We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Oil Limits Reduce GDP Growth; Unwinding QE a Problem

Click here to access article by Gail Sverberg form her blog Finite World

Although I can't always agree with her reasoning from the data she presents, still I believe that she is making a very good effort to understand what I believe are insoluble issues facing the system of capitalism as it comes up against resource, especially energy, limits. She is no anti-capitalist in her political outlook, but she is thoroughly dedicated to examining reality using scientific methods. This is very unusual among people well-connected to capitalist institutions.

She begins her examination of evidence with the following statement (note: her use of "model" actually refers to the capitalist system):
This model “works” fairly well, as long as the economy is growing fast enough–population continues to grow and resource extraction continues to grow as planned. In a finite world, we know that this model cannot work forever. At some point, we can expect to start reaching limits.