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Posted in Green party, living wage, universal basic income | Tagged American Dream, Green party, Guaranteed income, income, living wage, universal basic income | Leave a comment

Curbing Corporate Power

Posted on November 28, 2020 by mekorganic

We should want to reduce the economic and political power of large corporations, end corporate personhood and re-design corporations to serve our society, democracy and the environment.

Unelected and unaccountable corporate executives are not merely exercising power in our society — they are ruling us. We must reduce corporate powers and privileges, including by stripping them of artificial “personhood” and constitutional protections. We should support strong and effectively enforced antitrust laws and regulation to counteract the concentration of economic and political power that imposes a severe toll on people, places and the planet.

We should believe the legal structure of the corporation is obsolete. At present, corporations are designed solely to generate profit. This legal imperative — profit above all else — is damaging our country and our planet in countless ways. We must change the legal design of corporations so that they generate profits, but not at the expense of the environment, human rights, public health, workers, or the communities in which the corporation operates.

One point remains unequivocal: our planet cannot afford business as usual any longer. Because corporations have become the dominant economic institution of the planet, we must compel them to serve human and environmental needs, so that our peoples, nations and environment may live long and prosper.

SOLUTIONS

End corporate personhood. A key first step will be federal and state constitutional amendments abolishing the legal fiction of corporate personhood.
Federal chartering of corporations that includes comprehensive, strict and enforceable social responsibility requirements.
Strengthen the civil justice system to ensure that it holds corporations strictly liable for corporate crime, fraud, violence and malfeasance. This would include revoking the charters of corporations that routinely violate safety, health, environmental protection or other laws.
Empower shareholders to stop abuses by the managers they hire through a structure of democratic governance and elections.
Enforce existing antitrust laws and support even tougher new ones to curtail the overwhelming economic and political power of large corporations.
Increase funding for and strengthen oversight of federal antitrust enforcement.

Source: Green Party

Howie Hawkins on Corporations

Green Party Platform on the Issues

Specific Issues Index

Posted in Citizen United, corporate accountability, Green party | Tagged anti-trust, constitution, corporate accountability, corporations, Green party | Leave a comment

Measuring Economic Health

Posted on November 28, 2020 by mekorganic

Economic growth has been a primary goal of U.S. policy. Corporations, politicians beholden to corporations, and economists funded by corporations advocate a theory of unlimited economic growth stemming from technological progress. Based upon established principles of the physical and biological sciences, however, there is a limit to economic growth.

This policy of securing economic growth is having negative effects on the long-term ecological and economic welfare of the United States and the world. There is a fundamental conflict between economic growth and ecological health (for example, biodiversity conservation, clean air and water, atmospheric stability).

We cannot rely on technological progress to solve ecological and long-term economic problems. Rather, we should endeavor to make lifestyle choices that reinforce a general equilibrium of humans with nature. This requires consciously choosing to foster environmentally sound technologies, whether they are newer or older technologies, rather than technologies conducive to conspicuous consumption and waste.

Economic growth, as gauged by increasing Gross Domestic Product (GDP), is a dangerous and anachronistic goal. The most viable and sustainable alternative is a steady-state economy. A steady-state economy has a stable or mildly fluctuating product of population and per capita consumption, and is generally indicated by stable or mildly fluctuating GDP. The steady-state economy has become a more appropriate goal than economic growth in the United States and other large, wealthy economies. A steady-state economy precludes ever-expanding production and consumption of goods and services. However, a steady-state economy does not preclude economic development—a qualitative process not gauged by GDP growth and other measures that overlook ecological effects.
One way to measure the economy is to assess the value of non-monetary goods and services and measure the rate of infant mortality, life expectancy of people, educational opportunities offered by the state, family stability, environmental data, and health care for all people. Another measure is to quantify human benefit (in terms of education, health care, elder care, etc.) provided by each unit of output. Measuring the gap between the most fortunate and the least fortunate in our society, for example, tells us how well or poorly we are doing in creating an economy that does not benefit some at the expense of others.
For many nations with widespread poverty, increasing per capita consumption (through economic growth or through more equitable distributions of wealth) remains an appropriate goal. Ultimately, however, the global ecosystem will not be able to support further economic growth. Therefore, an equitable distribution of wealth among nations is required to maintain a global steady-state economy. A global economy with inequitable wealth distribution will be subject to continual international strife and conflict. Such strife and conflict, in turn, ensures the economic unsustainability of some nations and threatens the economic sustainability of all.

Source: Green Party

Posted in economic equality, economical justice, Green party, Gross Domestic Product | Tagged economic, economic health, Genuine Progress Indicator, Green party, Gross Domestic Product, Index of Social Health Indicators, Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare | Leave a comment

Genuine Progress Indicator

Posted on November 28, 2020 by mekorganic

Genuine progress indicator (GPI) is a metric that has been suggested to replace, or supplement, gross domestic product (GDP).^[1] The GPI is designed to take fuller account of the well-being of a nation, only a part of which pertains to the size of the nation’s economy, by incorporating environmental and social factors which are not measured by GDP. For instance, some models of GPI decrease in value when the poverty rate increases.^[2] The GPI separates the concept of societal progress from economic growth.

The GPI is used in ecological economics, “green” economics, sustainability and more inclusive types of economics. It factors in environmental and carbon footprints that businesses produce or eliminate, including in the forms of resource depletion, pollution and long-term environmental damage.^[2] GDP is increased twice when pollution is created, since it increases once upon creation (as a side-effect of some valuable process) and again when the pollution is cleaned up; in contrast, GPI counts the initial pollution as a loss rather than a gain, generally equal to the amount it will cost to clean up later plus the cost of any negative impact the pollution will have in the meantime. While quantifying costs and benefits of these environmental and social externalities is a difficult task, “Earthster-type databases could bring more precision and currency to GPI’s metrics.”^[2] It has been noted that such data may also be embraced by those who attempt to “internalize externalities” by making companies pay the costs of the pollution they create (rather than having the government or society at large bear those costs) “by taxing their goods proportionally to their negative ecological and social impacts”.^[2]

GPI is an attempt to measure whether the environmental impact and social costs of economic production and consumption in a country are negative or positive factors in overall health and well-being. By accounting for the costs borne by the society as a whole to repair or control pollution and poverty, GPI balances GDP spending against external costs. GPI advocates claim that it can more reliably measure economic progress, as it distinguishes between the overall “shift in the ‘value basis’ of a product, adding its ecological impacts into the equation”.^{[2]:Ch. 10.3} Comparatively speaking, the relationship between GDP and GPI is analogous to the relationship between the gross profit of a company and the net profit; the net profit is the gross profit minus the costs incurred, while the GPI is the GDP (value of all goods and services produced) minus the environmental and social costs. Accordingly, the GPI will be zero if the financial costs of poverty and pollution equal the financial gains in production of goods and services, all other factors being constant.

Source: Wikipedia

Posted in Gross Domestic Product, Gross Progess Indicator | Tagged ecological economics, economic, Genuine Progress Indicator, Gross Domestic Product, sustainable | Leave a comment

Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare

Posted on November 28, 2020 by mekorganic

The Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) is an economic indicator intended to replace the Gross Domestic Product, which is the main macroeconomic indicator of System of National Accounts (SNA). Rather than simply adding together all expenditures like the gross domestic product, consumer expenditure is balanced by such factors as income distribution and cost associated with pollution and other unsustainable costs. It is similar to the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI).

The Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) is roughly defined by the following formula.

Source: Wikipedia

Posted in Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare | Tagged economic, Genuine Progress Indicator, Gross Domestic Product, Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare, welfare | Leave a comment

Ecological Economics

Posted on November 28, 2020 by mekorganic

To create an enduring society we must devise a system of production and commerce where every act is sustainable and restorable. We believe that all business has a social contract with society and the environment — in effect a fiduciary responsibility — and that the concepts of socially responsible business and shareholder democracy can be models for prospering, successful business.

We call for an economic system that is based on a combination of private businesses, decentralized democratic cooperatives, publicly owned enterprises, and alternative economic structures. Collectively, this system puts human and ecological needs alongside profits to measure success, and maintains accountability to communities.
Community-based economics constitutes an alternative to both corporate capitalism and state socialism. It values diversity and decentralization.

Recognition of limits is central to this system. The drive to accumulate power and wealth is a pernicious characteristic of a civilization headed in a pathological direction. Greens advocate that economic relations become more direct, more cooperative, and more egalitarian.

Humanizing economic relations is just one aspect of our broader objective: to shift toward a different way of life characterized by sustainability, regionalization, more harmonious balance between the natural ecosphere and the human-made technosphere, and revival of community life. Our perspective is antithetical to both Big Business and Big Government.
Greens support a major redesign of commerce. We endorse true-cost pricing. [See section E.1. True Cost Pricing] We support production methods that eliminate waste. In natural systems, everything is a meal for something else. Everything recycles, there is no waste. We need to mimic natural systems in the way we manufacture and produce things. Consumables need to be designed to be thrown into a compost heap and/or eaten. Durable goods would be designed in closed-loop systems, ultimately to be disassembled and reassembled. Toxics would be safeguarded, minimally produced, secured, and would ideally have markers identifying them in perpetuity with their makers.
We should seek to build an alternative economic system based on ecology and decentralization of power, an alternative that rejects both the capitalist system that maintains private ownership over almost all production as well as the state-socialist system that assumes control over industries without democratic, local decision making. We believe the old models of capitalism (private ownership of production) and state socialism (state ownership of production) are not ecologically sound, socially just, or democratic and that both contain built-in structures that advance injustices.Instead we will build an economy based on large-scale green public works, municipalization, and workplace and community democracy. Some call this decentralized system ‘ecological socialism,’ ‘communalism,’ or the ‘cooperative commonwealth,’ but whatever the terminology, we believe it will help end labor exploitation, environmental exploitation, and racial, gender, and wealth inequality and bring about economic and social justice due to the positive effects of democratic decision making.Production is best for people and planet when democratically owned and operated by those who do the work and those most affected by production decisions. This model of worker and community empowerment will ensure that decisions that greatly affect our lives are made in the interests of our communities, not at the whim of centralized power structures of state administrators or of capitalist CEOs and distant boards of directors. Small, democratically run enterprises, when embedded in and accountable to our communities, will make more ecologically sound decisions in materials sourcing, waste disposal, recycling, reuse, and more. Democratic, diverse ownership of production would decentralize power in the workplace, which would in turn decentralize economic power more broadly.
We must view the economy as a part of the ecosystem, not as an isolated subset in which nothing but resources come in and products and waste go out. There is a fundamental conflict between economic growth and environmental protection. There is an absolute limit to economic growth based on laws of thermodynamics and principles of ecology. Long before that limit is reached, an optimum size of the economy is reached which maximizes human welfare in an holistic sense.
We should support a Superfund for Workers program as envisioned by the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union in 1991. Such a program would guarantee full income and benefits for all workers displaced by ecological conversion until they find new jobs with comparable income and benefits.
We should support methods, such as the Index of Social Health Indicators, the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare, and the Genuine Progress Indicator, that take into account statistics on housing, income, and nutrition.

Source: Green Party

Posted in ecological economics, Ecological systems, Ecology, Green party | Tagged Ecology, Genuine Progress Indicator, green economy, Green party, Index of Social Health Indicators, Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare, sustainable, True Cost Pricing | Leave a comment

International Environmental Policy

Posted on November 28, 2020 by mekorganic

An international agreement should be reached which sets

(1) an executable and enforceable framework for keeping Earth well within its 7 measurable planetary boundaries (currently including climate change, biosphere integrity, land-system change, freshwater use, biogeochemical flows, ocean acidification, and stratospheric ozone depletion)

(2) an executable and enforceable framework for the designation of at least 50% of the planet as a nature reserve and

(3) international protections, funding, and legal personhood to large swaths of wildlands like the Brazilian Amazon and Nile River, including rivers longer than 1,500 km and wildlands larger than 1,000,000 acres.

Source: Green Party

Posted in environment, Green party | Tagged environment, Green party, international agreement, legal personhood | Leave a comment

Ocean Protection

Posted on November 27, 2020 by mekorganic

Our oceans, with their enormous diversity of life and function, are essential to life on Earth and must be preserved.

Our oceans are threatened by climate change, pollution, whaling, over fishing, factory fishing, bottom trawling, by catch, pirate fishing and fish farming. Simple, strong policy changes can rejuvenate the health of our oceans and planet.

SOLUTIONS

Protect 40% of the world’s oceans as marine preserves, especially near shore coastal habitats. Determine protected zones through a democratic process involving all stakeholders.
Ban offshore oil drilling.
Ban the siting of liquefied natural gas facilities off the U.S. coast.
Phase out use of the once-through cooling process, currently used by power plants, in and near coastal waters.
Require secondary treatment of waste effluent before release.
Ban ocean transportation of nuclear and toxic waste.
Ban sonar testing in the oceans.
Support the ban on international commercial whaling as well as other international efforts to protect endangered marine species.
Ban drift-net fishing and long-line fishing and phase out factory trawling.
Map undersea toxic dump sites, and investigate methods of rendering them harmless.
Ban the importation of fish and fish products caught by drift-nets and other illegal means.
Ban the importation of coral products and the destruction of breakwaters.
Support the Law of the Sea Treaty that establishes the global sharing of ocean resources.
Support complete cleanup of existing and past oil spills. Cost of cleanups and compensation for affected communities should be paid by the corporations responsible for the spills.
Support an international agreement for the full cleanup of all plastic waste currently in our oceans, with a focus on heavily polluted international waters and environmentally sensitive ecosystems in areas like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the Great Barrier Reef.

Source: Green Party

Posted in Green party, Oceans | Tagged diversity, Green party, ocean | Leave a comment

Forestry Practices

Posted on November 27, 2020 by mekorganic

From oxygen production to water conservation to carbon sinks to stratospheric ozone regulation to medicines and homes for all kinds of creatures, forests are indispensable to human and animal life and must be protected.

Globally, the planet has already lost 50% of our pre-colonial forests and the plant and animal communities they supported. Our rapidly increasing numbers, high-consumption rates, and profit incentives have resulted in massive forest destruction due to logging and development, and the Earth’s remaining rain forests are being destroyed and transformed into cattle pastures or mono-crops for bio-fuels production.

The increase in tree die-off in the U.S. and elsewhere in the last few decades is alarming. The causes are multiple: pests, diseases, climate change, acid rain, other forms of pollution, and increased UV radiation due to our thinned ozone layer.

In our Eastern woodlands, for example, the normal pre-pollution background mortality rate would be 0.5 to 0.7% per year. That translates to the death of one tree out of 100 living trees each year. Anything over a 2 or 3% mortality rate per year is considered a disaster. Yet, we are now witnessing local tree die-offs of 30 to 40% and even higher!

The fact is that the pollution inherent to our industrial production and lifestyles has weakened the resistance of the interconnected ecosystems we call forests. Malnourished due to acid rain’s destruction of their roots, and bombarded by unusually high UV radiation, our forests are falling victim to a host of diseases and pests. Forestry practices such as clearcutting also destroy the mycorrhizal fungi with which trees have a symbiotic relationship, and regeneration is slowed or impossible.

We should call for actions to protect our forests:

Overhaul state and U.S. Forest Service rules to protect our forests and use them wisely.
Review, reform and restructure all federal and state landuse policies so that our practices become environmentally sustainable, and so that forests provide a continuing supply of high quality wood products.
Stop building logging roads in national forests at taxpayers’ expense. These roads not only cost more than the revenue from timber sales that they expedite, but they also contribute to soil erosion and silting of streams, which ruin fish habitats.
Ban the harvest of Ancient Forests.
Ban the export of raw logs and other minimally processed forest products (pulp, chips, carts, slabs, etc.), which causes American job loss.
Offer subsidies to local watershed-based mills. This will maximize employment opportunities through value-added processing, and promote sustainability and worker control.
Use work projects, goats, and other sustainable methods to control undergrowth rather than spraying herbicides, especially near communities.
Grow and use hemp as a plentiful and renewable resource for the manufacture of paper and other forest products.
Protect significant archaeological, historical and cultural sites.
Support the rights of people indigenous to the rainforest, and their ecologically sound use of the forest, such as rubber extraction, nut gathering, and collecting medicinal herbs. End the importation of rainforest beef.
Forgive the debts of Third World countries that need help in halting the destruction of their rain forest lands.
Develop labels that identify ecologically sound forest products. This would help consumers to support ecologically sound forestry.
Protect wildlife habitats, fisheries, biodiversity, scenery, and recreation. We must accept responsibility for the affect local actions have on the global economy and ecology.
Mandate that all U.S. Government offices use 100% post-consumer waste paper processed chlorine free, and that any new fiber necessary to the process come from alternative sources such as hemp or kenaf. Where recycled paper is inappropriate, such as for archival quality paper, high quality fiber such as hemp should be the primary source.
Ban all clearcutting on publicly owned lands and in privately owned “old-growth” forests, and strictly regulate clearcutting in private sector commercial forestry.

Source: Green Party