On Solutions: The Great Rebalancing

[eilen]

Here's the last in the series. I really hope more and more people link to read the report and hook up with Transition groups, Permaculture groups or other such efforts in their local community. If you are looking to read more about this new economy from the bottom up, check out Yes! Magazine (sold at B&N, plus website--www.yesmagazine.org). This effort is beyond politics, greater than the next election-- It is about people connecting in their neighborhoods and towns on issues that impact them directly day to day. I'm not claiming that important legislation does not effect people day to day (particularly DADT) but we live our lives between the spaces of these politicians votes in Washington. We eat breakfast, go to work if we are lucky, raise our kids. We the People also include the ones we disagree with who might live next door. Our kids might play together at school. We may sit together at ballgames, churches, on the bus, in the hospital or doctor's waiting room. We shop at the same grocery stores, swap garden surplus, make small talk at the bus stop. I think the important thing to keep in mind that while the Tea Party people sound angry (they are and so are we), racist (many of them are), stupid (mostly because they tend to rely on buzzwords and but have no answers that could possibly solve any problems and for following the idiot woman and unhinged RW radio), we are all still neighbors. We can furnish and model solutions that can relieve the feeling of otherness and alienation. Hate and resentment is being ginned up by wealthy billionaires. Their weapons in the class war are these Teapartiers. We can watch the struggle for power in the Republican Party with popcorn but ultimately we will all lose if they (Koch sponsored TP) win. It dumbs down the national dialogue, moves us more to the right. Reinforces inertia.

So, I think if we take these ideas and start building on them, working with our neighbors (above or below the political radar) we reform the way we live our lives, the way our society operates. The TP sponsors and Wall St. types as well as our current political system is highly invested in the status quo. The status quo has already imploded and they are just propping it up. We know it doesn't work. The hope for change is not in the White House, it is not a campaign promise that anyone can make--".. it resides in the people who are engaged in rebuilding their local economies. " (Yes! Fall 2010, p 15).

So here it is:

It is a time of economic crisis. Will a solution be found in the private market or through government mandate? And if through government, just who is this government anyway -- "them" or "us"? What is the responsibility of citizens for crafting sustainable economies, especially at this juncture when the very health of our eco-systems and stability of our communities depends on implementing alternatives?

In its report "The Great Transition" our London partners at the New Economics Foundation (neweconomics.org) have described the urgent need of a "Great Rebalancing" to address these questions:

"In the Great Rebalancing we make a positive case for markets, but only once markets have been set up in such a way that prices reflect true social and environmental costs and benefits, and when those markets operate within scientifically defined limits. We also argue that the market sphere needs to be more tightly drawn and rebalanced alongside the public sphere and the 'core economy' our ability to care, teach, learn, empathize, protest and the social networks these capacities create. In laying out the essential functions of the state, we again make a positive case the state should be seen as 'us' and not 'them', and as a domain where we come together to achieve those things that are best done collectively. Arguing for a broader definition of 'public goods' and for the importance of maintaining low levels of inequality, we sketch out a facilitating state, which supports citizens, but also works with them to 'co-produce' well-being in areas such as health and education. This facilitating role requires a balance to be struck between direct provision, co-production, and the fostering of strong local relationships where people are encouraged to come together to pursue their shared goals and shape their own outcomes."

To read the full report go to:
http://neweconomicsinstitute.org/content/nef-publications

The sections of the report include: the Great Revaluing, the Great Redistribution, the Great Rebalancing, the Great Localization and Engagement, the Great Reskilling, the Great Economic Irrigation, and the Great Interdependence. We will focus on each element separately in a series of eNewsletters.

The New Economics Institute is working closely with nef to imagine and describe the details of this rebalancing. Won't you join engaged citizens in your own region to bring private markets and public policy into alignment to forge an economics that supports people and planet?

Best wishes,

Susan Witt and Stephan Crown-Weber
Berkshire Office and Library
New Economics Institute
140 Jug End Road
Great Barrington, MA 01230
www.neweconomicsinstitute.org

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. bkmrkd to read later, thanks.

K&R

[DCKit]

2. K&R and Bookmarked. n/t