For Deep Economy book group: enter your reading homework for the first three questions here (and enter the last response on your topic page).
| 3/2 | 3/9 | 3/16 | 3/23 | 3/30 |
| Intro, Ch 1 (p. 45) | Ch 2 (p. 94) | Ch 3 (p. 128) | Ch 4 (p. 176) | Ch 5 & Afterword (p. 232) |
- Explain how one idea in the reading relates to other topics already covered in class or something you learned elsewhere (another class or life experience).
- List what you think are the three to five most important points made in the reading.
- Write a question to provoke discussion among others who read the same passage.
March 30, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Chapter 5
1) On the subject of coffee, I used to work in a coffee shop where half of their inventory was marked ‘Fair Trade’. The Fair Trade Organization is an international agreement of fair wages given to Third World Countries, specifically avoiding that kind of ratio described on page 193, where a cup of Starbucks Coffee cost 25 times more than the Ugandan farmer received for an ENTIRE KILO.
2) a. Judging the amount of carbon emissions we (American’s) produce, and the striking inequalities in pay, we owe Third World Countries approximately $73 billion annually.
b. In the Indian state of Kerala, per capita income is about $3 a day. However, literacy rates approach 100%, the amount of post-graduate degrees per-capita is higher than the US and the rate of newspaper readership is the highest on earth.
c. When visiting touring the Nayakrishi movement in Bangladesh, McKibben’s host Sajed Kamal said the following, “People say that it’s a miracle Bangladesh can survive it’s food and energy crisis, that it somehow perserveres. The real miracle, though, is that you could contrive a way to have a food crisis. If you stick something in the ground here, it grows.”
3) How well do you think the equivalent of a bicimolino used for energy production would catch on in the US (muscle-powered energy)?
March 25, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Chapter 4
1) It mentions on page166 that artists are starting to rely more on concert sales than record sales. This is an age-old model of a musicians career. Some of my favorite bands follow this model. It seems fairer to the rest of the world that they base a career their career on actually playing music instead of cashing in on a track that hits #1 for three weeks.
2) a. Local currency is a very good way to stimulate local economies and communities over the global economy.
b. Priority bus systems have been built in China and Brazil, which rapidly decrease the amount of cars being driven and strengthened their communities.
c. Vermont Family Forests preserve National Forests by buying acreage and re-selling it to local residents in shares. When logging is needed, the organization follows strict environmental requirements.
3) What would it take to establish a local currency for Santa Cruz county?
4) A local currency could sever as an insulation of security for the prosperity of eco-villages.
March 17, 2009 at 12:23 am
Hapter 3:
1- Korten is right on in this chapter. i took a class last spring that dealt with semiotics, or the analysis of symbols, specifically in pop-culture. When he goes into the marketing schemes that try to sell the idea of gaining friends through the buying of a product, i thought “yeah” that is what the scoundrels are doing.
also, on p. 100 where he describes the social experiment of the giving-unto-the-first-year-graduate-students-of-various-disciplines-a-sum-of-money-with-which-to-divide-between-a-public-and-a-private-account-to-in-the-end-take-their-private-account-and-a-percentage-of-the-public-account, it seemed very much like the thought experiment called The Prisoner’s Delemia, which is a more modern argument/justification (after Hobbess’ Leviathan) for a Social Contract theory of ethics. Basically, it rests on the assumption that the most logical thing to do in a given situation is to look out for one’s own interests first, becuase other’s being rational agents, will obviously make the same choices and jepordize you. this is what our system professes. yes, it is bs, but it seems so deeply internalized that often times it is validated by experiences.
2-
a-”a deep fallacy of many economists..think of human interaction as mainly a means to an end, rather than also an end in itself.” p.110
b-new technologies only served to provide a more competitive edge that further isolated the working class, and made them insecure in their positions. p.114
c-much new expendutires are geared towards the services that enable our newly-found era of ultra-productivity. p. 114
d-people don’t associate with their neighbors as much anymore becuase they do not need to rely on them as much for assistance. p117
3…
on p. 117, McKibben says “once everyone has a big efficent piece of equipment all their own…” there was no reason to visit neighbors becuase. This seems to affirm the egoism that he is railing against in the economists in the experiment mentioned above. Am I missing something? (besides class…sorry)