Category: Economics/True Cost

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Michel Bauwens: Sustainable Societies, True Cost Economics, and Appropriate Governance

Crowd-Sourcing, Economics/True Cost, Innovation, Knowledge, Money, P2P / Panarchy
Michel Bauwens

“The “Principled Societies” concept outlined in the book Creating Sustainable Societies is a blueprint for sustainable financial, economic, and governance systems, intended for local implementation. The book starts by pinpointing the central problems within our financial, economic, and governance systems that have lead to high unemployment, massive debt, environmental degradation, mistrust of Congress and big business, and hyper-inequities of wealth and political power. It then proposes a practical, bold plan for addressing these concerns and creating meaningful change.

EXTRACT:  From the Foreword, by Bernard Lietaer:

“I have spent the past 30 years studying monetary systems, both conventional and innovative. During this time, I have written more than a dozen books, have spoken to thousands of audiences around the world, and have taught in half a dozen universities in the United States and Europe. Everywhere, I find dissatisfaction and hunger for a breakthrough to another way of working, of cooperating, of contributing. People are eager for change and are awake to the need for change, even if most public officials, constrained by politics or timidity, appear incapable of rising to the challenges of our time.

In distilling the results of my investigations, I arrived at the sad conclusion that the missing piece in all our monetary arrangements is appropriate governance. This is true for both the official money system (the Federal Reserve and all other central banks in the world) and innovative systems of complementary currencies. This missing piece is what John Boik brings to the table. At first glance, his proposal might appear to center on a complementary currency system, but more accurately it centers on appropriate governance. On the one hand, it proposes a means for collaborative direct democracy as applied to finance, corporate behavior, and social organization: the “Principled Society.” On the other, the very mechanics of the proposed monetary and corporate model, including its transparency, are a manifestation of democratic ideals.”

Wiki Outline  of Book   .   Amazon Page for Book

See Also:

The Commons as a Challenge for Classical Economics

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Winslow Wheeler: Canadian Honesty, US Dishonesty, on the F-35

Corruption, Economics/True Cost, Military
Winslow Wheeler

Parliamentary Lights

Canada's politicians take on the F-35.

When Canada's left-of-center New Democratic Party (NDP) invited me to testify before a mock hearing (on Parliament Hill with only NDP members present) addressing the country's purchase of the U.S. F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, I was confident I knew what to expect.

I expected the Canadian politicians, like members of the U.S. Congress, to give vaguely informed (sometimes stunningly misinformed) statements about the F-35, even when they agreed with my position. I expected their questions to be read off of staff memos in a manner so clumsy that it was clear the questioner had only the dimmest understanding, if any, of the words he or she was reading. Follow-up questions based on my responses would be a concept the questioner had never seen any use for. In other words, I didn't expect much, but the opportunity to inform the debate in Canada about the high cost and low performance of the F-35 was important; so I accepted the invitation.

My expectations were completely wrong. The differences between Canadian politicians and members of Congress are utterly stunning. Unlike here, oversight in the Canadian Parliament is alive and well. In Canada, I found two political behaviors unheard of in the United States: Opposition politicians actually try to understand the issue they are talking about, and they take offense at being lied to.

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota:  “Intelligence” (decision-support) should not be limited to secret collection against a sub-set of foreign challenges.  Knowing oneself is just as important — perhaps even more important — than knowing the enemy.  This is especially true when public policy and acquisition and operations are completely disconnected from the public interest.  DoD acquisition today is divorced from reality, divorced from need, and divorced from ethics.  A “perfect storm” is brewing within the Pentagon.,

 

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Chuck Spinney: US Navy – More Admirals than Ships? Comprehensive Survey of Flag Officer Bloat as Foundation for Failed Militaries Across History

Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Economics/True Cost, Military
Chuck Spinney

How bad is our bloat of generals? How does it compare with other armies?

Fabius Maximus, 10 September 2012
Summary:  As a followup to yesterday’s rant by Richard A Pawloski (Captain, USMC, retired) about our bloated corps of senior generals, today we look at the actual numbers.  They show that if anything Pawloski understated the situation, and that only many more rants can reform our military. It’s not just expensive, but might become a risk to the Republic.
“In place of that optimax of 5% {officers} that the MI never can reach, many armies in the past commissioned 10% of their number, or even 15%! This sounds like a fairy tale but it was a fact, especially during the 20th century. What kind of an army has more officers than corporals? And more noncoms than privates! An army organized to lose wars — if history means anything. An army that is mostly red tape and overhead, most of whose soldiers never fight.”
— Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers (1959). Heinlein was Annapolis class of 1929, discharged in 1934 due to TB.

Contents

  1. About our bloated roster of generals
  2. Our economy has not grown, but our officers corps has
  3. Comparing our Army to successful & unsuccessful past armies
  4. Research about inflation in our officers corps
  5. Other articles about our senior officers
  6. Other posts about our military, & the potential risk to the Republic

Read full post with many supporting links and excellent graphics.

Phi Beta Iota:  The review charts the rather troubling migration of Pentagon flag officers and Pentagon methods of fraud, waste, and abuse, over to the Department of Homeland Security, the new pork-fest.  Our focus is always on the public interest, and in the military, the public interest cannot be separated from the welfare of the enlisted force, and particularly that portion of the force, the infrantry, 4% of the total force, taking 80% of the casualties, and receiving 1% of the Pentagon budget.  This is a crime by politicians and policymakers and so-called professional flag officers, against our very own.  On a positive note, we are meeting more and more “insiders” that confirm our view that the US Government is comprised of good people trapped in a bad system — senior grades — who have pretended to drink the kool-aid, abhor all that they do, and would be profoundly appreciative of any leadership oriented toward reform.

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Michel Bauwens: P2P Mode of Production – An Indiano Manifesto

Culture, Economics/True Cost, P2P / Panarchy
Michel Bauwens

Published under the Public Domain, freely downloadable in HTML, epub or PDF, “The P2P Mode of Production: An Indiano Manifesto” is the first collective Indiano work translated into English.

This document is a call to action, based on Las Indias’ analysis that the reduction of the optimal scale of production is the root of the current crisis — in Spain particularly, but also worldwide. This is a grave threat for huge corporations (and to a lesser extent, national governments), but very promising for small enterprises. That’s because the core of the P2P mode of production is a “knowledge commons” available to all. Abundant information on every topic imaginable, but especially on small-scale production, means that local producers can freely choose the most effective, efficient and accessible processes, without the shackles of intellectual property. This will lead to a blossoming of local enterprise. And that’s where you can take action.

There’s a lot more to it — see for yourself!

The translation and formatting of this book is US$1000 worth of work. The content is available for free, as a webpage, epub or PDF, but please consider donating one half of one percent of that — or as much or as little as seems right to you. This will go a long way toward encouraging future translations of the works of Las Indias.

Phi Beta Iota:  Michel Bauwens is one of the iconic figures of the transitional period from past to future, from Industrial Era stove-pipes and greed, to Information Era open source everything and sharing to create collaborative economies.

See Also:

Collaborative Economy Coalition

Tom Atlee, Empowering Public Wisdom: A Practical Vision of Citizen-Led Politics (Evolver, 2012)

Michel Bauwens, Report: A Synthetic Overview of the Collaborative Economy (Orange Labs and P2P Foundation, 2012)

Robert Steele, THE OPEN SOURCE EVERYTHING MANIFESTO: Transparency, Truth & Truth (Evolver, 2012)

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Good News: Sea Otters Combat Climate Change

Earth Intelligence, Economics/True Cost

Sea Otters To Combat Climate Change?

Does a large population of sea otters reverse one of the principal causes of climate change? New research from the UC Santa Cruz is suggesting that a population boom of sea otters would go a long way to reduce sea urchin numbers, and therefore allow kelp forests to become very large.

“The spreading kelp can absorb as much as 12 times the amount of CO2 from the atmosphere than if it were subject to ravenous sea urchins, the study finds.” Of course, altering a food chain so significantly could have unintended consequences.

The theory was just outlined in a paper published September 7 in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

“It is significant because it shows that animals can have a big influence on the carbon cycle,” said Wilmers, assistant professor of environmental studies.

“Wilmers, Estes, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, and their co-authors, combined 40 years of data on otters and kelp bloom from Vancouver Island to the western edge of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. They found that otters “undoubtedly have a strong influence on the cycle of CO2 storage.”

Read full article.

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Paul Craig Roberts: The Real Unemployment Rate(s) — and Tips on Getting Past USAJobs Guilloutine

Corruption, Economics/True Cost, Government, Military
Paul Craig Roberts

Paul Craig Roberts: The real unemployment rates – a study in information credibility

Official Unemployment: U.3  8.1%

Mid-Term Real Unemployment:  U-6 14.7%

Actual Unemployment (All):  22.4% and rising

Includes analysis of the new jobs (not enough to provide for those new to the employment market such as immigrants and graduates).  Bottom line: bar tenders and home health service–the bottom of the barrel.

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota:  For those of you applying for government jobs, be warned.  Apart from needing an active TS/SCI to be considered (but it helps to have an OPM SSBI completed in past six months), you have to get through what is now an out of control automated system that dumps you if you do not have enough keywords.  Beyond that you have a line of low-level clerks without a clue about substance [in fairness to USAJobs, the problems appear to be at the receiving agency level, not with USAJobs).  So here are two guidlines:

1.  Read the position description carefully, and tailor your USAJobs resuem for that specific job.  You are dealing with a really really stupid system.

2.  If you have the connections, or care to send in a copy directly to the hiring official as an alert, do so.  Our contacts are telling us that they are getting crummy selections from the system, and when they go back and ask to see ALL applications, they get another 15-20 among whom are 5 world-class stars the system was too stupid to recognize.  This is particularly true of DIA.  Our advice to hiring managers:  insist on ALL applications without exception being delivered to you.

Good luck.

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Michel Bauwens: Fractional Scholarship

Access, Crowd-Sourcing, Economics/True Cost, Knowledge, P2P / Panarchy
Michel Bauwens

White Paper on Fractional Scholarship

So, I've been working with the incomparable Sam Arbesman to write up some thoughts on the concept of “fractional scholarship.” Basically, the idea is that there are a lot of people out there who have the expertise and the interest to contribute to scholarly research, but for whom, for whatever reason, the seventy-hour-a-week academic lifestyle just doesn't work. We need to develop mechanisms that will allow people to participate in research at ten, twenty, or thirty hours a week, and to get paid for doing it.

Obviously, someone working only ten hours a week would get paid a lot less than a university professor, which is part of what makes this such a powerful model. Keep in mind that a typical university professor probably does not spend much more that ten hours a week actually doing research anyway, what with all the personnel-management and bureaucratic tasks that take up so much of their time.

Basically, all the people out there (and there are tens of thousands of them) who got a PhD, but then dropped out of academia (e.g., to have kids) represent a vast underutilized intellectual resource that is trading well below its actual value. Tapping in to that resource is one of the things that we hope to do with the Ronin Institute.

Check out the full white paper at the Kauffman Foundation website, here. [Also Below]

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