Finally a Portuguese political party is
speaking about the unsustainability of today´s economic and
monetary system based on infinite growth.
Unfortunately it´s a very small party (Party
for Animals and Nature) and they probably won´t even elected a
single representative in the next elections for the European
Parliament, but it is a step in the right direction. At least they
can count with my vote.
Just thought I should share this here because
Chris was the first to truly open my eyes to a lot of stuff back when
to economy/markets crashed in 2008/2009.
I think the guy must be a reader of PP, because
the message is pretty much the same
Here is the link to the website:
Here is the translation it the help of google:
“Last
week a group of 70 personalities of the Portuguese public life
presented a controversial block of measures aimed at debt
restructuring and nicknamed in the Manifesto of 70 .
However , I have no great doubt that it is an
illusion that its signatories indulge . Illusion, not because of
the need to restructure debt – this is evident and urgent – or by
the nature of the proposed measures – these are interesting and
relevant – but because they continue to bet on the utopia of
indefinite economic growth.
Such phrases as ” No strategy for combating
the crisis cannot succeed without reconciling the answer to the
question of debt with the realization of a robust process of economic
growth ,” which opens the manifest , repeated nine times over the
little more 2,000 words of text. It is clear to me that the
debt has to be restructured ( or even not paid – that there is
ethical to subject a population to penury to pay a debt to banks that
produce money from nothing ? ) ; if you had any more evidence ,
suffice I would look at the state of the country . However , for
what to restructure the debt if we fall back on the fallacy of
economic growth and competitiveness , elements of social organization
that do not promote the welfare of the people , nor the protection of
the ecosystems where they live.
The crisis is not Portuguese , it is systemic
and is not financial , it ecosocial . Systemic because it
assumes planetary boundaries ; eco collapse because of the
announced results of the physical structure of the planet before the
excessive consumption of industrialized societies fueled by absurd
economic growth ad infinitum – the use of fossil fuels is becoming
more expensive and polluting , pollution continues to increase ,
climate change are already showing their consequences and social
inequalities continue to worsen ; and social , because it
results from inadequate economic structural organizations that
encourage speculation , consumerism and the creation of money from
nothing by contracting debt by all economic sectors (public ,
corporate and private) of modern society.
The alternatives to the continued growth of the
economy are not an unattainable chimera. “Degrowth”,
resource based economy , economy biomimetics – the proposals are
diverse and varied. However, as imply a restructuring that goes
far beyond debt and its payment periods and interest rates , are
hardly presented as alternatives because they are not even truly
understood the essence . How can one speak of “degrowth” ,
at a time when the purchasing power of the Portuguese has decreased
dramatically ? What are these resources in which the economy
must be based ? And what means a biomimetics economy?
…
Carlos P
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