Capitalism – a Self Organizing Structure That Leads to Self Extinction

We live with the belief that we have created an economic system called capitalism and that we have control over it though government policy and taxes.   What if the tables were turned and capitalism only describes a self organizing system that creates itself in an environment of surplus goods and services? 

Your Money or your Life? Putting Wellbeing before GDP

The work on progress indicators is all well and good, especially in challenging the political priority given to GDP. However, over the years I have grown more sceptical of the possibility of measuring, accurately and fully, the state of nations and the wellbeing of their people.

Democrats, Donald Trump, and the Dark Underbelly of Economic Growth

Right now, due to the bipartisan obsession with economic growth, Democrats look like losers at the GDP racetrack, racist sentiments are fair game again, and the rapacious pursuit of growth is liquidating the environment. Democrats, racial minorities, and environmentalists can pine independently, “Woe is me.”

GDP, Jobs, and Fossil Largesse

The good news, of course, is that GDP is an insane metric for success, just as “giant stone heads” was (though to give the Easter islanders their just due, at the time they had no evidence their belief was nuts, while in 2016 we have demonstrable proof that the conclusions of neoclassical economics are refuted by basic science). If we decide that we value happiness, quality of life, and a healthy planet with uncounted thousands of human generations left, we could in principle jettison GDP and do things differently. It won’t be easy, only necessary.