Money? Honey! UPDATE 2.
A Brief Consideration of the Inequality of Money. A Mashup of my Life as an Activist and a RESOURCE for YOU.
Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men, for the nastiest of reasons, will somehow work for the benefit of us all. —John Maynard Keynes
This newsletter is dedicated to the 99%, turning the cake upside down and living in the ephemeral gifts of life, the actual value and nourishment of lived experience and joy.
INTENTIONS & OVERVIEW
NOTE: UPDATE 2 mentions a new INEXPENSIVE BOOK BY SCOTT SANTENS that explains modern money theory well and how deficits in the US are myths, that economics can benefit the PEOPLE, not corporations. Sadly, this still has not shifted under Biden, although I have some hope. At the moment, 3/16/22, it is undeniable Biden tilts towards corporations. And as I write, I also understand we are in the midst of substantial currency issues and that Biden is also studying CRYPTO.
Yes, Santens book depends on government and a HUGE shift in priorities from military corporate complex to PEOPLE as the best investments.
All the underlined words are LINKS you can look into for deeper learning.
This newsletter intends to share resources/links to help others understand some of the information and experiences I have found helpful in understanding how the world survives with such economic injustice. Notice right now ECONOMICS is not taught in US schools. That is for a purpose, at least for the wealthy, of maintaining ignorance. As MARIANNE WILLIAMSON writes, we are intentionally kept infantile. I claim, as many do, capitalism is unsustainable and unjust. Capitalism creates a hierarchy of haves and have-nots that causes suffering, exploitation, and inequality while destroying the planet. All of this is unsustainable. This newsletter intends to inform all of some of the issues.
My ultimate intention here is that you may find hope and ways we may reinvent life for the well-being of all. These ways do not depend on money or goods. Perhaps on the intangibles, as Jimmy Carter mentions, Peter Joseph calls the ephemerals the “things” that make life worth living. We are not objects. Jung and Hillman call the ephemeral our souls and how life has meaning. We are beings living as an expression of an alive planet. Might we be living upside down? And as Reflexivity intends learning and understanding together, we might save the planet and our own lives. I dedicate it to women, children, and youth who are open to change.
NAMING: GOOD AND BAD HABITS
We humans often learn by separating and categorizing parts of life to make meaning and learn or unlearn. Sadly economic terms have been misunderstood and often maligned when they may have implications far from the name some assign. Richard Wolff has tried to break through these misunderstood terms.
RICHARD WOLFF, often called a Marxist, shows how this persists. The Left, having helped save the US frequently, usually becomes vilified. Here is speaks with Williamson about “eviscerating the left.” History lies. Williamson and Wolff.
Names such as Socialist, Marxist, and Environmentalist have excellent and valuable learning and ethics within their history and practice. Capitalism currently has been losing appreciation except among the elite 1%.
RANKING CAPITALISM
Many believe capitalism is good, that investment serves to help others. I do not think this, and I offer two links, one pro and one con, in dealing with capitalism. And a third a resource of how we might begin to recover our lives and justice.
JOEL SOLOMON. First, an old friend wrote a best seller, Clean Money, and is training youth to invest with love as we move through the most significant transfer of wealth in history: the Boomers to Youth.
Joel himself inherited wealth and has been a heartfelt and enormously successful investor who intends to teach youth who are as fortunate to continue but now with intentional love.
While I admire his intentions, I know NO ONE makes this kind of money without making decisions that divide and hurt. Remember, the key to investing is making a profit. You can read a bit more of Joel’s views here.
I do not believe that profit-seeking, and wealth accumulation, even in the name of love, serve the greater good. The following resource agrees with me. The do-gooder investors “borrow language” from non-profits, usually getting tax breaks.
ANAND GIRIHADAS. Anand was the first substack author I fell in love with, and you can find videos of him in many places. He writes on many topics, is liberal (a name that can be considered good or bad), and is a devoted promoter of social justice.
His best-selling book, Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World. I found it eye-opening. He takes us on the journey of how a young woman idealist who intended doing good had to give in to the Win-Win systems based on philanthropic giving, using the language of non-profits, a co-option of language through and through.
These companies/corporations all usually receive tax breaks and, as we know, often pay none. I see them using the US tax system for PR and increasing wealth, generally more than any charity they say they help. Highly recommend this book and his videos—wolves in sheep clothing. Philanthropy is a misnomer.
SCOTT SANTENS. I insert Scott with the two above as he is an advocate of Unconditional Basic Income, so he may be considered a socialist/capitalist. I found him as I supported Andrew Yang as he was the first to suggest UBI for the US. (UBI has long roots and trials). I received enough funds to buy new tires. Others received endowments for a year or more.
Yang was (is?) a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who felt philanthropy would become essential as we became more automated and robotic. One of the kinds Anand writes of even as Yang has done much good for many.
Scott, in my view, is a beautiful writer, advocate, and social creative. But UBI requires either government or private philanthropy involvement, which I agree with to some degree, maybe only a partial solution as many now want to take money away from the government especially using Cryptocurrencies, and many of us disagree.
UPDATE: Scott recently, before publishing his book, released his most extended work ever, and it is very readable intentionally so we can all understand:
Why We Need Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and Why It Needs Universal Basic Income (UBI)
"Going from "can we pay for it?" to "can we resource it?" is the mindset shift needed for a human-centered resource-based economy built with a mindset of abundance on a foundation of human rights.”
The Gravel Institute just released a video, Why Bitcoin is a Scam, that I heartily agree with, and if crypto continues, how will the government be financed? Still, Scott is concerned with well-being using government-subsidized income, and he is a fantastic resource for much concerning how we might implement UBI.
THE GREAT RESET OF 2020: YOU WILL OWN NOTHING, AND YOU WILL BE HAPPY
RUSSEL BRAND. Russel, I feel, does excellent community service in many areas, questioning authority. His views on DAVOS and the Great Reset are short and astounding.
He first reported on the elite world meeting in DAVOS and now Sun Valley. If you think these folks work for our well-being, I have a bridge to sell you. Here we see them at play planning our world’s future.
HOW I CAME TO THIS INTEREST IN ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE: AUTHORS AND EXPERIENCES
I was born into an Irish Italian family. My father, 1st generation Italian immigrant, was forced by his family, who owned a grocery, to become an MD.
He hated medicine, but he managed to become popular eventually abandoning mom with a patient who now aquired husband number five, my dad. He would fail twice in business and often came home violent and bullied all the family. He probably would have enjoyed gardening, as did his Dad. One of my degrees is in horticulture now.
Mom came from old money, and I am sure at first seemed a good way for Dad to learn how to be with the wealthy. We were the first Italians in the country club, and Mom gave grand parties.
Mom was an artist and eventually got Dad to move us to CA. Mom was also a Bohemian and a liberal, an Irish woman who read extensively. I discovered that I loved academics, art, and mysticism. All the years of reading encyclopedias, Nancy Drew, and questioning authority, especially my crazy Dad, have enriched my life. I have helped many using natural health and meditation.
I believe the Nuclear Age changed us all. Born in 1950, I learned of Kruschev pounding his shoe on the UN desk, threatening, “we will bury you,” In the 60s, I would become an anti-Viet Nam activist helping men escape induction. My life in dedication to social justice had begun. I attended Joan Baez’s School of Nonviolence and learned to meditate at a nearby state park. When Joan wasn’t in class, she was on trial with city councils.
After graduating college, I found the Deep Ecology movement. This link is from my college, California Institute of Integral Studies, and I knew one of the authors.
As environmentalists, we became called Nazis for promoting a low-tech back-to-earth movement. As many would, I became interested in how and when we left lives living as hunters and gathers to tame the land and begin to exploit everything. When and how we choose ego and mental control over instincts.
I was incredibly passionate about the writing of Dolores Lachapelle. She claimed that the move from the earth-centered alphabets, especially in Asia, to Greek may have influenced our switch from earth beings to mental egoists.
Her book Deep Powder is a beautiful read for those who ski and practice body-centered practices especially tantra.
Also, during this time, I would become involved in PlanetWorks, a short-lived experiment in San Francisco of emerging technology, social advocacy, and environmental well-being that would become a technology firm.
At PlanetWorks, I also met world-respected economist HAZEL HENDERSON, who early on created a model for a Love Economy. The cake you see here illustrates how she considers the world unequal.
Another influential writer from my Deep Ecology days is feminist Susan Griffith, whose book, Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her reveals and connects how men have exploited nature. I own two copies. It makes impressive and shocking sense.
From poet Adrienne Rich: “perhaps the most extraordinary nonfiction work to have merged from the matrix of contemporary female consciousness—a fusion of patriarchal science, ecology, female history and feminism, written by a poet who has created a new form for her vision. ...The book has the impact of a great film or a fresco, yet it is intimately personal, touching the quick of woman's experience."
Yes, it may make you roar and weep as it did me. I see Susan now has new books on how to survive these times. I highly recommend her writing. I turn now more deeply to suggest some practices and changes towards social-economic justice.
At PlanetWorks, thanks to Greg, who owned Odwalls juice then, I also became aware of the GIFT ECONOMY. He gifted me with a paper by GENEVIEVE VAUGHN.
She now calls it the Maternal Gift Economy, based on the ancient and modern rebalancing of economics. NON-TRANSACTIONAL, NOT using MONEY for exchange. Remember? Mother and healthy Father love are free, and now we can make this community and the planetary.
Below, Hazel Henderson illustrates how upside-down “economics” is. The non-paid and the earth carry the burden of all.
AUTHORS AND PRACTITIONERS OF THE GIFT/HUMAN RIGHTS ECONOMY
First, Readers can find a brief Medium article by Ashley Hague here: The Beauty of A Gift Economy.
And next more human resources who know Living in the Gift of Life for mutual benefit:
CHARLES EISENSTEIN. Charles has been a significant influence on my life for many years now though recently, as he has made more and more money, we have moved in different directions. First, I found his book, Sacred Economics, liberating. It was the first place I heard of financial systems being backward, and upside down that, it was not the debtors’ fault at all.
I recommend his most popular program Living in the Gift, which helped me re-appreciate life and simplicity. Its power for me is the many interviews with people living via gift. You can name your price for the class.
All Charles's work is copyright-free and found for free online. A very admirable gift as we free ourselves from an exploitive worldview.
GENEVIEVE VAUGHN. I mentioned learning about the (Maternal) Gift Economy at PlanetWorks. I share this description from the site and find this may be the most authentic gift economy system:
"We are born into a Gift Economy practiced by those who mother us, enabling us to survive. The economy of exchange quid pro quo separates us from each other and makes us adversarial, while gift-giving and receiving create mutuality and trust. This website provides a discussion of the gift economy: its culture as a way to peace and abundance for all. We distinguish between gift and exchange, to understand them both and to finally phase out exchange altogether.”
I especially like their intention of ending direct trade/exchange altogether, moving towards equity of the non-monetized world moving to the top of the cake.
PETER JOSEPH. In Peter, I find a new interest. Though he boasts no fancy degrees except classical music, I have found no one except maybe Scott Santens, who is so broad in his considerations of beauty and human rights. His book, The New Human Rights Movement: Reinventing the Economy to End Oppression, looks like just the right next step for all of us.
He has also begun the Zeitgeist Movement.
Update. Russell Brand has become a leader like Thomas Paine.
See Russel’s interview with DOUG RUSHKOFF. A culturist…" It is not hubris to imagine a place for humans in the emerging digital landscape. I am on team human.”
CONCLUSION FOR NOW. I intended to create a gift for us all, and I hope some here will become a go-to resource. I have more, and I may update in the future. I hope we all begin to live more knowing the ephemerals, arts of loving-kindness, and mutual care.
"What are the things that you can't see that are important? I would say justice, truth, humility, service, compassion, love… They're the guiding lights of life.” — President Jimmy Carter.