Letter to "Funders for Sustainability"

Dana,

Just got finished watching "The Story of Stuff". Annie Leonard did an excellent job. Thank you for your contribution to the funding of this short film. I have made a small donation in support.

Apparently, the short is getting much viewership, hopefully it is not exclusively "preaching to the choir". Fundamental behavior change is essential to any hope that we have towards achieving sustainability in our communities and our world.

But awareness and behavior change of "consumers" is not enough. We must regain our humanity and we must radically alter our economic relations. Such will be extremely difficult because the Capitalist Growth Machine has centuries of momentum which has accelerated drastically in the last generation. The tragic growth pradigm of an economic system is one that eschews the reality of a finite planet, that eschews the teachings of ecology, that eschews the true needs of the majority of the people on the planet, and eschews environmental/public health and humanity towards people/workers and other living things.

We need a fundamental paradigm shift to an EcoSocialist Economy based on the principles of inclusion, equity, humanity, quality of life (in lieu of standard of living), sustainability, and peace. We need to radically rearrange the way resources are allocated to and within communities and among and within economic sectors. Such a "plan and implement economy" would have the neighborhood as a locus and work assiduously to develop and maintain inter-community, inter-regional, and world cooperation and unity. A strategy of ecological economic redevelopment would be employed and realized. In the United States a goal of walkable neighborhorhoods, reversing a century of sprawl, by reducing automobile usage by 80% in the next 20 to 40 years, rebuilding neighborhoods/town and village centers (or building the latter in many cases) and reallocating the production and distribution of goods and services so that almost all can get what they need within walking distance of their homes.

I have attached a paper entitles "Restructuring Our Financial System" which proposes an alternative to the current dominant paradigm. Please take a look at this.

I would greatly appreciate your feedback on this letter and the attachment. I would be very glad to share more of my work with you. I have a 25 page concise, comprehensive plan that you may want to look at. Please do not hesitate to request this, or to communicate with me on any issue or concern related to this communication.

I am not seeking funding, I am seeking exposure for my ideas. To whatever extent we can collaborate would be of great interest to me.

Thank you.

I hope to "hear" from you soon.


In Peace, Friendship, Cooperation, and Solidarity,

Mike Morin
Eugene, OR
(541) 343-3808