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Musings Report 2020-14 4-4-20 What Would Make our World Better?
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For those who are new to the Musings reports: they're a glimpse into my notebook, the unfiltered swamp where I organize future themes, sort through the dozens of stories and links submitted by readers, refine my own research and start connecting dots which appear later in the blog or in my books. As always, I hope the Musings spark new appraisals and insights. Thank you for supporting the site and for inviting me into your circle of correspondents.
Thank You, Patrons and Contributors!
Thank you, Chad W. and Ron G. for renewing your extremely generous support of my work, and welcome new patrons / subscribers Daniel B., Michael G., Kojo M., Carol L., Donald D., Asad Z. and Terry M.--thank you very much!
What Would Make our World Better?
Given that the Covid-19 pandemic has thrown a monkey wrench in the "let's buy more stuff with borrowed money to get more 'growth'" status quo, let's ask: what post-pandemic changes would make our world a better, more sustainable place?
Here's my short list:
1. Instead of making "maximize profits" the sole measure/incentive in the system (with lip service given to everything else for PR purposes), give equal weight to other measures and incentives, such as:
-- the activity adds demonstrable value to the community, not just the owner of the profits.
-- the activity is environmentally sustainable, i.e. it leaves the biosphere and resources as-is or in better shape than before.
2. Require all enterprises globally to calculate and add all external costs to their calculations of "cost" and "profit."
"Profit" as measured conventionally isn't an actual gain in productivity or utility; it's a fictional artifact of currency arbitrage (i.e. the US dollar is stronger than other currencies and China pegs its currency to the USD) and the accounting trickery of ignoring all the external costs of the production, transport and transactions.
For example, the depleted soil and water tables left by corporate monoculture Big Agriculture, the industrial pollution that takes years off the lives of nearby residents, the degradation of the biosphere when "remediation" after clear-cutting irreplaceable forests is little more than planting monoculture seedlings, most of which die, and so on.
The external costs not included in conventional calculations of "cost" and "profit" would tip "profits" into catastrophic losses. Very little of what passes as "profitable" in today's world would actually be profitable once all external costs are quantified and added to "costs of production."
It's not a stretch to say that probably 95% of all global trade would be completely unprofitable were external costs added to "production costs."
I mentioned one example in a recent blog post: the itinerary of an item manufactured in Beijing, China and air freighted to a customer in Hawaii via ZhengZhou, China, to Incheon, South Korea, to Anchorage, Alaska, to Louisville, Kentucky, to Ontario, California and then on to Honolulu.
I'm sure in conventional terms, there were sound logistical / profit motives for this insanely inefficient route, which assumes jet fuel will always be nearly free. But common sense alone suggests that doubling the miles from Beijing to Honolulu (already a great distance at 5,961 miles) would be staggeringly wasteful of irreplaceable resources.
Minus the currency and pollution arbitrage, would the lower wages in China actually offset the enormous expenses of transport and the external costs not calculated in Chinese production? It's doubtful. Once all costs are calculated minus currency and pollution arbitrage, it would be far more efficient and less wasteful of irreplaceable resources to have the item produced near the customer with 3D fabrication technologies.
There are certain items that require extremely complex factories--for example, microchips and processors--but if we remove the arbitrage and add all the external costs, a true accounting will also tend to relocalize production with an eye on regional distribution.
I talk a lot about intangible capital in my recent books, which is one way to describe all the forms of capital that are not measured or counted in the current global economy. Laying waste to intangible capital and only counting fictional capital/profits is how we've actually become poorer while congratulating ourselves for becoming richer.
To put it plainly: our socio-economic system is insane, squandering resources, human labor and the biosphere in the name of "growth" that leaves most people poorer in everything that matters while their holdings of fictional capital swell (or not).
3. Community healthcare rather than individual patient care. The obsession with profits has hollowed out healthcare in the U.S., but culturally, the focus on treating individuals' symptoms/maladies while ignoring their overall health and the health of the community and society they inhabit has completely blinded us to the hidden costs of this approach: the overall health of humanity is declining despite all the extraordinarily costly advances in technologies for treating symptoms and specific diseases.
4. Gainful employment. Longtime correspondent UKC recently brought my attention to the old phrase "gainful employment," which means not just earning money but earning real gains to the worker: security, savings, capital accumulation, social capital, etc.
An enormous amount of human labor is gainful, beneficial and useful, but since it isn't profitable in financial terms, it isn't paid. In the alternative system I outline in my books "A Radically Beneficial World" and "Money and Work Unchained," all useful, gainful work that benefited the community and biosphere would be paid.
Gainful employment is work that directly benefits a community and offers the worker security, purposeful work, self-worth, a positive social role, belonging and the pride that comes from being valued as a contributor to the community and enterprise.
5. Sound money based on non-state controlled currencies. If the financial system is inherently unstable and unfair, the political and social system will necessarily be equally unstable and unfair.
The power to issue currency in unlimited quantities to various elites is the government's most carefully guarded privilege. But this privilege is easily abused, and given human greed and the political nature of centralized governance, it will be abused.
The net result is debasement of the currency, a near-total loss of purchasing power that we call high inflation.
As government-issued currencies decline in value, non-state currencies such as bitcoin and commodity-backed currencies (such as a currency backed by gold) will become the only safe haven.
Governments will ban these non-state currencies but as the state-issued currency falls to near-zero, the state will have no choice but to accept the citizenry's use of non-state currencies. Wise states will embrace non-state currencies and the transparent competition of users as the most beneficial foundation of a sound economy.
There are many other possibilities, but these five provide the necessary structural foundations for other better-world ideas to flourish.
Highlights of the Blog
Social, Financial and Economic Implications of the Coronavirus, with Richard Bonugli (35 minutes)
Economic Shockwaves: How the coronavirus is impacting our future, with Adam Taggart and John Rubino (56 min)
Gadfly Interview with Ken Schortgen with Carlos Gonzalez (58 minutes)
When Bulls Are Over-Anxious to Catch the Rocketship Higher, This Isn't the Bottom 4/3/20
The Wonderful Insanity of Globalization 4/1/20
Pandemic Pandemonium: The Tides of Globalization and Financialization Reverse 3/31/20
What Happens as State and Local Tax Revenues Crater? 3/30/20
Best Thing That Happened To Me This Week
Re-connected with colleagues Drew Sample, CJ and Ken, Adam and John, and Richard in the podcasts listed above (the Sample Hour show is not yet online). I also met Jesse Hirsh in a terrific unrecorded conversation with Mark Jeftovic (the Axis of Easy).
From Left Field
How Disaster Aid Ravaged an Island People -- unintended consequences writ large....
California's SF Bay Area nailed coronavirus response, everyone should heed its lessons
India's pandemic lockdown turns into a human tragedy
The Coronation -- Charles Eisenstein's take on the pandemic...
How the Pandemic Will End: The U.S. may end up with the worst COVID-19 outbreak in the industrialized world.
Estimates Show Wuhan Death Toll Far Higher Than Official Figure
How China Built a Twitter Propaganda Machine Then Let It Loose on Coronavirus: ProPublica analyzed thousands of fake and hijacked Twitter accounts to understand how covert Chinese propaganda spreads around the globe
The Coronavirus Is the Worst Intelligence Failure in U.S. History
The post-viral economy
Cellphone 'heat map' shows just how much people are still traveling
Is factory farming to blame for coronavirus?
How The Wuhan Virus Is Accomplishing The Green New Deal’s Goals
If you're in the mood to bake, I can verify this recipe is good:
Classic Peanut Butter Cookies
"An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit." Pliny the Younger
Thanks for reading--
charles |
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