The Self-Attribution Fallacy
Alternatives to Political Systems, Consumerism, Economics, People Systems, Society — by George Monbiot November 12, 2011
Intelligence? Talent? No, the ultra-rich got to where they are through luck and brutality.
by George Monbiot: journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist, United Kingdom.
If wealth was the inevitable result of hard work and enterprise, every woman in Africa would be a millionaire. The claims that the ultra-rich 1% make for themselves – that they are possessed of unique intelligence or creativity or drive – are examples of the self-attribution fallacy. This means crediting yourself with outcomes for which you weren’t responsible. Many of those who are rich today got there because they were able to capture certain jobs. This capture owes less to talent and intelligence than to a combination of the ruthless exploitation of others and accidents of birth, as such jobs are taken disproportionately by people born in certain places and into certain classes.
Comments (4)The Story of Broke
Alternatives to Political Systems, Consumerism, Economics, Society — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor November 10, 2011
We’ve seen The Story of Stuff, The Story of Electronics and The Story of Cap & Trade. Now Free Range Studios brings their latest entry — The Story of Broke. If the first three videos are commentary on economics run amuck, this latter one is commentary on what comes after…. (Hint: economic collapse.)
The focus here, however, is that we’re not in as big a mess as it seems, if we can just shift our priorities. The focus is on misspent taxes — aka subsidies — and the corporate lobbyists who secure them. As I wrote recently, we need to get the money out of politics, and, as the video here stipulates, we need to stop subsidising our own destruction. It’s just not smart….
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Reasons to Be Fearful
Alternatives to Political Systems, Comedy Break, Consumerism, Economics, Society — by Marc Roberts November 7, 2011
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Courtesy: Marc Roberts
Fear of state reaction is keeping the numbers down. Without it there might be millions.
Comments (3)Take the Money Out of Politics!
Alternatives to Political Systems, Consumerism, Economics, Society — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor November 4, 2011
We’ve been watching our leaders sell out to corporate, extractive interests for so long, it’s almost numbingly normal to us. For example, last year, in the U.S., we saw what appears to be one of the last nails in our socio-economic and environmental coffin, that being the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned laws restricting corporate influence over politics, thereby granting corporations the right to give unlimited funding to the media campaigns of political candidates. This frees big business to 1) ensure their favourite political horse gets the kind of exposure that only multi-billion dollar bank accounts can bring, and/or 2) to use aforesaid billions to vilify any candidate perceived to be any kind of threat to their competitive dominance in the market place.
And what did Joe Citizen do about it? There were some protests, to be sure, but then people settled back in front of their televisions, and life went on. Apparently even Obama wasn’t pleased with the decision, or was that display just to make us feel like something would be done about it? Has anything changed?
Comments (2)A Design for Life
Alternatives to Political Systems, Comedy Break, Consumerism, Economics, People Systems, Society, Village Development — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor October 28, 2011
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Courtesy: Marc Roberts
If I wasn’t so used to such oxymoronic statements, I’d have already fallen off my chair after reading the below quote — in either hysterical laughter, or hysterical despair.
I am pleased to stand before you this morning and confirm that Europe is closer to resolving its financial and economic crisis and to getting back on a path of growth,” Mr Barroso said. — BBC
How can you resolve a financial crisis whilst getting straight back onto the path that put you there in the first place? It sounds like flogging a dead horse to me…. Dozens and dozens of cities are facing the frustrated occupy movement (see here and here), and yet despite the domino effect of growing unrest, the current president of the stuck-together-with-duct-tape European Union can’t see that the "path to growth" is and always will be a highway to hell.
Comments (7)Sucking Out Our Brains Through Our Eyes
Consumerism, Economics, Society — by George Monbiot October 25, 2011
Advertising trashes our happiness and trashes the planet. And my income depends on it.
by George Monbiot: journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist, United Kingdom.
We think we know who the enemies are: banks, big business, lobbyists, the politicians who exist to appease them. But somehow the sector which stitches this system of hypercapitalism together gets overlooked. That seems strange when you consider how pervasive it is. In fact you can probably see it right now. It is everywhere, yet we see without seeing, without understanding the role that it plays in our lives.
I am talking about the industry whose output frames this column and pays for it: advertising. For obvious reasons, it is seldom confronted by either the newspapers or the broadcasters.
Comments (3)Maarten Stapper: “Agricultural Science and Technology is Stuck in a Rut” (IPC10 Presentation Video)
Commercial Farm Projects, Community Projects, Compost, Conferences, Courses/Workshops, Economics, Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Society, Soil Biology, Soil Composition, Soil Conservation, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Structure, Trees, Water Contaminaton & Loss — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor October 20, 2011
I’ve been a fan of Maarten Stapper’s work for a while now. In fact, further below you’ll find an article I wrote, way back in 2007, about his experiences at the hands of his former employer — Australia’s publicly funded CSIRO agricultural research body. I’d recommend you read the article before watching Maarten’s IPC10 Convergence presentation, as it’ll give you a good backgrounder on his valuable work and his commendable ethics. I say ethics because instead of compromising his principles so as to retain favour with those putting bread on his table, he stood his ground… and got sacked instead.
Comments (0)Show Me The Money
Alternatives to Political Systems, Economics, People Systems, Society — by George Monbiot October 18, 2011
We have a democratic right to know who is funding public advocacy.
by George Monbiot: journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist, United Kingdom.
Since the late 19th Century, the very rich have been paying people to demand less government. The work of Herbert Spencer, for example, was sponsored by Andrew Carnegie, John D Rockefeller and Thomas Edison(1). Spencer believed that society changed according to evolutionary laws. Humans were evolving towards perfection, but this process was inhibited by interference from the state. By protecting people from the consequences of their own actions (or their own bad luck), it stopped the winnowing process which would otherwise result in the survival of the fittest.
Social security, publicly-funded education, compulsory vaccination, laws enforcing safety at work all interrupted social evolution. But a self-regulated free market would swiftly ensure that those who were best-adapted would survive and triumph. It’s not hard to see why the millionaires loved him. They saw themselves as winners of the evolutionary race, taking their rightful place at the pinnacle of the social order. Any attempt to limit their freedoms would prevent society from achieving perfection.
Comments (3)Roads to Ruin
Consumerism, Economics, Global Warming/Climate Change, Society, peak oil — by George Monbiot October 13, 2011
A new road-building programme will drain money from essential services.
by George Monbiot: journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist, United Kingdom.
The money has run out, or so we keep being told. There are no funds left for any but essential projects: the frontline services and the capital spending which cannot be deferred. Councils in particular are desperate for cash: so desperate that they are having to cut everything from libraries to residential care homes, Sure Start centres to Citizens’ Advice Bureaux. Every month they have to make horrible decisions whose consequences will damage people’s lives.
So why are these same cash-strapped councils now intending, alongside central government, to spend £897m on new roads, some of which were first proposed decades ago, but which were deemed unnecessary even when cash was abundant? And why is the government minded to approve this spending?
Comments (0)Learning from China: Why the Existing Economic Model Will Fail
Consumerism, Economics, Population, Society — by Earth Policy Institute October 12, 2011
by Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute
For almost as long as I can remember we have been saying that the United States, with 5 percent of the world’s people, consumes a third or more of the earth’s resources. That was true. It is no longer true. Today China consumes more basic resources than the United States does.
Among the key commodities such as grain, meat, oil, coal, and steel, China consumes more of each than the United States except for oil, where the United States still has a wide (though narrowing) lead. China uses a quarter more grain than the United States. Its meat consumption is double that of the United States. It uses three times as much coal and four times as much steel.
These numbers reflect national consumption, but what would happen if consumption per person in China were to catch up to that of the United States? If we assume conservatively that China’s economy slows from the 11 percent annual growth of recent years to 8 percent, then in 2035 income per person in China will reach the current U.S. level.
Comments (2)Sounding the Deeps
Alternatives to Political Systems, Consumerism, Economics, Financial Management, People Systems, Society, peak oil — by George Monbiot October 11, 2011
If this analysis is correct, a Great Depression is all but inevitable.
by George Monbiot: journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist, United Kingdom.
I stumbled out into the autumn sunshine, figures ricocheting around in my head, still trying to absorb what I had heard. I felt as if I had just attended a funeral: a funeral at which all of us got buried. I cannot claim to have understood everything in the lecture: Sonnenschein-Mantel-Debreu Theory and the 41-line differential equation were approximately 15.8 metres over my head(1). But the points I grasped were clear enough. We’re stuffed: stuffed to a degree that scarcely anyone yet appreciates.
Rhamis Kent: Permaculture in Somalia (IPC10 Presentation – Video)
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Conferences, Developments, Economics, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, People Systems, Society, Village Development — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor October 7, 2011
Rhamis Kent speaking at the Tenth International Permaculture Conference
(IPC10), Amman, Jordan, September 2011
Photograph © Craig Mackintosh
The PRI’s Rhamis Kent talks about the situation in Somalia — including the so-called ‘aid’ work presently underway, with its short-term business oriented methods and the social blackmailing it encourages, and constrasts it with the more holistic Permaculture aid methods we are now seeking to bring to the beleaguered nation. The latest good news I’ve had from Rhamis is that Somalia’s Environment Minister has given a big thumbs up to Permaculture and has offered assistance for us to start to wedge Permaculture concepts into the country.
I can’t help but get excited about the potential for Permaculture goodness bringing peace, health and happiness to Somalia. Imagine one day our being able to bring you reports of smiling faces and peaceful and purposeful collaborative success from Somalia as we did recently with Tanzania?
Watch the video below to see Rhamis’ excellent presentation. If you want to follow along with more visible slides from Rhamis’ Powerpoint presentation, you can download that here (14mb Powerpoint) or here (5mb PDF).
Comments (0)Protection, Rights or Legislation – Many Strings to Our Legal Bow
Alternatives to Political Systems, Community Projects, Consumerism, Economics, Ethical Investment, People Systems, Society — by Janet Millington October 6, 2011
If we can give legal personality to non-living entities such as corporations,
why not also give personality to living things like animals and trees?
by Janet Millington
Changes to the law have been made (or “discovered”) to facilitate and support trade(1), colonisation(2), industry(3) and the development of corporation(4). This development has been largely driven by the desire for growth and a healthy economy(5) since the Industrial Revolution. Our legal framework(6) centres on the person and property. Very few, major shifts have been made relying on purely altruistic reasons, but some steps have been made by using the rights of the person and their property to protect or rehabilitate those things(7) valued by humans. This protection might otherwise be considered a moral obligation or a fiduciary duty(8) towards something or someone without legal personality(9). In a human centred legal system, ownership of the object, its economic value to the person, is what affords it protection.
Comments (4)Farming in the Hood
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Economics, Energy Systems, Land, Society, Urban Projects, Village Development — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor
This is inspirational!
See more of their work on their YouTube channel.
Comments (2)Crashing Wall Street
Comedy Break, Economics, Society — by Marc Roberts October 1, 2011
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Courtesy: Marc Roberts
What with the ongoing occupation of New York’s financial district, and City traders coming out from under their gilded rocks in full candour (see below) — Frank thought it about time to break out the D-locks and superglue again.
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