FWk A WORLD IN ECONOMIC CRISIS A (fwd)
>X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Unverified) >Mime-Version: 1.0 >Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2000 20:42:23 -0500 >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >From: Tim Rourke <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: A WORLD IN ECONOMIC CRISIS A >X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by >dijkstra.uwaterloo.ca id UAA17532 >Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Precedence: bulk > >http://www.transnational.org > > > >A WORLD IN ECONOMIC CRISIS* > >By Johan Galtung, dr hc mult, Professor of Peace Studies >American Ritsumeikan Troms" Witten/Herdecke Universities >Director, TRANSCEND: A Peace and Development Network >--- > > >1. An introduction to hyper-capitalism > >We live in an era of hyper-capitalism so absurd, judged by how >negative consequences turn into crisis, that there is only one >safe prediction: this is not going to last. What comes in its >place, the successor era, is another matter; interestingly, the >intellectual managers of hyper-capitalism have little to say./1/ > > By "hyper-capitalism" is meant an economic system with >capital as its (almost) unique raison d'tre, as means/input, >goal/output, and measure/indicator: wealth (private, corporate); >GNP (for the productive national economy, probably soon >yielding/2/ to GGP, the Gross Global Product); DJI, the Dow >Jones Index and similar indexes/3/ from other stock exchanges >(for the finance economy); their averages, their growth rates. > > A metaphor may be useful to fathom the depth of our crisis. >Individually or collectively, as children, adolescents, adults, >parents, we are concerned with the development of human beings, >ourselves or others. For infants, for the starving, for some >patients, it makes sense to look at humans as a body to be fed, >and measure development in the material terms of food input and >weight output, using output/input ratios as a measure of ability >to avoid waste. The consequences of "hyper-foodism" are obvious: >there is not only a floor, minimum weight, to be respected but >also a ceiling, a maximum weight beyond which negative side- >effects will dominate. So much for the body. But - what >happened to the human mind, the human spirit, to people absorbed >by weight-consciousness, oscillating between anorexia and >bulimia?/4/ > > Hyper-capitalism blocks out the concerns for material floor >and material ceiling, and for what happens to mind and spirit. >A minimum level of wealth, or purchasing power, is needed, if >the basic need-objects have to be bought. Regardless of economic >system, there is a minimum level for the satisfaction of basic >somatic needs for clean food/water/air, clothing, housing,health >care, below which morbidity, and mortality increase rapidly. >There is misery, not poverty./5/ And there is a maximum level >of satisfaction of basic somatic needs, beyond which more food, >clothing, housing, health care rapidly become counterproductive. > > However, is there also a maximum level of wealth/GNP/DJI? >This is a major and so far unanswered question in economics. >Economic systems with some hyper-rich individuals often also >have many who live in misery. If the rather rich (RR) are rich >because others are pretty poor (PP, living in misery, with basic >needs not met), and/or vice versa, then there is room for the >argument that RR have exceeded their limit as PP have theirs. >But we would probably have to show mechanisms whereby bringing >RR below the maximum would bring PP above the minimum. In the >Muslim world this mechanism is known as zakat, in the Christian >world as samaritanism, in the Buddhist world as metta karuna./6/ >Another form is progressive taxation, democratically decided >upon or not, converting excess wealth into free or subsidized >objects (food, clothes, shelter) for the most needy. Among >countries the voluntary form of distribution is practiced as >development assistance. The mandatory form is discussed as >global taxation, like assessment to UN organizations. The big >question is whether mandatory imposition of a maximum reduces >the ability of the system to generate wealth distributed or not. > > We do not need to take a stand on this question. Whether >economic activity is measured as wealth, GNP, DJI, or by any >other measure, the average and the distribution are two position >coordinates for an economic system. When asked "what is the >geographical position of me/my country/ my stock exchange" a >geographer who only answers in terms of latitude is not useful; >we expect the longitude to follow immediately. An economist who >answers "what is the economic position of my economy-my >country's economy/my stock exchange" only with averages or >absolute values, no distribution measures or relative values, is >an equally useless economist. From a meteorologist we demand >not only the average amount of sunshine/rain tomorrow; we would >also like to know on whom the sun shines and on whom not, where >the rain falls. If not, give us another meteorolog
FWk A WORLD IN ECONOMIC CRISIS A (fwd)
>X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Unverified) >Mime-Version: 1.0 >Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2000 20:42:23 -0500 >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >From: Tim Rourke <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: A WORLD IN ECONOMIC CRISIS A >X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by >dijkstra.uwaterloo.ca id UAA17532 >Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Precedence: bulk > >http://www.transnational.org > > > >A WORLD IN ECONOMIC CRISIS* > >By Johan Galtung, dr hc mult, Professor of Peace Studies >American Ritsumeikan Troms" Witten/Herdecke Universities >Director, TRANSCEND: A Peace and Development Network >--- > > >1. An introduction to hyper-capitalism > >We live in an era of hyper-capitalism so absurd, judged by how >negative consequences turn into crisis, that there is only one >safe prediction: this is not going to last. What comes in its >place, the successor era, is another matter; interestingly, the >intellectual managers of hyper-capitalism have little to say./1/ > > By "hyper-capitalism" is meant an economic system with >capital as its (almost) unique raison d'tre, as means/input, >goal/output, and measure/indicator: wealth (private, corporate); >GNP (for the productive national economy, probably soon >yielding/2/ to GGP, the Gross Global Product); DJI, the Dow >Jones Index and similar indexes/3/ from other stock exchanges >(for the finance economy); their averages, their growth rates. > > A metaphor may be useful to fathom the depth of our crisis. >Individually or collectively, as children, adolescents, adults, >parents, we are concerned with the development of human beings, >ourselves or others. For infants, for the starving, for some >patients, it makes sense to look at humans as a body to be fed, >and measure development in the material terms of food input and >weight output, using output/input ratios as a measure of ability >to avoid waste. The consequences of "hyper-foodism" are obvious: >there is not only a floor, minimum weight, to be respected but >also a ceiling, a maximum weight beyond which negative side- >effects will dominate. So much for the body. But - what >happened to the human mind, the human spirit, to people absorbed >by weight-consciousness, oscillating between anorexia and >bulimia?/4/ > > Hyper-capitalism blocks out the concerns for material floor >and material ceiling, and for what happens to mind and spirit. >A minimum level of wealth, or purchasing power, is needed, if >the basic need-objects have to be bought. Regardless of economic >system, there is a minimum level for the satisfaction of basic >somatic needs for clean food/water/air, clothing, housing,health >care, below which morbidity, and mortality increase rapidly. >There is misery, not poverty./5/ And there is a maximum level >of satisfaction of basic somatic needs, beyond which more food, >clothing, housing, health care rapidly become counterproductive. > > However, is there also a maximum level of wealth/GNP/DJI? >This is a major and so far unanswered question in economics. >Economic systems with some hyper-rich individuals often also >have many who live in misery. If the rather rich (RR) are rich >because others are pretty poor (PP, living in misery, with basic >needs not met), and/or vice versa, then there is room for the >argument that RR have exceeded their limit as PP have theirs. >But we would probably have to show mechanisms whereby bringing >RR below the maximum would bring PP above the minimum. In the >Muslim world this mechanism is known as zakat, in the Christian >world as samaritanism, in the Buddhist world as metta karuna./6/ >Another form is progressive taxation, democratically decided >upon or not, converting excess wealth into free or subsidized >objects (food, clothes, shelter) for the most needy. Among >countries the voluntary form of distribution is practiced as >development assistance. The mandatory form is discussed as >global taxation, like assessment to UN organizations. The big >question is whether mandatory imposition of a maximum reduces >the ability of the system to generate wealth distributed or not. > > We do not need to take a stand on this question. Whether >economic activity is measured as wealth, GNP, DJI, or by any >other measure, the average and the distribution are two position >coordinates for an economic system. When asked "what is the >geographical position of me/my country/ my stock exchange" a >geographer who only answers in terms of latitude is not useful; >we expect the longitude to follow immediately. An economist who >answers "what is the economic position of my economy-my >country's economy/my stock exchange" only with averages or >absolute values, no distribution measures or relative values, is >an equally useless economist. From a meteorologist we demand >not only the average amount of sunshine/rain tomorrow; we would >also like to know on whom the sun shines and on whom not, where >the rain falls. If not, give us another meteorolog
