What is an economy?

According to Wikipedia, an economy is an area of the production, distribution, or trade, and consumption of goods and services by different agents in a given geographical location. This came up because I just listened to the NPR story about the recent surge in black lung disease in Appalachia. It seems that the number of cases of advance black lung disease has hugely increased in the past several years even as coal production has dropped. The story ends with a coal miner saying "...if I had it to do over I would do it again, if that's what it took to provide for my family as long as I have."

 That got me thinking of economics on a meta-level: why *do* people work and often choose jobs which endanger their lives. From the coal miner's statement, it's clear that he works because he and his family need to survive. But there's an inherent contradiction in that a job that endangers his life does not support his survival. And that means the standard definition of economy is seriously incomplete. A much better definition would be a self-organizing, self-sustaining social entity that facilitates the production and exchange of surplus goods and services to promote the survival and wellbeing of all participants.

True economies take into account public heath issues and would not support the production, exchange and profiting from goods which harm public health. True economies would not support the production, exchange and profiting from goods which endanger nations of individuals. True economies would not support the production, exchange and profiting from goods which endanger the health of their workers, their children or their near and distant neighbors. True economies would not would not support the production, exchange and profiting from goods which destroy the life sustaining ecosystem of the planet.

Most of what the modern world calls 'economy' are not economies but more accurately defined kleptocracies which enable a small elite group to concentrate power. The innate consequence of the corruptive capacity of power ensures the elite will further concentrate their power, wealth and influence at the expense of workers and environment. Kleptocracies ensure economies are neither self-sustaining nor promote the survival and wellbeing of all participants.

Greed and Corruption in military economics

The Real News Network has posted a series of short clips of an interview with Andrew Feinstein, a former South African politician who has written and book called Shadow World which has been made into a documentary film. He describes the secret corrupt deal making that drives military spending and eventually bleeds into insurgent uprisings and 'wars on terror'. In brief, politicians and their friends/family receive kickbacks and bribes from military contractors for purchasing goods and services from said contractors. In the interview, Andrew Feinstein essentially says that in comparison to corruption in military contracting, organized crime is for amateurs.

This is more confirmation of the accuracy of my theory of economics. See here for the relevant links.

Rampant consumption is not needed for functional economy

My comment at a Truthout.org post:

Rampant consumerism/disposable consumption is the major enabler of income inequality in modern capitalist economies. Capitalized production of goods is how financial capital and power are shifted away from productive workers and concentrated in the hands of owners. 

The intellectual property of the capital goods determines much of its value and control of such information is legally mandated by government policy. The elites of any given economy/nation have enormous influence over policy. 

Mass consumption of disposable goods is not necessary for a functional economy. A functional economy only needs a continuous and constant exchange of goods *and* services so an economy powered primarily by the exchange of services can be functional. 

If intellectual property were not constrained, an economy based on services derived from freely available intellectual property is possible. For example, computer programming services to custom modify open source software for a specialized application; independent musicians free to interpret song covers for any occasion.
Control of intellectual property and other information is at the root of many global economic woes and other injustices. The truest reform is information transparency and that should start with universal whistleblower protection.

A regular and ongoing theme to my thinking.

A Trump administration...

... will change the trajectory of the U.S. economy to something more like China's. This is a comment I left at a Truthout post which partially lists the president-elect's appointees thus far:

This reminds me of a terrifying article by Richard Smith about the devastating environmental effects of unregulated industrial growth in China and the corrupt political system that enables it. American democracy has already been weakened by the GWB and BHO administrations (in all state relations, the poor and minorities are less equal than the rich and majority - police brutality; banking/investing fraud; voting access; fossil fuel related issues...). If the Trump cabal has its way, they will set the U.S. along a path similar to that of China. So long as the power, influence and wealth of the cabal increases, all else can to hell; workers will be poisoned by industrial pollution; starved of living wages; deprived of life saving medical care and cheated of their human dignity.

Of course, this is also true of Hillary but at a slightly slower pace.

Trump's primary meme during the election was 'make America great again'. But he never defined (1) what 'America' is and (2) 'again' implies it was great in the past which he never defined. His appointments suggests his slogan actually means 'make the American Trump cabal richer again'.

I highly recommend the article by Richard Smith. It's long but covers an incredible amount of ground... and considering how much American corporations and government keep secret, think of the implications for the U.S. economy. Then consider what would happen if no information were kept secret. The ultimate reform, economic, political and everything else, is information transparency.

Ugliness of Israeli settlements

I am not fond of Abby Martin's Empire files - I find her presentation to be over dramatized, even when I agree with her point of view. But in this instance, even if only a tenth of her report is true, Americans are doing bad things. This episode describes how the state of Israel not only tacitly approves of Israeli terrorism against Palestinians, but it's overtly abetting such activity. And considering U.S. aid covers close to one-quarter of Israel's military budget, Americans are indirectly sponsoring state terrorism.

Be informed. It's necessary to mount effective opposition.

Economic ideology of climate change

I posted a comment at Truthout:

The most neglected aspect of the climate crisis is its economic root. It's in the interest of the highly profitable fossil fuel industry to (1) push climate denial to preempt the cost of mitigation and/or loss of sales/profits; (2) promote pipeline projects to decrease their transportation costs, thus boost profits; (3) find more sources of fossil fuels to extract and sell for profit and (4) sell as much fossil fuel products as possible to maximize profit (this includes minimizing energy efficiency).

Economic ideology is the primary driver of human behavior and, as it stands now, corporate capitalism rules. Regardless of the [good] intentions of bioconservatism, it cannot override the powerful forces of fossil fuel capitalism. The only way to specifically target the fossil fuel industry is to make it unprofitable. Another way is to redirect current economic ideology away from power concentration in the elite class (oligarchs and the 1%-ers).

The biggest problem with industrial pollution (includes climate change) is scale. Large powerful nations enable large powerful corporations which extend their reach into international markets to become international conglomerates. By pooling the monies of many investors, small numbers of executives have the power to use and do use these huge sums to profit at any means and that includes polluting the environment with their toxic outputs. If economies were structured so that power is  disseminated in a way that prevents it from being concentrated in the hands of a few elites, industry could only operate on a small scale. And small scale produces less pollution.

Stand with Water-Protectors

My comment at a Truthout post regarding the North Dakota Access Pipeline:

The colonial NoDAPL battle is another iteration of an economic conflict between two disparate sides; one brings the military and police power of the state, the other brings the voices of an oppresses population. We have and currently see similar (economic) fights all over the country and all over the world. Some examples include international trade pacts (TPP/TTIP) where corporations purchase government influence to negotiate terms to their benefit and develop marketing/propaganda strategies to sell them to the voters of their respective countries. Strong-arming or influence purchasing of local governments for tax benefits/incentives to draw so-called jobs in the form of factories (like cars or airplanes), sports teams (to subsidize stadiums/roads) and retail enterprises (like Walmart stores). International armed conflict where control of economic resources is a significant driver of government directed military conflict - the war in Iraq was at least partially about gaining control of Iraq's oil; it was also an opportunity for arms producers to sell more products to the U.S. military. Even U.S. elections are about corporations buying political marketing/propaganda in the form of campaigns to purchase/persuade voters to their thinking. In all cases, powerful corporations are backed by the institutional and/or military power of governments to exert their will on a weaker opponent.

The true nature of the conflict is powerful corporations/individuals fighting the less powerful to increase their opportunity to increase their power. For the sake of oppressed/repressed people everywhere, we should always stand with them. Many thanks to the water protectors. You are fighting for my rights as well as yours and I stand by your side.