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Economy

Connecting the dots between the cost of energy and such traditional measures of the economy as GDP, jobs, and the health of the US dollar, along with re-localization.

How big corporations are unpatriotic

By March 29, 2013
Raytheon presentation

Many giant profitable U.S. corporations are increasingly abandoning America while draining it at the same time. General Electric, for example, has paid no federal income taxes for a decade while becoming a net job exporter and fighting its hard-pressed workers who want collective bargaining through unions like the United Electrical Workers Union (UE). GE’s boss, Jeffrey Immelt, makes about $12,400 an hour on an 8-hour day, plus benefits and perks, presiding over this global corporate … [Read more...]

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Lessons for the Great Recession from throwaway books

By March 27, 2013
Book Swap

This new trend of "eco swaps" sounds harmless enough — people exchanging stuff they don't want for other people's stuff they do want, with no money involved. Seems perfect for a down economy. But don't be fooled. The eco swap is a boil on the butt of capitalism. Just take the books-and-music swap that my wife and Transition Voice Editor Lindsay Curren held last Sunday. The promise of an excuse to finally clear out old copies of Fifty Shades of Grey (who knew it was a trilogy?) along … [Read more...]

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Cut off from society, sports become junk

By March 20, 2013
Roman Gladiators

If junk food contains little nutrition without the benefits of real food, then junk sports provide only empty entertainment without the benefits of real sports. Rather than inspiring ordinary people to become healthy and achieve their physical and mental potential in cooperation with others, junk sports encourage laziness, celebrity-worship and über-competitiveness. It's perfect for an age of diminishing prospects. An age of unemployment, cynicism and fear. Field of dreams We already … [Read more...]

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Holidays as a benchmark

By February 6, 2013
Reflection

Another holiday season is behind us. As I reflect on mine, I get a strong sense that holidays can be seen as a sort of benchmark. We tend to remember certain traditions and how they played out throughout the years. On needles and pins Take the Christmas tree, for example. Let’s face it, there's nothing that can bring out the worst in any of us than the tree. Remember the year that the kids knocked it over? Or, the year that the cat tore all of the ornaments off of the bottom tiers? Or the … [Read more...]

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A new financial system, for the people

By February 4, 2013
pile of U.S. currency

Over the past four years we’ve been let down by our banks. A better system would be a democratic finance model, thinks British anthropologist Bruce Davis. After developing peer-lending platform Zopa, Bruce teamed up with renewable energy expert Karl Harder to launch Abundance Generation in the U.K. earlier in 2012. The idea was to go one step further than just lending, and use that finance to build infrastructure, in order to generate personal profit for investors plus civic good for … [Read more...]

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Our local eco swap

By February 1, 2013
ladies on bikes

I've written before about the merits of swapping clothes and accessories you no longer want for "new-to-you" items instead. The three top benefits are: Saving money — one of the the keys to prosperity is spending less/saving more. Eco-friendly — reusing stuff helps avoid adding to the landfill. Fun! — getting together with others for a good time beats solo shopping zombiedom. But while I had researched and described how to host one of these events, I had not yet thrown one or … [Read more...]

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Secrets of the trait

By January 28, 2013
No GMOs

Picture this:  You’re an organic farmer in – well, pick a place. Your neighbor also farms, but not organically. As neighbors go, he’s a pretty good one; the two of you talk about the weather at the feed store, and he’s been interested in your agro-forestry sideline. By the same token, Monsanto’s visited your county multiple times, and your gut tells you he’s one of their hot prospects. Hoping to avert catastrophe, you’ve been straightforward with him, asking that he advise … [Read more...]

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Will 2013 be the year globalization died?

By January 14, 2013
Insourcing American Jobs conference

In The Campaign, last year's hilarious, potty-mouthed political romp with Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis, the Motch brothers (modeled of course on the Koch brothers) shovel piles of cash onto the campaign of Galifianakis's character Marty. Why? They want to build factories in his North Carolina congressional district, where they will employ Chinese workers at Chinese wages. They call it "insourcing." The term might sound silly, but in real life insourcing is no joke. For decades, … [Read more...]

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Terrible tech toy tortures toddlers and tweens

By December 10, 2012
Apptivity Monkey

We don't own a TV, so I don't see many ads. But since I love the NBC show Parenthood, I had to subscribe to HULU Plus to catch the show every week. There, I'm subjected to the every-eight-minutes commercial assault on our minds, dignity, and behavior so central to the TV "experience." This, HULU Plus calls "limited commercial interruption." I call it Hell. Ever since my HULU subscription began a few weeks ago I've been seeing a raft of hideous ads for a slew of unconscionable products … [Read more...]

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Eros and economy

By December 4, 2012
Eros

Everybody loves a good story. Especially this time of year. In Plato’s Symposium, Diotima recounts the story of Eros. She tells us that on the day of Aphrodite’s birth, the gods had a banquet. Penia—that is, “Poverty”— came begging at the end of the meal. There she espied Poros — that is, “Wealth” — drunk on nectar and asleep in Zeus’ garden. As a way out of her destitution, Penia decided to have a child by Poros, so she lay with him while he slept, and conceived … [Read more...]

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