capitalism

The Structural Communality of the Commons

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The commons are as varied as life itself, and yet everyone involved with them shares common convictions. If we wish to understand these convictions, we must realize what commons mean in a practical sense, what their function is and always has been. That in turn includes that we concern ourselves with people. After all, commons or common goods are precisely not merely “goods,” but a social practice that generates, uses and preserves common resources and products. In other words, it is about the practice of commons, or commoning, and therefore also about us. The debate about the commons is also a debate about images of humanity. So let us take a step back and begin with the general question about living conditions.

Terminal Capitalism: Part 1

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But the doubts about the viability of capitalism as a system now extend far beyond its traditional critics. The U.S. economy has been in bad shape since about 2007 and the signs of recovery have not improved much since then. To give one example, Richard Heinberg of the Post Carbon Institute notes that the total economic growth in the United States is approximately equal to the annual government deficit. In other words, if the U.S. Treasury were not issuing bond debt, printing fiat currency in cooperation with the private Federal Reserve, which is in de facto control of the U.S. economy through creating new money and setting the prime interest rate, there would actually be negative U.S. economic growth and a severe recession:

How to Enjoy a Free, Movable Feast of Weeds

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Weeds have been given a bad reputation, but they are a spectacular movable feast. By weeds, I am not referring to pot, but the regular herbaceous plants that grow everywhere, where no one planted them… your aunt’s backyard, by the sidewalk, parking lots, park, etc. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, weeds are plants that are not valued for their use, or beauty. Plants that grow wild and strong. So wild and strong that they can take over the growth of what some call ‘superior vegetation’ — meaning those you buy at garden stores and supermarkets.

Cut off from society, sports become junk

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Forget about the nobility of the Olympic spirit or old time sportsmanship. Today, professional sports is just Bread and Circuses for the Great Recession. If junk food contains little nutrition without the benefits of real food, then junk sports provide only empty entertainment without the benefits of real sports.

What could “resilience” mean for economies, people, and places? – Mar 19

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•The Decline of Communities Could Explain America’s Health Problems
•Understanding Resilience
•We’re Hooked on ‘Growth,’ But It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way
•Social democracy in the age of austerity: the radical potential of democratising capital

Three (more) things they don’t tell you about capitalism

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Professor Ha-Joon Chang has two things in common with Karl Marx. Firstly he’s right in much of his economic analysis of the ills of capitalism and secondly his prescriptions of the solutions to these ills are lacking. Chang’s best-selling book 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism is a timely and important addition to the most crucial debate of our age. I recommend it as both a good read and helpful resource. But I think his analysis missed out three final and far more crucial ‘things’ to his 23.

Economics – Feb 22

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•Let’s play fantasy economics. Things could really get better
•Re-imagining a world beyond capitalism and communism
•The End of Growth Wouldn’t Be the End of Capitalism
•Nationhood and the multitude: a new form of political subject?
•Nature and the economy: Marxism in an American labyrinth

What must be done to stop climate change?

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This background of overwhelming public concern helps situate the upcoming national demonstration in Washington, D.C., on February 17, against the building of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline from Canada to Texas. If built, the pipeline will carry 800,000 barrels a day of highly-polluting tar sands oil, effectively dealing a death blow to hopes of preventing rampant climate change. The demonstration has added significance as activists attempt to draw a line in the sand and pose the first big litmus test for the second term of Barack Obama.

Market Monsters

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The monstrosity of capitalism gains new strength as political leaders fight for a return to growth by dissecting society. Though many nations are rising up against the monetary elite, most North Americans are still zombified.