People-First Economics: Making a Clean Start for Jobs, Justice and Climate

by David Ransom (Editor), Walden F. Bello, Susan George (Text)

<!-- @page { 2cm } P { 0.21cm } --> Toxic debt, rising job losses, collapsing commodity prices and expanding poverty. How can we rein in these beasts unleashed by the free market economy? People First Economics takes a long, hard look at the mess globalized capitalism is in, and shifts the focus back to where it belongs – putting the needs of people and the environment first. People-First Economics looks at what recent events mean and could mean for us all. It's about economics—and about a lot more. It's about radical changes that are social, moral, ecological, and philosophical, too—changes that are already beginning to happen. In a series of plain-speaking contributions, David Ransom brings together exciting and radical activists and thinkers, such as Naomi Klein, Walden Bello, and Susan George, to set the agenda for "economic democratization." Launching New Internationalist's World Changing imprint, People-First Economics covers everything from the green revolution and feminist economics to what we can learn from history and a ten-step economic detox. In doing so, it provides the opportunity to rethink what really matters in life. David Ransom has been a co-editor of the New Internationalist since 1989. He is the author of the No-Nonsense Guide to Fair Trade . Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist, columnist, and author. Her latest book is the international bestseller The Shock The Rise of Disaster Capitalism . Walden Bello is a campaigner, academic, environmentalist, and journalist. He is senior analyst of Focus on the Global South and professor of sociology at the University of the Philippines. Susan George is a political scientist and fellow of the Transnational Institute. She has written many books, including Another World is Possible If...

Genres: Economics, Politics, Nonfiction, Environment, Philosophy, Social Change

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Zanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

The context for this book is the global financial crisis of 2008. The news was full of exhilarating images of fat red zig zags sliding down graphs on the walls of trading floors, taxpayers' money was donated by the billion to save ailing banks from collapse, and states were pushed into 'austerity' measures to squeeze yet more from workers to keep the ultra-rich global elites in the manner to which they are accustomed. That's what these writers are fired up about.

Joseph Stiglitz provided me with a way to talk about my attitude to this book when he pointed out that Upton Sinclair's book on the horrors of the US meat industry at the start of the twentieth century sent meat-packing business owners to government asking to be regulated, so that people would regain confidence in eating their products. I guess part of the moral here is that just refusing to shut up about the common good can help to make changes, which is encouraging. But my thought was yes, of course I can be glad of a safer meat industry, but as a vegan I'd rather there weren't a meat industry at all. While I denounce here food evangelist(s)/organisations that use, abet or callously ignore misogyny (I see you PETA) poverty and food insecurity, white supremacy, other forms of social and economic inequality between humans or settler colonialism and the destruction of the environment, but it's undeniable that the meat industry is a site of violence and exploitation.

I mean this illustration to separate the essays here in favour of better regulation and more citizen control on broadly capitalist economic structures (regulate the meat-packers) from those which denounce capitalism itself (go veggie). For most of the first part of the book, the former dominated and I was nodding along trying to maintain an interest, because this sort of stuff is the kind of thing you want to know in case you wake up one day as prime minister (any other anarchists want to admit to having this shameful fantasy?) or at least be able to talk about usefully in public so as to help push for positive shifts. As Derek Wall says 'capitalism... usually appears to be an effective means of putting bread on the table.' The question is, whose table? I feel frustrated on two counts reading this kind of thing, firstly it doesn't go far enough, and secondly I can't seem to keep hold of it. I'm reading the same good ideas over and over and can never call them to mind in a pinch. I need braingoogle...

And I woke up abruptly when I got to Nicola Bullard's piece, which reminded me why I bother.

The Age of Possibility - David Ransom
The financial crisis triggered a crap response from the UK political establishment, notably New Labour, which is in fact Not Labour in any meaningful sense. While the fat cats hobnobbed at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos in 2009, The World Social Forum in Belem, including Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales, discussed the need for justice and survival and alternatives to corporate globalization and financial markets. Yay.

The Market that Failed - Jayati Ghosh
Hey has anyone else noticed that the global South is transferring wealth to the North? Developing countries have done as they were told by the IMF and World Bank, opening markets to international trade and so on, and are getting nothing whatever out of it, just more destructive exploitation of people and environment. For development we need: #state control of finance #rethink export-oriented model #public spending #reduce inequality (somehow) #maybe starting by not using GDP as a measure #planning (not like the USSR though) #make state involvement in economic activity more democratic (somehow) #create an international economic framework to support all this in the spirit and the letter

a chaotic, polluting and unpleasant system of privatized urban transport actually generates more GDP than a safe, efficient and affordable public one - Jayati Ghosh

Beyond the Crash - A Green New Deal - Ann Pettifor
Neat explanation of what went wrong, and the difference between making money by owning assets and by doing productive activity like farming, making stuff, working for a wage. Those doing the latter have lost out to the former in the liberalised finance-dominated economy. "Orthodox economists, particularly those with 'inflation-phobia' never complain about the inflation of assets" because it makes the rich richer, which is what has been happening for time. Pettifor and others devised a Green New Deal calling for #debt cancellation or enriching debtors #sensible regulation of the financial sector including central control of interest rates and #massive investment in Green infrastructure to avert climate collapse. She calls for alliances between green & labour movements and different sectors of the productive economy. Which sounds good, but I think the UK's Tory-led market-fundamentalist coalition government disingenuously signed up to the NGD and let it fizzle away, which should surprise nobody.

In Praise of Pluralism - Joseph Stiglitz
Market fundamentalism/neo-liberalism is wrong because it doesn't account for asymmetries of information (ie the powerful have the knowledge to manipulate markets to serve them). The invisible hand doesn't exist. East Asian economies like Japan have done really well because of state involvement in the economy, and successful periods in US history show the same thing. Markets create too much pollution and not enough innovation: the only innovations the financial sector has made is in tax evasion schemes. In short, the private sector should not be allowed to dominate: public and co-operative not-for-profit strands of the economy should also be encouraged. Note that all the top US universities are not-for-profit. Co-ops are more transparent... CEOs get paid too much... jobs should be more participatory... blah...

Not as it Seems - Noam Chomsky
Interview with Sameer Dossani. From 1950 - 70s economic equality increased - the state was an engine of growth and development, then finance was deregulated, everything became financialised, catastrophe for the non-rich. The folks setting policy in Obama's goverment are from the bunch who got us into the mess - Rubin and Summers and his protege Geithner. The economy has been socialised since WWII and the idea that it's based on entrepreneurial initiative and consumer choice is bunk - for example, the tech boom today is based on 30 years of state funded R&D. Corporations are private tyrannies who get the profits after the state has paid the costs and taken the risks. The IMF is the US Treasury's debt enforcer, making citizens pay for the borrowing taken on by their governments who were installed by US manipulation and steered into the rotten deals by... the IMF. Oh and privatised healthcare - disaster. Where to look for hope? UNASUR.

Public Revolt Builds Against Rip-off Rescue Plans - Naomi Klein
Whenever and wherever folks are protesting deregulated capitalism, Klein seems to be there taking notes to write up later. And thank goodness, because you don't hear much about it in the mainstream media. The takeaway: direct action works. Get out and bang your pots and pans for economic justice.

No More of the Same - Susan George Ecological Keynesianism: cancelling Majority World debt on green conditions, regulation regulation regulation, no more tax dodging. The World Bank and IMF are totally undemocratic, and finance terrible things.

Deglobalization - Walden Bello
#focus on production for domestic markets, not export markets #production at community level preferred #protect local economies using trade policy quotas and tariffs #strengthen manufacturing #income and land redistribution to create 'vibrant internal market' #de-emphasise growth, replace with quality of life & equity #green energy transition #democratic decision making on all economic issues #civil society must monitor the private and state sectors #co-ops, private & state enterprises all fine, but exclude transnational corporations from the economy #down with IMF & World Bank, replace with co-operation

Naked Emperors - Vanessa Baird
BANKS have become gambling dens. Consider using credit unions, mutual savings funds, non-interest systems. Demand regulation. HOUSES have become investments. Push for social housing projects. Housing should be legally separated from land so that land could be communally owned and houses co-owned. Fight evictions and reassert the human right to shelter. JOBS have become a means to deepen inequality. Push for green investment to create jobs. Join a union. Campaign against massive CEO salaries and bonuses, support living wage. If your company collapses, organise with other workers to take over and keep running it. Resist racist scapegoating of migrant workers. MARKETS have become God. Protest wherever the G20 meets. Develop and present alternatives. Vote with your pocket. MONEY has become unreal. Campaign for stable currencies. CREDIT has become the dominant way of life. Insist that 'fiscal stimulus' meets the needs of the poorest and that debtors aren't made destitute. FINANCE has become bloated and unstable. Demand regulation (eg ban short-selling and speculating on human rights like food) THE ECONOMY has become a mess. What kind of growth do we actually want? Think about it. Oh and get rid of tax havens. Campaign to protect local environment and support those doing the same elsewhere. Demand carbon CUTS, not offsets

Tarek el Diwany - The Trouble with Interest
An intriguing look at the current mess from a Muslim perspective. Usury has got us into trouble. There are lots of examples and you don't have to believe that usury is a sin to see that it's a problem: "the financial resources that used to go towards making our buildings beautiful now go to paying the interest charges and dividends of a few large corporations". The alternative model he suggests for shared projects is a kind of mutual purchase where any profits are shared between borrower and lender, which would make irresponsible lending totally unprofitable.

Starting Afresh - Peter Stalker
Overcomplicated banking enriching the ultra-rich has to stop. Detailed (and boring) proposals for how to regulate banking as the public service it is supposed to be.

Making Money - George Monbiot
A fun history of stamp scrip (a type of currency that loses value over time) and how it can dramatically regenerate ailing local economies. Might even have prevented WWII…

Can Pay, Won't Pay - John Christensen Half of the world's trade, on paper, passes through tax havens. The UK is responsible for most of them. London is one. Many super rich folks pay no tax at all. The enablers of embezzlement and corruption charge handsomely and never pay fees back to victims. Tax havens degrade the regulatory regimes of other states and create a race to the bottom. They create deliberately complicated schemes to frustrate investigation.

Rich Get Poorer, Poor Disappear - Barbara Ehrenreich "Leaving aside all the soft-hearted socialist, Christian type arguments"… no let's not

Jobs First - Yash Tandon Similar to Bello. Financialisation of production has made a mess of things. We need to get back to the real economy. Developing countries should #stop paying debts while their legitimacy is assessed #review donor agreements and remove offending conditions, involving all stakeholders in the process and decisions #seek regional integration #incentivise national and regional markets #develop intellectual assets, science and tech. Citizen movements must hold leaders to account - until they get it right!

Equality is Better for Everyone - Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett I skimmed, because I have read their excellent book The Spirit Level. They took an epidemiological perspective, analysed data on objective and subjective measures of wellbeing like life expectancy, trust, crime, happiness, teen pregnancy, heart disease and so on, and found that social inequality made things worse for everyone in society.

Modern societies will depend increasingly on being creative, adaptive, inventive, well-informed and flexible communities, able to respond generously to each other and to needs wherever they arise. Those are characteristics not of societies in hock to the rich, in which people are driven by status insecurities, but of populations used to working together and respecting each other as equals.

To Live Well - Nicola Bullard
I can almost feel Bullard's fatigue at the thought of her audience who have so far to go, the need to explain the very basics: that the majority of people in the world are 'in crisis' every single day because of poverty, that the pursuit of profit has become completely decoupled from the limits of society and nature. A flurry of references to socialist feminist texts allows her to get to the point. We need to expand the common good

Water, land, food, health, education, social security and pensions, public transport, housing, hospitals and schools, seeds, culture, knowledge and even democracy itself, must be decommodified, taken out of the market, and extended to all people, in all societies

In addition, the internet must be made more accessible. Open source should extend to pharmaceuticals. The commons does not have to be controlled by the state. We have to decarbonise the economy, now (by the way, this is eminently possible and we have everything we need to do it except political will). Also, food sovereignty. See La Via Campesina

Thirty years of market indoctrination have left most countries and most people thinking that it is not possible to expand the commons, or fund public services, to provide decent health and pension systems, or even to raise wages

Bullard introduces the concept of ecological debt, owed by the global North to the South, for wrecking their ecology and the atmosphere and plundering resources. It is not necessarily a financial debt, but it sure as heck is an ethical one. Assets transferred from North to South thus belong not in the logic of aid, profit and markets, but of reparation. She also talks about Teresa Brennan's belief that 'personal productivity should be expanded and mobile, while economic productivity should be limited and self contained'. This, says Bullard, is the opposite of capitalism, where the economic defines all social relations and in which our private selves (especially women) are commodified or cast as consumers.

How to Save the World, Life and Humanity - Evo Morales
Ten steps for people-centric political economy, implemented in Bolivia under his leadership. My favourite is #4 - ...It is not possible to tolerate policies that permit the privatisation of water… and #6 "No expert or spcialist can debate with indigenous leaders about respect for Mother Earth..."

How to Take Part in the Economony - Michael Albert
Interview discussing Albert's concept of 'parecon' - the visionary concept of a participatory economy, fundamentally anti-capitalist, based on workers' and consumers' self-managed councils, stake-holder decision making, and pay based on duration, difficulty and nastiness of conditions. Albert says 'it is a debilitating mistake to get caught up in seeking an inflexible, unvarying blueprint' and presents his idea as up for extensive discussion, complaining that most folks are 'vision-averse' and too quick to dismiss things with 'it'll never work'. True enough, but even I can see problems with parecon as minimally outlined here immediately. It is obviously extremely ableist, and ignores all existing forms of social injustice and relations of domination other than economic inequality. It takes no account of those who cannot work. Hopefully it's not a 'debilitating mistake' to ask for some very big patches

Open Source Anti-Capitalism - Derek Wall Since capitalism can only function on the premise of endless growth, it is doomed. It is destroying the Earth. It is based on enclosure: it fences of resources and makes us pay for them. Wall proposes the commons as an alternative to both capitalist and state control. How important this concept is can't be overstated: 'if you have walked on a beach or used the internet, you have participated in the commons'. He presents some histories of commons in agricultural societies (ancient and less ancient) and the open source movement. Its code is usufruct, leaving things as you found them or better. Some commons based policies include #defending indigenous control of rainforests and other vital ecosystems (I agree with Wall that this is by far the most urgent item on his list) #using state bailouts to mutualise resources #allow workers to take over bankrupt businesses #making tax and welfare support commons #social ownership of pharmaceuticals.

Just or Bust - Danny Chivers Assessing the options and their prospects to deliver climate justice. EMISSIONS TRADING = total disaster REDUCED EMISSIONS FROM DEFORESTATION AND DEGRADATION (this means arbitrarily including rainforests in the carbon market) = WTAF? Just say NO. MITIGATION AND ADAPTATION FUNDS = quite fair, but will the central fund be used appropriately and effectively? TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER = rich nations should scrap patents for green tech. But not all 'green' tech is really green. KYOTO2 (making corporations buy permits to dig up coal, to fund green stuff) = too much control for corporations CARBON TAXES = not very fair or effective, but better than trading TECHNOFIXES = foolish waste of time COMMUNITY SOLUTIONS (ie recognising indigenous land rights, food sovereignty, local green transport etc) = this. yes this. now please.

Carbon Charade - Patrick Bond Just in case you didn't believe Danny, Patrick explains why carbon trading is hopeless. It's quite technical but basically it doesn't work because the market doesn't want it to work and the market controls it. Duh.

Now, a Real Chance to Tackle Global Poverty - John Hilary Overproduction and debt-fueled consumption must not continue. Free market capitalism is a failed model, we need redistribution, justice and collaboration… wait have you heard this already?

[Daniel Solera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazon.com led me to believe that this was a book by Canadian author and political activist Naomi Klein. It isn’t. Instead, it is a collection of essays written by many liberal-minded activists including Klein, who unanimously agree that the multi-headed crisis of 2008 shows how market-driven capitalism is unsustainable and needs to change. Many authors bluntly advocate for the dismantling of the current system, making this the most radical treatise I have read thus far. However, I found myself agreeing with the majority of the ideas presented, which made for a very interesting read.

The main focus of the book is to ask that governments, banks and corporations re-shift their accountability to consumers, the general public and the environment. British author and green activist Derek Wall notes that capitalism’s “built-in growth imperative” has allowed the system to stray from the people it is meant to serve, ultimately degrading the environment and engorging the top 1% with unimaginable wealth and power (Wall, 181).

As far as people are concerned, the authors argue that globalization has not delivered on its promise of rising wages and greater equality. The richest companies and individuals exploit foreign tax havens to avoid paying billions in taxes while receiving hundreds of millions of dollars a day from impoverished nations in interest. The UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) are far from being reached and the creation of a carbon credit economy is going to mostly benefit coal industry, hedge funds and energy traders. The seemingly insurmountable disparity between rich and poor is further encouraged by the Bretton Woods institutions and the neoliberal market reform policies of the 1970’s, which today still persist. It’s time to change all this.

In light of the 2008 financial collapse, a large chunk of People First Economics deals with bank reform. Ann Pettifor opens the book with her article, “Beyond the Crash – a Green New Deal”, a perfectly succinct recap of the housing, financial and credit crises of 2007 and 2008. Vanessa Baird simplifies various simple market concepts and shows us the monstrosities they have become. She, along with many other essayists call for the dissolution of tax havens and proposes heavier taxation on the corporations that avoid such duties. As far as taxes and corporations go, this book is anathema to bank CEO’s and the current Republican Party.

The second focal point of the book is the effects of rampant capitalism on the environment. Bolivian president Evo Morales’ letter to the fifth International Conference of Via Campesina declares that basic necessities for life, such as water, should never be privatized. Patrick Bond, director of the Centre for Civil Society, harshly criticizes carbon credits as the privatization of the air we breathe. John Hilary expresses his frustration at the world’s sluggish progress in achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals.

But the book is not all critique. Walden Bello lauds the Global Social Democracy movement, though he wishes it would push the agenda even further. Tarek el Diwani praises the Islamic system of finance, where it is illegal for a lender to make a profit off a failing business. Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett discuss the relationship between happiness and a country’s wealth disparity, showing that greater equality yields a higher level of general satisfaction per capita. Michael Albert calls for the transition toward a participant economy, or “parecon”.

Not all of the ideas presented in this book would be well-received by the voting public, and all would be shot down by corporate fat cats and legacy politicians. How such a lofty paradigm shift could be executed from the ground-up is mentioned in vague, general terms, and would require a much larger book. However, editors David Ransom and Vanessa Baird have done a great job of compiling many different and compelling voices, each lending their own ideas to the unfolding global controversy.

[Simon Wood · Rating 3 out of 5]

A MIX NOT REALLY WORTH PICKING

From the publishers of New Internationalist comes this collection of writing entitled "People First Economics" which takes an alternative look at the recent troubles in the global economy. The contributors are a mixed group, including some I've never heard of, to well known names such as Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Barbara Ehrenreich and Susan George. The quality of the writing is likewise decidedly mixed; some pieces are excellent, others can only be classified as truly awful.

The contributions from the "big" names are generally short and interesting, as far as they go, which isn't particularly far. Klein casts a wary eye over the rescue plans pushed by various governments and international institutions; Chomsky in an interview format gives some historical context and food for thought; Susan George contemplates possible Keynesian responses as well as the global environment. All well and good, but those three pieces total about twenty out of the two-hundred odd pages the book extends to.

There are some excellent contributions including Kate Pickett and Richard Williamson's short (again!) piece that gives the reader a taste of the arguments contained in their book "The Spirit Level: Why Equality Is Better For Everyone". That convinced me to get my hands on a copy. Derek Wall in his "Open Source Anti-Capitalism" looks at collective possibilities for disentangling ourselves from an over commodified world. Perhaps the most interesting contribution was Peter Walker's, which provides a succinct and no-nonsense guide to the global financial system and it's failures.

Along side those contributions are some pretty poor efforts, including a positively cranky Michael Albert being interviewed about an ideas he has been promoting with regard to what he calls "a participatory economy". All well and good, except he keeps referring to it as "Parecon", talks about it in awed religious tones, and about dividing the day up into four hour parts: one for working, one for . . . I can't even remember now. . . dusting? hoovering? Another contribution to avoid is Danny Chivers effort on climate change that starts with the sentence "Imagine ten rabbits lost at sea, in a boat carved out of a giant carrot." Eh, well . . . . . Not today Danny. The piece itself is about the options for dealing with climate change, the information in it is not unreasonable. Unfortunately the tone is overly smug, smarmy and frankly embarrassing.

The two editors should have had the courage, and respect for their any readers, to cut out half a dozen or so of the contributions which irritated rather than informed and detracted from the good writing in this collection. In my case I was lucky to borrow it from the library, I certainly wouldn't recommend purchasing it.

[Henry Parrin · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are dissatisfied with the current state of global economics, politics and state of the environment, then this “book” is worth a read.

This “not-a-book” is really a collection of essays written by activists, economists and politicians which together arrives at one conclusion: That market-driven capitalism in its current form is a catastrophic, unsustainable, and unjust system and needs to change.

As a collection of essays by different authors, some are inevitably better and worse than others. Not all the ideas presented (to my view) were sensible or implementable, but others were excellent and expansive, but I think that’s ok. Initially written just after the 2008 financial crisis, this is obviously not the latest take on the issues (the edition I read was released in 2010), but most of it is still sadly very much relevant to today.

For me, what makes People First Economics worth recommending is that its the first book of its type which I’ve found accessible to the more casual reader, clearly explaining complex economic elements in a straightforward and simple manner. Most crucially, contained within the novels are also some clear actions that could be taken to change the system for the better, or even how an entirely different economic paradigm could work.

4/5.

[Mel Stead]

Review from the March 2010 issue of the Socialist Standard:

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blog...

[Marcela · Rating 4 out of 5]

In addition to the four contributors listed here, this collection includes essays by the likes of Noam Chomsky, Evo Morales, Vanessa Baird, John Christensen (and many others) on topics ranging from the current economic meltdown, to global warning, to specific proposals of solutions to these problems by restructuring current systems of local and global governance. Generally upbeat and positive, these essays nevertheless do not tend to mince words when pointing out culprits behind the sundry set of problems or calling, unequivocally, for greater equality among people in reallocating the world's resources. As a compendium of powerful voices, this collection is a must read for anyone wishing to engage with a spectrum of perspectives on the world today.

[Abi Rhodes · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are interested in trying to change the current political, economic and environmental then this is the book for you. Each chapter provides insights into and ideas about how change can be implemented. A great book that is easy to read and very inspirational.

[Claire S]

Mmm, will keep my eyes open for this..

[Leon M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this during the summer holiday. It's a great overview, introducing the reader to several progressive ides from public commons to parcon, the participatory economy.

[danah · Rating 4 out of 5]

-The old regime worked only when it failed-

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

These things date quickly, but this was easy reading and quite interesting.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am