The Unsustainabilty of Western Economics

“THE UNSUSTAINABILITY OF WESTERN ECONOMICIS -- IS THE WRITING ON THE WALL?”

As the global economic meltdown worsens with each subsequent fuel hike, and new reports surface of another bank or country affected by exposure to the “sub prime “investment debacle. I find myself thinking back to the prophets and visionaries of the sixties who were able to foresee the future we now live in. Authors like E.F. Schumacher who wrote “Small is Beautiful“(his daughter recently re released “Small Is Still Beautiful) His book warns of the folly of using fossil fuel recklessly and the stupidity of assuming that it will be there forever. He compared it to cannibalizing and consuming ones own fixed assets, instead of utilizing it wisely and sparingly to create other sustainable technologies.

Obviously oil was cheap and give or take a few political and military hiccups in the Middle East, the taps stayed on and the black gold continued to flow, most of it to the power greedy western economies. We continued building our global growth centered and global warming civilization. The Answer my friend was already blowing in the wind. The subsequent decades were spent constructing one of the most power hungry, energy gobbling civilizations on earth. The wasteful idea of people living far from their places of work and all expending huge amounts of fuel traveling to and from work twice a day and not to mention the resultant pollution that is contributing vastly to global warming. With the present I.T. technologies we are able to work anywhere and anytime. These city centre work places are filled with energy hungry sky scrapers consuming power for lighting and ventilation.

Another term that Schumacher coined was “Appropriate Technology “meaning that the resources used to create the means should be justified by the end use. For example a bicycle once made was carbon neutral and in use thereafter provided cheap and efficient transport. Another example would be an aircraft that is rescuing people is appropriate technology, but not when used as a war machine.

It is a known fact that large concentrations of people have a huge environmental impact on their surroundings with the waste, sewage, traffic congestion and other resultant factors. The unreality of our monetary system is designed to enslave the population in a web of high interest debt and inflation that is built into the workings of the economy.

We are exchanging most of our working life in pursuit of food and shelter and accumulating more and more debt and taxes. In a rural small village environment we could build modest natural homes and grow our own organic food and get rid of all the middle men and packaging that inflates the prices. Surprisingly we might even find that we now have time for dreaming and family pursuits. The spiraling food costs are linked to the energy scarcity and other costs and these are not likely to ever go down again. The “ Bio Fuel “ idea is another example of symptomatic thinking like trying to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic and this idea poses huge risks to the future food supply of planet Earth. The problem is getting rapidly worse as the populous second and third world nations buy into the “ Big Stupid “ and are likely to follow the west into environmental and economic oblivion.

Our centralized Western arms based economies need to smell the coffee and reinvest all those billions of dollars into an economy and a world where people matter. More likely the individual will once more have to lead the way. Perhaps the sixties anthem is relevant once more? TURN ON, TUNE IN AND DROP OUT…..

Harold Kolnik. June 17, 2008

I am presently working in the property industry but have been a whole food manufacturer, natural and comfort wear clothing manufacturer, pioneer of craft markets and also have a great interest in sustainable living. I am happiest in rural unspoilt environments but see these rapidly vanishing all around me. I enjoy traveling and observing other cultures.

The present dead end economic stale mate prompted me to write this article. There has to be a better way to practice economics.

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