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-