Sign the TRUECOST ECONOMICS MANIFESTO

[sintax]

TRUECOST ECONOMICS MANIFESTO

We, the undersigned, make this accusation: that you, the teachers of neoclassical economics and the students that you graduate, have perpetuated a gigantic fraud upon the world.

You claim to work in a pure science of formula and law, but yours is a social science, and with all the fragility and uncertainty that this entails. We accuse you of pretending to be what you are not.

You hide in your offices, protected by your jargon, while in the real world forests vanish, species perish, human lives are ruined and lost. We accuse you of gross negligence in the management of our planetary household.

You have known since its inception that your measure of economic progress, the Gross Domestic Product, is fundamentally flawed and incomplete, and yet you have allowed it to become TRUECOST ECONOMIC a global standard, reported day by day in every form of media. We accuse you of recklessly supporting the illusion of progress at the expense of human and environmental health.

You have done great harm, but your time is coming to its close. The revolution of economics has begun, as hopeful and determined as any in our history. We will have our clash of paradigms, we will have our moment of truth, and out of each will come a new economics- open, holistic, human scale.

On campus after campus, we will chase you old goats out of power. Then, in the months and years that follow, we will begin the work of reprogramming the doomsday machine.

Sign the manifesto at: www.truecosteconomics.org

And Nail This Manifesto To Your Professors Door

[sintax]

1. Planet Earth is Exhausted

Ecosystems collapsing, temperatures rising. There's a mad scramble for the last barrel of oil. And all the while, economists keep insisting everything is just fine.

Neo-classical economics is like a bucket full of water that's ready to tip. All it needs is one good kick.

[whistle]

2. Thanks, this is now on my favorites list....

...I heard something earlier this week on NPR radio news which suddenly made my ears perk up. I heard the anouncer say, "....GDP has risen once again indicating that the economy will remain strong throughout the rest of the year."

Then the announcer said something that just blew me away. He defined GDP as the economic measure of ALL GOODS ANS SERVICES PRODUCED IN THE U.S. BY AMERICAN WORKERS. Now, if that is actually true then the GDP would really have to be falling as fewer goods and services are being produced in the U.S. by American workers than ever. We are selling more goods and services, but we are producing fewr and fewer here in the U.S.

So I have to conclude that there has either been a modification in what GDP actually measures, or like your link suggests, it's all been a fraud of economic jargon which is decieving the people.

<snip>

Newscasts consistently indicate that life is good because GDP is going up. But for a real measure of progress, newscasters and policy-makers should look to the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI). In 1995, Oakland think tank Redefining Progress unveiled the GPI to provide a more balanced measure of the economy. It gives value to leisure time, unpaid housework and volunteerism. It subtracts value for crime and family breakdown, resource depletion, traffic accidents, and other negatives.

Ultimately, the GPI recognizes the importance families, communities and nature play in economic well-being. Under the current national accounts system, these factors are ignored. Thus, while the GDP has been rising steadily since the 1950s, the GPI levelled off in the 1970s, and has even experienced prolonged dips. This begs the question, are we going forwards or backwards?

<end of snip>

Answer: We as a nation are going backwards with what American workers share in the wealth they help create. GDP benefits only those who can lay claim to the ownership of what it measures and more and more Americans are being either denied a part in ownership (regressive taxes on lower and middle incomes, high interest rates, inflation, etc.) or having that ownership taken away from them (as in the case of Social Security benefits).

[sintax]

4. As measured by the GDP the ideal US citizen

is a 53 year old male undergoing a coronary bypass operation and a costly divorce. This is not a joke, it is the reality as measured by outgoing costs.

Medical, Legal, Additional housing expenses etc.

And if all goes well expensive psychiatric treatment for the children.
This should be a cruel hoax but it is the way our lives are calculated by M. Friedman, A. Greenspan and their world of Neoclassical Economics.

The ideal location in the US is a Superfund site in the eyes of the "Leading Economic Indicators"

[SharonAnn]

8. And this is a strange thing about GDP also

Two people who are caretakers for a family member (or members) do not add to the GDP.

However, if one hires out to the second family and that caretaker hires out to the first family, then their work is added to the GDP.

Note that the actual productive work didn't change, no more was provided, but it's measured when it's paid for as wages by someone.

[sweetheart]

3. very interesting

Economists are the dismal apologists for the crime of imperialism,
forever employed by the state to not disagree with the state,
and to train a generation to be ignorant and unquestioning of the
patriarchy and its rationalizations.

[omega minimo]

5. And let's not forget their brethren

the MBAs! that have brought down a scourge of Consultants and infiltrated (and devalued) Every Aspect Of American Life!

Viva la Branding!


btw: Shortly after being named Secretary of the Treasury, Paul O'Neil made his first appearance on the Lehrer News Hour. He said that we needed the tax cut because big business had overstocked their warehouses and needed US consumers to have money to go out and buy stuff.

It wasn't couched in anything resembling "jargon." It was as baldfaced as that.

It doesn't take an economics degree to see thru the shams perpetrated on the American (speculator market) public.

[seemslikeadream]

6. govemment them is a monckery

The state of union

The people live in misery
Govemment a work
But govemment them is a monckery
Respect to the youths
Whether in front and all dem a back a me
Why don't you treat them the way you should
And I know all the things you hide
Even though it's a good disguise
And we see all the things you do
And what you do will comeback on you
You think we can't fight what the eyes can't see
Because we are blinded by poverty

The people live in misery
Govemment a work
But govemment them is a monckery
Respect to the youths
Whether in front and all dem a back a me
Why don't you treat them the way you should

It's like the people you want them to rebel
And fire gunshots and burn buildings to hell
And after that you a go want treat me well
It's like you have the people under a spell
Talking to the people in a congress
A we vote you in, so you must put out your best
After all we no in a contest
It's the state of the union address

The people live in misery
Govemment a work
But govemment them is a monckery
Respect to the youths
Whether in front and all dem a back a me
Why don't you treat them the way you should

Broadcasting lies on the television sreen
Trying to get us hooked on your american dream
We up on your games if you know wha me mean
When you cheated on your wife with your money and your schemes
People rule and a that you fi follow
We and nuh no call me no nigga
Do a good term and you deserve another
Signed musically yours, the general sleepywonder

The people live in misery
Govemment a work
But govemment them is a monckery
Respect to the youths
Whether in front and all dem a back a me
Why don't you treat them the way you should

[SharonAnn]

7. OMG, I met one of them, Josh Farley, on a flight from DC to Seattle

He sat next to me and was working on a Power Point presentation on Ecological Economics. He was going to give the commencement speech at Everett college (?) north of Seattle. I had just bought the Harper's June magazine at the DC airport with the article about Christianity and the environment. He was interested in it so I gave it to him.

I asked him about his presentation and we talked for almost two hours. Absolutely fascinating young man. Well, younger than I am. About 6'4" or 6'5" and gorgeous! If I'd been younger and without my husband, well, I would've been thinking something.

He had the most interesting example that he'd been involved in recently, I think it was on the coast of Brazil. International aid wanted to take a section of coast, cut down all the mangrove trees, clear the area and put in commercial shrimp farming. They were willing to "loan" lots of money to get this done. After all, it would "create jobs".

The fallacy was that local natives lived there and did shrimping for a living. They harvested a good catch every year. The mangroves protected the shore and the land behind it from storms and tsunamis. Clearing the area would have thrown all those people off the land and out of work and would've provided "jobs" for fewer people than it displaced. It would, however, have funneled a lot of profits to the "owners" who took the land from the natives.

Fascinating man. That was probably the most interesting flight I've ever had.

[sintax]

9. That is precisely how it works

You get a people to convert their natural endowments into currency, using proxy gov'ts who do the bidding of the US controlled World Bank-IMF and their lives are ruined as they are turned into wage slaves.