Why do we need to rebuild our economy?

[BR_Parkway]

I know, on it's face, it seems like an incredibly naive question, but I really think it needs to be discussed.

We here at DU generally agree that corporate excesses have bought us to this point - not only on the economic cliff, but pollution, union busting, off shoring jobs to drive wages down, buying way more influence with our government, draining our Treasury through tax avoidance way before Paulson & Bernanke started handing out our tax dollars to their corporate buddies.

We also generally agree too much in taxes is spent on the military - that the amount we spend is beyond anyone's imagination out of proportion to the rest of the world - enemies and allies alike.

We all seem to be pretty much in agreement that health care shouldn't be a profit making business, but rather something that benefits all citizens, without regard for employment or checkbook status.

And there's been much discussion along both sides here as to whether we even need these bailouts, a new stimulus plan or even tax breaks. Healthy, generally informed discussion - with each differing opinion offering some valid claims, sometimes applicable to all, others that only work in an individuals given circumstances.

But little do I see anyone asking why rebuild an economy based on continually growing consumption of finite resources, financed by banks who screw over their customers with government supported ease, continues to take us down a path that only leads to more global warming and has us policing the world (to protect our corporations interests). In short, why aren't we talking more about building a sustainable economy now that this one is on life support?

Putting folks to work building renewable energy equipment is all well and good in the short term - but how many solar panels can we build? And what happens to those workers when everyone has all they need and no one needs to buy any more? Same with any of the other renewables. Won't it be just like now when everyone's got as many TV's in their house as they can stand and don't need to keep shopping for new ones? And won't it be the same situation again where the investors at the top of these companies rake in all the profits, while the workers are paid only enough to keep them showing up and not one dime more?

We, as human beings learned how to feed ourselves, clothe ourselves and educate ourselves for all of our existence - compared to allowing "winner take all" capitalism doing it for us over the past 150-200 years. Of course change from what is known is always a scary prospect - but it's not like we haven't always had it within ourselves to provide for ourselves. There's much that's been forgotten, much more that's been tosses to the wayside as we organized how we lived, worked and played based on others doing everything as long as we could take some coin to the store and buy whatever we wanted.

Is the idea of building something different too progressive? Too much like socialism? How can we utilize this opportunity too put into words the type of equitable world we've all envisioned, then how do we give those words enough political power to make them a reality? To become the change we want to see?

[stray cat]

1. Jobs - as most of us don't have land to run subsistence farming

[BR_Parkway]

5. But too many of the jobs we've developed don't "do" anything

and I don't mean that in a derogatory way towards anyone or to demean anyone's work. But how many jobs are pushing paper related to our current economy? I'm in leisure travel - hardly something I could trade a farmer for groceries. But I also make some damn good wine - that could have some value to someone.

It just seems like we're at a crossroads - we're either gonna prop up what's already happening and along will come another crisis or we can start planning out a future we like more - and the steps to transition from where things are to where they would need to be to enable that.

[BlooInBloo]

2. Yes. Everyone except you and Moonbeam McCrazypants are fascist capitalist pigs.

[Hannah Bell]

4. pretty straw men, don't you love them?

[Still Sensible]

3. Because too many people will suffer if we don't

[blogslut]

6. The green economy involves much more than merely supplying solar panels

For example, the thousands of existing structures that need to be brought up to LEED standards - that alone, will introduce billions of dollars and countless jobs for American workers.

I could go on but I'm pretty sure others will explain to you what a green economy actually entails.

[BR_Parkway]

7. I'm actually back in school studying Sustainable Development and just started

an employee owned company to build affordable, net zero student housing here - I over simplified in the OP obviously.

But we're still talking about rebuilding an economy based on all the failed underpinning of the last one, only this one will be greener. I don't see any discussion about making it more equitable, look at the crap the unions just went through with the southern car maker Senators still protecting their corporate masters at the expense of the workers.

There are broad strokes to the new Administration's plan being released, obviously the devil will be in the details - apparently, from some of the responses, this post was taken as some Obama criticism which will not be tolerated - which isn't what I was talking about at all. The question was really supposed to be a pretty simple, why aren't we asking for something different at this point versus asking for more of the same.

The pressure is on to get different healthcare, it's on to get various minority rights solidified as being equal - but for some reason, there seems to be more acceptance of the status quo when it comes to the financial end from DU and other progressive online sites - which seems strange to me.

I understand someone's immediate worry about getting their 401K back or keeping their current job - and we obviously can't go from A to B overnight

But I've yet to see anyone in the media asking "why do we need a financial services industry? what have they actually done?" They've made it possible for companies to become too big to fail and wiped out so many of our local businesses. They've given rise to corporate agribusiness. And funded the creation and rise of companies who've done their damnedest to convert us all into mindless consumers.

[blogslut]

8. My point is that America needs to return to a manufacturing economy

Green technology will help us get there. We need to reconfigure ourselves into a nation that manufactures sustainable products and technologies.

As for financial services, you probably know more about it that I do.

[ljm2002]

9. You bring up some good points...

...like, why should we have an economy based on planned obsolescence? Before the industrial revolution, most items that people made were made to last. Now, we somehow are supposed to believe that the economy simply cannot sustain itself unless people buy new stuff to replace old stuff all the time. And to make sure that happens, new stuff is built to be discarded after a certain amount of time. And the logic of capitalist economics seems to dictate this, even while it is becoming more and more apparent that we are choking our environment and degrading our existence with so much throw-away crap.

I really believe we are in a time that will demand creative answers. Thank you for trying to be creative and think outside the box. Please continue to do so, that is the only way we will get to better systems.

Sustainability has been around for a long time, although its detractors have been quick to dismiss it as pie-in-the-sky and unnecessarily limiting. But really, this is the next step in our social evolution IMO. The Industrial Revolution / Capitalism models just don't work for today's realities anymore. We need to take the bull by the horns -- social systems are created by people, and are not fixed properties of nature. Our current system is broken, unjust, immoral, polluting, and allows vast waste by the haves while the have-nots continue to starve. It is way past time to change it.

[BR_Parkway]

10. As one of my professors put it so well - We can either create a new world

or create another planet as we destroy this one, which do you think is going to be easier?