Everything You Ever Believed

About Money Was Wrong/

And Here’s Why...

By, Thomas Marc Hoy

(Author of Dreams & Visions)

Selacted Tiblingraphy

Fuchan, James, “Frozen Mesite; the Memnine of “omey”,
Farrar Straus Girowx, 1997,

tterderson, Razel, "Piilding a Win-¥in Horld: Life Pey-
ond Global Fconomic Warfare”, Barrett-Foehlor, 1096

TP (Int’] Bon. Fumd), "Tnt'] Finanicial Srats®, 2001

Jensen, Derrick, “Fndgmme: the Prohlem nf “iv
Yol 1, Chelsen Green, 2006.

tMmford, Lewls, “The Myth of the Machine™. 2 vnl'a.,
Harcourt Rrace, 1995 (reprint).

Rowe, Jonathan, "The Fconomy™, liacper-

Poy, Arndhati, “An Ordinary Ferson's
fouth End Press, 2004.

Shiva, Vandana, "Farth Temccacy; o
ability, § Peace™, South Fnd Pro:

e 2000

tn P

Other statistics thanks to: Atlantic Menthly,
First! Jornal, The Teonomist, Marner
ecything You Fvec Believed hout Money Was Wrong ! 2.
And Here's Why.

For wost people in the U.5., life revolves around
acquicing and spending woney. This is true for all in-
dustrialized countries, and in many developing nations.
Yet money is a creature of belief; it's only worth
soncthing so long as we believe it to have value. This
becoaes obvious when you consider all the failed curr-
encies past and present, in places where people suffer
from chronic disillusionment with governments and in-
stitutions. Like Zimbabve in South Africa, vhere in-
flation cages at 27,0008 a nonth, and wheelbarrows
full of currency won'c buy a loaf of bread, or Brazil,
which has been forced to discard half a dozen curren-
cies in the last 30 years, each time hoping the new
woney it issues will hold its value. :

Money in its physical form has no obvious value -
merely colorful slips of princed paper o bits of stam-
ped metal. At least bills and coins can be touched;
but they represent less than 3% of the money in cir-
culation, the other 97% is even more ephemeral - elec-
tronic traces in computer hard drives stored in bank's
back offices.

Money can be (and is) created or destroyed instan-
taneously by governments and financial markets. It is
created every time a bank makes a loan (via the dark
magic of “fractional reserve” banking, where for every
§2 a bank deposits with the Federal Reserve, it can
issue S100 in loans - money created out of thin air),
and every time the market rises (as securities rise
in value, and are used as collateral with the money
markets). For those who have access to the machinery
of credit - financial brokers, owners of bank licenses,
corporation owners and officers, and the like, money
1s not scarce or difficult to obtain. It is allocated
in a way that is grossly unfair; those who can't create
moriey and credit - the vast majority of the world's
population, either prosper or suffer at the whims of
the systen's masters, at the mercy of central banks
and bankers. Those running the system decide vho
“deserves” credit, who'll gain access to the money
- warkets, who will be deprived of credit and shut out.

Money and credit, hovever, are mere symbols. They
represent the power to buy and sell pieces of the nat-
ural world (itself often reshaped by hunans). As “cap-
ital” (the supply of money) grows, nature shrinks. Ul-
timately financial markets divert and destroy the re-
source base for the survival of mature and commmitios.
The Uestern world is relentlessly focused on the con-
trol and manipulation of nature in the service of mr
accumulation of materfal things. In pursuit of that ~
goal, our culture commlsively acquires the init of
accomt, which is also the medium of exchangs - monev.

The way we treat mature and each other is partly
attributable to the helief system e mintain abomt
money. Our society and culture accept without quest ion
the many assmptjons money forces us to make abot th
world. These economic heliefs can be smmarized in
one phrase - as the ‘comodification of mature’. This
set of beljefs sees the planet as a glohal wnrehomse
of comodities that is ours to do with as wn please:
buy and sell it, destroy it or use it as we sse fit.

Instead of our primal view of the cosmos, chere
humans are one small part of a great family of living
things, existing within a sacred natural world, monew
tuists this relationship, and insists we are the “own-
ers” of nature, with rights free of cesponsihilities.
Money dictates that mmn concerns are the only con-
cerns.

Of course, our alienation from and our endless
striving to dominate nature predates the introduction
of money into socictics by millemia. Societies foumd-
ed on patriarchal coercion and control, fearing vhat
is female, natural, and wild, dnte back to the First
agricilture and cities, hetween 12,000 and 8,000 FCE.
The brutal patterns set hy these first civilizations
still poison our lives today, with their lepacies of
social control through hierarchy, shich in turn cause
us to pervert our sexuality (Insisting sex is somehow
“dirty" or disgusting), foments violence (by comshing
nonconformity, oppressing. the poor, and forcing a dvn-
amic of pitiless competiton and cruelty amonp the
rest of society), and warps our emotjons (thanks to
rigid gender roles), to name tut a few evils.

The invention of monev. in the form of precions
metal coinage, first minted circa A40 FCE (In ancient
Lydia, now modern Turkev), just forced a more radical
transformation of the societies in which it spread

in the same direction they were already headed - toward
more authoritarian, top—down structures, and mav from
personal autonomy.

The result was (and is) m assmlt on the interdepen-
dent weh of life that creates and maintains our eco-
sphere; a system of destruction - misnamed “production”,
that ruthlessly converts the wild and the living inte

the Caed and the dead. Trees becoue lunber, aniuals
becoue weut, hidea, and experimental test subjects, 4
wountains are reduced to ore, metals, and gravel, and
o0 and on. ALL things are judged by vhether or not they
have value to us, their treatment dependent on how preat
that value is determined to be. Tellingly, the greater
the value, the nore merciless the treatbent.

This belief system vas nade still more vicious by the
widespread adoption of the principles of econouics (the
supposed “science of aoney”) by the Buropean great pover
during the Industrial Revolution.

This 18th Century paradign, ficst acticulated by Scot
swan Adam Suith in the late 1700's, still controls the
uay ue think about money and value. Econonica focuses
solely on things like investnent, trade, deficits, money
supply, and interest rates, to the exclusion of every
other humn concern, such as health, satisfaction, and
the quality of life.

Econonics, stripped of its jargon and its pretensions
to scientific credibility, is merely a set of rules (and
rules that are frequently inaccurate or grossly mislead-
ing, at that) that claius to explain the hows and whys
of ‘interactions between people, derived from cultura
values and goals. Unlike psychology, hovever, shich at
least has the decency to admit its understanding 15
liuited, and that human motives are often murky. econoa-
ics insists its interpetation of why humans bahave the
vay they do is the only correct one

These rules, once established, govern what work is
considered iuportant (and thus highly paid) and what is
00t what has value, and what doesn't. The rules also
deternine access to resources, and vho has control over
capital and profits.

¥hat economics values is money, a stand-in for own-
ership, the possession of pover wnd control over prop-
erty and vealth. What can'c be or isn't assigned
nonetary value is valued at zero. The values of econom

Justice or the natural world.

For instance, econoaics insists that only competit-
Lon and waximizing your self-interest at the expense of
others is "rational” behavior; altruistic behassor gng
Cooperation are "irrational”, and are ignored by econ-
omic statistics and measurements.

Feononics also clains that econowies - and the people
that create them, are able to act “rationally". ang aie.
at liberty to make good choices collectively betveen
such things as guns, butter, education, prisons, types
of investments, etc. This despite the overvhelming g
evidence of harsh reality that govermments and corpor-
ations control society, and mike spending, decisions

to suit themselves. The fact that soverrments and cor-
porations grossly misallocate resonrces, and frequently
cause financial bubbles and busts, wars and colossal
waste make a mockery of this beljef.

For example, the U.S. spent over S700 billion on the
military Jast year (2010), a record incrense which
follovs year after year of such increases, vet spending
to alleviate the needs of the poor, who've heen ham-
mered by the appalling recession that hesan in 2008,
was less than 5% of that sm. This dospite the fact
that poverty has risen astronomically over the past
three years, while similtanconsly sacial hdsets have
been cut to the bone.

Similacly, in the latest financial meltdown (200
the present), over S14 trillion was iven to banks and
financial markets in the form of interest-free loms
and other freebies, subsidizing, those responsihle for
the disaster. By comparison, a pittance - $35 billion,
was offered as a sop to small misinesses (throush
the SRA, notoriously slow and nitpicking about paper-
work) to aid their terrible credit crunch, caused by
the banks refusal to lend out anv of the §14 trillion -
thereby defeating its sirosed purpose to get the
~ economy moving apain and exten cremit to averape
people.

In both of these instances, elites and those in
power benefit, uhile the rest of the population miffers
needless agony due to misallocation of resources. A
“good” or “rational” choice was made in neither case.

Fconomics considers the distritution of wealth,
income, pover, and information to be irrelevant to its
calculations, ‘although this distritution determines
the very structure of society. Fconomists consistently
support laissez faire capitalism, which tends to create
monstrously mequal societies, with masses of the poor
living in misery at the hottom, and A small elite con-
trolling everything from the top. This is the svatem
rumning the world today.

Economics believes nature's “capital” - clean air,
water, soil, and the enviromment is free and inexhma-
tible, that the plaet can absorh toxic wastes forever.
and that_ecosystems - valued at zero, have no limits
on the abuse and inslts they can tolerate and still
support 1ife.

Ecological horrors Tike the Meepater Forizen oil
spill - hundreds of millions of pallons of oil dev-

astuting the coosystem of the Gulf of Mexico (one spill
Of thousarls that occuc every year on a lesser scale),
gr the atcocities of corporations like Monsanto and
Archer-Daniels-Midland, dumping billions of tons of
pesticides every year into our soil and water, thus
responsible for untold numbers of people dying from
cancers and other diseases, are the direct result of
econouic beliefs about what is important.

Folloving economic principles often leads to perverse
outcones and lose-lose choices. The siuple fact is, not
all economic activity is good. by economic standards,
cancer and diseases are “good”, as they increase the
GNP (Gross National Product), they bring jobs in health-
care, hospital investuent, and wedical research. The
pain and suffering of the'sick and the dying are treat-
ed us icrelevant, and are valued at zero.In the same
vein, var is seen as a tremendous stimlus, employing
willions and boosting whole econouies. The horror, des-
fruction. slauhter. and nuerous other evils it causes
7 3xre disuissed as uniwpoctant, or at worst the price
to be paid for "prosperity”. According to economics,
drift nets are an economic positive because they s
Crease the awount of fish caught, thus improving the
2ll-important productivity and efficiency of f£1shere
en. The fact that drift nets have a horeific jm
pact on sea-life, killing hundreds of millions of
other comercially “valueless” sea
cidenc” annually (whose bodies, called "by-cate
are thrown avay as gacbage) 15
although the results are a collapse of the macing
scosysten. Exauples like these could be cited in-
definicely.

Perhaps economic's worst belief, and one that is
aecepted iuplicitly by all economists, govermments,
and businesses, is (as Bill McKibben calls 1¢) the
“eult of growth” that economics has evolved. Endless
grouth is, of course, impossible, as any sensible
person should realize. Twiors geow until they kill

living vithin natural limits, restricting hunay tohke
ing from nature going beyond the ecological ability
of reneval. Yet those making the decisions in our
society ignore this obvious fact, and press on for
@ constant increase in growth at all cost, a Kind
of madness or hlindness that conames the world.

There ace many similar prefudices in ecanomics:
jdeas about efficiency, productivity, prices and
profits, what constitutes happiness, and how all 7
this should be measured. Presently, rconomic meas-
urement focuses on the means, not on the cricial
ends.. Eeonomics concerns itself only with jmediate
gratification, and long-term results are wholly
disregarded. Fconomic ideas dismiss thinns mmans
hold dear; love, cooperation, commmity, wilderness,
and a host of others, instead catering to the desires
- of those 1n power. The things that exist ontside of
monetary exchange - the ecosystem and social svstems
are left out of calculations.

Money and economics are the key helief svstems
used as the justification by modern povermments to
dominate populations worldwide. The “logic” of dom-
ination is at once simple and ruthless: we own the
world, and will take shatever ve want, and if yom
set in our wav, ve will crush you. Memey and econ-
omics defines everything, according, to its relation-
ship with wealth and praperty; those in pover essen-
tially helieve they own the earth, and that power
equals ownership, which in turn equals control over
property. Those societies that emhrace economics
(which means the entire world, except for a tiny
and quickly vanishing, s1iver of mmanity Jiving
in remote, pre-agrarian commmities) tend to he
vident, patriarchal, and dismissive of the rights
of women, the poor, and indigenous peoples, and =ee
the exploitation of mature as some sort of "divine”
right, to the degree thev helieve in industrialized
laissez faire capitalism.

A classic example of this domination in action
is the spuriously-named "Free Trade”. As Vandana
Shiva has pointed ont, “Trade based on false prices
and unfair exchange is not trade, it is exploitatim.
According to economists, free trade is an economic
competition between nations conducted on a roughly
Jevel playing field. In theory, free trade benefits
all the players, transferring goods and services
from nations hest able to produce them at the Jowsst
price, to other nations that provide another sood
or service that they specialize in in return.

* In reality, the rules are heavily weishted in
favor of powerful market plavers, mainly gisantic
multinational corporations, and place commerce above
all other local, mational, and international goals
and concerns. including hman rights, social ms-

wal cconouy, and the environuent .

Iree trade is a race to the bottou, as huge cor-
borations roun the world lookiug for the cheapest
- 2vailable labor and resources, and countries broker
their vorkforces, natural wealth, and biodiversity
on the global auction block. Free trade leads to lower
vages, both domestically and internationally ( as
corporations force down the cost of labor by threat-
©uing to move to ever-cheaper locations for their
factories if vage denands are not met), more job-.
lessness, as jobs are “outsourced” from rich coun-
Lries to poor ones, worsening debt and living stan-
dards for the poor and middle class, cause eaviron-
uwental destruction, and other ills. In short, true
losses are not subtracted against the supposed mar-
ket "gain".

Companies like mining giant Freeport-Hehokan rape
the earth for uetals, leaviny lethal messes wherever
they've been, vhile textile and shoe manufactorers
such as Calvin Klein and Nike, to nane just tuo.
foutinely exploit Third World vorkers, paying then
Just enough for bare survival while reaping huge
profits.

Free trade encourages the practice of social,
goviconnental, and cultural “dunping”. This is the
exporting of cheap goods wade inexpensive by ex-
ploiting the people and coercively underpciced assets
of one countcy, and then negatively impacting the
{ionomy of the other country in which they're sold

vices). These goods are “cheap” because of hidde

povermental subsidies and externalized costs bome
by nature.

transfer of wealth from poor nations (robbed of their
tesources) to rich ones, aluost alvays over the pro-
tescs of warginalized and indigenous peoples, confiict
and chaos are on the rise around the plapet.

nier the pretense of bringing them "development™
and “foreign direct investment”. It is a devii'g
bargain, whereby the post-industrial nations make
use of the best und brightest of the Thicd World at
slave vages, and buy vital materials foc dirt-cheap
prices, leaving toxins and. econoaic cuin behind-

By one measure, from the Statistical bivision of
the UN Development Programe, industrial countrics
of the 'lobal North' owe a “pollution debt” Lo th
*Global South' for enviromental cleanup of s15-20
trillion. This doesn't include the many other costs
of predatory corporations doing business without
restraints, such as desertification, deforestativti,
habitat destruction, the terrible social injustice
of supporting parasitic elites robbing nations of
their natural vealth (and its attendant COST if pov™
ecty and oppression), and other malignancies with
heavy social and enviromental coSs

Ve wust break free of the deadly worldview ot
econouics and its vicious traps if we hope €O Survive.
One way out is to broaden the picture s0 it includ:
all human and natural activity.’ Beconing avu:
the exchanges made between humans, between huuans
and the ecosphere, and between species within the
natural world reveals the absurd limitations of ec-
onouics, and the need to take in other exchanges to
get an accurate understanding of reality.

In human social relations, for exawple, there
three kinds of exchanges. There are interactions
conducted under threats, based on fear; interactions
that are truly free exchanges, based on barter and
reciprocity, and interactions prowpted by love, sucl
as gifts, altruisn, and long-term values.

Economics likes to claim it is based on reciiro™
city and free exchange, but in reality it is based v
threats, relying on fear and scarcity-based social
strategies to motivate others.

Coercion is integral to our social systew, so wucil
50 that we no longer recognize it. Consider - hov
nany people would villingly go to jobs they hate uid
despise, wasting their entire lives unluppily, if
ROt under threat of homelessness and starvation (iv
posed by a systen they have no vay of changing)?
How many people would continue to spend their days
and nights at boring, soul-deadening drudgery, work
that huniliates and alienates thew, wprk that er
dangers their health and sanity, of loathsoue tasks
that hacw others and the environuent, vere they Lot
conditioned into a kind of amoral stupor, and Eheat”
ened with dire consequences if they do not obey !
There are other considerations here, of course, but
the essence of economic "choices” are not really
choices at all, but are thinly disguised threats

re of all

are

“osipned to cosrce ohadience to anthority, and force
rrart for the aconmic status quo that principally
Nnefits the alire. o

“milarly, it §s mi1itary force, not fair or free
rrade, that keeps Thipd World countries locked into
e ASTrenents that are virtual economic. slavery,
mhsarvient to wealthy jndustrialized ones, using
["rression to keep their restive populations under
“MErol. Tdigencus freedom movements, usnally dem-
mine cemmiation of corporate ownership of national
porATITeR, ATe Crished sherever they pap up, no cor-
Porations (and the native eljtes they support) can
! dmie 0 extract rasources with a minimm of fass
nd exponss

"alf the worlq's population - over 3 hillion
Ienles 11ve o Jess than §2 n day, and find daily
Hin In be 2 battle apatnst hger, thirst, and the
Siolonen of sovermment and society demying their
ity A right o Tife. Fad, clemn umter and
o IteT ATe A distant dream for most of the planet.
Tonth StAlks this majority: due to the fact that
~ver 2 hillion lack access to clean water, tens of
Tiltions die anmially from easily preventable die-
175a: Do myone think this is by choice, or that
e e ToE of a faic and equitahls sharing af
=ralth from natural resources ?

The aconomic System we currently endure has made
" practice of -,l(mlnn!]mg alternatives and rival
tems. tvpically by genocide of indigenous peoples
w0 affer 2 mode] of living in sustainable harmony
¥iTh their enviroment, and by destroying wilderness

Tohat “1iving off the land” is made imossible
7 impractical,

Tt It hns not entirely succeeded in spplanting
N5 ials. In fact, most human interactions are
i1 based on bartir and rectprocity or on love
I pffection. This *informal® scmomy accomes for
Soemch 25 half of all activity in the imdwstrial
e often as mich as 3/4's of the economy in
™ird Worlq countries. Economics fails to take note
2L, ormons amount of work done ot of e, md
Ihe Wl which sustains 11fe outside of cash trans-
s = hom and commmity gardening, mibsistence
{arming, handicrafre, handmade items, homemade beer,
“ine, choesn, ate. the vast majority of works of

¥ Ielatives, energy and resources given s gi1te
T charity, and the hoee o oorces Rive

locally and internationally. A

There are enoruous efforts beimg wade to sHift the
world from the coercive, conflict-driven paradigu I
of economics and power politics to life-affirminy
ecologically sensitive systems that are sustainablc
and concerned with social justice.

One alternative that has flourished is the mutual
aid barter systeus called cooperatives, or “"co-ops”
Although the corporate-owned "minstreau” media tukc
great care to completely ignore it, as it represents
a serious threat to the waterialistic, coupetitve,
profit-driven model favored by governuent and bus-
iness. Co-ops are, as their name iuplies, about
cooperation, shacing, fairness, and helping those
who are severely marginalized by the current econ-
omic systen. lione gardenecs are able to usefully
trade their excess produce; uneuployed tradesmen urc
able to trade their skills for needed items, and
50 on, exchanges made difficult or iupossible by
the regulations of the cash econoay.

Co-0ps are a wajor movewent worldwide, and in-
volve tens, perhaps hundreds of millions of people.

In the U.S. alone, at least 50 million people parti--
ipate in co-ops like Service Credits und Time Dollur-
in New York and Florida; Ithaca Money in New York
(vhose “Ithaca Hours™ program has been duplicated in
over 300 places around the globe), and thousands of
similar barter exchanges. Local Exchange Trading Sy:-
tens (LETS) have gained popularity internationally,
vith over 200 LEIS in Britain, 200+ Lets in Austral i,
and hundreds wore in Canada and New Zealand. There
are over a 1,000 co-ops in Japan, such as the Seikut:
Club of Yokohaua, Jupan, a wouen's co-op in operat iou
for over 30 years, that works with local farwers anc
has thousands of wembers. These Japanese organizativis
involve some 15-20 million people. Europe is especi
1y keen on such systems, and in the Third World they
tlourish wherever governuent misuanaes monetary af-
fairs. Mitual societies, associations, and social
networks pursue similar goals.

The nost creative forces addressing the planet's
problens, however, are grassroots citizen's wovemcent:
Over 26,000 NGO's gathered at the Kio Earth Swmit i
1992, and more and wore such groups huve attended su-
sequent Global Foruus. The Slow Food Movewent, the
Permaculture Movenent, the Radical Siwplicity Moveuci.
(all are prowinent in the U.S. and Europe), Kenya's
Greenbelt Movement, India's Chipko Moveuent, the Sury-
odya Shranadana Movewent in Sti Lanka ( o Buddhast
developnent prograune operating in over 8.000 vill:.

A - Self- employed Wemen's Association of India, and
sccien of Sonth America, along with Women's World Rank-
ine, (which operates micro-lending, in over 50 comntries)
Palph Nader's Public Citizen, the Unfon of Concerned 1y
ientists, Thysicians for Socinl Respmnsibility, the
Packy Mmmtain Tnstitute, First Nation Development
In=titute (a I1.S. Native American orpamization), Peacn-
“nt, FeoNet, Soka Gakkai, Appropriate Technology Tn-
rernational, these are St a tiny random sampling of
the proups working for sstainable development and
~neial justice. There are other, healthier systems that
alne himan - not machine, concrns, and these are the
e we mist gt in place.

Gti11, all this work to transform cultures and soc-
inrins hased on economics and coercion has yet to make
+ mjor fmpact, or to change the paradism of money
wvior shich the masses labor.

Fith the almost overvhelming complexity and dif-
“ienlty of the problems facing manity in the 2Lst
“entury, where does one begin to fisht the evils spar-
Vol b these belief systems 7

tong=term solutions must include a plan for the
roar, eliminating the idea of "disposable people”,
“hn have no wealth and therefore no rights.

e of the most urgently needed (and empirically
Aemonstrated) of solutions is the education and
~rment. of women. Women produce over half of the world's
tood, amd manage 70% of emall husinesses, but receive
1< 10T of wages, and own (in the Third World) only
17 of the property.

Srady after stidy (and the programs associated with
thom) has shown that educating sirls and women dram-
tically reduces birthrates, and is in fact the single
nst_affective means of controlling populations growth
=0 that §t recedes to replacement levels (1.e. where
“eath and bicth rates match, as in most industrialized
coumtries). This in turn reduces the hman impact on
thn environment . and jmproves the quality of life and
rmomic status of poor families.

Frpownrment. programs, most notably micro-lending
srajerts paited with 1jteracy, hyriene, health, and
ather education focusing on wmen, such as Grameen
vank in Ranpladesh, lead to a host of positive changes
in por commmities. With micro-lending (vhere cums
o5 enal) as §50 are Jent ont at low interest rates to
ponr people withont credit or hope of obtaining a
hank 1nan), women spend the increased income they
~arn from &mall pmsinnss start-ups to improve the
Yealth amd qualitv of life for their families (mlike

men, who tend to spend wicco-lending woney on Liquor
or vices, and are poorer credit risks than wouen).
This kickstarts a beneficial cycle that beuefits lai-
ilies, comunities, and ecosystems as busic needs nr-
et .

Micco-lending is no panucea, naturally, Keeping /3
people in the same vicious trap of economics. Also,
there are vredatory lenders mixed in with fioms of
integrity, causing great hardship, and many countr i
have Jegal and econcaic bacriers io place it wakc
suall busivess stact-ups beyond the reach of the {xac..
Likewise, empowervent progcaus often meet with ficrce
resistance from existing patriarchal power structurs,
who cightly sense the danger these progeams represent
(threatening, us they do, to overturn wowen's subser-
vieat role in society, and instead insisting un ser-
dec equality). Thece ace numerous others who oppose
change and cling to tradition on principle, stymyit
efforts to free wowen from oppression and Servit.ri.

Nevactheless, widespread support and increase .
forts hy people in developed nations to educate i
empower girls and wouen, especially in the *Globul
South® and Third World, will generate a powerful fucce
for positive transformition, if average people in Liw
U.S. and Burope tuke up this vital cause.

Another desperately needed change is to tame the
global corporations and financial markets that fve
been allowed to run wiok. A ceitical mass of pecple
in industrialized countries st desund that coricr-
ations shov social resppasibility, aud force these
beheaoths to either adopt sustaiuable practices or
cease to exist.

Much progress on this froat has been wade in Lur-
ope, where labor laws, developuient restrictions, -
vicomental health and safety regulations, and cou-
wunity relations all play important roles in keepit
corporations in check. The U.S. is a different story,
though, and sadly the wocld's largest corporations
are Auerican ones, operating by American rules.

There are many tools at hand that a large, wisy
block of concerned citizens can use to spark a publ ic
debate ued force change. For ooe, insisting on a ro-
caleulation of Gross National Product (GNP), and Chi',
shich is presently u kind of vast theater curtais
hiding suffering. lluge suus speat on luxury buyiu
by those at the top conceals the lack of buying of
necessities by those at the bottow. Rurther, by ui-
~ding work not done for money, such as work within
comunities and families, the value of the functiviis

€ the neeans and atmosphere and earth, and sibtract-
ine eneial and envirommenta] costs, a mwch more real-
jorie understanding of the costs of industrial cap-
iatiom =111 tacomn possible. So-called “preen acc- /'
ning” in hepiming to catch on. Tt caloulates the
teun value of intact ecosystems, the cleansing of
ater by wetlands, the clean aicr provided by forests,
tio ronmunl of soil hy microhes, etc., and then atds
it te the cost of pollution, habitat destruction, and
lean-un coste for removing torins. This tatical iy
el waluation revaale the true price of corporate
rammction and its effects on the environment./If en-
forced =0 that {t changes the prices of goods and
sarvices, then wnsustainable practices become unaffor-
AMle, and many perverse economic behaviors will cease.

Fresmire can also be applied by social growps angry
ahent corporate destruction of local economies. Such
sremps canhinsist on policies that comhat unfair com-
writion (and the wipe-out of commmities due to the
“toath of smll husinesses this entails), such as the
ncmasaful grasscodhe actions against Waltart, the
Vareat LS. employze (ulth ower 1 million employees),
norarions for paying its wockers so poorly many are
nliginls for foodstamps. Growps in California, Min-
necata, Dew York, Orepon, and elsewhere have sicces:
fully hamed ¥alMacts from opening in their commm-
ities, preventing the gutting of small Misinesse:
that inevitahly follows the implementation of the
i are Seiminess moinl.

Though Aifficult, local growps can mite and en-
farce environmental consciousness and social respon-

<inility on corporations, as with the fight by activ-
jets apainst the developers of the lm Creek Pesort
in “hine. Sarcastically renaming the company “Som
“renk”, and exposing the damage the corporation would
inflict on pristine forests and lakes in Maine, dev-
~lopment. has been delayed, with good chance of a halt
1o the destructive plans. If dedicated and clever,
sroups cm force corporations to act like homest
Fitizens jnstead of varvials and peychopaths in pursuit
of profits.

This includes making changes in tax law so that
corporations are no longer rewarded for cutting jobe,
~nconraging emplovment instead of antomating and
teemcing it out of existence, and demanding cor-
porata pollution taxes and value extraction taxes
that are safficent to truly restore the enviromments
that corporations destroy.

This mems forcing a radical change in standard

business principles, avay fcom corpoate efforts to
achieve ever—greater efficency aud productivity, whi
lead to increasing wiewployvent and joblessiess, anl
tovards intermediate labor-intensive techiology. 1t /S
means favoring the needs of the avecage citizen over
the desices of the elite and the markets. 1t means
wore husan skills, and fever wachines; production Ly
the wasses, not auss production. This could create
rural self-sufficency, slow or stop the cancerous
growth of cities, and ceduce social inequities and
poverty gaps. Govermments uust also be pressured tu
elininate corporate welfare, and stop subsidizing
corporate waste and pollution.

Hany suggeations have been wade on low to accoupl il
this; boycotts to force corporations to change theic
behavior and obey ethical codes of comduct (as in suc-
cessful shaming caapaigns, a la Stop Huntington An-
imal Cruelty(SHAC], which crippled Huntington Lub-
oratories - a British coupany that tested products ui
aniwals in vicious ways), desunding states change cor-
porate charters so that social and ecological iupucts
wist be given equal weight with shareholdec profits,
and forcing local elected officals to hold corporate
officers criminally lisble for the devastation they
wreak in poisoning the enviconuent. Even the siuple
act of cemoving yourself sloxly from the cash econ-
ouy, and eacouraging othecs to do the sume, depriving
the system of your contcitutions, is helpful. None ure:
sufficient in themselves; these and awny ture mist be
tried repeatedly until change is achicved.

Thicdly, people in the industrialized cowntrics
wust he pecsuaded to eabrace sustaivability as the waic
peinciple governing life. It requices nothing less (i
cedefining wealth and progress as haviug loving rel-

- ationships, healthy commmities, and lives filled
with sharing and made elegant hy simplicity. It re-
quires a videsprend switch to non-woney alternative
forns of exchange, such as the previously discussed
larter, co-ops, the inforwal economy, and much gre:
support for local agriculture, production, and trade.
It requires that the poor, the marginalized, the steos -
sling working classes he oducated to recognize their
exploitation by corporate elites, and unite to deccin!
change.

This is 00t so far-fetched as it tay seen. The
power of the Tnternet to reach vast audiences, awl ('n
speead of wodern techuology to even the joorest of
»laces means that the potential for globul organizin:
and protest finally exists (as the uany Cloba) For

' Tarth Smmits held anminlly ince the 1990's praves,
‘it participants fron cven the most remote and pov-
~rry-steicten of regions able to attend and contribute).
To nvarcome the momstrons ontrages and criminality
6 arnnemics and dndustrial capitaliem, all those seek-
i wocinl Justice mest hegin organizing new, and make
1 domands”that will transform the world. The poor
ot e amited £ meke comon cause and demnd social
“tice. The power of the paor i In the strmets, and
~hars, md this mst ' part of anv plan for chanse
wist demand an end to msive military spendins,
Tocate those resorces to creats sauitable soc-
. offecing decent food, water, shelter, edncation,
! opportinitias for all. A% Martin lather Ying, Jr.
2i* "A nation that contimes year after vear to spend
wira reney on military defense than on programs of snc-
o1 welifE {s approaching spiritual death”.
i st domnd that the enviromment he restored, the
revic unstes and chemicals comoved from the ecosphece
o that people and the matural world are no lon-
cor prisoned by industry.
st demnd that systems of production and dist-
1t5on be redesiged to be matainable, and if thin
fmpossible, that umsustainable products and peactices
phased out.
T mist demand that a1l of this b done equitably
i+ pracefully, and that the wealthy First Horld mations
“ar the brmt of the costs for the mess they have made
of the planat.

“in mint prioritize people and mature atove commerce
»! profits, and jnternalize social and ecolegical costs
+ . the fabric of dajly 11ving. Shattored commmities,
an families, unemployment, homelensness, poverty,
ri~, violence, pollution, all these i11s and more can
“nfved if we reject the domination of hierarchies
@ ~lites, recognize the false reality created hy our
sconemic haltef system, and dedicate mirselves to making

+ wor1d whore plobal resovcces are shared fajcly and
neresly.

fariee

South Chicago ABC Thomas Marc Hoy # 99733-012

Y Federal Comectional
£ Zine Distro P.0. Box 23811
P.O.Box 721 Tucson, Arizona 85734

Homewood, IL 60430
Dreams & Visions