Value-New shift

Inspired by reading some works by Herman Daly, Robert Pirsig, and Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, among others, I have been inspired to try and organize the thoughts that have been circulating in my head. I would say "codify", but that is a little too ambitious. My goal is to develop, think about, what the next vision/plan for the world should look like. I approach it partly from an economic standpoint, but not exclusively, nor extensively.

Why start with value? "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" was about value. Value is also an important concept in economics. Because if these factors, that idea is demanding to be addressed, though it is debatable if it is the most important factor. Because the capitalist countries control the direction of the world, it is necessary to look at what drives them and what should drive them in the future. What is valued in this system? Stuff is valued. (I should apologize here for refusing to define terms in an encyclopedic manner. This is not an academic paper and the fluidity of the terms is best preserved by not defining them.) If GDP goes up (aka more stuff), then everyone is happy. This works in a world where there is an essentially limitless amount of stuff, space, and places to put trash. In the current world, we are no longer living with those conditions. This is the key point identified by Daly and Georgescu-Roegen.

In this "full" world, it is clear that we can't grow (economic growth) forever. Not when "growth" means "more stuff". Where is the quality of what is growing? It may be indirectly reflected in the price, but that is a poor measure. Yet, this is an immensely simple value system. Money is good, get money, that is where the value in life is. Is this the secret of the capitalist system? It can utterly ravage cultures because it allows you to turn off as many value systems as possible and just focus on money, and consequently wealth. There is more value placed on the outcome, money, than the process, what you do to get it. Of course, there are socially accepted (lawful) ways of acquiring money, but when the source of the money is unknown, the money's value itself outweighs other considerations.

Before this becomes a rant on wealth, I will get back on track. The value question will not be resolved today. There are too many factors involved. One of things that plagues the formulation of a new system is looking at what is valued when people are just trying to get clean water and something to eat. In the economic North, it is easy to rail against consumerism. What do you say to people living in a dirt shack who send their daughter to the city in order to assemble electronic goods? I don't want to live in dirt shack. There are things I could live without, and yet succumb to temptation and purchase. I don't know yet, but I'll look for it.

Final thoughts: What does the world system value? What do individuals value? What should be valued?

Limits to Growth--unorginal title

Am reading Herman Daly right now. His approach to economics is pretty good.

The key is that we are moving from an empty world, where resources seemed limitless and man's actions/pollution could be absorbed by ecosystem services. Now, we live in a full world. We are pushing the limits to which the ecosystem can survive. No matter how many substitutes we find to the resources that are becoming more and more scarce, we can't find them forever. Even if we can, those that we lose will be gone forever. We cannot rebuild a wetlands environment when basic species have become extinct. We need to build a sustainable economy.

This involves recognizing the need to cut back on consumption and maximize the services provided by resources while not depleted them at an irresponsible rate. The growth economy cannot continue forever. The growth economy relies on treating depleted natural resources as income when they should be treated as a loss of capital. The exact transformation is too complex to comprehend in total. But, that should not prevent us from abandoning our current system.

This was a horrible glossing over of the beauty of the theory. I just had to get this down so I could further explore it later.