Tag Archives: evolution

Capitalism versus Communism Continued – Towards a Better Economics

To come back to the subject of capitalism versus communism, the real extreme, the true opposite polarity, would be between flat-earth economics and a new economics, round-earth economics. The latter not only assumes the earth’s capacity as a source and sink to be limited, but incorporates these limits as directly relevant and determinative in every sphere of economic life.  … Read more

Notes on Evolution Not Revolution

First, it will be noted that things that common sense tells us are always good, such as efficient government or nuclear disarmament, or always bad, such as strikes or cartels, may actually be bed sometimes and good other times depending on the circumstances.  … Read more

The Decline and Rise of Nations

I was asked recently if I thought that American dominance of the world was over, if America would decline like other great powers before it, and what nation would take its place.

I replied that the old idea of a nation becoming ‘great’ and ‘wealthy’ by hugely increasing its consumption and getting control of other nations to keep its own consumption growing, had always been part of human history, but would be quite inappropriate for the future.  … Read more

Expenditure on Weapons

Huge sums are spent by governments on weapons and troops, particularly in certain countries. There are two remedies for this drain on government expenditure, one long-term and one short-term.

The long-term answer lies in the evolution of the world community towards political and economic unity – that is unity in the cooperative rather than in the monolithic sense.  … Read more

Who needs the Snail Darter?

A subtle, indirect but nevertheless important further way in which environmental depletion damages economic health is through the extinction of species.

A particular species may not be throughput directly in the sense that a particular economic activity is based directly on that species.  … Read more

Evolution Not Revolution

Achieving a sustainable world economy would be nothing less than a great step in human evolution, comparable with the mastery of fire or the development of settled agriculture as opposed to hunting and gathering. It concerns the whole world and needs to be tackled on a world, not just a national, basis.  … Read more

The Tyranny of Vested Interests

In 1964, the ship Alkimos was wrecked on a reef off the coast of Western Australia at a time when our largest city, Perth’s, suburban sprawl had not reached that far. The ship was Greek but had a varied and colourful history, including on-board murders and criminal activity, under different names and flags.  … Read more

Digression: Government Expenditure – Government Employees

Any employee of government would be familiar with the problems peculiar to their area – the “walking dead”, the top-heavy hierarchy, the frequent and prolonged breaks. But it is a mistake to state sweepingly that “all civil servants are slackers”. What usually happens is that a fraction of the employees do most of the work and could hold their own in the most competitive private company.  … Read more