jayhanson | The “bad news” is that “peak oil” marks the beginning of the end of capitalism and market politics because many decades of declining “net energy”
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will result in many
decades of declining economic activity. And since
capitalism can’t run backwards, a new method of
distributing goods and services must be found. The “good news” is that our “market
system” is not efficient!
Americans could be wasting something like two billion tonnes
(metric tons) of oil equivalent energy each year!!
In order to avoid anarchy, rebellion, civil war and global nuclear
conflict, Americans must force a fundamental change in our
political environment. We can keep the same social structures
and people, but we must totally eliminate corporate-special
interests from our political environment. A careful review of
the progressive assault on laissez faire constitutionalism and
neoclassical economics, from the 1880s through the 1930s,
explains how this can be done legally and without violence.
These early progressives showed how we can save our
country. All that is lacking today is the political will.
The reason that
the reforms listed on this page are so important and must be implemented as the
first in a series of many political reforms is because they are
“constitutional politics”
(politics that changes politics). The modification that I am
proposing would fundamentally alter the nature of politics in
America.
To
achieve America 2.0, we must first separate and isolate our
political system from our economic system so that
government can begin to address and solve societal
problems directly rather than indirectly by throwing money at corporate special interests. The
second step is to retire most working American citizens with an
annuity sufficient for health and happiness, as government begins
to eliminate the current enormous waste of vital resources by
delivering goods, and services like police and fire services are delivered today. This would allow
the vast majority of adults to stay at home with their families but still receive
the what they need to enjoy life—while greatly reducing natural resource consumption.
These reforms are based on the biological principle that people respond
to environmental cues; change the
cues and one also will change the
behavior. If the voting public and political decision-makers only
receive cues designed to “mitigate” (make less severe) our crisis, then all choices
they make will be aimed at mitigating that crisis. The choices made by elected officials
will be, by best calculations, “good” for the public. Corporations will become
the public
utilities that they were
before 1860.
