Economic Woes

Just as most of the world has been wondering what the solution is to this economic crises, I've been thinking about the origins of this strange economy. As someone who is by no means an ecomonmist, one core question keeps coming up in my mind--Why do we have a debt-based economy? This to me doesn't make much sense. For whatever reason it worked but it doesn't work now and probably won't work in the future.

This time of economic "downturn" should be a time of economic innovation. All of the signs have been telling us to slow spending, conserve, and reuse more. Our enviromental woes and our economic woes are linked. If we continue to create, and create, and create we will continue to throw off the balance. We live in a giant fishbowl. We can continue to pollute but soon we will die from inhaling our own waste. There is no throwing it "away".

Unfortunately not enough people are paying attention to the signs. Everywhere you look people are trying to get you to spend. There is talk of another stimulus package for this upcoming tax period. Everyone is focused on spending and trying to encourage people to buy, buy, buy. In truth the answer is probably in an economy based on recycling, reusing, and some creating. We have to begin to think smaller and more locally. Innovation in the area of traditional systems that focused on small local trading are probably our best bet. I think of the success of private lending, where average people and small banks loan small amounts to small buisness people. Person to person should be our new mantra. In terms of locally, I do not mean shutting down the global market, that won't and probably should not happen. A reinvestment in local infrastructure, resources and small communities will probably enhance our trading abroad.

This movement towards buying local, small private lending, businesses based on recycling a local neighborhood's resources and the like may be the answer to our current crises. The era of the mega corporation is over. If we continue to try to bail out these large corporations who have mismanaged their resources, we will see little return on our investment.

Everything in our world is telling us to think smaller, conserve more, and slow down.
What we need is perspective and a new plan.

Never narrow-minded,
Alegna

Race and Politics in this new era

It's funny. I've been obsessed with this election as most of America and the worls has been. I've written little on my personal blogs about it. Even though I ate, slept, and breathed all things related to this election. I said more on other sites than my own.

Now that it is over the obvious question is Now What? At school last week, I was amazed at how so many of the adults expected the students to be different, to walk in with a new consciousness. To be...different people. Of course they were the same...And I must admit I even spent some time lecturing them about being different.

Change is always small. It isn't until after all the little changes that we notice that there was a change. It is gradual...The key is to notice those small changes, to cultivate those small changes... This is where we can make a difference. This is where the difference is made.