Wall Street's Economic Globalization Agenda

[marmar]

An excerpt from David Korten's "Agenda For a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth":



Wall Street has learned that its ability to generate unearned profits is best served by a system that minimizes local self-reliance and maximizes each locality's dependence on distant resources and markets. A farmers' market where local producers and consumers gather to engage in direct exchanges offers many benefits from a community perspective. The food is fresh, the energy costs of transport are minimal, the energy costs of transport are minimal, the personal exchanges grow community, participants can adapt rapidly to changing local preferences and conditions, and the local economy is cushioned from food shocks elsewhere in the world.

Wall Street observes this scene and says: "What's the profit here? We need a global food system in which producers in Chile depend on customers in New York, and vice versa. Then both are dependent on us to serve as the middleman. We can set prices on both sides and require producers to buy seeds, fertilizers, and insecticides from us at our prices. The greater our success in convincing foreign producers that they can be more efficient and profitable by specializing in particular products and by trading to meet their needs for a diverse diet, the more they depend on us and the greater our profits."

Wall Street's preference for a system of local monocropping everywhere not only leaves each community dependent on its predatory corporate intermediaries but also decreases global food security.

A weather disruption on one side of the world creates food shortages on the other. If the United States decides to convert its corn crop to ethanol, the price of tortillas in Mexico shoots through the roof. One nation can decide that is more profitable to pave over its farmland and import food from a place where a labor and land are cheaper. It may see the fallacy of such short-term financial calculations only when the supplying country experiences a crop failure and decides to shut off its exports in favor or feeding its own people.

Monoculture cropping is particularly vulnerable to invasive pests or a change in weather conditions. Shipping massive quantities of food around the world breaches natural ecosystem barriers and introduces alien predators against which ecosystems on the receiving end have no defenses.

A community using its own resources to meet its needs is unlikely to have its economy devastated by a business deciding to relocate a major factory. Nor is it likely to suffer a loss of its market because of some sudden shift in global terms of trade.

Nature is wise and far-sighted. Wall Street is greedy and short-sighted. We do best when we emulate nature.

[glitch]

1. Love Korten. He's an excellent speaker too, often at Green Festivals. Thanks for posting. nt

[robinlynne]

2. This reminds me of a very interesting story. I was 20 or so, in the Amazon, 30+

years ago. a young lefty liberal with a girlfriend. We landed up in a tiny village, two days on foot balancing on logs to get there. We stayed there for a month. One Sunday, the Catholic priest came. All the people put on their best clothing and killed their chickens to feed him well. I got mad. They didn't have much food there. And I thought I might give the church a piece of my mind. We went to the mass. The priest was telling the people exactly what is in the article above. Produce your own food. Do not believe that because something comes from a city (their equivalent of another country to us), it is ebtter than what you can amke with your own hands. Know the value of your own work, and do not grow only one food source. As it was, they grew one food source, manioc, which trucks would come to buy for pennies, once a month, and sell them rice and other staples for 10 times more.... Turns out, this priest was one of the Latin American revolutionary priests I read about, in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere. We became friends. I still have the photograph of all of us together.

[glitch]

3. Very cool story.

God Bless the revolutionary priests.

[robinlynne]

4. Thanks. the OP reminded me exactly of that priest. The people loved him.

[TexasObserver]

7. Great story. Thanks for telling it.

Makes me think about the film The Mission.

[scarletwoman]

5. Community-based enterprise -- for our food supply, energy generation, & manufactured goods

is the best defense against globalization and corporate serfhood.

Wall Street needs US as thralls to enrich itself -- we DON'T need them. All WE need is wake up out of our consumerist/materialist trance and throw off our chains.

sw

[Sinti]

6. K&R "We do best when we emulate nature." so true for so many reasons n/t

[Orwellian_Ghost]

8. K&R