[p2p-research] FORA.tv - Building a Whole Earth Economy: Peter G. Brown

[Paul D. Fernhout]

"FORA.tv - Building a Whole Earth Economy: Peter G. Brown"
http://fora.tv/2009/07/08/Building_a_Whole_Earth_Economy_Peter_G_Brown#chapter_09

Interesting comments on a mainstream macroeconomics textbook (Ben Bernake 
being one of the authors) starting at section 09.

Related to this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Right-Relationship-Building-Whole-Economy/dp/1576757625
"In Right Relationship, Peter G. Brown and Geoffrey Garver use the core 
Quaker principle of "right relationship"--respecting the integrity, 
resilience, and beauty of human and natural communities--as the foundation 
for a new economic model. Right Relationship poses five basic questions: 
What is an economy for? How does it work? How big is too big? What's fair? 
And how can it best be governed? Brown and Garver expose the antiquated, 
shortsighted, and downright dangerous assumptions that underlie our current 
answers to these questions, as well as the shortcomings of many reform 
efforts. They propose new answers that combine an acute awareness of 
ecological limits with a fundamental focus on fairness and a concern with 
the spiritual, as well as material, well-being of the human race. And they 
outline what each of us can do to enable life's commonwealth."

Also related:
   "Lester Brown: Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization"
   http://www.earth-policy.org/index.php?/books/pb3/pb3_table_of_contents
(Are these two Browns related? I don't know.)

Peter Brown does not use the word "cybernetics" but I talk about related 
issues of a "cybernetic" view of economics in Post-scarcity Princeton, and 
the cybernetic theme was on this list earlier in general.
http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/2009-September/004698.html

Of course, Peter Brown seems to still be talking from the point of view that 
Bernake is just ignorant, as opposed to part of some larger self-justifying 
world view that is intentionally looking the other way:
   "The Mythology of Wealth"
   http://www.conceptualguerilla.com/?q=node/402
"""
What was needed was a new “rational” world-view that justified the existence 
of privileged elites. That rationalization came in the form of a brand new 
science known as economics, which included a brand new mythology.
"""

So, it is possible that Ben Bernake was picked to run the Federal Reserve 
precisely *because* he ignores all the issues that Peter Brown raises, not 
despite that.

Also related:
"Genuine Progress Indicator"
http://www.rprogress.org/sustainability_indicators/genuine_progress_indicator.htm

Chapters 09 through 13 of that video are a complete indictment of mainstream 
macroeconomics and why it is killing the planet, because you get what you 
measure, and you lose what you don't measure. So, we measure accumulation of 
digital ration units (dollars) a lot as GDP, but we hardly measure 
biodiversity or human rights issues or human happiness as "Genuine Progress 
Indicator". Peter Brown talks about the US as violating human rights around 
the world as a consequence of consumption (somewhat like The Story of 
Stuff), which brings to mind things some like Indira Gandhi was telling the 
UN in the 1970s or so about India's environmental footprint per person vs. 
the USA.

Still, the US government is starting to think about that systematically:
   "Sustainable and LifecycleInformation-based Manufacturing"
   http://www.mel.nist.gov/programs/slim.htm

--Paul Fernhout
http://www.pdfernhout.net/
http://www.beyondajoblessrecovery.org/