Fw: Continuing our debate

From: Paul Riesz <priesz@netline.cl>

Date: Wed, 01 Aug 2001 17:02:02 -0400
Subject: Continuing our debate

Dear Marguerite:

1. A WORLD WITHOUT WORK
In your latest posting about the need for a new form of governments,
capable to manage a society, in which most people wont need to work, you
tell us a lot about what is wrong with our present form of government,
but FAIL TO TELL US WHAT THE ALTERNATIVE COULD OR SHOULD BE.

As long as we do not have a clearer idea, how such a government would
function and how we could achieve it, a workless world is nothing but an
illusion.

MH:  Paul, you're exactly right. I did list a lot of things that is wrong
with government now because that's where we have to begin.  As French
philosopher, Michael Foucalt puts it, ''To find out what our society
means by sanity perhaps what we should investigate what is happening in
the field of insanity."  I don't think anyone knows right now how the
future is going to look exactly or how governance should shape up. But
many seem to agree that capitalism is at present 'the root of all evil'
for the most of the world, although it does serve to line the pockets of
the few while at the same time strip-mining the world's resources at an
incredible rate while also dehumanizing the people of the world.  So,
should we remain with this form of doing business that no longer serves
us?  And, I feel what we have been talking about is 'business' not
governance. If we remain with this form of doing business, then to all
appearances the end of the world's natural resources is not far off.  I
think there is some agreement that operating in this manner is
'insanity.'

So, it also appears we don't have much of a choice but to move ahead into
change if we want to survive as the human race. I understand that you are
asking 'change to what?' -- and if we had the answer to that, Paul, we'd
all be multi-millionaires.  No one really has the answer; we're all in a
state of transition.  We're learning about ourselves and the mistakes of
the past; we're assessing the answers we come up with from this learning
process. We are like children learning to walk taking our first steps and
falling down and then getting back up and trying again. We are in a state
of evolution -- that's what life is all about -- it's about not being
afraid to let go of the past and step into the future. Its about
discovery.  You know right now, we aren't very mature beings; if we were
we wouldn't have created this awful dilemna for ourselves.  So the
Universe is prodding us to go to a higher level of consciousness -- to
experience what it would be like not to be burdened with dehumanizing
work but to find ways to make work meaningful.  Its about learning how
not to pollute our own nest.  Its about how to have economic stability
without having to wage wars to keep it that way.  Its about not having to
manipulate society to keep purchasing things that are useless or harmful
in order to keep the economy moving.  Its about valuing human life.      
                   

You also keep referring to the 'workerless' world.  And it is not a
workerless world that we are entering into, it is a 'jobless world' as we
come to the end of the industrial age -- that is the end of an age of
large manufacturing facilities which employed millions of people. And it
is not *I* that am advocating a 'workerless society' but it is obvious
that technology ,which will serve to reduce waste and conserve energy, 
is rapidly replacing the need for 'laborers' in the workplace. Now I can
sit here and go into a long diatribe of statistics and examples of how
this is happening, but there are a world of resources available for
anyone who wants this back up information, e.g., 'End of Work' - Jeremy
Rifkin, 'The World's Wasted Wealth' - R.W. Smith, 'Jobshift: How to
Prosper in Workplace Without Jobs' - William Bridges, 'Managing for the
Future' - Peter F. Drucker, 'Thriving on Chaos' - Tom Peters, 'Birth of
the Chaordic Age' - Dee Hock, etc., etc., etc.    

So let's just move on into something productive and let everyone do their
own research. One very informative book, however, is economist Eugene
Linden's 'The Future In Plain Sight' in which Linden predicts instability
as the main feature of the coming decades.  In fact, Linden goes so far
as to say the economics we have created for ourselves is really just one
big pyramid scheme that is going to come tumbling down around us. 
Richard Douthwaite appears to feel, via his book 'The Growth Illusion'
that maybe this is not too bad a prospectus as perhaps this would push
people to getting on the right track.  Douthwaite also writes about the
Amish culture, one which I am familiar with having grown up in a small
community about 5 miles away from an Amish one.  Douthwaite points to how
the Amish manage to live simple lives within our complex economy by
managing their affairs in such a manner as to eliminate technologies and
other practices from within their communities that might prove harmful to
their way of life.  And, I can tell you from experience that the Amish
were by far the most prosperous people around with their large farms and
white painted houses and huge barns along with beautiful horses. The rest
of us may have sped by their horse and buggies in our fancy cars and
turned up our noses at the way they dressed, but they sure outstripped us
in many other ways -- not the least to say those of human values having
to do with community of life.   

No, I'm not advocating here that we all turn to the Amish way, but what I
do see is that the Amish exhibited a much more mature outlook on life
than do many of the rest of us. We live in a society that says 'anything
goes' and as a result, as I have pointed out recently, illegal crime
makes more money that do all the rest of us put together and the TNCs are
killing us.  And its funny, not haha funny, but odd that the guy who owns
the biggest multimillion dollar home in our mixed neighborhood of beach
cottages, apartments and mansions, is a single male fashion model in his
mid-twenties.  The erection of this edifice has caused quite stir among
the young women in the neighborhood while it has caused grief to many
others.  Property values have now shot up and my rent has consequently
risen $325 in the past six months and is scheduled to increase again in
November. This is forcing many seniors, who have lived here for years,
along with hard-working young people, out of the neighborhood. This
scenario is repeated again and again across the United States as real
estate values fluctuate with the market. 
 
I use to be a real estate broker, but having been a victim of 'the
economy' twice I refused to go back into this field again as I could not
stomach seeing people buy homes that accelerated in value one year,
perhaps as much as $100,000, and then overnight lost so much value as to
be assessed at less than the mortgage amount.  Those who worked for
corporations could count on the corps to bail them out but the
entrepreneurs, the small business owners, who make up the majority of
employers in the U.S. were out in the cold -- many times losing their
businesses as well as their homes.  The person who bought at the bottom
of the market and sold high was lucky.  Those who got caught holding the
bag were tragedies.    

But that brings us to look at land and ownership.  Formerly the whole
economic thing was based on the ability to hypothecate land and borrow
against it -- with the addition of buildings we were able to manufacture
or produce on it and create added value.  Now we're into junk bonds and
creating value from where no value really exists.  Banks manufacture
money out of thin air and loan it out while collecting interest on it.
And whole economies are built from this alchemy.  When one looks at this
closely and how the world of finance really works, one understands why
Linden refers to it as a pyramid scheme.  Both Richard Stimson in his
book, 'Playing With the Numbers - How So-called Experts Mislead Us About
the Economy' and Jerry Madrick in 'The End of Affluence -- The Causes and
Consequences of America's Economic Delemma' tell of how the manipulation
of the figures by the Fed and other agencies are used to cover up the
real facts about the state of the economy of the U.S.  Scary stuff,
believe me. 

Back to land issues again, Hernando de Soto writes in 'The Mystery of
Capital -- Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else'
that the real reason for poverty in the developing world is that no
authentic records detailing ownership exist on land properties owned by
80% of the people which will, in turn, permit hypothecation in such a a
manner as to allow capital to be raised for investment. Due to this
phenomenon an 'extralegal' economy has gradually come about where friends
and relatives do business with one another but not with outsiders who
require indemnification against possible 'clouds on the title' of a
property.  And it is only through operating in this extralegal economy
that natives extract value from their holdings.  

(I think of note here may be that this 'extralegal' economy, due to its
inability to raise capital any other way, also involves itself in other
illegal activities, e.g., drug-trafficing, arms dealing, whoring, patent
violations, and the many other black market activities that produce
revenues necessary to surviving in today's world.)     

DeSoto estimates that $9.3 trillion in real estate assets are held in
this manner.  What DeSoto is suggesting is governments get into the act
and work to straighten out the records so that owners in the developing
world can hypothecate their properties and raise investment capital. But
I'm saying, wait a minute here! So if developing world properties could
be hypothecated who are the lenders going to be?-- and the only source of
lending seems to be -- you've got it -- the affluent of the developed
world or those who are already the billionaires of the developing world.
And how are they going to write the terms on these loans?  to their
advantage, of course.  And who has written the laws that would permit
this?  You've got it -- those who stand to benefit the most.  Real scary
stuff, again! 

Folks, I don't know about you, but to me this is beginning to look a
little like a game of cat and mouse.  The cat use to own the walk, but
now the mouse is getting smarter and the mouse is beginning to organize
games outside of the 'legally cat-defined walk' which allows it to make
as much, or more money than the cat. And you know, the funny thing about
this is when I look at the whole damn picture I can't figure out whose
activities are the most reprehensible and do the most damage to the
society that the rest of us are trying to create. The cat (maybe this
should be spelled R-A-T)  has been lying and cheating us for years thru
the LAWCAPs legal manipulations -- the mouse seems to have sprung up out
of need to protect itself from the depradations of the cat. So, I guess
I'd have to choose the cat because the mouse was just trying to survive
and find a way to get food in its mouth while the cat has shown itself to
be just plain greedy. 

So, Paul, we need to look at all of these things and decide what kind of
governance it is we want for ourselves.  Then, we need to go after both
the cat and the mouse and kick them off of the walk along with the
government, the bankers and financiers and the economists (who must stay
up nights on end mind-masturbating about how to do more games made from
magic) and put together civil society organizations that have the ability
to use just every day good common sense and design forms of governance
that serve to bring about social, environmental and economic justice. 
This is not going to happen overnight, nor is it going to be easy. And,
in order for it to be a fair process that represents all interests it is
going to have to involve almost all of the citizens of the Earth.  

What I would say would make this job easier is to give the Earth her
right, give her a voice in establishing her  rules and regulations, which
must take precedence over our own, first. We are here but as guests of
this gracious lady, our Mother -- it is our *privilege* to be here.  And.
when we have assumed our established pecking order, and recognize that we
are only a guest and are ready to obey the R&R's of our earthly home,
then we can begin in an orderly fashion to assume responsibility for our
collective behavior in such a manner as to require little in the way of
manmade rules and regulations.  Only when we begin to assume this
*response-ability* will we have the freedom we desire.  And reforming our
consumption habits while we're redesigning government seems to be a
'common sense' activity. 

So, Paul, as to your suggestion that I think about why we should keep the
WTO -- I can't really think of one. The WTO is just one more result of
mind-masturbation by people who have nothing better to do than try to
manipulate and control others through more rules and regulations, and,
that, I feel, we have all had enough of.  Let's get on with something
really constructive, shall we?     

marguerite 


2. REFORMING THE WTO
Referring to my concrete proposals on this subjects, you write the
following:

"Paul, as I've pointed out above, it appears that the only thing that is
going to bring the WTO into line is to so disrupt the markets, by
consumers voting their dollars in the marketplace, such as to gain the
attention of the power brokers."

Trying to change our habits of conspicuous and wasteful consumption, has
a lot of merit, but you must be aware, that such a policy alone is NOT
going to solve the world's many economic problems any time soon.
Why don't you give me better reasons for not trying to reform the WTO.

Cordial greetings            Paul