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Fairness
Visualize yourself conducting an experiment. You are standing in a room with two chimpanzees. Using sign language you ask them to walk to the table and bring you a plastic token. Both understand and comply. They’ve done it before, many … Continue reading
Sustainable Consumption? Voting with Dollars Will Not Lead to Sustainable Development
Consumer citizenship[1] encourages us to use our pocketbooks to shape our politics. Buying free-trade coffee promotes fair labor practices. Drinking organic milk protects farms and waterways. Purchasing certified wood and fish sustains forests and fisheries.[2] Or so we hope. Can … Continue reading
The Land of Opportunity
What do workers in China have in common with Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party? They are frustrated about no longer getting a fair shot at success (see The End of the Chinese Dream). The American dream promises opportunity. … Continue reading
Posted in Convergence 2050, Tea Party
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Political Equality not Economic Equality
Income gap. Wealth inequality. 1% versus the 99%. The facts are not disputed, even by conservative commentators. Today’s distribution of wealth is as lopsided as ever, comparable only to the “Gilded Age” and the “Roaring 20s.” Both previous eras of … Continue reading
Prudence
We have the need and the urge to be two things at the same time: selfish and social, an individual and a member of a community, a consumer and a citizen, living in the moment and sacrificing for the future, … Continue reading
Posted in Markets, Philosophy/ethics
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Congress Saves Pizza for School Lunch But Can’t Save the Country from Climate Chaos
US Congress, regrettably, seems unable to do much these days. It is so completely captured by corporate interests that private profit trump public interests. The profits of food industries, for example, outweigh the health concerns of overweight children and the … Continue reading
Posted in Environmental Fundamentalism, Tea Party
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Eating Florescent Lights
I have no idea if this dance competition video is real or simulated. I have regrets about sensationalizing it. But what the heck. It helps me make a point. I admit, however, that I have yet to watch the whole … Continue reading
Posted in Environmental Fundamentalism, Landcare
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Focus on Crony Capitalism not Class Warfare
Don’t get distracted. Resist effort to discredit OWS by redefining it as class warfare. Keep focused on corporatocracy. At issue is the capture of our system of governance: the corruption of democracy by narrow self-interests empowered by immense wealth. Global … Continue reading
Posted in Tea Party
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Careful Regulation is a Wise Investment
Harming others for personal profit is not just morally wrong, it also costs money and jobs. Environmental regulations promote justice and efficiency. They put the costs of pollution on the books of those who pollute, rather than distributing those costs … Continue reading
A House Divided Will Not Stand
We are a divided nation. Pick an affiliation: red state, blue state, urban, rural, evangelical, agnostic, white, brown, conservative, liberal, … Pick a reason: media deregulation, immigration, campaign finance, income inequity, no common enemy, political election strategies, globalization,… Each year … Continue reading
Posted in Environmental Fundamentalism
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