Economic myopia

This is my first attempt at a blog so please bare with me......

I had attempted to write a book with the title 'Growth' Stuff and No-Sense: Will this be our epitaph or our awakening?' but trying to keep a track of the latest developments in the interconnected web of disciplines associated with humankind's activities has proved to be beyond me. In these increasingly complex and often turbulent times, I thought it might be more sensible to try blogging as a way to express myself, as and when I feel that I need to. It will immediately become apparent that I am no expert, I simply offer my thoughts and opinions for your consideration.

I thought I'd start with a observation or two surrounding the 'credit crisis' , 'economic downturn' or 'financial depression' that is so often spoken about. The fundamental problem, as I see it, is that financiers, business people and politicians alike all seem to be suffering from a ubiquitous misapprehension that money is 'real' rather than a system we originally designed for ascribing and trading things of, true value. To illustrate we are told that between 1997 and 2007 the World experienced unprecedented stability of year on year growth however in the same period the productivity of the Earth in terms of actual biomass (the stuff of life) fell year on year, couple this with an exponential growth in the human population then the money side of the equation is not only inverse but disproportionate to the experience of the majority of the World's population.

Small wonder that there was a 'bubble' waiting to be burst. What now concerns me is that the response of the 'good and great' in the World is not only to prop up those who led us here in the first place but also through quantitative easing to pump more money into the system to convince those who elected them or will pay their bonuses that things will soon be back to normal again, if only those with the least money in the economy are prepared to foot the bill through increased taxes over the next decade. This all relies on the myth that the development of a society and the experience of life is predicated on the consumption of non essential goods, when in fact it actually leads to the fragmentation of society, undermining of actual self-worth and the gradual yet inexorable destruction of the planet which actually sustains very life itself.

Why are governments trying to build their way out of this situation? Unemployment continues to rise as does the gap between the 'have's and have not's'. This was and may still be a key opportunity in our history to change not only how we relate to the planet but also to each other. What better time to eliminate waste, to develop truly sustainable process and to employ those out of work on projects associated with ecological solutions? If we are going to spend money let's spend it on addressing the cause not the symptoms.

My contention is that those with most influence over the global economy have developed acute myopia with a huge scotoma covering the contribution economics might make in undoing the immense damage post-industrial man has visited upon the Earth. The Earth's system of which we are but a small part, is complex and interconnected resulting in bounded instability, cause and effect thinking cannot cut it anymore, we must ensure we take a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding and moderating the impact we have, economics will undoubtedly have to play a part but as a servant not a master.

I do not consider myself to be an evangelist quite the opposite, this to me is a fundamentally pragmatic view, assuming that the desired end result is a future for humankind on this Earth. Rest assured the Earth will only tolerate our abuse for so long before it's inherent feedback systems remove the irritation, namely us.