Rethinking Economics 3 – A Rant about Corruption and Preoccupation with Money
I talked about Les Brown of the World Watch Institute in a previous Blog post VISION – How we focus on what we really Want 3 – population, economics, choice. and morality. When you consider how many trillions of dollars are being siphoned off for unknown purposes, the $720 billion over 10 years calculated by Les Brown to resolve most of the developing world’s problems is very little by comparison. And be aware that all developed countries are siphoning off mega-funds for big unknown projects. One of my friends was skeptical and so I set him off to do his own research. If you dig through the internet enough you will find all manner of technologies and projects for which these funds find their way. It’s mindboggling and even fanciful at times, so I will also leave you to make that search for yourselves. It is a deep rabbit hole indeed. Add to that the Panama Papers fiasco in 2015 when over 11 million leaked documents showed how wealthy and corrupt businesses, politicians and ‘others’ were sheltering and money laundering billions of dollars. (It was estimated that there are 250,000 to 400,000 shell (fake) corporations in over 50 countries that turn a blind eye to these activities.) If we expect the wealthy to somehow lead the way to a sustainable world, we will wait a long time. And as long as money is the end goal of success in our global societies, we will never understand that sustainability is based on cooperation with money as a tool that works for us and not competition with money as the driving force of all actions. For this post, I would like to stick with ways to fund sustainability.
At this moment there is an ‘Extinction Rebellion’ going on around the world. The predictions from the Climate Scientists are that 2030 apparently is the crucial break point for saving the world. Let me be clear here – short of blowing the planet into fragments the world is not going to die! This scare tactic to try and force change is a bad way to create the change we need. For one it merely creates an adversarial situation between the supporters and the deniers. Since most of the politicians and corporate business interests fall under the denier category, mass protests may eventually work but not without much chaos. Obviously fears of change by the power brokers to unknown and perceived inadequate and unreliable renewable technologies is a stumbling block. The other block is loss of corporate fossil profits. For example, while the Energy industry (oil and gas) accounts for only 3% of the annual global GDP its influence and ability to control world politics is unparalleled in history. So, based on the annual GDP for 2018 I gave in the last post ($85 trillion) the energy industry makes over $2.5 trillion a year. And the most amazing feature about this is that the U.S. government alone gave them $20 billion in subsidies (definition: a sum of money granted by the government or a public body to assist an industry or business so that the price of a commodity or service may remain low or competitive). And this is just the direct subsidy. Factor in all the extra costs (e.g. environmental and social costs) for which they do not pay, such as depletion allowance, extraction costs, production & development costs, protective military costs, health costs, and environmental costs and it becomes laughable if it weren’t so damn amazing. Now add that up for the other 97% of the global business corporations of all kinds – legal and illegal that swallow up the money that could be used to create a better world (e.g. accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping, financial industry, Illegal drug trade and drug war, food industry, IT industry, pharmaceuticals, sex industry, professional sports, and tourism industry). Some of these obviously have some benefit in a sustainable world, but when accounting services is about 18.5% of the worlds business it is obvious that many accountants are not just balancing the books for the businesses in which they work.
I’m on a rant about how money is used to shore up a failing system of global corporatocracy, so I’ll keep going. I was watching a U.S. political and financial analysis program and the speakers were joking about the New York Yankees baseball team. Now wrap your head around this, the Yankees, despite having spent $2 billion (yes with a B) over the last 10 years on its star players, the team hasn’t appeared in the World Series in the last ten years (The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball in North America). Now, I’ve nothing against the Yankees. This same splurge of money within the sports business can be seen in most major sports, soccer included. It’s not that I’m against sports, but the fact is that they too are now merely corporate systems with the sole goal of creating profits for their owners and investors. This makes me think about another famous time in history when games were used to distract the population from the dangers to the empire that were going on outside the arenas. The Romans were a cruel people who loved their blood sports, i.e. gladiators and barbaric spectacles, that allowed the emperors to mask the corruption and decay occurring to the empire causing its collapse. If you think I’m being a tad melodramatic about modern society then open your eyes and look at what is happening. The growth of Monopolies and monopsonies all over the world are crushing the middle class and continuing to smother the working classes. While for now ‘the well-off’ professionals are doing fine, the specter of another economic crisis looms large as the economic systems that created the last one in 2008 remain unchanged. This global economic system has many of the same leaders in charge pursuing the same policies of greed and casino capitalism that created that global economic meltdown.
We’re tying our modern global society together with the economic equivalence of baling wire and duct tape and yet the vast majority of people remain complacent about trying to change the world, because they are enslaved by the same economic system that is failing them. Time to end my rant and again bring up solutions to solving the problem of moving forward into a world that can be sustainable. I’ll close here with the idea that we still need to think differently (I keep emphasizing this) and to stop living within the box that controls us – let’s break apart the box and begin anew. So, what can new look like?
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