![]() All of this assumes, of course, that a ‘full cost’ world would be enforceable and enforced, that the polluters and wasters and despoilers of this world would actually pay these costs, and pass them along to consumers knowing that it would drastically reduce demand for their products. The alternative is that, as is the case in the US and some other countries, the government would (either because of bribery and corruption or out of ideology) exempt, subsidize or turn a blind eye to enforcement, and that, as in the case of much of the third world, there would simply not be the infrastructure in place to enforce ‘full cost’ regulations, so the status quo would remain or even worsen. My guess is that, if degree of enforcement were one of the controllable elements of the simulation program, we would quickly find the simulated world in a ‘race to the bottom’, as those who complied with the regulations found themselves at a competitive disadvantage relative to the cheats, crooks and evaders. The ‘full cost’ economy is a mixed one, one where government regulation and government management of some sectors of the economy (generally those which offer the private sector an unsatisfactory ROI) blends with free enterprise in those sectors of the economy which do offer a satisfactory ROI. The problem with this is that what we have today is nothing vaguely like a true Market Economy, even in those sectors where corporations would have you believe market forces hold sway. Oligopoly, massive government subsidies to large corporations, indemnifying corporations from litigation by wronged citizens, ‘free’ trade agreements that prohibit sovereign governments from passing laws to protect the welfare of their people and the environment from corporatist abuses, and other huge distortions have produced what might better be described as a Corporate Welfare Economy.
Here’s my speculation on what such a simulation would show:
I know this is a tall order for a software simulation. But maybe it could do more than just show us how (and if) the Gift Economy could work. Maybe it could also show us how to build model Intentional Communities for this next economy. Oh, and, of course, the software would have to be Open Source! |
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--- My Best 100 Posts --
Preparing for Civilization's End:
What Would Net-Zero Emissions Look Like?
Why Economic Collapse Will Precede Climate Collapse
Being Adaptable: A Reminder List
A Culture of Fear
What Will It Take?
A Future Without Us
Dean Walker Interview (video)
The Mushroom at the End of the World
What Would It Take To Live Sustainably?
The New Political Map (Poster)
Beyond Belief
Complexity and Collapse
Save the World Reading List
Civilization Disease
What a Desolated Earth Looks Like
Giving Up on Environmentalism
Going Vegan
The Dark & Gathering Sameness of the World
The End of Philosophy
The Boiling Frog
Our Culture:
What to Believe Now?
Rogue Primate
Conversation & Silence
The Language of Our Eyes
True Story
Cultural Acedia: When We Can No Longer Care
Useless Advice
Several Short Sentences About Learning
Why I Don't Want to Hear Your Story
A Harvest of Myths
The Qualities of a Great Story
The Trouble With Stories
A Model of Identity & Community
Not Ready to Do What's Needed
A Culture of Dependence
So What's Next
Ten Things to Do When You're Feeling Hopeless
No Use to the World Broken
Living in Another World
Does Language Restrict What We Can Think?
The Value of Conversation Manifesto Nobody Knows Anything
If I Only Had 37 Days
The Only Life We Know
A Long Way Down
No Noble Savages
Figments of Reality
Too Far Ahead
The Rogue Animal
How the World Really Works:
If You Wanted to Sabotage the Elections
Collective Intelligence & Complexity
Ten Things I Wish I'd Learned Earlier
The Problem With Systems
Against Hope (Video)
The Admission of Necessary Ignorance
Several Short Sentences About Jellyfish
A Synopsis of 'Finding the Sweet Spot'
Learning from Indigenous Cultures
The Gift Economy
The Job of the Media
The Wal-Mart Dilemma
The Illusion of the Separate Self:
Happy Now?
This Creature
Did Early Humans Have Selves?
Nothing On Offer Here
Even Simpler and More Hopeless Than That
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We Have No Choice
Never Comfortable in the Skin of Self
Letting Go of the Story of Me
All There Is, Is This
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Your Self: An Owner's Manual (Satire)
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I like the idea to make this videogame to teach/inform about our real World! Even the US Army has their own violent videogame to get kids into the military! :( Army sucks!
I started an alt.economics simulation project (Optimaes) a couple of years ago. There’s a wiki (although it’s currently locked due to spam) :http://www.nooranch.com/synaesmedia/optimaes/optimaes.cgiand you can download a basic simulation. The project is a bit on hold at the moment, but I hope to get back to it later this year. Anyone interested in this area, please get in touch. :-)phil jones