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Making Economics Work

Entry 217, on 2005-09-07 at 13:48:26 (Rating 2, Politics)

This morning I heard an interview with an independent candidate in our upcoming election. The person's name is Ted Howard and he lives in the small town of Kaikoura. In some ways he sounded a bit nutty - there are always some characters in each election with weird and wonderful ideas. But the more I listened, the more I realised he was saying more-or-less what I have been saying for many years. That is, we need a fundamental change in our economic system, not just the fine tuning we have been getting up until now.

Here's what Ted says on his web site (http://www.fishnet.co.nz/ted/ted.htm): I am Ted Howard and I am standing as an independent because I am deeply concerned by what I see as our probable future if we keep on doing things as we are now. I have a big list of concerns, here are a few: How is it that in an age of such plenty, millions die of starvation each year? How is it that in an age of amazing technology, we are polluting our atmosphere and our waterways to a degree that threatens our own survival? How is it that in an age of enlightenment we spend more on weapons than we do fighting disease and poverty? It doesn’t make sense in terms of humanity, or ecology, or our own long term self interest, but it does make sense in terms of economics. We need to make economics work for everyone.

He goes on to outline a technological solution which can possibly solve these problems. Most people would want to eliminate starvation, stop pollution, and spend money on preventing disease and poverty instead of spending it on wars. But our current economic system will never achieve these goals. It just can't because despite common belief, it doesn't encourage true innovation, and assisting the rich to get richer doesn't really help everyone else. That's why established industries, like oil production, just get bigger, and the rich just get richer, at the expense of everyone else.

Strangely enough, Ted would vote for Act if he had to choose an existing party. I would have thought that would just perpetuate the system he admits isn't working, and that the opposite end of the spectrum might had held more hope of achieving genuine economic change, but he has been an Act candidate in the past.

Ted admits he has no hope at all of being elected, but I think its important we have people like him who are prepared to think outside the economic prison we have built for ourselves. The fact is that technology is our only hope of improving the world, and the current economic and political systems we use don't encourage real research and implementation of technologies of the type we need. The Bush administration is a classic example of an anti-science, pro-superstition government. You can pray to god as much as you like - it won't make things better. We need to pour money into technology and remove the power big business has over its implementation to make any real progress.

Link at: http://www.fishnet.co.nz/ted/ted.htm

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