL Pipeline is the fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the planet. The Northern Gateway Pipeline is the Harper government's backup fuse.

We have already released a significant amount of carbon into the atmosphere from the Saudi Arabian oil deposits. If we release the carbon from the Alberta Tar-sands you might as well kiss your kids goodbye. The best place for fossil fuel is to leave it in the ground.

Dr. Jim Hansen, head of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies at NASA has said, "Einstein said that to think and not act is a crime."

Now is the time for all of us to act and stop the Northern Gateway Pipeline.

Sign the Petition 

In the Face of This Truth

It’s time to talk honestly about collapse - no matter how others may respond.

We live in the midst of multiple crises­ - economic and political, cultural and ecological - posing a significant threat to human existence at the level we have become accustomed to. There’s no way to be awake to the depth of these crises without emotional reactions, no way to be aware of the pain caused by these systemic failures without some dread and distress.

Those emotions come from recognizing that we humans with our big brains have disrupted the balance of the living world in disastrous ways that may be causing irreversible ecological destruction, and that drastically different ways of living are not only necessary but inevitable, with no guarantee of a smooth transition.

This talk, in polite company, leads to being labeled hysterical, Chicken Little, apocalyptic. No matter that you are calm, aren’t predicting the sky falling, and have made no reference to rapture. Pointing out that we live in unsustainable systems, that unsustainable systems can’t be sustained, and that no person or institution with power in the dominant culture is talking about this - well, that’s obviously crazy.

Regardless of others' reaction to talking honestly about collapse, it's essential we continue; no political project based on denying reality can be viable for the long term.

But to many of us, these insights simply seem honest. To be fully alive today is to live with anguish, not for one’s own condition in the world but for the condition of the world, for a world that is in collapse. What to do when such honesty is unwelcome?

In June 2010, I published a short essay online asking people who felt this anguish to report on their emotions and others’ reactions. In less than a month I received more than 300 messages, and while no single comment could sum up the responses, this comes close:

“I feel hopeless. I feel sad. I feel amused at the absurdity of it all. I feel depressed. I feel enraged. I feel guilty and I feel trapped. Basically the only reason why I’m still alive is because there are enough amazing people and things in my life to keep me going, to keep me fighting for what matters. I’m not even sure how to fight yet, but I know that I want to.”

I didn’t ask for biographical information, so there’s little data on the age, race, or occupation of the respondents. Nor did I ask specifically about political or community activism, but the letters reinforced a gut feeling that dealing openly with these emotions need not lead to paralysis and inaction. People can confront honestly a frightening question - “What if the unsustainable systems in which we live are beyond the point of no return?” - and stay politically and socially engaged.

One respondent, a longtime community organizer, put it succinctly:

Recently several of our visionary thinkers have moved from the illusion that ‘we have 10 years to turn this around.’ They now say clearly that ‘we cannot stop this momentum.’ It takes courage and faith to speak so plainly. What can we do in the face of this truth? We can sit face to face and find the ways, often beyond words, to explore the reality that we are all refugees, swimming into a future that looks so different from the present. We can find pockets of community where we can whisper our deepest fears about the world. We can remain committed to describing the present with exceptional truth.

What happens when we tell “exceptional truth”?

First, we often feel drained by it. Another respondent observed:

“My personal ambition seems to decrease in proportion to the increase in world suffering. I think that’s part of my emotional reaction to crisis. I don’t think I am fully alive. I’m not depressed, just weirdly diminished.”

Second, we encounter those who don’t want to face tough truths. Many wrote about isolation from family and friends who deny there are reasons to be concerned:

“I’m a drug addict with over 20 years clean, and I know all about using up my future and farting out lame excuses. I promised myself an honest life to stay clean, and the double-edged sword is that I started seeing just how much our culture swims in denial.”

Sometimes people accuse those who press questions about systemic failure and collapse of being the problem:

“People get angry at me for it and call me ‘dark’ and ‘negative’ and ‘sinful,’ telling me to instead move to the ‘light,’ ‘positive,’ and ‘love.’ Whatever.”

Regardless of others’ reactions to talking honestly about collapse, it’s essential we continue; no political project based on denying reality can be viable for the long term. We need not have a crystal ball to recognize, as singer/songwriter John Gorka put it, that “the old future’s gone.” The future of endless bounty for all isn’t the future we face.

How can we open an honest conversation about that future? It isn’t easy, but it starts with telling the truth, from our own experience, like this 70-year-old woman who lives in a rural intentional community:

I’ve lived long enough now to be very aware of how different the world has become, how the cycles of nature are off kilter, how the seasons and the climate have shifted. My garden tells me that food doesn’t grow in quite the same patterns, and we either get weeks of rain or weeks of heat and drought. This is the second year in a row that our apple trees do not have apples on them. But most people get their food in grocery stores where the apples still appear, and food still arrives, in season and out, from all over the world. This will soon end, and people won’t understand why. They don’t see the trouble in the land as I and my friends do. I grieve daily as I look on this altered world. My grandchildren are young adults who think their lives will continue as they have been. Who will tell them? They can’t hear me. They, and many others, will have to see the changes for themselves, as I have. I can’t imagine that anything else will convince them. My grief for the world, and for them, is compounded by this feeling of helplessness because there is no way we can have the collective action you speak of when the ‘collective’ is still in denial.

The work of breaking out of denial is less about specific actions and more about the habits and virtues we must cultivate. Far from that rural community, a 35-year-old woman working in an office in Chicago summed up the task:

“We really need to take it back to the basics and keep it simple. This reminds me of one of my own quotes I thought of a few months ago - ‘be humble or be humiliated.’ I think I’m a simple person. I try to avoid making things more complex than they have to be. I try to focus more on what I need versus what I want. ‘Be humble or be humiliated’ is my own personal reminder.”

Her personal reminder is relevant for us all, individually and collectively. Humanity’s last hope may be in embracing a deep humility, recognizing that our cleverness is outstripped by our ignorance. If we become truly humble, we can abandon attempts to dominate the living world and instead find our place in it.

Robert Jensen wrote this article for A Resilient Community, the Fall 2010 issue of YES! Magazine.  Robert, a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin, is author of several books. His latest is  All My Bones Shake: Seeking a Progressive Path to the Prophetic Voice. He is co-producer of the new documentary Abe Osheroff: One Foot in the Grave, the Other Still Dancing.

by Robert Jensen, September 17, 2010

We are screwed!

We are royally screwed. The sad part of all of this is that we are doing it to ourselves and so many of us are either blinded or in denial mode.

This is not about gloom and doom. This is about facing the reality.

Here is what we can expect in the year 2012.

1. Greece and Italy both bankrupt and default. More countries follow.
2. The European Union collapses and enters into economic chaos.
3. Many states in USA bankrupt.
4. Global financial crisis.
5. Global Warming in runaway mode. Severe climate across the globe.
6. Israel takes preemptive strike against Iran. US drawn into war.

We, the inhabitants of the planet as consumers must ask ourselves:

Why do we do this to ourselves? We are all in this together.
Change begins with you.

Is High Technology immune to Climate Change?

 From Apple Macs to Toyota Camrys - Severe weather cause disruptions

Honda Motors Co. cars are submerged in flood waters at a Honda car factory in Ayutthaya, north of Bangkok. Japanese car makers, including Toyota, Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co., are losing 6,000 units of production daily after halting production since early this month in their Southeast Asian manufacturing hub, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said.

Worst floods in 50 years in Thailand hit supply chains

Apple, Honda, Nissan, Toyota, Ford, GM, Canon, Nikon, Sony, Toshiba, Western Digital - all expect supply disruptions.

Don't start the revolution without me!

How do we defeat the 1%, the elite ruling class?

Not by idle protests. Begin with these basic 10 demands:

1. Tax the rich
2. Tax all market trades at 1%
3. Abolish short selling
4. Abolish derivatives, index funds, hedge funds
5. Stop bail out of the banks and corporations
6. Set a cap on salaries and benefits
7. Enforce 100% reserve requirement
8. Abolish the Federal Reserve
9. Abolish political lobbying 
10. Enact a basic living wage

We have to secure the real economy and attack the phantom economy where the 1% derives their wealth. We have to tank the phantom economy. Stop paying interests. Move your Money. Stop paying mega corporations. Stop big oil.

We the 99% can do it.
Share. Exchange. Give away. Barter. Use local currency.
Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.
Live a simple life.
Care for each other.

Support the Occupy Together movement where ever you are.

Time for Reflection

It has been 10 years since September 11th, 2001. What have we learned since then? The racism, hatred and wars continue, all for oil and profit. The banksters and corporate moguls continue to rape and pillage the planet and it is ordinary people who suffer. It has been a wasted ten years.

No, it is worse than that. It is almost 40 years since The Limits to Growth was published by Donella Meadows, Dennis Meadows, Jørgen Randers and William Behrens. And it is still business as usual, pursuing along the perpetual path of economic growth. When we come to see that it is all in pursuit of money, greed and power, we will realize that we have wasted 40 years going in the wrong direction.

Buy Nothing Week

You have heard of "Buy Nothing Day". This year 2011, it is Friday, November 25 in North America and Saturday, November 26, internationally. On this day you attempt not to spend any money. That's too easy.

How about "Buy Nothing for 4 Days" or "Buy Nothing for a Week" where you buy nothing except essential food items.

• No coffee, donuts, bagels, cigarettes, alcohol.
• No pop, bottled water, candy, chocolate bars, ice cream, snacks
• No magazines, newspapers
• No shopping
• No gas, taxis. Park the car and walk or take public transit instead.
• Get up in the morning and have a healthy breakfast, cereal and fruit.
• If you are heading off to work, pack a lunch and some fruit.
• No eating out for dinner. Make a wholesome meal for you and your family.
• No going out to the movies. Take a walk or bike ride around your neighborhood.
• Take the dog for a walk.
• Visit the public library, borrow a book or video.
• Invite a friend over or visit a friend or relative.
• Spend some quiet time with yourself or with someone special.

Try it for four days. You will be healthier and happier for doing it. Now make this a habit and your lifestyle. Humanity will thank you for doing it.

Resource Liquidation

While spending some days in beautiful Algonquin back country, one cannot help but reflect upon what it means to exploit the earth's natural resources. Whether it is forestry, minerals, fresh water or oil, resource extraction means resource liquidation. In every case, it becomes a battle between creating jobs and generating revenue versus leaving the planet untouched. Companies are only eager to move in to make a profit with total disregard for everything else.

What this all comes down to is this is conversion of the natural world to capital, that is, resource liquidation. We convert the natural resource, and in most cases, non-renewable resource, into cash which is a human creation. Cash gives the bearer an entitlement to future human labor. Resource liquidation means putting future generations into indentured labor. Resource liquidation means entrenching our society deeper into a global state of feudalism, oligarchy and slavery.

Global Catastrophe

 A global crisis is in the making. We are being led down the garden path to imminent calamity by the most powerful institutions, corporations and individuals that ever existed in the world. Of course, they would not tell you this because they are only serving their self interests and greed.

Over the last fifty years the world has become a much smaller place. The world is now one global market place. Major and minor corporations alike know that they must have global dominance in order to compete and survive. Globalization is the operative word. It is winner takes all.

What we have come to understand is that the global monetary system is based on perpetual expansion. Banks must continue to grow the money supply. But the unfortunate and ultimate end result is that every unit of currency ever created (dollar, pound, ruble, peso, yen, whatever) will be amassed into the hands of the elite.

Institutions, banks and corporations are in total control. Sovereign governments and the military-industrial complex are all under the control of the elite and their financiers. Global economics is dominated by institutional and corporate megaliths the likes of the IMF, World Bank, WTO, BIS, international banks, Exxon Mobil, BP, Chevron, Shell, Monsanto, Cargill, Walmart and the list goes on and on.

We know “too big to fail” means “too big to be allowed to fail”. Institutions and corporations have become so all encompassing that financial failure of one would cause a huge domino effect that will bring down the entire monetary system. Is the U.S.A. too big to be allowed to fail? Is there an alternative?

Let us not be fooled. When CEOs and politicians claim to know what is good for the economy, we know that their plan is to continue business as usual. We know that continuing monetary expansion means enslaving our descendants, our children and grandchildren for the benefits of the children and grandchildren of the elite.

This is a class struggle. This calls for a class uprising. We will take this no more. This is a call for justice. We will end the exploitation of the working class by the elite. Monetary expansion is not the solution. This is a call for a boycott of mega corporations, banks, oil companies and mega stores.

What are some of the things we must advocate for?

• End to monetary expansion
• Abolish interests
• Curb exorbitant profits and salaries
• End the bailout of banks and financial institutions
• End of globalization
• Abolish short selling
• Abolish index trading, hedge funds, commodity speculation

Here are things you can do immediately:

• Think before you buy, think before you throw away
• Exchange or give away unwanted items instead of discarding in the garbage
• Extend the lifespan of what you purchase
• Buy quality not junk

Conserve

• Reduce your energy consumption
• Reduce your material consumption
• Take vacations closer to home
• Go hiking and camping at your local park or conservation area
• Stop cross border shopping – buy locally
• Stop shopping at big box stores - support your mom & pop store
• Avoid excessive packaging and use of plastics
• Stop buying and drinking bottled water and soft drinks

• Make more use of your community facilities, libraries, community pool, parks, theater, galleries
• Move your money to a credit union, check out MoveYourMoney
• Join co-operatives and a Transition Initiative in your area.
• Support your local farmers and growers
• Buy locally grown food from the farmers markets

• Network more with friends and neighbors
• Exchange and share ideas, recipes, tools, equipment, labor
• Have potlucks, picnics, sing-alongs, jam sessions, street parties, movie nights, scavenger hunts

• Do not take unnecessary automobile trips
• Park the car and walk, cycle, carpool, or take public transit
• Telecommute, work from at home if possible

And finally, 

• Keep fit
• Stay healthy
• Enjoy life!

Why we need the New Economy

 We need a new economy because the current economy is fundamentally flawed. How many people would come to this realization when so few care to make an effort to understand the system?

Do you understand the intricacies and subtleties of Quantum Mechanics, the Theory of Relativity or Particle Physics? The answer is most likely not and do you really care? The general public will conclude that all of these esoteric subjects have little impact on our mundane lives and we would just as well leave the details to the experts in the field.

The difference with economics is that it not only directly affects us all daily but it also directs, steers, dominates and controls all of human society. So why should we leave it up to the experts and why should we assume that the experts have it all figured out correctly?

As the joke goes, if you took all the economists in the world and laid them all in a straight line they would still not reach a conclusion.

The current economic system is fundamentally flawed because money as we know it is a human fabrication created out of nothing. Money is created by our banking system as instruments of debt when consumer, corporate, institutional and government loans are needed. The interests on loans are siphoned off from the very same loans that are created. The only way this can be sustained is by creating more loans. Hence the amount of loans created and hence the debt outstanding has to keep on growing. Our economic system is based on perpetual growth and this is not sustainable on a finite planet.

Money is a debt on future workers and generations. The small group of people who have amassed the world's monetary wealth holds the remainder of the population and its future generation as hostages and slaves to their needs, demands and self interests. It is to their benefit that the current economic system should continue on its perpetual growth path with business as usual. This elite group has infiltrated and controlled our institutions, corporations, media, advertising, means of productivity, military-industrial complex, political system and government.

You must come to the realization that every day you head off to work, you are doing so to make someone else richer. We work to earn money to pay for the things we consume and to pay interest to the banks. Would it not be better if we all worked for the betterment and well-being of ourselves and fellow neighbours?

What are the alternatives?

We are witnessing the simultaneous collapse of three global systems that are closely intertwined, (1) the economic system, (2) the natural environment on which all life depends and (3) our global social structure.

No alternatives will be sought until all three systems inevitably collapse. Then the need for change becomes evident. Change will come about from our reaction to collapse rather that proactive mitigation.

The amount of debt outstanding and the interest incurred are of such astronomical figures in virtually every nation that the entire economic system will collapse because of its sheer weight.

The demand for growth in consumerism in order to fuel the economic growth will destroy the planet's ecosystem. We will witness extreme climatic changes, significant loss of biodiversity and human lives, water shortages, crop losses, starvation, mass migrations and war over resources.

The masses will revolt. Social unrest now occurring in the Middle East will be repeated in every nation when the unemployed and disenfranchised have lost all social dignity and all hope for a better future.

Will the new economy ever see the light of day? That remains to be seen.

What would the new economy look like if the world is willing to accept this fundamental change in our social economic model?

The new economy would embrace the gift economy where we exchange gifts-in-kind.

The new economy would be based on Co-operatives, Social Enterprises, Social Responsible Corporations, Employee Stock Ownership Plans, where the common good takes precedence over profit and where the salary of the CEO is no more than three times the average wage.

The new economy will banish usury and interest where sustainability replaces growth.

The new economy will provide a living wage where every citizen is granted dignity.

The new economy will adopt shorter working hours where employment is available for all and more time is available to spend with family, friends and building the community.

Are we ready for the New Economy?