This, if it is true, is a very sad report.
The Mondragon Experiment, except for their ignorance of social ecology, was a very promising alternative socialist organization.
They formed successful workers' cooperatives, which spawned others, and they grew to relieve poverty and disaffection in their isolated region.
The problems started as they grew too big and began to need to integrate their business operations with the Capitalist world that surrounded them. The expediency of business operations and personal greed began to outweigh the egalitarian and solidarity principles based on the ICA principles.
Although they carefully built a very democratic cooperative corporate governance model, the complexity of large-scale operations and the accelerating pace eventually began to erode the vigilance and influence of the holders of the founding principles.
If I were beginning a socialist business entity, I would most certainly start with Mondragon, their founding principles and their early history as a positive example. I would study where they went wrong and try to devise mitigating interventions so that the new socialist economy was not corrupted.
The problem is that there IS a Capitalist system, where corporations have certain strategies and tactics (e.g. diversification, economy of scale, worker and environmental exploitation and the eschewing of those costs, etc.) to defeat small business. Otherwise, I'd suggest that the next Mondragon stick to the small mutualist business model and form community alliances only. However, that would not be realistic and successful. As long as there are corporate capitalist conglomerates, it will be impossible to build an alternative socialist economy.
We need world unity, understanding and cooperation.
Nothing less.
Mike Morin
Eugene, OR, USA
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Response to American Catholic:” Beyond Socialism and Capitalism”
As we face the most difficult times that the human race has yet to experience, I think that it is important that we emphasize that the concept and the term socialism was born out of compassion.
Before Robert Owen "coined" the term “socialism”, cooperative communitarianism or mutualist communalism were ideas put forward by intellectuals and advocates of the oppressed in a brutal feudal and emerging Capitalist economic system. They were eutopian dreams of equity (equality in proprietorship), put forth by altruistic thinkers and taken to heart, mind, and body (thus the beginnings of class struggle, a struggle against a brutally oppressive and exploitative system) by some of the peasants, some of the artisans and, as industrialization set in, a new more dehumanized class, the factory worker.
It was in light of the depraved conditions, particularly of the last, and with population growth, the enclosure movement, the waning influences of the established charities of the Catholic Church, that in England, the aristocratic, paternalistic, parliamentarian mill owner, Robert Owen, campaigned for the increased role of the State to improve the conditions of the workers and the indigent, and that he suggested that the ideas of the workers' "movement" be termed "Socialism" to include such.
"Socialism" and its predecessors got a bad connotation because of sporadic violence in reaction to oppression. Such was the origin of the term "anarchist", originally a derisive term used against the early cooperative communitarians who occasionally fought back against active oppression. The term Anarchist, which eventually would be adopted as a "positive" tendency by some Marxists was used, in the early days, to turn public sentiment against the Cooperative Communitarians.
Of course, the history of bloodshed between the Capitalist/Feudal establishments and Marxist/Leninist/Maoist strikers and soldiers and the eventual expropriations that came with the eventual victories of the latter have given the terms "Socialist" and "Communist" negative connotations.
As a lover of life, a Friend, I abhor violence.
Socialism, at least, should take care of those that cannot take care of themselves. That aspect of it, by itself, makes it an improvement in economics (i.e. the management of the home) and consistent with one of the pillars of Islam, the giving of alms. The more "utopian" ("eutopian" means "good place", "outopian" means "no place") aspects of cooperative communitarianism or mutualist communalism such as an economy dedicated to meet the needs of all founded on the principles of inclusion, equity, humanity, quality of life in lieu of maximization of consumption and waste, environmental/public health and wellness, sustainability, and peace (the hoped for result) which seeks to inculcate that all men are brothers, all people kin, are worth consideration when dedicating thought and communication towards the progress of the human race.
As the laws of nature (survival of the fittest) are horrendously cruel and have been taken to the ultimate by the human species, and thus there will always be motivations of competition that can be divisive between individuals, within communities (however defined) and between and among communities, we must use every opportunity and devise that we are able to counteract such, to truely establish our humanity.
Given the fact that we can communicate like never before, let's use it! Let's declare the future a new era, an era of speciation that brings about the ideal of mankind, the evolution to Homo Cooperativa.
I believe that Hugo Chavez is a peace loving man. I hope that Hu Jin Tao is a peace loving man. Despite the policies thus far exhibited (e.g. Afghanistan and Pakistan), I'd like to believe that Barack Obama is a peace loving man.
Left to their own motivations and momentum, men will fight. There is no such thing as a good fight.
Forget "command and control", what we have in mind is "plan and implement".
Let's work together!
In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,
Mike "Cuthbert" Morin
Eugene, OR, USA
wiserunion@earthlink.net
(541) 343-3808
Before Robert Owen "coined" the term “socialism”, cooperative communitarianism or mutualist communalism were ideas put forward by intellectuals and advocates of the oppressed in a brutal feudal and emerging Capitalist economic system. They were eutopian dreams of equity (equality in proprietorship), put forth by altruistic thinkers and taken to heart, mind, and body (thus the beginnings of class struggle, a struggle against a brutally oppressive and exploitative system) by some of the peasants, some of the artisans and, as industrialization set in, a new more dehumanized class, the factory worker.
It was in light of the depraved conditions, particularly of the last, and with population growth, the enclosure movement, the waning influences of the established charities of the Catholic Church, that in England, the aristocratic, paternalistic, parliamentarian mill owner, Robert Owen, campaigned for the increased role of the State to improve the conditions of the workers and the indigent, and that he suggested that the ideas of the workers' "movement" be termed "Socialism" to include such.
"Socialism" and its predecessors got a bad connotation because of sporadic violence in reaction to oppression. Such was the origin of the term "anarchist", originally a derisive term used against the early cooperative communitarians who occasionally fought back against active oppression. The term Anarchist, which eventually would be adopted as a "positive" tendency by some Marxists was used, in the early days, to turn public sentiment against the Cooperative Communitarians.
Of course, the history of bloodshed between the Capitalist/Feudal establishments and Marxist/Leninist/Maoist strikers and soldiers and the eventual expropriations that came with the eventual victories of the latter have given the terms "Socialist" and "Communist" negative connotations.
As a lover of life, a Friend, I abhor violence.
Socialism, at least, should take care of those that cannot take care of themselves. That aspect of it, by itself, makes it an improvement in economics (i.e. the management of the home) and consistent with one of the pillars of Islam, the giving of alms. The more "utopian" ("eutopian" means "good place", "outopian" means "no place") aspects of cooperative communitarianism or mutualist communalism such as an economy dedicated to meet the needs of all founded on the principles of inclusion, equity, humanity, quality of life in lieu of maximization of consumption and waste, environmental/public health and wellness, sustainability, and peace (the hoped for result) which seeks to inculcate that all men are brothers, all people kin, are worth consideration when dedicating thought and communication towards the progress of the human race.
As the laws of nature (survival of the fittest) are horrendously cruel and have been taken to the ultimate by the human species, and thus there will always be motivations of competition that can be divisive between individuals, within communities (however defined) and between and among communities, we must use every opportunity and devise that we are able to counteract such, to truely establish our humanity.
Given the fact that we can communicate like never before, let's use it! Let's declare the future a new era, an era of speciation that brings about the ideal of mankind, the evolution to Homo Cooperativa.
I believe that Hugo Chavez is a peace loving man. I hope that Hu Jin Tao is a peace loving man. Despite the policies thus far exhibited (e.g. Afghanistan and Pakistan), I'd like to believe that Barack Obama is a peace loving man.
Left to their own motivations and momentum, men will fight. There is no such thing as a good fight.
Forget "command and control", what we have in mind is "plan and implement".
Let's work together!
In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,
Mike "Cuthbert" Morin
Eugene, OR, USA
wiserunion@earthlink.net
(541) 343-3808
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Health Care Reform in the USA
All People's Health Care should be covered, as in other countries.
I think that a Single Payer is the vehicle that we should employ, with HUGE CAVEATS.
I worked in the Health Care Finance field for 15 years, mostly as a Utilization and Cost Analyst for "Managed Care" companies. While Physicians for a National Health Plan (PNHP) makes good and valid arguments for a single payer system, they neglect to address the massive fraud and abuse on the Provider side of the health care "INDUSTRY". The massive greed of physicians and the over-supply manifestations of the "medical industrial complex" have caused the USA to have, by far, the highest cost medical system in the world, with poor results due to a preponderance of bureaucracy and the revenue driven bias towards maximum intervention leading to "damaged care" and waste.
We need a single payer with VERY TIGHT budget controls (huge rollbacks on medical spending). We could evolve to a single payer by mandating a public option in all places where insurance coverage is offered and expanding Medicare to everyone else.
But fee for service medicine has got to go. Regional HMOs need to be established with budgets being phased down by 35 to 40% in the next 10 to 20 years. Medical policy boards to oversee the formulation and implementation of such budgets, as caring physicians who understand the cost and abuse issues need to be put in charge of resource allocation policies and administration.
Hospitals and Hospital Corporations need to consolidate their resources into a unified organization so that rational resource allocation and the necessary winnowing out of over-competitive redundancies can be carried out.
Then there are the issues of environmental and public health, the subject of another HUGE discussion.
Mike Morin
Eugene, OR, USA
wiserunion@earthlink.net
(541) 343-3808
I think that a Single Payer is the vehicle that we should employ, with HUGE CAVEATS.
I worked in the Health Care Finance field for 15 years, mostly as a Utilization and Cost Analyst for "Managed Care" companies. While Physicians for a National Health Plan (PNHP) makes good and valid arguments for a single payer system, they neglect to address the massive fraud and abuse on the Provider side of the health care "INDUSTRY". The massive greed of physicians and the over-supply manifestations of the "medical industrial complex" have caused the USA to have, by far, the highest cost medical system in the world, with poor results due to a preponderance of bureaucracy and the revenue driven bias towards maximum intervention leading to "damaged care" and waste.
We need a single payer with VERY TIGHT budget controls (huge rollbacks on medical spending). We could evolve to a single payer by mandating a public option in all places where insurance coverage is offered and expanding Medicare to everyone else.
But fee for service medicine has got to go. Regional HMOs need to be established with budgets being phased down by 35 to 40% in the next 10 to 20 years. Medical policy boards to oversee the formulation and implementation of such budgets, as caring physicians who understand the cost and abuse issues need to be put in charge of resource allocation policies and administration.
Hospitals and Hospital Corporations need to consolidate their resources into a unified organization so that rational resource allocation and the necessary winnowing out of over-competitive redundancies can be carried out.
Then there are the issues of environmental and public health, the subject of another HUGE discussion.
Mike Morin
Eugene, OR, USA
wiserunion@earthlink.net
(541) 343-3808
Sunday, October 18, 2009
The Federal Reserve?
What do we need the Federal Reserve for? It seems to me that, under a reformed financial/economic system, the Treasury could issue funds directly to people, communities, productive endeavors (via their local equity unions) rather than issuing money to speculative, usurious private corporations (the banks).
Equity Union: A New Idea for Practical Socialism
To make a sustainable economy, an equitable environment, towards a permanent culture, we need to evolve away from an investor/lender class with their inflationary and unrealistic aggravated growth programs and policies and evolve to an equity-sharing paradigm.
We need a financial/economic system that is motivated by the drive to meet peoples' needs, both in the short and long term, quite different from the speculative, profit-taking system that is extant.
Locally based equity unions, with inter-community, inter-regional unity and cooperation focused on community betterment projects, programs and policies would be the ideal world economic/financial system.
A mission of peace, world unity and cooperation based on the fundamental principles of inclusion, equity, humanity, altruism, quality of life in lieu of the maximization of consumption and waste, environmental/public health and wellness, and sustainability would underlie a "plan and implement" modus operandi in lieu of the selfish, unprincipled slash-and-burn speculations and profit-takings of the so-called "free market"
Village/neighborhood sovereignty, economic democracy, and environmental equity would be inculcated in such a system. A more fair and just balance between competitive advantage and comparative advantage would be sought, and the community/environmental improvement for all, starting with those most in need, would be paramount.
Can I submit this as a proposal to the UN General Assembly?
In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,
Mike Morin
Eugene, OR, USA
www.peoplesequityunion.blogspot.com
wiserunion@earthlink.net
(541) 343-3808
We need a financial/economic system that is motivated by the drive to meet peoples' needs, both in the short and long term, quite different from the speculative, profit-taking system that is extant.
Locally based equity unions, with inter-community, inter-regional unity and cooperation focused on community betterment projects, programs and policies would be the ideal world economic/financial system.
A mission of peace, world unity and cooperation based on the fundamental principles of inclusion, equity, humanity, altruism, quality of life in lieu of the maximization of consumption and waste, environmental/public health and wellness, and sustainability would underlie a "plan and implement" modus operandi in lieu of the selfish, unprincipled slash-and-burn speculations and profit-takings of the so-called "free market"
Village/neighborhood sovereignty, economic democracy, and environmental equity would be inculcated in such a system. A more fair and just balance between competitive advantage and comparative advantage would be sought, and the community/environmental improvement for all, starting with those most in need, would be paramount.
Can I submit this as a proposal to the UN General Assembly?
In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,
Mike Morin
Eugene, OR, USA
www.peoplesequityunion.blogspot.com
wiserunion@earthlink.net
(541) 343-3808
Friday, October 16, 2009
To AFL-CIO Regarding “Regulation” of the Financial Sector
Deregulation/Regulation is a false issue.
Regulation, is in some ways well intentioned, but in other ways a scheme of self-perpetuation of bureaucrats, some directly associated with the remaining strongholds of the AFL-CIO, AFSCME and SEIU.
That was not meant as an attack on those Unions, I invite their leaders and constituents to participate in the progress that I have in mind.
The issue of financial regulation is similar to the private (and quasi-public) sector health insurance practice of Utilization Management. It may serve a necessary "sentinel effect" on industries that are rife with greed, but at what bureaucratic costs?
Implementation of regulatory processes also qualify under the banner of futility, as do well meaning initiatives such as "truth in labeling", OSHA, and organic certification.
We don't need regulation, we need true fundamental economic/financial reform.
With regards to "nationalizing" Banks and other "investor owned" Institutions, we must be realistic concerning the inter-national composition of the investing institutions, corporations, and individuals.
Writing from a libertarian socialist point of view, I think it is necessary to clarify the objectives of any comprehensive program to re-dedicate private resources to a quasi-public mission and to consolidate equity and assets for the purposes of sharing the former and writing off the economically paralytic inflationary cost aspects of the latter.
In lieu of an economic system based on credit and equity trading, whose motivation is the underwriting of speculative ventures, and profit-taking, we need to transform our fundamentally inflationary financial/economic system to one that is based on equity sharing and meeting the needs of people in the form of community betterment.
Such a financial system would be the right hand, the resource allocation facilitating function and services of an ambidextrous ecological, democratic, economic "plan and implement" economy that would respect and favor the sovereignty of villages/neighborhoods, educate-foster-facilitate-inculcate inter-community and inter-regional equality, unity and cooperation based on the basic principles of inclusion, equity, humanity, mutualism, altruism, quality of life (in lieu of standard of living), environmental/public health and wellness, sustainability, and peace.
Such a system would seek to establish a more just balance between competitive advantage and comparative advantage with the concerns of those indigenous to all communities being paramount.
Such an economic system would recognize the necessity to embrace and implement conservation ethics for shorter term programs and projects of ecological economic redevelopment dedicated to survival pursuits and skills and its concomitant ubiquitous environmental improvement activities, and to the longer term programs and policies related to the legacy of the human race and its dominion (i.e. the recognition and respect of the resource limits imposed by a finite planet).
I call such a proposal an equity union and believe it to be a prudent and practical alternative to the extant economic/financial system. I believe such an economic rearrangement based on the fundamental mission of world unity and cooperation is the best hope for the purpose of entering an unprecedented era of peace and human progress and success.
Please respond.
Be not afraid of losing with respect to your personal private interest. There is more than a plethora of work to be done in fostering and facilitating the transition to a new financial/economic era and the avoiding the repercussions for letting the death of empire just run its course.
The first thing we must do is clarify our mission and principles. I hope that I have been clear at doing this here and among the other posts of which I have been trying to maximize circulation.
If the mission and principles are clear and desirable, then we need to form "union" with respect to their purposes, their education, their inculcation, their meaning to one and all, and the actions that we can all take to make such a purposeful, desirable world a reality.
We are in perilous times, and facing challenges that although having precedent, are unprecedented in the enormity of the fundamental change that is required. Fortunately, we have communications technology like we have never had before.
Let's not trivialize the fulcramatic shift needed in the financial/economic sector (i.e. resource allocation) by bickering about regulation, an ineffectual solution to the very real problems that we as people must address and act upon.
In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,
Mike Morin
Eugene, OR, USA
wiserunion@earthlink.net
(541) 343-3808
Regulation, is in some ways well intentioned, but in other ways a scheme of self-perpetuation of bureaucrats, some directly associated with the remaining strongholds of the AFL-CIO, AFSCME and SEIU.
That was not meant as an attack on those Unions, I invite their leaders and constituents to participate in the progress that I have in mind.
The issue of financial regulation is similar to the private (and quasi-public) sector health insurance practice of Utilization Management. It may serve a necessary "sentinel effect" on industries that are rife with greed, but at what bureaucratic costs?
Implementation of regulatory processes also qualify under the banner of futility, as do well meaning initiatives such as "truth in labeling", OSHA, and organic certification.
We don't need regulation, we need true fundamental economic/financial reform.
With regards to "nationalizing" Banks and other "investor owned" Institutions, we must be realistic concerning the inter-national composition of the investing institutions, corporations, and individuals.
Writing from a libertarian socialist point of view, I think it is necessary to clarify the objectives of any comprehensive program to re-dedicate private resources to a quasi-public mission and to consolidate equity and assets for the purposes of sharing the former and writing off the economically paralytic inflationary cost aspects of the latter.
In lieu of an economic system based on credit and equity trading, whose motivation is the underwriting of speculative ventures, and profit-taking, we need to transform our fundamentally inflationary financial/economic system to one that is based on equity sharing and meeting the needs of people in the form of community betterment.
Such a financial system would be the right hand, the resource allocation facilitating function and services of an ambidextrous ecological, democratic, economic "plan and implement" economy that would respect and favor the sovereignty of villages/neighborhoods, educate-foster-facilitate-inculcate inter-community and inter-regional equality, unity and cooperation based on the basic principles of inclusion, equity, humanity, mutualism, altruism, quality of life (in lieu of standard of living), environmental/public health and wellness, sustainability, and peace.
Such a system would seek to establish a more just balance between competitive advantage and comparative advantage with the concerns of those indigenous to all communities being paramount.
Such an economic system would recognize the necessity to embrace and implement conservation ethics for shorter term programs and projects of ecological economic redevelopment dedicated to survival pursuits and skills and its concomitant ubiquitous environmental improvement activities, and to the longer term programs and policies related to the legacy of the human race and its dominion (i.e. the recognition and respect of the resource limits imposed by a finite planet).
I call such a proposal an equity union and believe it to be a prudent and practical alternative to the extant economic/financial system. I believe such an economic rearrangement based on the fundamental mission of world unity and cooperation is the best hope for the purpose of entering an unprecedented era of peace and human progress and success.
Please respond.
Be not afraid of losing with respect to your personal private interest. There is more than a plethora of work to be done in fostering and facilitating the transition to a new financial/economic era and the avoiding the repercussions for letting the death of empire just run its course.
The first thing we must do is clarify our mission and principles. I hope that I have been clear at doing this here and among the other posts of which I have been trying to maximize circulation.
If the mission and principles are clear and desirable, then we need to form "union" with respect to their purposes, their education, their inculcation, their meaning to one and all, and the actions that we can all take to make such a purposeful, desirable world a reality.
We are in perilous times, and facing challenges that although having precedent, are unprecedented in the enormity of the fundamental change that is required. Fortunately, we have communications technology like we have never had before.
Let's not trivialize the fulcramatic shift needed in the financial/economic sector (i.e. resource allocation) by bickering about regulation, an ineffectual solution to the very real problems that we as people must address and act upon.
In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,
Mike Morin
Eugene, OR, USA
wiserunion@earthlink.net
(541) 343-3808
Monday, October 12, 2009
Response To Transportation (Trucking) Industry Publication Communicating Gary Locke’s (Obama’s Secretary of Commerce) Downplaying of “Climate Change”
I tend to believe that the greenhouse effect and global/warming climate change is real. We have had evidence for more than 40 years and the overwhelming geophysical evidence presented by scientists almost seems to be at consensus these days.
An associated problem, which will prove to be just as large, if not significantly larger, is the problem related to post-peak oil. It is a well-accepted belief, if not fact, that we have probably passed the peak of oil resources available for our squanderous consumption. After all, it is a finite planet and it takes millions of years under special geologic conditions to form an oil field. The effort, though considerable; to find, extract, transport, refine, transport, and exhaust (yes, poof - gone FOREVER) is but a relative flash in the pan in human history.
The world uses about 80 million barrels a day of oil. Fully 25% of that (approximately 20 million barrels a day) are consumed by the people of the continental United States, 14 million of those barrels used in the transportation sector alone.
If we want to conserve precious fossil fuels for priority uses such as solar assisted heating, cooking, electricity generation, cooling, agricultural inputs, durable products, necessary industrial processes, inter-community and inter-regional transport within a paradigm of relocalization for all communities and regions (moving towards self-sufficiency), and preserve the luxury and convenience of occasional automobile and airplane travel in a manner that explicitly adjusts for economic disruption, then we must plan and implement, allocate our resources accordingly.
We are currently on a linear projection into oblivion. We must reassess the role of the automobile and airplane in our society/economy. A huge job creations program could be realized by rebuilding our sprawled neighborhoods and reallocating production and distribution resources, so that almost all have the quality of life advantages of having their needs and reasonable wants, and the capability of making a living, available within walking distance of their homes. Such a relocalization (towards self-sufficiency) program will have the effect of reducing personal automobile use by 80% in the next 20 to 40 years, freeing up precious, yet finite fossil fuels for priority uses.
There will always be a need for long-range transport, as few if any regions could realize total self-sufficiency and comparative advantages do exist. However, the transportation industry can do their part for the youth and children, the survival of the species, by considering their role and the adjustments that will need to be made (in shifting to a more regional and inter-community/within regions economy).
Please consider the policies, programs, strategies, and actions that you can take to cooperate.
Mike Morin
Eugene, OR, USA
wiserunion@earthlink.net
(541) 343-3808
An associated problem, which will prove to be just as large, if not significantly larger, is the problem related to post-peak oil. It is a well-accepted belief, if not fact, that we have probably passed the peak of oil resources available for our squanderous consumption. After all, it is a finite planet and it takes millions of years under special geologic conditions to form an oil field. The effort, though considerable; to find, extract, transport, refine, transport, and exhaust (yes, poof - gone FOREVER) is but a relative flash in the pan in human history.
The world uses about 80 million barrels a day of oil. Fully 25% of that (approximately 20 million barrels a day) are consumed by the people of the continental United States, 14 million of those barrels used in the transportation sector alone.
If we want to conserve precious fossil fuels for priority uses such as solar assisted heating, cooking, electricity generation, cooling, agricultural inputs, durable products, necessary industrial processes, inter-community and inter-regional transport within a paradigm of relocalization for all communities and regions (moving towards self-sufficiency), and preserve the luxury and convenience of occasional automobile and airplane travel in a manner that explicitly adjusts for economic disruption, then we must plan and implement, allocate our resources accordingly.
We are currently on a linear projection into oblivion. We must reassess the role of the automobile and airplane in our society/economy. A huge job creations program could be realized by rebuilding our sprawled neighborhoods and reallocating production and distribution resources, so that almost all have the quality of life advantages of having their needs and reasonable wants, and the capability of making a living, available within walking distance of their homes. Such a relocalization (towards self-sufficiency) program will have the effect of reducing personal automobile use by 80% in the next 20 to 40 years, freeing up precious, yet finite fossil fuels for priority uses.
There will always be a need for long-range transport, as few if any regions could realize total self-sufficiency and comparative advantages do exist. However, the transportation industry can do their part for the youth and children, the survival of the species, by considering their role and the adjustments that will need to be made (in shifting to a more regional and inter-community/within regions economy).
Please consider the policies, programs, strategies, and actions that you can take to cooperate.
Mike Morin
Eugene, OR, USA
wiserunion@earthlink.net
(541) 343-3808
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Concerning the Restructuring of the Global Financial/Economic System and Recent Discussion of Nationalizing “Banking” Interests
With regards to "nationalizing" Banks and other "investor owned" Institutions, we must be realistic concerning the inter-national composition of the investing institutions, corporations, and individuals.
Writing from a libertarian socialist point of view, I think it is necessary to clarify the objectives of any comprehensive program to re-dedicate private resources to a quasi-public mission and to consolidate equity and assets for the purposes of sharing the former and writing off the economically paralytic inflationary cost aspects of the latter.
In lieu of an economic system based on credit and equity trading, whose motivation is the underwriting of speculative ventures, we need to transform our fundamentally inflationary financial/economic system to one that is based on equity sharing and meeting the needs of people in the form of community betterment.
Such a financial system would be the right hand, the resource allocation facilitating function and services of an ambidextrous ecological, democratic, economic "plan and implement" economy that would respect and favor the sovereignty of villages/neighborhoods, educate-foster-facilitate-inculcate inter-community and inter-regional equality, unity and cooperation based on the basic principles of inclusion, equity, humanity, mutualism, altruism, quality of life (in lieu of standard of living), environmental/public health and wellness, sustainability, and peace.
Such a system would seek to establish a more just balance between competitive advantage and comparative advantage with the concerns of those indigenous to a community being paramount.
Such an economic system would recognize the necessity to embrace and implement conservation ethics for shorter term programs and projects of ecological economic redevelopment dedicated to survival pursuits and skills and its concomitant ubiquitous environmental improvement activities, and to the longer term programs and policies related to the legacy of the human race and its dominion (i.e. the recognition and respect of the resource limits imposed by a finite planet).
I call such a proposal an equity union and believe it to be a prudent and practical alternative to the extant economic/financial system. I believe such an economic rearrangement based on the fundamental mission of world unity and cooperation is the best hope for the purpose of entering an unprecedented era of peace and human progress and success.
Mike Morin
Eugene, OR, USA
wiserunion@earthlink.net
(541) 343-3808
Writing from a libertarian socialist point of view, I think it is necessary to clarify the objectives of any comprehensive program to re-dedicate private resources to a quasi-public mission and to consolidate equity and assets for the purposes of sharing the former and writing off the economically paralytic inflationary cost aspects of the latter.
In lieu of an economic system based on credit and equity trading, whose motivation is the underwriting of speculative ventures, we need to transform our fundamentally inflationary financial/economic system to one that is based on equity sharing and meeting the needs of people in the form of community betterment.
Such a financial system would be the right hand, the resource allocation facilitating function and services of an ambidextrous ecological, democratic, economic "plan and implement" economy that would respect and favor the sovereignty of villages/neighborhoods, educate-foster-facilitate-inculcate inter-community and inter-regional equality, unity and cooperation based on the basic principles of inclusion, equity, humanity, mutualism, altruism, quality of life (in lieu of standard of living), environmental/public health and wellness, sustainability, and peace.
Such a system would seek to establish a more just balance between competitive advantage and comparative advantage with the concerns of those indigenous to a community being paramount.
Such an economic system would recognize the necessity to embrace and implement conservation ethics for shorter term programs and projects of ecological economic redevelopment dedicated to survival pursuits and skills and its concomitant ubiquitous environmental improvement activities, and to the longer term programs and policies related to the legacy of the human race and its dominion (i.e. the recognition and respect of the resource limits imposed by a finite planet).
I call such a proposal an equity union and believe it to be a prudent and practical alternative to the extant economic/financial system. I believe such an economic rearrangement based on the fundamental mission of world unity and cooperation is the best hope for the purpose of entering an unprecedented era of peace and human progress and success.
Mike Morin
Eugene, OR, USA
wiserunion@earthlink.net
(541) 343-3808
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
With Respect to Labor Unions
I am named after my great uncle, Mike Misenti, who worked and fought? his way from humble beginnings as a mason to President of the Building Trades Union, and later President of their Pension Fund, in the State of Connecticut.
Mike Misenti didn't care what "his folks" were building, as long as they were building. That is my major complaint with Labor Unions, their need to self-perpetuate, and offer blind loyalty and complicity with less than optimal corporations/contractors and the latters’ self-interested profit motivated projects and industries that are sometimes, if not often, counter-productive to social/environmental goals...
Don't get me wrong, I consider the interests of workers of all "stripes" and the poor to be of the utmost importance. However, in this era of post-peak oil, climate change, inequality and the tensions that such brings, and the perception of hopelessness that are held by and for youth and for the children, it is necessary that we allocate scarce resources in the most optimal ways and means possible.
Mike Sar has pointed out the decline in airline travel. This trend will not only continue, we should employ all direct and indirect actions that we can to hasten such a decline.
We must recognize the fossil fuel age and the subsequent overshoot in automobile and airplane use as a historical exception that must be phased into perspective.
If we want to conserve precious fossil fuels for priority uses such as solar assisted heating, cooking, electricity generation, cooling, agricultural inputs, durable products, necessary industrial processes, inter-community and inter-regional transport within a paradigm of relocalization for all communities and regions (moving towards self-sufficiency), and preserve the luxury and convenience of occasional automobile and airplane travel in a manner that adjusts for economic disruption, then we must plan and implement.
We need to see the study and practice of Resource and Regional Planning beyond the historical complicity, and at best mitigation of, the irrational Capitalist growth paradigm that does not recognize and/or respect a finite planet whose limits that we are fast approaching. We must enter an era of Resource Allocation based on the explicit principles of meeting human needs, inclusion, equity, humanity, quality of life, environmental/public health and wellness, sustainability, economic democracy, and peace.
The key to a bountiful green building economy is the reversal of the
thirty, fifty, one hundred year trend of sprawl development in the
United States.
By rebuilding neighborhoods and reallocating goods and services to
those renovated neighborhoods (made walkable, meaning that the great
majority of Americans will be able to get what they need within
walking distance of their homes), we can succeed.
Such a tremendous dedication of resources will be a boom to the
building trades and will create the effect of reducing automobile
usage by 80% in the next 20 to 40 years. Neighborhood commercial,
community and work/telecommute centers will be centrally placed in
what are now alienating, automobile dependent, strictly residential
areas, alleviating the problems associated with post-peak oil and
climate change and bringing with it the quality of life associated
with communities and neighborhoods, that most individuals and
families currently lack.
If we do this, we can take the opportunity to retrofit for
weatherization, passive solar design (heating and cooling),
electronic environmental controls, solar assisted hot water
applications, limited PV and wind applications, etc.
Also, if done correctly, we can make changes in ownership
arrangements that are much more fair and just, and work towards an
equitable distribution of wealth among neighborhoods.
It is important that we fundamentally reassess our economic system
and replace the current economic/finance system with one that targets
the needs of the current residents, and not, for-profit speculation.
Because of the terrible inflation of real and capital assets that is
a product of the speculative modus operandi of the Capitalist system,
it will be fundamentally necessary to reform our economic/financial
system by consolidating private (while rededicating them as
quasi-public) real and capital assets and equity and writing way down
the “market value” of those assets.
After completing that awesome task, we could proceed with a “plan and implement” economy dedicated to meeting the needs of the indigenous populations of all communities: inclusion, humanity, equity, quality of life, environmental/public health and wellness, sustainability,
and peace.
Mike Morin
Eugene, OR
www.peoplesequityunion.blogspot.com
wiserunion@earthlink.net
(541) 343-3808
Mike Misenti didn't care what "his folks" were building, as long as they were building. That is my major complaint with Labor Unions, their need to self-perpetuate, and offer blind loyalty and complicity with less than optimal corporations/contractors and the latters’ self-interested profit motivated projects and industries that are sometimes, if not often, counter-productive to social/environmental goals...
Don't get me wrong, I consider the interests of workers of all "stripes" and the poor to be of the utmost importance. However, in this era of post-peak oil, climate change, inequality and the tensions that such brings, and the perception of hopelessness that are held by and for youth and for the children, it is necessary that we allocate scarce resources in the most optimal ways and means possible.
Mike Sar has pointed out the decline in airline travel. This trend will not only continue, we should employ all direct and indirect actions that we can to hasten such a decline.
We must recognize the fossil fuel age and the subsequent overshoot in automobile and airplane use as a historical exception that must be phased into perspective.
If we want to conserve precious fossil fuels for priority uses such as solar assisted heating, cooking, electricity generation, cooling, agricultural inputs, durable products, necessary industrial processes, inter-community and inter-regional transport within a paradigm of relocalization for all communities and regions (moving towards self-sufficiency), and preserve the luxury and convenience of occasional automobile and airplane travel in a manner that adjusts for economic disruption, then we must plan and implement.
We need to see the study and practice of Resource and Regional Planning beyond the historical complicity, and at best mitigation of, the irrational Capitalist growth paradigm that does not recognize and/or respect a finite planet whose limits that we are fast approaching. We must enter an era of Resource Allocation based on the explicit principles of meeting human needs, inclusion, equity, humanity, quality of life, environmental/public health and wellness, sustainability, economic democracy, and peace.
The key to a bountiful green building economy is the reversal of the
thirty, fifty, one hundred year trend of sprawl development in the
United States.
By rebuilding neighborhoods and reallocating goods and services to
those renovated neighborhoods (made walkable, meaning that the great
majority of Americans will be able to get what they need within
walking distance of their homes), we can succeed.
Such a tremendous dedication of resources will be a boom to the
building trades and will create the effect of reducing automobile
usage by 80% in the next 20 to 40 years. Neighborhood commercial,
community and work/telecommute centers will be centrally placed in
what are now alienating, automobile dependent, strictly residential
areas, alleviating the problems associated with post-peak oil and
climate change and bringing with it the quality of life associated
with communities and neighborhoods, that most individuals and
families currently lack.
If we do this, we can take the opportunity to retrofit for
weatherization, passive solar design (heating and cooling),
electronic environmental controls, solar assisted hot water
applications, limited PV and wind applications, etc.
Also, if done correctly, we can make changes in ownership
arrangements that are much more fair and just, and work towards an
equitable distribution of wealth among neighborhoods.
It is important that we fundamentally reassess our economic system
and replace the current economic/finance system with one that targets
the needs of the current residents, and not, for-profit speculation.
Because of the terrible inflation of real and capital assets that is
a product of the speculative modus operandi of the Capitalist system,
it will be fundamentally necessary to reform our economic/financial
system by consolidating private (while rededicating them as
quasi-public) real and capital assets and equity and writing way down
the “market value” of those assets.
After completing that awesome task, we could proceed with a “plan and implement” economy dedicated to meeting the needs of the indigenous populations of all communities: inclusion, humanity, equity, quality of life, environmental/public health and wellness, sustainability,
and peace.
Mike Morin
Eugene, OR
www.peoplesequityunion.blogspot.com
wiserunion@earthlink.net
(541) 343-3808
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