Human-Scale Economics
posted by zinzan | October 24, 2009
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IcerocketThe moment any member of a community is unable to understand the system of the community, the system has failed. As Jung writes, "Everything that exceeds a certain human size evokes equally inhuman powers in man's unconscious." Our global financial system has grown to a level of abstraction and complexity that ultimately results in this type of unconscious enslavement. At the same time, the individual is disempowered to make positive change within a system of which he has little or no understanding.
The function of an economy is to facilitate the exchange of goods and services through a currency symbolic of their value. This seems so obvious and yet we are all participating in a dysfunctional system where this is no longer the case. When a symbol is 'freed' from the signified, the symbol persists as an entity in its own right. I think this is the case with the economy. Currency has been disconnected from the value of the goods and services it symbolized and mistakenly imbued with a value of its own. What we refer to as money today is actually its opposite – debt. Every dollar in circulation is a dollar of debt. (Payback by Margaret Atwood is a great book that talks a lot about this).
In tackling this problem I find it helpful to conceptualize the economy as an autonomous organism; in this case a monster. Having been freed from the tethers of the signified (actual goods provided and services rendered) and having been allowed to outgrow its humanity, the economic system now persists as an entity in its own right. Because it is a global system it competes with other natural systems at the global level. But concerned only with its own 'survival' and growth, its goal is simply to outlast all other systems. Talk about Mutually Assured Destruction!
It appears that the economy's current structure is nature in reverse. Where natural ecology assures its own health and resilience by providing for the health, diversity and abundance of its constituents; the global economy assures the disintegration and destruction of its constituents only to guarantee that its own failure come later than the failure of its supporting systems - that it dies last.
What I'd like to discuss here are practical ways we can proceed on this issue. One I idea I've had (as I'm sure many others have had as well) is to create new, human-scale, 'cellular' systems of trade in which currency is put to use in its proper place as symbol.
Thoughts?
Comments
Unconscious Monster!
— Oct 26, 2009
I like your characterization of the economy (and by implication the minds that "manage" it), as a monster untethered from it's source. It reminds me of the character 'no-face,' in Hayao Miyazaki's animated film "Spirited Away."
In the film, no-face spirit is a voiceless lost soul who, upon entering the bath house (managed by a powerful but greedy old crone), becomes a ravenous monster that eats all the food and hands out imaginary gold. The more gold that the bath house employees take, the more ravenous he becomes! No-face only returns to normal after leaving the greedy bath house. Then later, no-face is very instrumental in helping clean up the mess that was made.
Now, I know that's not a practical idea about what to do. When it comes to that, I only know yet how to imagine that it's all reconnected to the original source, natural environmental health.
When the town I live in tried a local currency a few years ago, it almost got going, but then failed to thrive, in part because retailers would only accept 20% for purchases, and most notable among those retailers was the local organic grocery. It was good for all direct barter-based transactions however. It was based on a fair living wage defined as the equivalent of $10 per hour. It was modeled after the Ithaca Hours system from Ithaca NY, which is still functioning.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ithaca_Hours
There was also a discussion here two weeks ago about economy that took a highly commented look at barter and other ideas. SoulTraveller's last comment has several real-world barter related links to explore.
http://evolver.net/user/wild_girl/blog/redefining_self_age_collapse
The last bit I have to offer comes from a book I was just reading about the craft, essence, and history of making maple syrup called "Sugartime," by Susan Carol Hauser. The chapter I was reading describes how the Ojibwe people would camp near Lake Superior in the winter to hunt, trap and fish; then move to the interior of MN/WI to prepare the years supply of maple sugar; then move to their garden camp to plant crops and make canoes; then move to the berry fields to gather; then back to the garden for harvest; then to the watery fields for wild rice; then back to the big lakes for winter. They left all the supplies they would need at each camp and they cared for their durable goods with reverence, as if they were spirits like people. It made me kinda sad, because that sounds like rewarding work, travel, and community all rolled into one lifestyle. I'll bet they had never heard of Seasonal Affective Disorder! But they lived in a land of abundance then, not a densely populated land of privatized scarcity and hyper-specialization.
I hope more discussion ensues because this is a pretty urgent topic for me at the moment. I'd rather not get a 9-5 job as a CAD technician again if I can help it. I'm going all fierce on this wet paper bag now!
Nice!
— Oct 27, 2009
Thank you so much for sharing those links! I wish I had read wild_girl's post before i wrote mine. She summed up a lot of what was on my mind. The Ithaca Hours system is also great. I had heard about a system like this happening in New York but forgot the name.
Many Thanks, this is all very encouraging!
Freecycling
— Apr 13, 2010
Lots of useful stuff around that is not in use in its place, how to share the wealth? One way: online: craigslist free toronto
