Some Thoughts on Everyday Green Economics.

• Author: Oden, Nancy
• Position: Brief Article

Thousands of people spend their lives trying to bring about a kinder, more cooperative and economically just society. Communes are formed, legislation is introduced, conferences are held, people run for political office, and demonstrators demand that government and corporations do the right thing. Yet we see society deteriorating more each year as corporations steal, poison, and destroy more and more of everyone's resources. Capitalism cannot function "doing the right thing." It must always grow and create profit by plundering Earth's life forms and natural resources.

Therefore, attempting to create a cleaner and more economically just society within the confines of the old one--sort of slip it in before anyone notices--is not a realistic possibility, much as some of us would wish it could be so. Small experiments here and there are tolerated, but genuine threats to the current economic order will, history tells us and we saw again at Seattle, be met with great resistance. What kind of society will we end up with, once the populace becomes determined to rid ourselves of capitalism.

The ideal world, many think, would be one in which, simply because you're born, your material needs are taken care of. Then, they say, you could begin to truly flower as a human being, since you would not have to worry about your next meal or where you would sleep tonight. It isn't sufficient that one should be given everything; one needs to have contributed to the work for the good of all. Then one can begin to realize one's true worth as a human being--contributing to the community being respected for one's contribution, while reaping the rewards of cooperative labor, i.e., freedom from material want.

Nor would there have to be the false divisions of rural people and city people. People choosing to live in cities could produce non-food goods needed by all, while rural people produced food and cloth needed by all. One could work in other jobs in other places, rather than being consigned, as now, to a life of working pretty much at the same kind of work, often in the very same place. We should leave specialization to the insects (as someone said), and diversify ourselves: travel, learn, work, teach throughout life, thus enriching ourselves and sharing with the next generations lessons and wisdom learned.

So, as the old criticism goes, who's going to take out the garbage? Well, we all take turns at the dirty work and then no one has to do it very often.

We can...