Remember, I'm blue-skying
>Robert Howes wrote:
>In theory you would patch up your own house or get the trades persons in to do it, for free. But with a >couple of billion homes to maintain and in many millions of cases to build from scratch for the millions >that are at present homeless or living in squalor will take a massive army of brickies, chippies, >electricians, plumbers, roofers, labourers and so on. Also the supply of building materials would have to >be stepped up greatly. And that is just to carry on as we are.
Mike Morin replies:
Here in the Peoples' Equity Union (PEU), I believe that freesocialism is not immediately possible, if ever at all. What the PEU with its partners Community Betterment Organizations (CBOs) is a Capitalist and State Restructuring (even among us, it is prudent not to use the word reform for it implies legislative activity) of the current Capitalist money system and the various National Treasuries, worldwide.
A big part of the grand plan is the rebuilding of communities to make them more ecological, more oriented towards a quality of life starting with the most needy and maintaining for many and "downscaling" for some. It would take an almost absolute consensus on the principles upon which fund were to be allocated, and self-governing economic democracies set up in every community and within and across each economic sector that were inculcated and strongly believed in the principles of the world unity socialist organization.
Rebuilding humane, sustainable, quality of life environments would be problematic from a standpoint of natural resources. Would there be enough building materials and builders, locally placed, to carry out the mission? Wood products would be problematic, as they are generally not reusable and the need, if we chose wood as a building material would be at high risk of exceeding the sustainable harvest of the remaining forests. Stone products would probably be more resusable and deconstruction and reconstruction would brobably be a booming busyness, given the existence of willing and able workers who had the knowledge, equipment, and energy to carry out the necessary tasks.
With respect to Robert's concern about having built for nuclear families, I think that rebuilding, whenever possible should favor shelters that house extended families (whether they be extended families or not) and community living arrangements. The nuclear family has proven to be dysfunctional, leading to the atomization and a world filled with isolated and alienated individuals (just what the Capitalists want). However, physically adjusting for the nuclear family build out should probably not be an immediate priority, at least not in the more western United States. We need to concentrate at building more community centers so that supply side reallocation of goods and services can physically take place (i.e. rebuild our neighborhoods so that the things people need are within walking distance of their home thereby greatly reducing the amount of precious fossil fuels used on the terribly squandering daily consumer automobile forays).
If we could unify in mission, principles, and dedication to the allocation of resources such a socialist eutopia could be worked towards.
Those are ridiculously huge IFs, but I've come this far, so voila...
Mike Morin
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Why I Carry On...
Torgun and "World in Common" Friends,
Maybe we should change the name of the discussion group/initiative to "World in Despair", or maybe "World in Common Despair". Maybe that would attract the attention that we need to bring to the human condition and the cause of socialism. Almost everyone is living in despair, yet most would attribute it to their personal situation.
To the extent to which Capitalism and the ascription to it is the cause of so much unhappiness is beyond measure, but more importantly probably beyond repair. The former is inevitable, as Capitalism is such a dominant paradigm and has been for centuries, replacing feudalism and slavery as the oppressive force of a ruling "class". The reality that the damage caused by Capitalism is beyond repair is reflected everywhere we look.
I don't know the situation of others on this list, but I have been put in a situation where all my time is my own (an early retirement, if you will). I have had a lot of time to study and contemplate the world and the economic situation. Most people have to spend their entire lives niche-seeking and niche-living within the status quo. Their own brand of despair is thus intricately tied to their personal predicament and the soulless existence that they probably had to adopt to adapt to a soulless Capitalism.
Like all rationalists, for me it is a constant battle against hopelessness. That is why I join discussion groups like "World in Common". It is an exercise in felicity, finding common cause with others who have similar and diverse perceptions and perspectives, but a common wish to make the world a better place. It is almost like a religion.
What Jim wrote about contributing to the consciousness and eventual triumph of socialism certainly requires a great amount of faith. We believe in what we are doing, and feel good about moving those agendas forward.
A friend said "keep doing what you're doing, although you think that you are not making a difference, you never know, maybe you are having a positive impact on others and are just not getting the feedback on it". Let's keep trying as long as we have the time and the outlet, I'm so far past the motivation of looking for another job. It has reached the point of impossibility for me. There is not a good fit between my values, my integrity, my interests, my skills, etc. and the niches offered by the Capitalist system. For what it is worth, the structural unemployment problem within Capitalism is growing at an accelerating rate, so there is will be more of a pool of potential ascribers to the World in Common message, though it is doubtful that we will ever logistically be able to reach those millions, those billions. Even if we could, what would we tell them? It is not necessary for us to resolve that question, but if the world were approaching unity and communicating about a "world in common", we would be a very long way closer to our goals.
Mike Morin
Maybe we should change the name of the discussion group/initiative to "World in Despair", or maybe "World in Common Despair". Maybe that would attract the attention that we need to bring to the human condition and the cause of socialism. Almost everyone is living in despair, yet most would attribute it to their personal situation.
To the extent to which Capitalism and the ascription to it is the cause of so much unhappiness is beyond measure, but more importantly probably beyond repair. The former is inevitable, as Capitalism is such a dominant paradigm and has been for centuries, replacing feudalism and slavery as the oppressive force of a ruling "class". The reality that the damage caused by Capitalism is beyond repair is reflected everywhere we look.
I don't know the situation of others on this list, but I have been put in a situation where all my time is my own (an early retirement, if you will). I have had a lot of time to study and contemplate the world and the economic situation. Most people have to spend their entire lives niche-seeking and niche-living within the status quo. Their own brand of despair is thus intricately tied to their personal predicament and the soulless existence that they probably had to adopt to adapt to a soulless Capitalism.
Like all rationalists, for me it is a constant battle against hopelessness. That is why I join discussion groups like "World in Common". It is an exercise in felicity, finding common cause with others who have similar and diverse perceptions and perspectives, but a common wish to make the world a better place. It is almost like a religion.
What Jim wrote about contributing to the consciousness and eventual triumph of socialism certainly requires a great amount of faith. We believe in what we are doing, and feel good about moving those agendas forward.
A friend said "keep doing what you're doing, although you think that you are not making a difference, you never know, maybe you are having a positive impact on others and are just not getting the feedback on it". Let's keep trying as long as we have the time and the outlet, I'm so far past the motivation of looking for another job. It has reached the point of impossibility for me. There is not a good fit between my values, my integrity, my interests, my skills, etc. and the niches offered by the Capitalist system. For what it is worth, the structural unemployment problem within Capitalism is growing at an accelerating rate, so there is will be more of a pool of potential ascribers to the World in Common message, though it is doubtful that we will ever logistically be able to reach those millions, those billions. Even if we could, what would we tell them? It is not necessary for us to resolve that question, but if the world were approaching unity and communicating about a "world in common", we would be a very long way closer to our goals.
Mike Morin
On Despair (to the folks at "World in Common")
>united by our opposition to capitalism and the state and by our search for practical >alternatives.
As long as there is hope in your minds and an outlet for your thoughts, your project can never be considered a failure.
I am just projecting my personal disappointment because my attempt, which I put a lot of work into, to develop practical alternatives to Capitalism have turned out to be not practical at all.
I am cynical about the prospects for the human race. Don't let my cycnicicm get you down. If you see there is positive work to be done, then by all means do it, and please share it with me because having even the tiniest shred of hope feels better than complete and utter despair.
It makes me feel better to write this note. Here in Eugene, OR, USA, the population is totally atomized. There is no hope, only despair in the culture. People just drive around all day (consuming?, looking for work?, joy riding?), and others on the street are really down, if not out. That's how I feel down, if not out. The economic culture is impossible and it is collapsing, one person at a time. There are no productive facilities for the workers to take over, everything is made somewhere else. They have created a consumer culture, which is now failing, and I see no avenue out of that failure. I treied to devise and organize, but I have failed and I don't see a magical coalescence of free socialism on the horizon. Such would be nice, very nice, but the chances of it happening are nil, or to keep hope alive, next to nil.
Workers here work almost exclusively in distribution. They are so alienated by the environment of their work that they have no desire to own those means of distribution. Even if they did desire such, their understanding of the economic hiearchy under which they are marginalized, precludes in their minds any hope for such worker ownership to ever take place.
You see, there is a lot more to the economy, especially one whic is so globalized than owning the means of production. Even if that were to be the goal for workers, it would not benefit the local workers here. Owning the means of distribution in a fair trade arrangement with worker owned means of production would take a massive organizing effort. Workers are not even the slightest bit organized, nor does it seem likely that they could be made interested and believe that such could be successful.
Even by the far-fetched possibility that it could, we would still be creating market socialism. Just how we would go that additional giant step to free socialism has never been made clear, at least not to me.
Thank you WIC for trying. I hope that I can find the felicity to keep trying, as well.
Most sincerely,
Mike Morin
As long as there is hope in your minds and an outlet for your thoughts, your project can never be considered a failure.
I am just projecting my personal disappointment because my attempt, which I put a lot of work into, to develop practical alternatives to Capitalism have turned out to be not practical at all.
I am cynical about the prospects for the human race. Don't let my cycnicicm get you down. If you see there is positive work to be done, then by all means do it, and please share it with me because having even the tiniest shred of hope feels better than complete and utter despair.
It makes me feel better to write this note. Here in Eugene, OR, USA, the population is totally atomized. There is no hope, only despair in the culture. People just drive around all day (consuming?, looking for work?, joy riding?), and others on the street are really down, if not out. That's how I feel down, if not out. The economic culture is impossible and it is collapsing, one person at a time. There are no productive facilities for the workers to take over, everything is made somewhere else. They have created a consumer culture, which is now failing, and I see no avenue out of that failure. I treied to devise and organize, but I have failed and I don't see a magical coalescence of free socialism on the horizon. Such would be nice, very nice, but the chances of it happening are nil, or to keep hope alive, next to nil.
Workers here work almost exclusively in distribution. They are so alienated by the environment of their work that they have no desire to own those means of distribution. Even if they did desire such, their understanding of the economic hiearchy under which they are marginalized, precludes in their minds any hope for such worker ownership to ever take place.
You see, there is a lot more to the economy, especially one whic is so globalized than owning the means of production. Even if that were to be the goal for workers, it would not benefit the local workers here. Owning the means of distribution in a fair trade arrangement with worker owned means of production would take a massive organizing effort. Workers are not even the slightest bit organized, nor does it seem likely that they could be made interested and believe that such could be successful.
Even by the far-fetched possibility that it could, we would still be creating market socialism. Just how we would go that additional giant step to free socialism has never been made clear, at least not to me.
Thank you WIC for trying. I hope that I can find the felicity to keep trying, as well.
Most sincerely,
Mike Morin
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Letter to Friend Vanessa (In Venezuela)
Hi Vanessa,
Good to "hear" from you.
Sorry that you are going through hard and/or traumatic times.
I hope it all works out for you and soon...
I read about the displacement of the indigenous in Peru and the fighting that was going on. In the news report we got in the USA, the headlines said "9 Policeman Killed in Peru". You had to read deep into the story to see that 31 "Indians" were killed and many more injured. Same attitudes that John Woolman had to endure, I guess.
The people in the United States are still consuming gasoline with a fervent madness and they either don't know, don't perceive it that way, and/or don't care about the injustices that go on: Peru, Nigeria, Iraq, Afghanistan, elsewhere, and the injustice that they are doing to the children of the world, including their own.
Two reports just came out, one regarding how much money is being spent on military supplies and operations ($1.46 trillion), with by far the most by the United States, and another discussing the world hunger situation and the dire prognosis of over 200 million more people falling into "absolute poverty". It isn't that we can't produce the food (especially if we reallocated military spending to humanitarian (i.e. food, housing, education, sanitation, resource conservation, etc.)), it's that within the Capitalism system, many people can't pay for it (Can't pay, can't have).
We need someone like Hugo Chavez to make a proclamation regarding the absurdity and irrationality of the above mentioned dichotomy, and to call for world unity among the people and the leaders of the world for a fundamental shift from Capitalism to socialism in the way that resources get allocated. It would be great if Hugo, Obama, the leader of Iran, and the leader of the Peoples' Republic of China all got together, with the support of other leaders, and made such an appeal and commitment. I'm sure that the people of the world would strongly support such leadership.
We need a world economy that is based on the principles of meeting the needs of people, equity, humanity, inclusion, quality of life, peace, and sustainability rather than one that seeks to maximize profits for a minority, and seeks infinite growth on a finite planet and promises trickle-down benefits to workers and totally disregards the poor.
Count me in on "Thee Socialist Friend" magazine. Let me know how I can contribute.
Great to "hear' from thee...
Let's keep in close touch.
With much love and care,
Mike Morin
Good to "hear" from you.
Sorry that you are going through hard and/or traumatic times.
I hope it all works out for you and soon...
I read about the displacement of the indigenous in Peru and the fighting that was going on. In the news report we got in the USA, the headlines said "9 Policeman Killed in Peru". You had to read deep into the story to see that 31 "Indians" were killed and many more injured. Same attitudes that John Woolman had to endure, I guess.
The people in the United States are still consuming gasoline with a fervent madness and they either don't know, don't perceive it that way, and/or don't care about the injustices that go on: Peru, Nigeria, Iraq, Afghanistan, elsewhere, and the injustice that they are doing to the children of the world, including their own.
Two reports just came out, one regarding how much money is being spent on military supplies and operations ($1.46 trillion), with by far the most by the United States, and another discussing the world hunger situation and the dire prognosis of over 200 million more people falling into "absolute poverty". It isn't that we can't produce the food (especially if we reallocated military spending to humanitarian (i.e. food, housing, education, sanitation, resource conservation, etc.)), it's that within the Capitalism system, many people can't pay for it (Can't pay, can't have).
We need someone like Hugo Chavez to make a proclamation regarding the absurdity and irrationality of the above mentioned dichotomy, and to call for world unity among the people and the leaders of the world for a fundamental shift from Capitalism to socialism in the way that resources get allocated. It would be great if Hugo, Obama, the leader of Iran, and the leader of the Peoples' Republic of China all got together, with the support of other leaders, and made such an appeal and commitment. I'm sure that the people of the world would strongly support such leadership.
We need a world economy that is based on the principles of meeting the needs of people, equity, humanity, inclusion, quality of life, peace, and sustainability rather than one that seeks to maximize profits for a minority, and seeks infinite growth on a finite planet and promises trickle-down benefits to workers and totally disregards the poor.
Count me in on "Thee Socialist Friend" magazine. Let me know how I can contribute.
Great to "hear' from thee...
Let's keep in close touch.
With much love and care,
Mike Morin
Friday, June 12, 2009
Over-Supply Side Economics
I think that what we are seeing is not just the bursting of the housing bubble, but the bursting of the entire supply-side economics paradigm, by a couple of generations of Capitalists who thought that they were infallible, in good part because of their "victories" in WW2 and the Cold War and were riding a wave of ASSUMED success.
The presumption of success had momentum and affected the business culture to the point that credit and equity flowed freely and foolishly.
Now, reality is setting in. Over-supply side economics cutting its own throat by paying no attention to how their worldwide dominance of financing low wage Capitalism, a race to the bottom for the working class, was undermining effective demand for their over-supply of low quality, of marginal utility junk. The over-extension of credit "helped" for awhile, at least until all the overly materialistic fools had filled their over-priced luxury and common-place homes with a plethora of unnecessary toys, including those gas gluttonous opulent ostentations in their driveways. Then the bills came due and the over-supply economy was so over-supplied and credit so maxed out that it ceased to be able to grease the wheel of the assumed insatiable wants economy.
The price of gasoline and other fossil fuel products contributed in helping to weaken effective demand for what would have to be seen as an impossible continuation of mindless commerce.
In order to sustain wealth, people have to produce items of value. Other than the computer industry, it's all been speculation, more speculation, more speculation, more speculation, fueled by greed and accelerated by foolish arrogance.
Mike Morin
The presumption of success had momentum and affected the business culture to the point that credit and equity flowed freely and foolishly.
Now, reality is setting in. Over-supply side economics cutting its own throat by paying no attention to how their worldwide dominance of financing low wage Capitalism, a race to the bottom for the working class, was undermining effective demand for their over-supply of low quality, of marginal utility junk. The over-extension of credit "helped" for awhile, at least until all the overly materialistic fools had filled their over-priced luxury and common-place homes with a plethora of unnecessary toys, including those gas gluttonous opulent ostentations in their driveways. Then the bills came due and the over-supply economy was so over-supplied and credit so maxed out that it ceased to be able to grease the wheel of the assumed insatiable wants economy.
The price of gasoline and other fossil fuel products contributed in helping to weaken effective demand for what would have to be seen as an impossible continuation of mindless commerce.
In order to sustain wealth, people have to produce items of value. Other than the computer industry, it's all been speculation, more speculation, more speculation, more speculation, fueled by greed and accelerated by foolish arrogance.
Mike Morin
One Cooperating "System"
If only it were so simple as "two competing systems".
Socialist critics of the USSR and the Peoples' Republic of China call such countries "State Capitalism". I think that is partially what Quinny is referring to when he talks about "the Soviets" falling for the "higher living standards' dogma of Capitalism.
I'm not so sure that it was consumerism that toppled the "Soviet" Empire, although the old adage, "how ya' gonna' keep 'em down on the farm once they've seen the lights of the big city" was certainly a greed based propaganda weapon of the Capitalist "West".
The Soviets and the Chinese found that they had serious quality of life issues and that the reality of socialism was harder than the theory and they found themselves in an expensive arms race because they recognized that they needed to counter the Western economic and military hegemony (and the "West" (read USA and the wimps of NATO) recognized that the Communists seeked a worldwide (international) counter-hegemony).
Since the fall of the USSR, the USA led Capitalists have proven their worldwide hegemonic intentions.
Who knows what the Chinese are doing? Any and all information about that country needs to be filtered through the lens of Western propaganda. Maybe they are beating "US" at our own game.
Regardless, the future is not ours to see in China.
What the world needs is "one cooperating system". That is what socialism is, in theory.
Socialist critics of the USSR and the Peoples' Republic of China call such countries "State Capitalism". I think that is partially what Quinny is referring to when he talks about "the Soviets" falling for the "higher living standards' dogma of Capitalism.
I'm not so sure that it was consumerism that toppled the "Soviet" Empire, although the old adage, "how ya' gonna' keep 'em down on the farm once they've seen the lights of the big city" was certainly a greed based propaganda weapon of the Capitalist "West".
The Soviets and the Chinese found that they had serious quality of life issues and that the reality of socialism was harder than the theory and they found themselves in an expensive arms race because they recognized that they needed to counter the Western economic and military hegemony (and the "West" (read USA and the wimps of NATO) recognized that the Communists seeked a worldwide (international) counter-hegemony).
Since the fall of the USSR, the USA led Capitalists have proven their worldwide hegemonic intentions.
Who knows what the Chinese are doing? Any and all information about that country needs to be filtered through the lens of Western propaganda. Maybe they are beating "US" at our own game.
Regardless, the future is not ours to see in China.
What the world needs is "one cooperating system". That is what socialism is, in theory.
Benevolent Direction (While Discussing Peak Oil)
All this talk about "benevolent dictator" misses the point.
What we need is benevolent direction.
Patience makes the point that people will not "get it" until it is too late. Is that not a self-fulfilling prophecy?
It is true in countries that at least profess and/or desire to be "economic democracies", that there is more continuity in leadership. That continuity in leadership exists in at least part due to a consensus among the people relative to what that leadership represents.
Allowing Obama to serve for the rest of his life, for example, would not extricate him, or us, from the dominance of the for-profit, acquisitiveness, standard of living, military and economic hegemonic Capitalist Dictatorship mindset that governs the resources of the United States and dominates the culture into a ravenous swarm of lemming consumers.
Obama's (or someone else's) "seeing the light" and becoming a benevolent consistent spokesman for the improvement of education in the United States to make "the world more cooperative" (as opposed to his claim for the need to make "the Nation more competitive" would not require that the man become a Dictator. As a matter of fact, any attempts to act like a Dictator will be summarily rejected by the people of the United States. Yet, we truely do need a world spokesman, one that can speak to national interests, in perspective, a continuing ministry of education that is radically different from the Capitalist propaganda machine under which we now suffer.
We need not only an economic paradigm shift so simply stated as "cooperation not competition", we also need an economic and cultural shift that fundamentally changes direction away from the National Highway Act of 1950, and away from one that places the automobile (a world annihilating super-nova) as central to the economy and culture.
We need a paradigm change around the issues of community, human needs, and community betterment including the desired principles of equity, inclusion, humanity, quality of life, peace, and SUSTAINABILITY (both economic and in relation to finite natural resources (e.g. peak oil)) and away from domination of of a self-serving, manipulating and dominating Capitalist minority.
Mike Morin
What we need is benevolent direction.
Patience makes the point that people will not "get it" until it is too late. Is that not a self-fulfilling prophecy?
It is true in countries that at least profess and/or desire to be "economic democracies", that there is more continuity in leadership. That continuity in leadership exists in at least part due to a consensus among the people relative to what that leadership represents.
Allowing Obama to serve for the rest of his life, for example, would not extricate him, or us, from the dominance of the for-profit, acquisitiveness, standard of living, military and economic hegemonic Capitalist Dictatorship mindset that governs the resources of the United States and dominates the culture into a ravenous swarm of lemming consumers.
Obama's (or someone else's) "seeing the light" and becoming a benevolent consistent spokesman for the improvement of education in the United States to make "the world more cooperative" (as opposed to his claim for the need to make "the Nation more competitive" would not require that the man become a Dictator. As a matter of fact, any attempts to act like a Dictator will be summarily rejected by the people of the United States. Yet, we truely do need a world spokesman, one that can speak to national interests, in perspective, a continuing ministry of education that is radically different from the Capitalist propaganda machine under which we now suffer.
We need not only an economic paradigm shift so simply stated as "cooperation not competition", we also need an economic and cultural shift that fundamentally changes direction away from the National Highway Act of 1950, and away from one that places the automobile (a world annihilating super-nova) as central to the economy and culture.
We need a paradigm change around the issues of community, human needs, and community betterment including the desired principles of equity, inclusion, humanity, quality of life, peace, and SUSTAINABILITY (both economic and in relation to finite natural resources (e.g. peak oil)) and away from domination of of a self-serving, manipulating and dominating Capitalist minority.
Mike Morin
Monday, June 8, 2009
Revolution or Reform? Reply to "Socialism or Your Money Back" Blog
You do a good job of debunking reform and all arguments for it.
Yet your pronouncement in favor of "peaceful, democratic revolution" appears to be a hollow one.
How does such differ from reform? Are you suggesting "taking over the economy" by "voting in the work-place"?
I don't understand. I want to. I seek the same results as you. I know there are no simple answers, if any at all, but can we make some progress about how to carry out a "peaceful, democratic revolution" without restructuring (how does that differ from reforming?) the economic and political process? I know the WSM answer to the political process is to "dismantle governments" and much of that, aside from "safety net" programs does need to occur. But, can you not envisage an associated "government" of inter-syndicalist and inter-community faciltators?
If so, how do we get from here to there?
Thank you.
Mike Morin
Yet your pronouncement in favor of "peaceful, democratic revolution" appears to be a hollow one.
How does such differ from reform? Are you suggesting "taking over the economy" by "voting in the work-place"?
I don't understand. I want to. I seek the same results as you. I know there are no simple answers, if any at all, but can we make some progress about how to carry out a "peaceful, democratic revolution" without restructuring (how does that differ from reforming?) the economic and political process? I know the WSM answer to the political process is to "dismantle governments" and much of that, aside from "safety net" programs does need to occur. But, can you not envisage an associated "government" of inter-syndicalist and inter-community faciltators?
If so, how do we get from here to there?
Thank you.
Mike Morin
Response to Jude
Jude et al,
Jude, if you are writing about my recent post on forming a local equity union, it is true that it will not be 'competitive" to "investors" in the inflationary Capitalist Economic system. Also Community Betterment Organizations (CBOs) will be subject to the same impossible conditions that the Capitalist system has created for itself and for us. Therefore, any equity sharing allotment will be subject to the risk of losing that money.
With respect to involving the poor and dispossesed, we must focus on youth (other than keeping safety-net programs for the more elderly) and we will need Government Assistance in the forms of educational and vocational training and direct allotments.
I hold no illusions. For a Peoples' Equity Union socialist restructuring to succeed, while evolving on the local level, everywhere, will require "capturing" the Treasuries of all, or at least most nations, eventually evolving to a worldwide treasury (a treasury without borders).
Jude, if you are writing about my recent post on forming a local equity union, it is true that it will not be 'competitive" to "investors" in the inflationary Capitalist Economic system. Also Community Betterment Organizations (CBOs) will be subject to the same impossible conditions that the Capitalist system has created for itself and for us. Therefore, any equity sharing allotment will be subject to the risk of losing that money.
With respect to involving the poor and dispossesed, we must focus on youth (other than keeping safety-net programs for the more elderly) and we will need Government Assistance in the forms of educational and vocational training and direct allotments.
I hold no illusions. For a Peoples' Equity Union socialist restructuring to succeed, while evolving on the local level, everywhere, will require "capturing" the Treasuries of all, or at least most nations, eventually evolving to a worldwide treasury (a treasury without borders).
Friday, June 5, 2009
Local
Hi Dan,
Great to "hear" from you, as always.
Does Ode Magazine have a website (version)? I will look.
Interesting that you would introduce the topic of altruism, one that we were recently discussing on a "World in Common" discussion group.
I think that the profit motive of Capitalism, (versus the needs of people motive of socialism (at least in theory)) leads to social atomization and alienation and thus to very unhealthy cynical cut-throat competitive behavior which precludes altruism. It is interesting that the example that you gave was from firefighters, viewed by many as champions of PUBLIC SERVICE.
I, too, have some discretionary funds that I would like to put into trust for public service and altruistic endeavors. Perhaps, you and I (and others if we can find them) should investigate creating a local Peoples' Equity fund. My idea on that is to see if we can open a group trust account in a Credit Union, where each trustee would have an individual account, yet allocations to community betterment projects could be done collectively, with each individual signing off on the amount that they want to dedicate to the project.
The idea would be that we would "invest" in community betterment projects with the care that we would expect to only get the par value of our "investment" back or we could choose to make individual and/or collective tax-deductible or maybe tax credit eligible contributions to "qualified" 501(c)(3) community betterment organizations (CBOs)
CBOs could be not-for-profit, non-profit or both.
That's enough for now.
What think?
Mike
Great to "hear" from you, as always.
Does Ode Magazine have a website (version)? I will look.
Interesting that you would introduce the topic of altruism, one that we were recently discussing on a "World in Common" discussion group.
I think that the profit motive of Capitalism, (versus the needs of people motive of socialism (at least in theory)) leads to social atomization and alienation and thus to very unhealthy cynical cut-throat competitive behavior which precludes altruism. It is interesting that the example that you gave was from firefighters, viewed by many as champions of PUBLIC SERVICE.
I, too, have some discretionary funds that I would like to put into trust for public service and altruistic endeavors. Perhaps, you and I (and others if we can find them) should investigate creating a local Peoples' Equity fund. My idea on that is to see if we can open a group trust account in a Credit Union, where each trustee would have an individual account, yet allocations to community betterment projects could be done collectively, with each individual signing off on the amount that they want to dedicate to the project.
The idea would be that we would "invest" in community betterment projects with the care that we would expect to only get the par value of our "investment" back or we could choose to make individual and/or collective tax-deductible or maybe tax credit eligible contributions to "qualified" 501(c)(3) community betterment organizations (CBOs)
CBOs could be not-for-profit, non-profit or both.
That's enough for now.
What think?
Mike
Local
Hi Dan,
Great to "hear" from you, as always.
Does Ode Magazine have a website (version)? I will look.
Interesting that you would introduce the topic of altruism, one that we were recently discussing on a "World in Common" discussion group.
I think that the profit motive of Capitalism, (versus the needs of people motive of socialism (at least in theory)) leads to social atomization and alienation and thus to very unhealthy cynical cut-throat competitive behavior which precludes altruism. It is interesting that the example that you gave was from firefighters, viewed by many as champions of PUBLIC SERVICE.
I, too, have some discretionary funds that I would like to put into trust for public service and altruistic endeavors. Perhaps, you and I (and others if we can find them) should investigate creating a local Peoples' Equity fund. My idea on that is to see if we can open a group trust account in a Credit Union, where each trustee would have an individual account, yet allocations to community betterment projects could be done collectively, with each individual signing off on the amount that they want to dedicate to the project.
The idea would be that we would "invest" in community betterment projects with the care that we would expect to only get the par value of our "investment" back or we could choose to make individual and/or collective tax-deductible or maybe tax credit eligible contributions to "qualified" 501(c)(3) community betterment organizations (CBOs)
CBOs could be not-for-profit, non-profit or both.
That's enough for now.
What think?
Mike
Great to "hear" from you, as always.
Does Ode Magazine have a website (version)? I will look.
Interesting that you would introduce the topic of altruism, one that we were recently discussing on a "World in Common" discussion group.
I think that the profit motive of Capitalism, (versus the needs of people motive of socialism (at least in theory)) leads to social atomization and alienation and thus to very unhealthy cynical cut-throat competitive behavior which precludes altruism. It is interesting that the example that you gave was from firefighters, viewed by many as champions of PUBLIC SERVICE.
I, too, have some discretionary funds that I would like to put into trust for public service and altruistic endeavors. Perhaps, you and I (and others if we can find them) should investigate creating a local Peoples' Equity fund. My idea on that is to see if we can open a group trust account in a Credit Union, where each trustee would have an individual account, yet allocations to community betterment projects could be done collectively, with each individual signing off on the amount that they want to dedicate to the project.
The idea would be that we would "invest" in community betterment projects with the care that we would expect to only get the par value of our "investment" back or we could choose to make individual and/or collective tax-deductible or maybe tax credit eligible contributions to "qualified" 501(c)(3) community betterment organizations (CBOs)
CBOs could be not-for-profit, non-profit or both.
That's enough for now.
What think?
Mike
Re-Introducing Myself and My Work
Hi Folks,
I've noticed that this list is not very active, with the most recent posts being in Spanish.
Are there "lurkers" out there waiting to be stimulated into discussing eco/anarcho-syndicalist proposals and ideas relative to alternatives to the Capitalist status quo.
I am a 55 year old Friend who has a BS in Environmental Studies, Graduate and lifelong study and conceptual development in the fields of Economics (particularly Comparative Economic Systems), Regional and Resource Planning. I perceive myself to be somewhat unusual in that along the way while having to find work in the Capitalist system, I became a Socialist with a MBA degree. This has served me well in understanding and developing a somewhat new field of study, thought, and discussion which I call "Regional and Resource Allocation".
My thesis is that we gravely need to fundamentally change the way in which resources are allocated to and within communities, and within and among economic sectors with the mission of ecological economic neighborhood/inter-community/inter-regional/worldwide redevelopment based on the principles of equity, humanity, inclusion, quality of life, sustainability and peace.
I hope we can begin, again.
Thanks.
Mike Morin
I've noticed that this list is not very active, with the most recent posts being in Spanish.
Are there "lurkers" out there waiting to be stimulated into discussing eco/anarcho-syndicalist proposals and ideas relative to alternatives to the Capitalist status quo.
I am a 55 year old Friend who has a BS in Environmental Studies, Graduate and lifelong study and conceptual development in the fields of Economics (particularly Comparative Economic Systems), Regional and Resource Planning. I perceive myself to be somewhat unusual in that along the way while having to find work in the Capitalist system, I became a Socialist with a MBA degree. This has served me well in understanding and developing a somewhat new field of study, thought, and discussion which I call "Regional and Resource Allocation".
My thesis is that we gravely need to fundamentally change the way in which resources are allocated to and within communities, and within and among economic sectors with the mission of ecological economic neighborhood/inter-community/inter-regional/worldwide redevelopment based on the principles of equity, humanity, inclusion, quality of life, sustainability and peace.
I hope we can begin, again.
Thanks.
Mike Morin
Thursday, June 4, 2009
In Response to Obama's "New Beginning" Speech Regarding Peace with the Islamic World
To David Axelrod - Senior Advisor to the President of the United States,
You wrote:
"The President outlined some big goals for this new beginning in his speech -- including disrupting, dismantling, and defeating violent "extremism" "
My response:
Why threaten with violence to stop violence.
Such an approach is counter-productive.
Lawlessness is the strength of the violent, not the non-violent. The law is the strength of the violent, not the non-violent.
Can non-violence work?
I like the word equity, because it means equality and it means ownership. Until people feel "enfranchised", they are going to do desperate things, like acts of violence.As long as others think that they have "God's blessing" or some other way of describing an earned or unearned "right" to superior economic holdings then there will be oppression, exploitation, enslavement and/or disregard for the poor. There will always be resistance to that. Moslems know the American History of and proclivity to genocide, and it is antithetical to their faith to yield to such.How do we convince a huge minority that hold Capitalist competitive advantage, and hide their "invisible hands" with obscurity and privacy, and either espouse or disingenuously practice disregard for their fellow humans, how do we convince them to reconsider and join in an effort of world unity?
Obama and the US need to do much work to reduce the US and Capitalist ally exploitation of the Moslem world, particularly the fossil fuel resource. For purposes of inter-factional peace, as well (pun intended) as to the domestic and worldwide survival and quality of life considerations regarding finite resources (most particularly oil), the USA must immediately commit to and undertake a program to reduce automobile usage by 80% over the next 20 to 40 years by implementing a demand side management and supply side reallocation plan, which would be a comprehensive socialist plan to rebuild all plans and reallocate goods and services so that all, or almost all, communities are "walkable" meaning that all folks can get what they need and reasonably want within walking distance of their homes. In most of the country, particularly environs further west, this will require substantial REBUILDING of neighborhoods. Think of the massive jobs and equity opportunities, domestically, and the opportunity to increase the quality of life for all, especially our least fortunate, while setting in motion a massive relief of tension that contributes to discord in the Middle East and South Asia, the unfair thievery and thuggery involved in the USA Geopolitical activities concerning the oil resources in that part of the world.
Face it, Mr. President, and have the courage (and I know you have the grace) to address the gluttonous squandering of such a precious natural gift (fossil fuels) and convince the people of the USA that we must fundamentally change course from a genocidal, ecocidal, suicidal "standard of living" paradigm to one that incorporates equity, inclusion, humanity, quality of life, sustainability, and PEACE...
With much love and care,
Mike Morin
You wrote:
"The President outlined some big goals for this new beginning in his speech -- including disrupting, dismantling, and defeating violent "extremism" "
My response:
Why threaten with violence to stop violence.
Such an approach is counter-productive.
Lawlessness is the strength of the violent, not the non-violent. The law is the strength of the violent, not the non-violent.
Can non-violence work?
I like the word equity, because it means equality and it means ownership. Until people feel "enfranchised", they are going to do desperate things, like acts of violence.As long as others think that they have "God's blessing" or some other way of describing an earned or unearned "right" to superior economic holdings then there will be oppression, exploitation, enslavement and/or disregard for the poor. There will always be resistance to that. Moslems know the American History of and proclivity to genocide, and it is antithetical to their faith to yield to such.How do we convince a huge minority that hold Capitalist competitive advantage, and hide their "invisible hands" with obscurity and privacy, and either espouse or disingenuously practice disregard for their fellow humans, how do we convince them to reconsider and join in an effort of world unity?
Obama and the US need to do much work to reduce the US and Capitalist ally exploitation of the Moslem world, particularly the fossil fuel resource. For purposes of inter-factional peace, as well (pun intended) as to the domestic and worldwide survival and quality of life considerations regarding finite resources (most particularly oil), the USA must immediately commit to and undertake a program to reduce automobile usage by 80% over the next 20 to 40 years by implementing a demand side management and supply side reallocation plan, which would be a comprehensive socialist plan to rebuild all plans and reallocate goods and services so that all, or almost all, communities are "walkable" meaning that all folks can get what they need and reasonably want within walking distance of their homes. In most of the country, particularly environs further west, this will require substantial REBUILDING of neighborhoods. Think of the massive jobs and equity opportunities, domestically, and the opportunity to increase the quality of life for all, especially our least fortunate, while setting in motion a massive relief of tension that contributes to discord in the Middle East and South Asia, the unfair thievery and thuggery involved in the USA Geopolitical activities concerning the oil resources in that part of the world.
Face it, Mr. President, and have the courage (and I know you have the grace) to address the gluttonous squandering of such a precious natural gift (fossil fuels) and convince the people of the USA that we must fundamentally change course from a genocidal, ecocidal, suicidal "standard of living" paradigm to one that incorporates equity, inclusion, humanity, quality of life, sustainability, and PEACE...
With much love and care,
Mike Morin
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Comparative Economic Systems - Worker Ownership and Control
It has been a long time since I studied Comparative Economic Systems (in the 70's) and, needless to say, much has changed in the former Soviet Union sphere, and not much was ever known and/or documented in the "Western world" about "economic systems" in the Peoples Republic of China and in Cuba and other places. Much of what we hear or ever heard about changes in China, especially since the passing of Mao must be filtered through the lense of Western propaganda. With respect to Cuba, we get both reactionary Capitalist propaganda and eutopian socialist propaganda (such as the organic gardening and farming movement).
With regard to China we get charges of "State Capitalism", with respect to Cuba, we get promising reports of cooperative communitarianism in action.
Suffice to say, there is no perfect model, nor in a dynamic world rife with the horrors and continuing horrors of human history, could we expect such.
I hope that there are people on this list that remember and understand more about the economic systems in the second (Soviet sphere) and third (China, Cuba, and others) world when they were functioning at their best and their deterioration and/or adaptation in relation to the Capitalist pressures that have been applied. Such could lead to some interesting discussion and perhaps, at the risk of losing my ultimate cynicism, move us forward towards world unity in the hope of realizing an economic democracy.
From this point on, I want to discuss attempts to democratize the economy in the Capitalist world. There have been attempts at succession in the form of utopian communities such as New Harmony and various others that I can't remember to name. There have been attempts to compete, with mutual organizations (one person/one vote), the most salient being credit unions (which are very far from exemplary because they are in the business of making loans (reduced usury is still usury in a Capitalist Financial System which is fundamentally usurious)) and mutual insurance companies, which by their very existence in the Capitalist system have to compete for "investors" and therefore, and by definition of the workers' cooperative, can only hold Capitalist portfolios (for-profit companies).
There are marketing cooperatives, consumer cooperatives, and producer cooperatives (not really owners' cooperatives because they are (or were?) found mostly, if not exclusively, in the farming sector and it is well known about the history and existence of the dominance of the credit sector relative to farms. Such producer cooperatives really can't be considered workers' cooperatives because of the nature of their relationship to wage labor (particularly burdened by seasonality).
There appears to be an effort, if not a tiny minority of success of workers' cooperatives, in Capitalist Europe, Africa, South America, and Asia. I say this because of the existence of offices of the Internaional Cooperative Alliance in these areas. I have no other evidence.
A very famous recent experiment in economy of scale has been the Mondragon Cooperative Society in the Basque Region of Spain. Suffice to say, as they continued to expand, they ran into non-cooperating Capitalist pressures, coupled with the overall deteriorating economic conditions in the Capitalist world, it has caused them to buckle; to compromise their ideals, and to begin to experience business failures.
In the United States and elsewhere, Corporations sometimes offer Employee Stock Ownership (ESOP) Plans to workers, thus making workers into small-time Capitalists. Such workers probably tend to hold these relatively small holdings closely. So, if the Corporation is faring well then the workers reap some of the benefits of being Capitalists (dividends and to a much lesser extent profit-taking on speculation and equity trading). In the past twenty years or so, particularly in the Midwestern United States Capitalists have negotiated increasing use of ESOPs in lieu of wages to sell obsolete capital to workers (including management).
There have been some initiatives to organize workers into workers' cooperatives in the failing mill regions of northern New England to sell the obsolete capital to the workers' cooperatives. Semi-fortunately, they were repeatedly advised by a Consulting Group in Boston, not to buy. However, when the mills closed they were left out of work.
In a quasi-syndicalist "movement" by Labor Unions in Capitalist Europe, the Unions in some countries bargained for or legislated equal representation with the Capitalists on the Boards of Directors of Corporations. This is called co-determination. In the United States, the only known or well known instance of Union Representation on a major Board of Directors was ONE SEAT given to the UAW as part of the US Government bailout of Chrysler (before they were bought/merged with Mercedes).
Mike Morin
With regard to China we get charges of "State Capitalism", with respect to Cuba, we get promising reports of cooperative communitarianism in action.
Suffice to say, there is no perfect model, nor in a dynamic world rife with the horrors and continuing horrors of human history, could we expect such.
I hope that there are people on this list that remember and understand more about the economic systems in the second (Soviet sphere) and third (China, Cuba, and others) world when they were functioning at their best and their deterioration and/or adaptation in relation to the Capitalist pressures that have been applied. Such could lead to some interesting discussion and perhaps, at the risk of losing my ultimate cynicism, move us forward towards world unity in the hope of realizing an economic democracy.
From this point on, I want to discuss attempts to democratize the economy in the Capitalist world. There have been attempts at succession in the form of utopian communities such as New Harmony and various others that I can't remember to name. There have been attempts to compete, with mutual organizations (one person/one vote), the most salient being credit unions (which are very far from exemplary because they are in the business of making loans (reduced usury is still usury in a Capitalist Financial System which is fundamentally usurious)) and mutual insurance companies, which by their very existence in the Capitalist system have to compete for "investors" and therefore, and by definition of the workers' cooperative, can only hold Capitalist portfolios (for-profit companies).
There are marketing cooperatives, consumer cooperatives, and producer cooperatives (not really owners' cooperatives because they are (or were?) found mostly, if not exclusively, in the farming sector and it is well known about the history and existence of the dominance of the credit sector relative to farms. Such producer cooperatives really can't be considered workers' cooperatives because of the nature of their relationship to wage labor (particularly burdened by seasonality).
There appears to be an effort, if not a tiny minority of success of workers' cooperatives, in Capitalist Europe, Africa, South America, and Asia. I say this because of the existence of offices of the Internaional Cooperative Alliance in these areas. I have no other evidence.
A very famous recent experiment in economy of scale has been the Mondragon Cooperative Society in the Basque Region of Spain. Suffice to say, as they continued to expand, they ran into non-cooperating Capitalist pressures, coupled with the overall deteriorating economic conditions in the Capitalist world, it has caused them to buckle; to compromise their ideals, and to begin to experience business failures.
In the United States and elsewhere, Corporations sometimes offer Employee Stock Ownership (ESOP) Plans to workers, thus making workers into small-time Capitalists. Such workers probably tend to hold these relatively small holdings closely. So, if the Corporation is faring well then the workers reap some of the benefits of being Capitalists (dividends and to a much lesser extent profit-taking on speculation and equity trading). In the past twenty years or so, particularly in the Midwestern United States Capitalists have negotiated increasing use of ESOPs in lieu of wages to sell obsolete capital to workers (including management).
There have been some initiatives to organize workers into workers' cooperatives in the failing mill regions of northern New England to sell the obsolete capital to the workers' cooperatives. Semi-fortunately, they were repeatedly advised by a Consulting Group in Boston, not to buy. However, when the mills closed they were left out of work.
In a quasi-syndicalist "movement" by Labor Unions in Capitalist Europe, the Unions in some countries bargained for or legislated equal representation with the Capitalists on the Boards of Directors of Corporations. This is called co-determination. In the United States, the only known or well known instance of Union Representation on a major Board of Directors was ONE SEAT given to the UAW as part of the US Government bailout of Chrysler (before they were bought/merged with Mercedes).
Mike Morin
Anarcho-Syndicalism and Participatory Management
Hey Lenny,
Thanks for the excellent input.
Anarcho-syndicalism is a good theory with the exception that to realize the goals of humanity, quality of life, and sustainability, we will have to also change the way that resources are allocated within and among economic sectors. To realize these goals and the very very important additional goal of equity, we will have to change the way that resources are allocated to and within communities. (In other words, the "social rearrangement" (notice I didn't use the word "engineering") needs to extend beyond the workplace, also into our communities.
It is true that Capitalists co-opted the participatory management trend that started in Europe (probably most accurately Eastern Europe (my study of Comparative Economic Systems in the 70's suggested to me that the Yugoslavs had progressed the furthest towards developing true economic democracies in the workplace)). A fundamental world-wide paradigm shift from competition to cooperation, along with removing the profit-taking of Capitalism, would go a long way towards relaxing the tension with regards to the requisite expedience in decision-making that co-opts even genuine attempts (if there were any) of Capitalists to implement participatory management operations.
Thanks for the excellent input.
Anarcho-syndicalism is a good theory with the exception that to realize the goals of humanity, quality of life, and sustainability, we will have to also change the way that resources are allocated within and among economic sectors. To realize these goals and the very very important additional goal of equity, we will have to change the way that resources are allocated to and within communities. (In other words, the "social rearrangement" (notice I didn't use the word "engineering") needs to extend beyond the workplace, also into our communities.
It is true that Capitalists co-opted the participatory management trend that started in Europe (probably most accurately Eastern Europe (my study of Comparative Economic Systems in the 70's suggested to me that the Yugoslavs had progressed the furthest towards developing true economic democracies in the workplace)). A fundamental world-wide paradigm shift from competition to cooperation, along with removing the profit-taking of Capitalism, would go a long way towards relaxing the tension with regards to the requisite expedience in decision-making that co-opts even genuine attempts (if there were any) of Capitalists to implement participatory management operations.
I Wonder What Dino is Doing Now?
Personal politics, which seem to trouble Leftists greatly, may have played a very minor role in the reason that Marxist/Socialist/Communist (call it what you may and that is a major source of contention among) never was realized, but the real reason that Leftist politics never took hold in (once Great) Britain, and in the United States is because such were the Centers of Capitalist Empire. These are two leviathan exploiter cultures, with their Fascist Military backing (or should I say leadership?). You all still have a "royal family" and Obama in the tradition of the Imperialist Presidency chose the pomp of meeting with the Saudi Kings as his first stop in his mission "to make peace with the Moslem world".
The Brits and the Yanks have been the two biggest imperialists, perhaps in the history of man, and they have done it mostly under the banner of Capitalism. The spoils of the rape, plunder, pillage, murder, steal, and exploit Capitalist and colonial systems do trickle down within the empire(s) at least for a time. The military elite, the yeomanry, the artisans of the Imperialist nations were enriched by the slavery and exploitation of foreigners and through nationalistic favoritism and patronage to countrymen, through hard work, and through educational opportunities, some workers (those that were not military and/or industrial fodder) were able to struggle to obtain "middle class" status by climbing an opportunity ladder that was available within the racist circles of Capitalist Empire.
Time has, and increasingly is, seeing these perks of Nationalism wither away as Capitalism took its act worldwide, embraced an International Capitalist ruling class and culture and pitted workers in all countries in a race to the bottom for the crumbs of low-wage Capitalist jobs. Capitalists empire did not abandon their nationalist propaganda, however, in case they need help in rallying public support for the myriad of their worldwide crimes and for the much reduced staffing needs of their robotic, electronically assisted, high-powered genocidal military machines. Thus, it leaves many in a state of dumb-downed confusion, because they don't have the channels or the teachers to learn the truth fast enough to figure it out. The propagandist culture drones on with the falsehoods as the people of the planet roll at an accelerating pace toward extinction fueled by that quirk called the fossil fuel age and that ridiculously extravagant, opulent, ostentatious squandering invention, the automobile. They don't want to know. I don't know what it is like in (once Great) Britain, but here in the USA, they think freedom is freedom from responsibility, freedom from thinking. They've got it so drilled into their feeble lttle brains that "we are the greatest nation of all time" and that translates into a right to possess, threaten with, and use WMD for WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction for World Manifest Destiny) and to use those precious fossil fuels at an unconscious genocidal, ecocidal, and suicidal speed.
And the daily mantra is that the economy will be, even is, recovering.
But socialism is nothing more than an ideology. It is not an alternative. Socialists, the few that still exist, are too simple minded. Socialism/Communism/Anarchism are religions. We will have some virtual revolution, after which everything will magically coalesce into a moneyless utopian paradise.
I have been a Communist since reading the Communist Manifesto when I was sixteen. When talking with a working class buddy about it, he nodded in agreement, but said, (rubbing his thumbs across his fingers) "Money talks, bullshit walks".
I wonder what Dino is doing now?
The Brits and the Yanks have been the two biggest imperialists, perhaps in the history of man, and they have done it mostly under the banner of Capitalism. The spoils of the rape, plunder, pillage, murder, steal, and exploit Capitalist and colonial systems do trickle down within the empire(s) at least for a time. The military elite, the yeomanry, the artisans of the Imperialist nations were enriched by the slavery and exploitation of foreigners and through nationalistic favoritism and patronage to countrymen, through hard work, and through educational opportunities, some workers (those that were not military and/or industrial fodder) were able to struggle to obtain "middle class" status by climbing an opportunity ladder that was available within the racist circles of Capitalist Empire.
Time has, and increasingly is, seeing these perks of Nationalism wither away as Capitalism took its act worldwide, embraced an International Capitalist ruling class and culture and pitted workers in all countries in a race to the bottom for the crumbs of low-wage Capitalist jobs. Capitalists empire did not abandon their nationalist propaganda, however, in case they need help in rallying public support for the myriad of their worldwide crimes and for the much reduced staffing needs of their robotic, electronically assisted, high-powered genocidal military machines. Thus, it leaves many in a state of dumb-downed confusion, because they don't have the channels or the teachers to learn the truth fast enough to figure it out. The propagandist culture drones on with the falsehoods as the people of the planet roll at an accelerating pace toward extinction fueled by that quirk called the fossil fuel age and that ridiculously extravagant, opulent, ostentatious squandering invention, the automobile. They don't want to know. I don't know what it is like in (once Great) Britain, but here in the USA, they think freedom is freedom from responsibility, freedom from thinking. They've got it so drilled into their feeble lttle brains that "we are the greatest nation of all time" and that translates into a right to possess, threaten with, and use WMD for WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction for World Manifest Destiny) and to use those precious fossil fuels at an unconscious genocidal, ecocidal, and suicidal speed.
And the daily mantra is that the economy will be, even is, recovering.
But socialism is nothing more than an ideology. It is not an alternative. Socialists, the few that still exist, are too simple minded. Socialism/Communism/Anarchism are religions. We will have some virtual revolution, after which everything will magically coalesce into a moneyless utopian paradise.
I have been a Communist since reading the Communist Manifesto when I was sixteen. When talking with a working class buddy about it, he nodded in agreement, but said, (rubbing his thumbs across his fingers) "Money talks, bullshit walks".
I wonder what Dino is doing now?
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Socialist "Business" Schools?
Marquito,
We have discussed to the point of moot whether or not there are or ever will be socialist "societies" or economies.
Before answering your reactionary supposition, let me ask you:
1.) Are there any societies/economies in the real world that would qualify, or at least partially qualify, according to you, as "socialist"?
2.) If so, what do you know about their educational systems?
I will concede that within a socialist economy, we would probably not call anything "business school". A better name for it, perhaps, would be "socialist economic operations" and in the ideal world, from an early age there would be a great deal of overlap and continuity between work experience, work study, home study and classroom learning.
When we are talking or writing about transitioning from a Capitalist economy to a socialist one, let me tell you ( I have a MBA degree, as well as study in Environmental Studies, Regional and Resource Planning, and Economics, (and much work experience)) that I have found all my education (and experience), including much of which is self-study and learning from others, like you, to be very helpful in being able to conceptualize and communicate a transitional path from Capitalism to socialism.
My response to zE was because he did not seem to understand or want to be bothered with details of economic entity operations which would be necessary to implement a socialist economy. I was not suggesting to him that he need be, to function in a socialist economy, if we could ever get one functioning. I was speaking to my perceived need, as I am surrounded by Capitalists, for the need for more socialists who understand the organizational and logistical problems related to operating economic entities. I suggested "Business School" (while keeping his socialist priorities) because that is what is currently available (and most directly pertinent to economic operations entities in the desired socialist world) in the Capitalist world.
I hope that I have clarified my statement, and thank you for presenting the challenge which has allowed me to elucidate.
Mike Morin
Peoples' Equity Union
We have discussed to the point of moot whether or not there are or ever will be socialist "societies" or economies.
Before answering your reactionary supposition, let me ask you:
1.) Are there any societies/economies in the real world that would qualify, or at least partially qualify, according to you, as "socialist"?
2.) If so, what do you know about their educational systems?
I will concede that within a socialist economy, we would probably not call anything "business school". A better name for it, perhaps, would be "socialist economic operations" and in the ideal world, from an early age there would be a great deal of overlap and continuity between work experience, work study, home study and classroom learning.
When we are talking or writing about transitioning from a Capitalist economy to a socialist one, let me tell you ( I have a MBA degree, as well as study in Environmental Studies, Regional and Resource Planning, and Economics, (and much work experience)) that I have found all my education (and experience), including much of which is self-study and learning from others, like you, to be very helpful in being able to conceptualize and communicate a transitional path from Capitalism to socialism.
My response to zE was because he did not seem to understand or want to be bothered with details of economic entity operations which would be necessary to implement a socialist economy. I was not suggesting to him that he need be, to function in a socialist economy, if we could ever get one functioning. I was speaking to my perceived need, as I am surrounded by Capitalists, for the need for more socialists who understand the organizational and logistical problems related to operating economic entities. I suggested "Business School" (while keeping his socialist priorities) because that is what is currently available (and most directly pertinent to economic operations entities in the desired socialist world) in the Capitalist world.
I hope that I have clarified my statement, and thank you for presenting the challenge which has allowed me to elucidate.
Mike Morin
Peoples' Equity Union
A Socialist Alternative
Robert Howes wrote:
Lenny, I think we are at cross purposes. what I was saying was analogous. I was saying, not very well obviously, that successful groups will thrive and go on to spawn more and similar groups, whereas unsuccessful groups will break up.
***
Capitalism is a successful group in that sense, so to replace it we need to start equally or more successful groups. Trying to take over the group is dangerous in the extreme. It could so easily all go wrong.
Cheers,
Bob
***************************************************
Mike Morin replies:
I concur with Robert, completely.
I would like to add that although Capitalism has been successful (for a minority?), it has reached the end of its useful life. Any additional success realized by the Capitalist Economic system will continue to reward a decreasingly few and cause increasing hardship and stress on the many and the resources of the planet, and extinct hope for the youth and children.
But Robert is correct, if we want to replace Capitalism then it is imperative that we begin immediately to chart a successful economic alternative, a socialist economic democracy that is based on local autonomy and includes inter-community/inter-regional/ and worldwide solidarity and cooperation with respect to resource allocation policies (how resources will be allocated to and within communities and within and among economic sectors), inter-regional and inter-community economic and social relations, and clarity of a mission that includes peace, equity, inclusion, humanity, quality of life, and sustainability.
Mike Morin
Peoples' Equity Union
Lenny, I think we are at cross purposes. what I was saying was analogous. I was saying, not very well obviously, that successful groups will thrive and go on to spawn more and similar groups, whereas unsuccessful groups will break up.
***
Capitalism is a successful group in that sense, so to replace it we need to start equally or more successful groups. Trying to take over the group is dangerous in the extreme. It could so easily all go wrong.
Cheers,
Bob
***************************************************
Mike Morin replies:
I concur with Robert, completely.
I would like to add that although Capitalism has been successful (for a minority?), it has reached the end of its useful life. Any additional success realized by the Capitalist Economic system will continue to reward a decreasingly few and cause increasing hardship and stress on the many and the resources of the planet, and extinct hope for the youth and children.
But Robert is correct, if we want to replace Capitalism then it is imperative that we begin immediately to chart a successful economic alternative, a socialist economic democracy that is based on local autonomy and includes inter-community/inter-regional/ and worldwide solidarity and cooperation with respect to resource allocation policies (how resources will be allocated to and within communities and within and among economic sectors), inter-regional and inter-community economic and social relations, and clarity of a mission that includes peace, equity, inclusion, humanity, quality of life, and sustainability.
Mike Morin
Peoples' Equity Union
Continuing with the Plan to Implement a Peoples' Equity Union
Robert (et al),
Do you live in a city, a town, a village, a rural area?
Is there a credit union in the vicinity?
You need to establish a local board with an economic plan for your neighborhood. The economic plan could be very similar to the way the Mondragon Cooperative Society operates. You need to establish a local Board of Directors, a company (equity union) charter and by-laws, including the criteria how economic decisions will be made from funds allocated, and how decisions will be made regarding the investment of surpluses made from business operations.
Remember, it is important that we inculcate the principles of economic democracy in every thing that we do, say, think, and communicate.
Create a Peoples' Equity Union Trust Fund in your local credit union.
After you have done that, and I receive the payment of $30 billion, I will deposit $20 million in your Trust Fund Account. Then it will be up to you and your colleagues to develop and share your local socialist equity union economy. When you have met the needs of your community, and have achieved an equitable, sustainable, inclusive, and humane quality of life among all neighbors, then it will be incumbent upon you (the denizens of your community and the Board of the Peoples' Equity Union Branch) to identify other communities with which you see a need and desire to share your socialist success with. As you are organizing your neighbors and developing your commune, you very much want to be establishing relationships, personal, social and economic with neighborhing communities, and communities worldwide, thereby furthering the cooperative nature, organization, and operations of the Peoples' Equity Union's neighborhood/inter-community/inter-regional and world wide socialist ecological economic plan.
The prospects of receiving funding are dependent upon potential participants understanding the mission and the modus operandi of the Plan.
Do you understand thus far, and could you cooperate given that funding was imminent?
Mike Morin
Peoples' Equity Union
Do you live in a city, a town, a village, a rural area?
Is there a credit union in the vicinity?
You need to establish a local board with an economic plan for your neighborhood. The economic plan could be very similar to the way the Mondragon Cooperative Society operates. You need to establish a local Board of Directors, a company (equity union) charter and by-laws, including the criteria how economic decisions will be made from funds allocated, and how decisions will be made regarding the investment of surpluses made from business operations.
Remember, it is important that we inculcate the principles of economic democracy in every thing that we do, say, think, and communicate.
Create a Peoples' Equity Union Trust Fund in your local credit union.
After you have done that, and I receive the payment of $30 billion, I will deposit $20 million in your Trust Fund Account. Then it will be up to you and your colleagues to develop and share your local socialist equity union economy. When you have met the needs of your community, and have achieved an equitable, sustainable, inclusive, and humane quality of life among all neighbors, then it will be incumbent upon you (the denizens of your community and the Board of the Peoples' Equity Union Branch) to identify other communities with which you see a need and desire to share your socialist success with. As you are organizing your neighbors and developing your commune, you very much want to be establishing relationships, personal, social and economic with neighborhing communities, and communities worldwide, thereby furthering the cooperative nature, organization, and operations of the Peoples' Equity Union's neighborhood/inter-community/inter-regional and world wide socialist ecological economic plan.
The prospects of receiving funding are dependent upon potential participants understanding the mission and the modus operandi of the Plan.
Do you understand thus far, and could you cooperate given that funding was imminent?
Mike Morin
Peoples' Equity Union
Monday, June 1, 2009
What If?
(If) I just got an e-mail from Obama.
He has seen the light. Instead of investing $30 billion of government funds in GM, which is destined to fail, Barack has promised us thirty billion for the Peoples' Equity Union, with a promise of more (unspecified - but drawn from TARP) to come and the word that he is working with other members of the G20 and the less developed nations to negotiate funding in their regions.
I want each of you to assume a position as Board Member on the Worldwide PEU and as Chair for your local community. What do you suggest that we do with the $30 billion?
Equity means ownership. it also means equality. The Treasuries (eventually to be one unified world treasury) have recognized that the ownership of assets/resources belongs in the hands of the poor and the workers. The Treasuries have decided to undertake a massive program at rebuilding communities so that all have a quality of life and ownership of their abodes and place of work and humane, sustainable occupations and lives. They have recognized that labor and natural resources are the source of all wealth and that there has been a historical record of Capitalist thievery that must be wiped cleaned and atoned for.
What would you offer to the workers and the poor? How would you assure that the $30 billion dollars, and additional funds to come, would be sustained and shared (developed, if you will, to produce a surplus that would be earmarked for distribution to other worker owned production, etc. How would you assure that you are not just creating a dependency of workers and the poor on a continuous inflow of funds from the treasur(ies)?
Given the fact that Obama is turning the corner and lifting the fulcrum towards World Socialism what immediate and more long range projects would you undertake? In other words, how we can evolve to an intelligent, planned, inclusive, equitable, humane, peaceful, sustainable quality of life for all...
He has seen the light. Instead of investing $30 billion of government funds in GM, which is destined to fail, Barack has promised us thirty billion for the Peoples' Equity Union, with a promise of more (unspecified - but drawn from TARP) to come and the word that he is working with other members of the G20 and the less developed nations to negotiate funding in their regions.
I want each of you to assume a position as Board Member on the Worldwide PEU and as Chair for your local community. What do you suggest that we do with the $30 billion?
Equity means ownership. it also means equality. The Treasuries (eventually to be one unified world treasury) have recognized that the ownership of assets/resources belongs in the hands of the poor and the workers. The Treasuries have decided to undertake a massive program at rebuilding communities so that all have a quality of life and ownership of their abodes and place of work and humane, sustainable occupations and lives. They have recognized that labor and natural resources are the source of all wealth and that there has been a historical record of Capitalist thievery that must be wiped cleaned and atoned for.
What would you offer to the workers and the poor? How would you assure that the $30 billion dollars, and additional funds to come, would be sustained and shared (developed, if you will, to produce a surplus that would be earmarked for distribution to other worker owned production, etc. How would you assure that you are not just creating a dependency of workers and the poor on a continuous inflow of funds from the treasur(ies)?
Given the fact that Obama is turning the corner and lifting the fulcrum towards World Socialism what immediate and more long range projects would you undertake? In other words, how we can evolve to an intelligent, planned, inclusive, equitable, humane, peaceful, sustainable quality of life for all...
Letter to Fred Goldstein (author of "Low Wage Capitalism")
Fred,
Wondering how you are, because I got an invitation to join a subscription group called "My Life" in your name. I didn't join because, they tried to trick me into paying a subscription fee (they were not upfront, portraying it as a free service).
I was excited about the possibility of making the connection with you and extending the socialist network. I understand the dilemma about being a socialist writer who has to function within the dictates of the Capitalist system.
I bought your book (Low-Wage Capitalism) and started reading it. I read the first 30 pages or so... I was very much impressed with your ability to write and think logically and present real world examples and apply Marxist and other socialist thought.
Your book reminded me very much of David Korten's book When Corporations Rule the World which I read about ten years ago. Your book is quite similar, but from a socialist perspective (which I prefer). I have read all of David Korten's sequels, but they are very weak attempts to propose an alternative to the Capitalist (he vilifies Corporations, quite rightly, but not the Capitalist system) system, simply because David is either not a socialist and/or was told that a socialist prescription/alternative would not be acceptable in the Capitalist Press and/or marketplace.
My work since reading all of Kortens' and many many other of the treatises that sneak out of the Capitalist Press under the target market that I would describe as "the disenchanted" or "the "protest segment", has been to try to develop that practical socialist alternative to the genocidal, ecocidal, suicidal Capitalist economic system.
I wrote and self-published a book called Who is George Fox and Why Should I Care? finishing it about twelve years ago (before I read Korten). I was very happy with the end product, but could not get a Capitalist Publisher to put it "on the market". I self-published 250 copies and either sold or gave away all but one, expressly telling all to share my work as widely as possible. I wrote a second book, The Balderloki Shamanism, but admittedly it was a relatively weak follow-up to the first book which I wrote primarily in case the "George Fox" book got published and became popular. The "Balderloki" has been lost to blank empty space and lost diskettes (I've had to move many times), except for that which remains in my brain.
Anyway, that Socialist alternative can be found, in a somewhat yet to be organized layout at my web log http://www.peoplesequityunion.blogspot.com/ . My organizing work, however that manifests itself, is waiting to find a market (and an underwriter if it were to become a book). But publishing a book is not my primary goal. My intention in life is to affect positive socialist change particularly as it concerns equity, inclusion, quality of life, peace, and sustainability in a world that is well past its midnight hour.
How did your book tour go? Whereas, I would hope for a warm reception and a maximum of sales for your work, I sense an increasing irrational madness and a fierce sense of hopelessness about and among the people (and for good reason). I don't sense that socialism has recovered much since the fall of the Soviet Union and the propaganda? of the backsliding of the Peoples' Republic into State Capitalism. I hope that I am wrong and that Fidel, Hugo, WSM, Workers' World Party, and ISO and others that I contact, are not as obscure and perceived as irrelevant and uninterested, as I am afrayed that they are...
I have no illusions that my work to advance a socialist alternative is eutopian (Lewis Mumford explains that such a spelling from the Greek actually means "good place") in a Capitalist world that is approaching outopian ("no place") especially for the progeny.
Anyway, I hope that you are well and that your work is being successful.
Please write when you get the chance.
Wondering how you are, because I got an invitation to join a subscription group called "My Life" in your name. I didn't join because, they tried to trick me into paying a subscription fee (they were not upfront, portraying it as a free service).
I was excited about the possibility of making the connection with you and extending the socialist network. I understand the dilemma about being a socialist writer who has to function within the dictates of the Capitalist system.
I bought your book (Low-Wage Capitalism) and started reading it. I read the first 30 pages or so... I was very much impressed with your ability to write and think logically and present real world examples and apply Marxist and other socialist thought.
Your book reminded me very much of David Korten's book When Corporations Rule the World which I read about ten years ago. Your book is quite similar, but from a socialist perspective (which I prefer). I have read all of David Korten's sequels, but they are very weak attempts to propose an alternative to the Capitalist (he vilifies Corporations, quite rightly, but not the Capitalist system) system, simply because David is either not a socialist and/or was told that a socialist prescription/alternative would not be acceptable in the Capitalist Press and/or marketplace.
My work since reading all of Kortens' and many many other of the treatises that sneak out of the Capitalist Press under the target market that I would describe as "the disenchanted" or "the "protest segment", has been to try to develop that practical socialist alternative to the genocidal, ecocidal, suicidal Capitalist economic system.
I wrote and self-published a book called Who is George Fox and Why Should I Care? finishing it about twelve years ago (before I read Korten). I was very happy with the end product, but could not get a Capitalist Publisher to put it "on the market". I self-published 250 copies and either sold or gave away all but one, expressly telling all to share my work as widely as possible. I wrote a second book, The Balderloki Shamanism, but admittedly it was a relatively weak follow-up to the first book which I wrote primarily in case the "George Fox" book got published and became popular. The "Balderloki" has been lost to blank empty space and lost diskettes (I've had to move many times), except for that which remains in my brain.
Anyway, that Socialist alternative can be found, in a somewhat yet to be organized layout at my web log http://www.peoplesequityunion.blogspot.com/ . My organizing work, however that manifests itself, is waiting to find a market (and an underwriter if it were to become a book). But publishing a book is not my primary goal. My intention in life is to affect positive socialist change particularly as it concerns equity, inclusion, quality of life, peace, and sustainability in a world that is well past its midnight hour.
How did your book tour go? Whereas, I would hope for a warm reception and a maximum of sales for your work, I sense an increasing irrational madness and a fierce sense of hopelessness about and among the people (and for good reason). I don't sense that socialism has recovered much since the fall of the Soviet Union and the propaganda? of the backsliding of the Peoples' Republic into State Capitalism. I hope that I am wrong and that Fidel, Hugo, WSM, Workers' World Party, and ISO and others that I contact, are not as obscure and perceived as irrelevant and uninterested, as I am afrayed that they are...
I have no illusions that my work to advance a socialist alternative is eutopian (Lewis Mumford explains that such a spelling from the Greek actually means "good place") in a Capitalist world that is approaching outopian ("no place") especially for the progeny.
Anyway, I hope that you are well and that your work is being successful.
Please write when you get the chance.
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