A Contract for Living Together on Earth and a Sustainable Economy

[grahamhgreen]

A friend of mine wrote this (OK, I helped a little) and asked me to post it (Chris Pawling) -

1. The foundation of any economy is the people. It is not the rich or corporations.

2. A stable and healthy economy results when there is a healthy society and the people flourish.

This means that they have well-paying jobs, unemployment is low, there is a low crime rate, a low divorce rate, and that they are healthy and happy. Essentially, the tenets of social democracy are sound in addressing these issues. National health care, affordable or even free education, unemployment benefits and employment programs need to be present to ensure a healthy population, which in turn creates a healthy economy. A healthy society costs less money from taxpayers because there is less crime, less unemployment, and fewer broken homes.

3. When these conditions are met, the people are able to purchase whatever they need.

Housing, food, clothing, healthcare, arts and entertainment. This is how corporations need to make money, not by exploiting or preying on the population in order that the rich accumulate most of the wealth of the nation. It is the function of government, as a servant of the people, to nurture the well-being of the people, and to ensure that basic needs are met. It is not a function of government to be a servant of the rich and the corporations. In other words, the trickle-down theory is a short-sighted con game based on greed and self-interest, not the common good.

4. No corporation should be so large that its failure threatens the national economy. The anti-trust laws of the New Deal were basically sound.

5. Corporations are not people, nor should they be treated like people.

The way to ensure that corporations thrive is to make sure that the foundation that they rest on, the people, thrives. This means that corporations need to be carefully regulated, just like any piece of machinery. Corporations do not have inalienable rights; they need to be carefully regulated, to prevent harm to themselves and to the people and to the earth. Corporations must not have political power in government, or control of our government representatives.

6. Because the foundation for human life is the entire planet, we need to make sure that we do not endanger the natural order of things.

We need to use the earth’s natural resources with discretion, the water, the land, the air, and the life forms on this planet. They are in effect our external organs, and we need to ensure their well-being in order for our own well-being to continue on into the future.

7. We must generously and liberally share this earth with the other life forms, both plants and animals.

The animals and plants on this earth have a right to be here as much as we have a right to be here. They also have a right to enjoy this earth, and we must not use all the land or water or air for our own use.

8. Tolerance of other religions and spiritual paths, including religions and spiritual paths outside the mainstream cultures, including those with no defined name or structure.

No religion should dictate how others outside its membership live their personal lives. No religious group should attempt to impose its beliefs on any others. This means freedom of religion and a complete separation of church and state. We need to honor individual lifestyles. For this reason, do not put people in prison for “victimless crimes.” It is usually not necessary, and sometimes an error of judgment to do so.

9. From this foundation, other matters become evident, such as freedom of speech, freedom of the press, government regulations to ensure that powerful or greedy persons can not endanger the common welfare.

10. This would also lead to proportional representation, where everyone is truly represented in government functions.

11. Unlimited, sustainalble energy, so that we can continue as a people into the future without ruining the planet.

This clearly means that nuclear energy will not be used, as it endangers the well-being of the planet. Other forms of energy need to be used in ways that minimize our impact on this earth. Safe and unlimited energy exists and is already available to us.

12. Seeking peaceful and harmonious relations with other nations.

This means not attacking or threatening or taking over other nations in any way, for profit or resources. Instead, it means treating other nations like our brothers and sisters on this earth.

[niyad]

1. k & r-- thank you for posting this.

[wildflower]

2. "They are in effect our external organs"...

I really like that. Thanks.

[Oregone]

3. Regarding point 2, what happens when people become complacent,

bored, forgetful, or perhaps they are discontent by nature (but blaming the status quo regardless)? Do you not think a flashy, smooth talking "free market" economist that comes into being might be able to shift them away from their otherwise harmonious existence?

I think Ive seen this happening in other countries, and it causes cyclic shifts in the country/economy/society. Is this avoidable? Should it be?

[Lance_Boyle]

4. tip #1 - don't call it a manifesto.

Those are for communists and unibombers.

Call it a "contract." Americans like those. Except when they fail to read them before signing.

[The2ndWheel]

5. #11 is in direct conflict with #6 and #7

Every species impacts the planet simply by existing on it. If the planet is finite, and we have to share, we can't have unlimited energy, no matter how sustainable we tell ourselves it would be. We dramatically altered the environment while hunting with sharp sticks. The more energy we use, the greater the impact, it doesn't matter what the energy is.

Now, as to the rest, you just have to get 6.7+ billion people(and all the other species that don't get to vote in our elections), and all the corporations, and all the regional governments acting in their own interests to agree, on a global scale, for the rest of time. As we see with the $700 billion congress is debating about, something of that magnitude shouldn't be too difficult.

[galileoreloaded]

6. An economy is not a society. Economies flourish when....

they extract and/or refine resources, animal or mineral, or exploit geographical proximity to said resources and capitalize on their movement.

Societies flourish when the participants compliment the economic model, via support mechanisms (social program, tenable governmental structure)and the promise of future growth, increasing the likeliness of stability.

History is replete of these examples.

[riverdeep]

7. I look at this as brainstorming ideas.

Shooting down ideas in a brainstorming session is killing the seed before it can grow.

E. F. Schumacher was following your same basic trajectory. He wrote the influential book 'Small is Beautiful' with the subtitle 'Economics as if People Mattered'. Count me in as one of those that thinks the small mindedness of economic defintions and pursuit of those definitions is what is killing us.