Romm doesn't quite say so, but this is the real reason the economy has become so unstable. The REAL economy that provides our living can't grow any more as one stock (resource) after another collapses, but our system requires it to grow or collapse. Rather than admit that it's reached the wall, it pretends to grow by blowing one bubble after another. The rich get richer while the rest of us decline; it's become a zero-sum game. And bubbles, by nature, burst.

Dean Baker just pointed out that it didn't do that before the 80's. There was a business cycle, but never that severe, and overall, everyone benefitted. Economists have a hard time admitting that growth is a problem, so he points to the more equal distribution of wealth in those days as the cause. True enough, but the real economy was growing then. The stocks weren't collapsing then, although the signs were there to be seen.

Now the economy is doing what it has to do: shrinking to fit the real world. That isn't fun, especially in an economy designed to grow or die. People are going to suffer during this transition; our biggest challenge will be to minimize that suffering without prolonging it.

The bright side is that globalization, neoliberalism, and most economists have been discredited by the collapse. Dean Baker, in his book "Blunder and Plunder," goes on at some length about his colleagues' remarkable self-delusion in the face of the bubble economy and its inevitable collapse. The honor roll of those who saw it coming is pretty short.

But even Baker seems to think we can "grow" our way out of this one. Most economists failed to take physics and don't understand, or rather deny, that there are physical limits to our world and therefore to the economy. One thing I like about Romm's article is that he is a physicist doing economics. We need more of those. In fact, we need a whole new economics, and new economists. One starting place, which I owe to another commenter, is: www.steadystate.org/.

Unfortunately, our new administration, despite all the rhetoric about "Change," is proving very conservative about our financial crisis. They're willing to throw vast amounts of our grandchildren's money at it, but so far most of it is going to the same zombie banks that helped build the crisis. That's what happens when you hire their minions to run the economy.

The only political party that's built around sustainability is the Green Party (www.gp.org). When we're ready for some real "Change," they're standing by.

Good luck, everybody: it's going to be a very wild ride.

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The most prescient statement in this article, the one we most certainly should pay attention to:

“Mother Nature doesn’t do bailouts.”

No, it doesn't. But it sure as hell DOES do extinctions.

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What are we looking at giving up? Malls that are full of unbought merchandise when the lights go off at 10pm, merchandise made with slave labor? Grocery stores containing piles of food at closing time? Restaurant servings that reflect our gluttonous appetites? Air conditioning whether we need it or not? Concrete over every patch of grass? Baubles brought to us from continents far away, courtesy of low petrol prices? Lamb chops from New Zealand? Raspberries in January?

If we can make it, things will be better. We can have local farms around us once again, bicycle and walking paths, local shops that close at 6pm, real lives, interaction with our neighbors, open windows.

I just don't have the answers for how to survive this economic holocaust. I've seen the unsustainability of the American lifestyle for a long time. I've said all along that reconstruction has to take place now, so that when the old structure collapses, we simply step forward into perfection.

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I don't believe that the changes necessary to get us out of the mess we have created for ourselves and the world we depend on can happen fast enough in the capitalistic economic system we have constructed. Capitalism, as we practice it, is the ultimate pyramid scheme, because it depends for its existence upon constant growth in both demand (the Ponzi suckers) and supply (the Ponzi payout).

Also, monopoly-favoring capitalism (again, as we practice it) will block, in any way possible, outside innovation that threatens already established profit streams; but, my God, do we need innovation. Not necessarily in new technology (although, "it can't hoit"), but in utilizing the inventions we already have, many of which having been blocked by mega-corporations for years (the destruction of GM's EV-1 electric car and the burying of NiMH battery availability by GM itself for the sake of oil company profits is but one example.)

We need massive and rapid investment of time and money in what we already know works,such as: railroads as the most efficient way to move freight and passengers; LED lighting to save up to 20% of America's electrical consumption; solar thermal plants to cover the Mojave Desert and a system to store their electrical potential, and tidal and wind electrical production; and, long term, geothermal power production, using the inexhaustable stable heat of Earth itself; full-scale recycling to save what resources are left; and, most importantly, a sea-change in social psycology to a mindset that values what one does for others more than how much one owns.

All of this, and much more, needs to be done with an urgency like that we summoned to help defeat the Axis Powers in WWII. But none of this will come to pass if we just "let the market decide," because "the market" will keep things just as they are until they play out and are no longer profitable –– which will be far, far, too late to save us when Mother Nature rebalances its equation by scraping us off.

The one lesson that has been borne out many, many times before – and that, if we paid any attention to history, we would have learned – is that if we don't get smart and bring ourselves into balance with the Earth, Nature will do it for us –and the result will not be pretty.

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We are heading head long into oblivion due to the crap at the top. When one considers this article and those by James Howard Kunstler we really are in deep peril on this planet.

At this point in time we are heading for the conclusion of usable oil and surprisingly it was found in nature to be in just enough quantity to tip our world's climate for the worse.

Besides this as this article's author contends we are involved in a giant ponzi scheme, humans have written a check nature and the markets can no longer cash. Our children and their children will be basically bankrupt both monetarily and in what nature will be able to provide.

Precious time for action is sliding past us and unheeded by those in power to change our fate. Soon this planet of ours will be starting to take it's revenge on this our most unwise species, man.

Super weather events and systems, drought ,floods,famine, disease , armed conflicts just to name a few.

Maybe we should end as a species on this planet just to save some of the remaining species that have survived us this long and certainly before we have the chance to destroy other planets.

We are nearly at that point of no return and we as a race are to dumb to do anything about it, how very sad.

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Our human economy is an extension of the Earthly energy economy we are embedded within, and its base is solar energy held by chemical bonds in food.

Until economists understand that, and enlarge their books to accommodate it, the rest of the debate about nationalizing banks and such is simply discussing which long-term losing strategy we shall follow. It may well be too late to avoid massive tragedy that will make WWII look like a hiccup.

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We have reaped the harvest of thousands of years of human knowledge and ingenuity. We have been living off the sweat of our fore-fathers who built our modern world for slave wages. We have benefitted from our exploitation of poorly paid workers in the third world. We have raped and pillaged the earth's resources. We have been living off the past, the present and the future. We have a global infrastructure which has serviced our culture of indebtedness. We didn't question the planet's ability to sustain six and a half billion of us. We didn't question our unsustainable modus vivendi. We didnt take on board that for everyone, on earth, to live the 'American Dream' would take six planets. We, in the Western world have been living in a fool's paradise and we have seduced the developing world into believing it can follow suit. We have messed-up big time and have dragged the whole planet into this unholy mess. We are all in this together and it is not pretty.

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The belief in the possibility of limitless resources and infinite growth seems to be a disorder of the Merchant class.

Merchant types have the ability to psyche themselves into all sorts of crazy beliefs. They sometimes even come to believe they can create their own reality.

Sound familiar? Of course. To no one's surprise, the Merchant Class is represented by the Republican Party.

These are the people who have pushed the unsustainable model Mr. Romm is talking about. They're the ones who are STILL talking about how "there's plenty of oil." It's the natural optimism of entrepreneurs metastatized into a deadly political disease, leading to our current descent into The Great Republican Depression

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First off, let's look at the policies and who's really the culprit here. We the Americans consume more resources than most folks in other nations. As a matter of fact, if China and India were as consuming as we Americans, the resources would have been gone already. Instead, they're actually moving to better solutions and technologies while we're stuck at the mercy of Corporate America. Why do we keep shooting ourselves with pols who continue the policies of rewarding the gas guzzlers while not giving conservationists any rewards for doing so? Make public transportation better quality and less costly so we don't have to sit through bloody traffic jams everyday. And stop rewarding tax breaks for gas guzzlers while giving little to nothing for fuel efficient counterparts.

Second, this author although I like most of his articles, fails to mention the fact that most rural lands, at least as witnessed in my state of MO, are actually DEPOPULATING while the crowded population in the big cities and their surrounding suburbs are increasing disproportionately. It's like misusing the distorted GDP figures to make it look like the economy's hunky dory. Again, no discussion of the policies of land privatization that lead to this mess.

We can't assume that we'll all sit by and stay the course as the author incorrectly predicts. It'll get to the point where we'll permanently have to change our lifestyles and I seriously doubt that people will die off once they move from the big cities back to the rurals and reverse the depopulation mess.

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financial or money... as it has been said many times before, if it exists, it can be commodified for a profit...

hope is being commodified and marketed to us now at a huge price... time to walk away and quit participation... we can create our own scenario... are you brave enough to turn your back and go back to the old question of 'what does it mean to be human???'

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and is a result of HIS Generations Greed. Please SongBird, You and your buddies started pilferring the coffers 30 yrs ago! Now that you've emptied them you dare Cry foul?
Trickle Dwon was a Scam- siphoning off the wealth produced by the middle class to be hoarded by the 'Do Nothing' upper echelon.Add to that the adage of Do Nothing Regualtions ideology and even more embezzlement and extortion is possible.
You and your Repug Red Coat Economic TRAITORS didn't Lose it all , You outright STOLE it! You've been pulling off this heist for 30 yrs!
Now we need to refill the coffers by borrowing from the Chinese & your buddies the Saudis just so we can start the engines up again.Considering your outright theft and your kneecapping of our economy, the Charge of Treason is appropriate. You not only stole our ability to produce, but our ability to buy- which effects every other countries economy- making your crimes actually Against Humanity!And you should face the World for your Crimes.
Now our only choice is to borrow to replenish what you have stole, so that we can begin to produce,rebuild the middle class who Buys and makes it possible to sell anything around the World.
Any idiot KNOWS 'Trickle Down' Is the Great Crime of the elite..The Beloved economic stratedgy of the greedy monarchs and dictarotship...Which ALWAYS destroys an Empire.It would have been more appropriate and honest to call the Repugs Economic agenda "Let them Eat Cake". If 'Do Nothing' Worked we wouldn't be in this shit hole right now!! Repugs are the most egregious Slackers and Traitors this country has ever seen!In fact lets send them over to 3rd world countries who have relied on US for Aid, Or China or the Saudis who have built their economies off the purchase power of the US Middle Class- Let the Repugs and their Corp masters face their form of Justice!

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Look - it's not that billionaires and global leaders don't believe in global warming - it's that they don't care.

They believe they will be able to use their positions of wealth and power to avoid any personal discomfort due to global warming - they will move to the most stable regions, they will have power to keep the AC on - and that's it. In their minds, as long as they control large sums of money, there is no problem - everyone else can go to hell.

This attitude was also prevalent in France among the aristocracy right before a bloody revolution happened. Under totalitarian systems, the only kind of riots you seem to see are food and fuel riots - when people can't eat, they get angry, even if they are being threatened by armed soldiers. That kind of unrest now threatens the corrupt and corpulent billionaires who rule China, for example, as jobs vanish and people are forced back to rural agricultural zones.

Take Joseph Romm's recent article about Bill Gates and global warming - read it here:

A response to Joseph Romm on Bill Gates (I)

"This is where the obvious hypocrisy of the foundations shows up - they invest in fossil fuel extraction, copper extraction, agricultural plantation systems, all while passing out vaccines and claiming to be doing "only good works". Their justification is that they need to maintain their endowment - but that can become psychotic thinking. What if achieving the "philanthropic goal" means sacrificing part of the endowment? Why is that so unthinkable? A solar venture might need billions in investment before it becomes profitable, for example."

It's obvious that the Gates Foundation is a front - they invest heavily in drugs and oil, and the lobby developing nations to accept GMO crops, U.S. intellectual property rules, and the like - yet Romm doesn't even seem to have a clue about that:
The Heat is On Bill Gates, Romm: response

"Using the most recent data available, a Times tally showed that hundreds of Gates Foundation investments — totaling at least $8.7 billion, or 41% of its assets, not including U.S. and foreign government securities — have been in companies that countered the foundation's charitable goals or socially concerned philosophy."

So, we set up an economic engine that is ecologically destructive, and try and counter that destruction with philanthropic giving based on that income from that economic system? It's a little like trying to fund medical clinics with the proceeds from liquor and heroin and tobacco sales, isn't it?

This is understandable, as honestly tackling the climate issue would also require tackling the inherent corruption in the U.S. government and the U.S. academic system, which are both heavily influenced by established fossil fuel interests.

Romm, it should be noted, served as Acting Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy during the 1990s - a time when Democrats gave lip service to renewable energy while giving the same kind of support to fossil fuel interests that every other U.S. president had.

The same thing is happening today - we gave $700 billion to banks who business is ~50% fossil fuel transactions - and we have $15 billion for renewable energy, starting in 2012 - that's half of AIG's bailout.

It really is that rotten, but our established academics seem unable to come to grips with reality.

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It amazes me how many people actually think this way...well until the shit actually hits their doorway...then it becomes woe is me. I am sick of all the ignorant and apathetic jerkoffs that offer nothing to actually help their societys. What a bunch of viruses!

(BTW, I am assuming that melpol is being sarcastic.)

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As "blithe" as Emerson.

Boccaccio's Decameron is suddenly very relevant again after six-hundred years. And Epicure's philosophy, too. (http://classics.mit.edu/Epicurus/princdoc.html)

One caveat: Go spread your sperm too freely and you'll wind up in jail for rape. This is still 'Merica, you know.

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I think the best example I have run across in the past few days that reinforces the idea that capitalism is nothing but a huge Ponzi scheme is inherent in this quote from Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman: "Between 40 and 45 percent of the world's wealth has been destroyed in little less than a year and a half."

Because nothing physical has been destroyed, the only way to define "wealth" in this statement is to convert it to something that is non-existent, or at least completely intangible, such as a promise. Or maybe a lie.

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That is exactly the kind of mentality which got this planet into this mess and it was religion that allowed it to continue. After all God will clean up the mess so we don't have to worry about it. May you keep spreading your sperm into the sink so no more will come from you.

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Loaning money = creating money. However, no money is created to pay for the interest. So we need to loan more money. Growth, growth, growth...

We are borrowing from the future in order to maintain an unsustainable lifestyle. Our children will have to pay for it.

That is, if we last at all. Any organism that continually grows unsustainably will eventually kill its host.

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The conservative right has finally done what they wanted to do. The aim was to starve government until it could be drowned in a bathtub and hey, since we've all played along - they almost have. The down side is that they have brought along the rest of the world! Yes, we are spending our childrens and grandchildrens future lives for short-term monetary gain - not for the benefit of society - but for the benefit of a small cadre of individuals and corporations whose already overblown bank accounts will never go with them to the grave!!

Yes, we have to face reality, suck it up and change the way that we as a society live! We as a society have been sucking up the natural resources of this planet at an alarming rate - time to stop! Yes, it means cutting back on consumerism, maybe a change in lifestyles - but in our disconnected, plugged up, tuned out society that doesn't sound like a bad thing!

Maybe you can go out and talk to your neighbors, and stop falling for the Ponzi schemes, and the get rich quick schemes! Has it never occurred that the only ones that are getting richer are the Madoff's of the world!!!

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METAPHOR THIS!!!

Very disappointing to read word smiths articles written with subterfuge, stereotyping, copy cat buzz words as original editorial works.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA CREATES MYTHS, STEREOTYPING, INACCURATE FACTS, INCORRECT ASSOCIATIONS “PONZI” vs “PYRAMID SCHEME”

Mainstream Media news outlets including communicators, editors, reporters, radio, TV, websites continue unabated to include “PONZI” with current demise of USA and world financial collapse. Mr. Carlos Ponzi effected a Pyramid scheme. The great majority of citizens throughout the world are not aware that Mr. Carlos Ponzi was a living person certainly not a creator of concepts. Consequently, the incorrect association and perpetuation of this particular myth by MSM is to deflect and distract the GREAT CRIME that now permeate our financial and global market systems. Subsequently, the correct scam is “Pyramid Scheme” the current USA demise is a “Reverse Pyramid” Mr. Ponzi was arrested, charged, and served a prison sentence for effecting a “Pyramid Scheme”. The current operators of massive “Pyramid Schemes” “Reverse Pyramid”
scams continue their great crimes with assistance from government policy bailouts, myths, MSM distractions, and controlled markets. Not one person or entity has been held accountable to date. Mr. Ponzi paid for his crime eighty years ago. REVERSE ROBIN HOODS SYNDROME MULTIPLY SCAMS DAILY.


visit http://www.greatcampcustommailbox.com/ak47popcorn2007blog

# # #

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If you want to survive learn to garden. You may or may not survive even with skills.

Some other thoughts: We are all greedy and some are greedier than others, but we all like nice things and comfort. There are way way too many of us, so everyone's comforts have ruined the planet.

The train has left the station on overpopulation about 100+ years ago, so relax and enjoy the end game as long as you can while conserving what you can to make it all last as long as possible. You can remind the clueless politicians that they are fools and that can be fun, so do some of that and enjoy saying "I told you so" in letters to the editor or whatever and relax---it is too late already. A Homo sapiens crash is coming to your nearest and dearest planet.
Nature is not in the bailout game is the take home message of this article.

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When Enron,CEO,Ken Lay, was convicted,strangely, he had a heart attack, rather than serve time, he was immediately cremated, stange,very strange. so he never served time, never paid any fines, never paid any money back, could it be the same for Maddock? Lets watch and see if it unfolds the same way. NO questions EVER asked Was he really cremated, is he realy dead?

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It's a bit presumptuous to assume that the collective "we" did all of this, that "we" allowed the wealth to get sucked to the top, that "we" somehow collaborated in the excesses.

Yes, many people became greedy, but when I look at, for example, the secretary in our office who lives on $30,000 a year after working in the school system for 20 years, I don't see a person who takes more than she gives. Like many other acquaintances, she grows much of her own food and preserves it, she struggles to pay her bills and barely manages to live within her means. Most of my friends have minimal needs, they don't drive more than they have to, and they are working hard to survive. Gardening and home preserving are more the norm among rural residents than is recognized by city dwellers.

And speaking of city dwellers, does anyone think the minorities who live in inner city ghettos were thrilled to have their tiny percentage of the collective wealth get sucked out of their lives in greater and greater quantities?

It's like those who blame all Americans for the Bush (faux) presidency. I not only didn't vote for him, I worked to prevent his appointment, as did many others. It's like blaming people who live under dictators for "allowing" themselves to be oppressed.

We do not really live in a democracy, we live in a kleptocracy. Blaming us for handing over our wealth to the thieves is analogous to blaming a 12 year old rape victim for wearing shorts and therefore inviting her rape. Well, it's true she wore the shorts, and it's true that they might have been provocative to a child molester, therefore, it's her own fault! Ya think???

Not everyone lives in even moderate wealth in the US, not everyone is careless and environmentally oblivious. And many, many of us who worked to stop mountaintop mining, toxic waste incineration, and other atrocities have been stifled at every turn (note that the protestors in West Virginia have been given a stop order from a judge).

The power lies in a few hands, so I really wish a whole lot of self-righteous pundits would stop saying "we" have done this. Americans no doubt use more than their share, but it's those at the top who control what we do. It's not the consumer who advocates wrapping every item we buy in four layers of plastic or prevents our car manufacturers from taking advantage of current technology to increase fuel mileage or ignores environmental laws governing mining and manufacturing.

"We" didn't hand over control to the powers-that-be; they took it systematically, deliberately, and effectively. This "blame the victim mentality" does nothing to right the wrongs we are experiencing.

10% of the US population owns 90% of the wealth, and even fewer own the power. That means that at least 90% of us are not in control.

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I have been part of the poor working class all of my life and have actively worked to change this political economy. And the crisis of profitablity that we are experienceing admidst the crisis of over production was predicted long ago and by others who took the time to and made the sacrifices to learn about them. Many writers here speak as if we can go back to some mythical good old days that never existed. Capitalism will either be overthrown or we will destroy ourselves in the process.
That is the all there is to it.
YOurs,
RR

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RE: Cryin' doom and gloom ain't gonna give ya' shelter sonny.
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Posted by: gimmie shelter on Mar 11, 2009 5:43 PM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]

Hey Doe Boy when you were in the military for the most part it was fairly obvious who the enemy was,different uniforms, different guns and different languages. Today the enemy is us and our system of government, the way we think and the things we think we need and the things we want. Not only do we want these things but we have also exported these desires around the world set in motion where we find ourselves. Couple this with the lack of birth control,the mentality of GM and the rest to get us into their gas guzzling cars instead of the mass transit around the country that they bought up just so they could scrap it so we would have to buy those cars. Are you so old as to not see that we have become disconnected from what we really need and transformed into insatiable consumers, can you get your car in your garage, most can not. You ask me what I can do and in all honesty probably nothing and that really bothers me.
Every day they feed more crap to the public like clean coal( there is no such thing) our government has seen to it along with the corporations that our education system failed our population so that we are much easier to control. They have also broken down our families to the smallest groups and isolated us.
We have no future because of people like you and people like me and why you may ask? We had to have our own house,our own car,our own pool, our own 2 to 5 kids,our boat and than allowed several unnecessary wars to be fought(Irag, Vietnam) that wasted our national treasure and our warriors and on and on and on.
You might think that a silver bullet is going to be invented to solve the numerous challenges we face but this is not practical or likely. Unless of course you are smart enough to solve it all, cause I am not. Our actions collectively are going to one day kill the most primitive cultures as well as the supposed most advanced and the only difference will be that we will know who caused it and why.
BTW I do thank you for serving your country.

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My multi-billion dollar check should arrive any day now.


FREE AMERICA

REVOLUTIONARY (DIRECT) DEMOCRACY

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Aldous Huxley wrote of a world driven to consume. Mass production had gotten rid of almost all the jobs, so the government had to go overboard to invent jobs for people to do. Consume! For example, there were expensive cologne taps in every hotel room that people would tend to forget to turn off. People were brainwashed to love expensive vacations.

Our world is uglier. We have most of our vast spending marbles in endless war, the sophisticated-army-to-backwards-army kind, the guerrilla kind, and the gigadeath nuclear annihilation kind. We have stupid garbage health care to take our cash. Unlike the rest of the world we have over 2 million men in prisons. We have strangled our cities with cars. We're ripping the Appalachian mountains flat. And still, after 9/11, Bushie tells us to go out and see Broadway shows and buy more plastic junk to keep the economy humming. "Oh Brave New World, that has such creatures in it!"

Please don't ask what we have to do to get out of this stupid economic mess.

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What if we are all wrong? What if we have to use our brains very very hard to see the reality and thus survive and be fully really happy?

To see that the economic systems (both communist and capitalist) are ponzi schemes, you only have to look at the graph of incomes per hours' work: 90% on less than 100th of world-average pay per hour, 99% on less than average pay per hour ($40), 1% on up to over 100,000 times the average. It's a giant sucking machine and has been growing for 1000s of years.

And what drives this? Humanity's most fundamental assumption: that more money is always better. It has made everyone go for just more. Everyone going for all the cake, and so everyone endlessly grabbing from everyone else, ever more bitterly. And inequality, violence and misery getting ever worse.

How could that assumption possibly be wrong? Money is good, so how can more money ever be bad? We have projected our dreams and hopes of freedom from troubles onto wealth, and not looked at the reality of wealth, because it would be to destroy our (incorrect) dream and hope.

History screams the truth, that the plutocracy is miserable, is besieged, is in relentless danger. Every plutocracy has fallen, every castle has been taken. Since money is good, whenever a few have most of it, they are under attack, from both overpaid and underpaid, both internally and externally to the gang, group, company, nation or empire. A person with the property of 100 people has 100 relentless enemies.

We have painted our dreams of happiness onto wealth and so are blind to the objective reality of wealth. The more we are underpaid and underpowered, the more we paint our glam dreams onto overpay and overpower. So we support and approve and allow unlimited wealth. So wealth just keeps sucking wealth, making most people more underpaid. And so violence grows and grows. And is now at 60 times PDC (planet death capability) and growing.

And not all money is equal. Loss of $1000 income when income is $1000 is catastrophic, loss of $1000 when income is $100,000 is slight loss. Every $1000 more is less valuable, because of the limits of desires. All but the most marginal desires are satisfied by fairpay ($40/hr).

So overpay can add almost nothing to pleasure, and adds danger and stress proportional to overpay. So overpay is happiness-negative.

Almost all problems are caused by love of overpay, and overpay is bad for the 1% overpaid and everyone else.

If we could just learn this, most problems would disappear. If we don't learn it, we continue to extinction soon. Golden age, or extinction soon. Price of golden age: seeing reality.

nigel@orcon.net.nz

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Ukrainian Machinists Take Over Company

More than 300 workers at the Kherson Engineering plant in the Ukraine occupied the plant’s administrative building in early February, protesting unpaid wages.

Workers occupied the building and then established a patrol to maintain a constant workers’ presence there. The workers have refused to leave until the company pays the back wages owed to them and the government nationalizes the plant, without compensation for the plant owners and investors.

The workforce, which numbers about 1,500, has not been paid since September. The total amount of back wages owed to workers totals between $550,000 and $630,000.

Work at the plant over the last few months has slowed tremendously due to a dispute between the company and its investors, as well as the drop in demand for the combines that the plant manufactures.

The workers and the union held a meeting during the first few hours of the occupation to elect a workers council and issue demands. Some of these went to the government, which the combine builders called on to increase funding for job growth, as well as to nationalize many other industries under the control of labor.

The workers have received tremendous support from members of the local government, and are asking for solidarity from around the world. Send them some at solydarity.ksmz@gmail.com , and urge the Ukrainian Labor Ministry to hear the voices of the workers by writing a letter to 10 Esplanadne St., Kyiv, Ukraine 01023.

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http://labornotes.org/node/2096

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An infinite growth dependant economic system is not sustainable - never has been, never will be.

What never ceases to amaze me is that so many are startled to discover this basic fact of reality.

For anyone that might want to get a gander on this realm of thought and analysis, I would start by suggesting the writings of Dr Ravi Batra, who has articulated this concept for decades.

In general, the global trading systems and investment vehicles are based on theoretically infinite potential growth curves mapped against a fixed planetary resource base, and a population which will eventually reach a maximum sustainability threshold.

At this moment, many are just beginning to get a glimpse of this hard fact, and are somehow "astonished" at such seemingly radical concepts.

For many, myself included, we have tried, belatedly, to convey these basic facts to the general public, only to be ridiculed and marginalized, to the point where I simply gave up on trying to articulate these ideas to the general public.

Or to put it more plainly, for the past 25 - 30 years, we have been living it up, living on a completely fake economy based on fake equity and phony investment schemes, propped up by relentless marketing campaigns citing evermore bizarre and ridiculous "investment products" to buyers willing to believe whatever fantasy promises they wanted to be deluded by.

And now the party's over, the pounding headaches from the hangover is just starting, the bar tab is due . . .

Welcome to the real world

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