Transcript GEOG 352: Day 4

GEOG 352: Day 4
Chapter 2
Housekeeping Items
O Change the title of the course on your
O
O
O
O
outline to “Managing Natural and Social
Capital”
Social Sciences is hosting a pizza social next
Tuesday from noon to 2 in 356, 2nd floor
atrium.
We need to sign people up for presentations
today.
Any questions about the major assignment
(which is up on the web site)?
We need to finish up Chapter 1 first.
SCHEDULE FOR THE READING PRESENTATIONS
name
chapter
Jen
Chapter 3
Melanie
Chapter 4
Sacia
Chapter 5
Emmanuel
Chapter 6
Amy
Chapter 7
Jordan
Chapter 9
Sarah
Chapter 10
Bryce
Chapter 11
Rhys
Chapter 12
Consult the course outline for [ask me which day]
when you will be presenting
SCHEDULE FOR THE READING PRESENTATIONS (articles)
[consult with me as to day you will be presenting]
name
article
Jesse
Critiques of GDP (Week 8)
Diego
Sharing economy (Week 11)
Zane
Gross National Happiness (find article)
Rob
“Tragedy of the Commons” (Week 1)
Kyle
??
Maya
Needs and satisfiers [Wikipedia] (Week 8)
Mike
Politics of selfishness (week 2, carried over to 3)
Artur
??
Last time I quoted from Crocodile Dundee
Chapter 2: Wealth vs. Commonwealth
O Pretty challenging chapter! Lots of names
and discussion of historical movements and
concepts. Any immediate responses?
O On the first couple of pages, they describe
the triumph of what many have called “neoliberalism,” which will be familiar to those of
you in Global Studies – a belief in the value
of unregulated markets and minimal
governmental interference that became
popular under Milton Friedman, Ronald
Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.
Neo-Liberalism’s Hall of Fame
Chapter 2: Wealth vs. Commonwealth
O They contrast the notion that “greed is good” and
free markets should prevail over all with what E.P.
Thompson has called the moral economy –
conceptions and practices of economic activity where
values other than greed predominated, values such
as reciprocity, mutual care, restraint, and so on.
O To be fair, in the largely pre-industrial societies in
which these forms of moral economy were alleged to
have existed, there was much about the economy
that was not “moral”: the feudal exploitation of serfs
and tenants, the exploitation of slave labour, the
colonial exploitation of indigenous populations.
O To get a sense of a moral economy or not, think of
how Walmart operates….
Chapter 2: Wealth vs. Commonwealth
O European historian, Karl Polanyi, described
a process whereby people were disembedded from the land and from their
communities as “the great transformation.”
O A good example is the Highland clearances
in which Scottish tenant farmers (“crofters”)
were driven off the land to make way for
sheep. Many found their way to Canada and
the U.S., and some of us are descended
from them.
O This is related to what the authors describe
as the enclosure of the commons. Is this
process still happening today?
Chapter 2: Wealth vs. Commonwealth
O To be fair, why was the welfare state scaled back
drastically in most developed countries, apart
from ideological shifts?
O Root of the word economics is oikos (household)
and nemein (management). Oikonomia is
management of the resources of the household
for the benefit of all.
O What are some examples of the moral economy
at work in the past? They would argue they
include religious prohibitions on usury, the guild
system, and one could add the ancient Hebrew
practice of “Jubilee.” One might also include,
more recently, co-ops and farmers’ marketing
boards.
Chapter 2: Wealth vs. Commonwealth
O In the 1500s, the British crown
crushed most of the guilds.
O Moreover, throughout Europe and
elsewhere, peasants and farmers
rebelled against inequities in land
ownership and even against the
notion of private property itself.
O In the aftermath of the English
Revolution of 1648, the Diggers – a
protest group near London, under
the leadership of Gerard Winstanley
– squatted land and began handing
it out and farming it in common
Chapter 2: Wealth vs. Commonwealth
O (See also the lyrics to
“The World Turned
Upside Down” by
Leon Rosselson and
popularized by Billy
Bragg.):
http://www.sing365.c
om/music/lyric.nsf/Th
e-World-Turned-UpsideDown-lyrics-BillyBragg/3FDCA57DEAD
8ECDD48257021002
9842E.
Chapter 2: Wealth vs. Commonwealth
O Thomas Spence took over
Winstanley’s ideas, which had
been published in a book, and
founded a society to help create
land trusts to foster land
reform.
O After his death in 1814, Welsh
industrialist and philanthropist
Robert Owen took over the
cause and promoted cooperative villages. He also
created a model community for
textile workers – New Lanark –
in Scotland.
Chapter 2: Wealth vs. Commonwealth
O His ideas helped inspire the Chartist
movement. In order to get the vote,
workingmen had to own land, and this was a
scheme to collectively purchase land.
Eventually, the government shut the movement
down. However, under the influence of Owen
consumer and workers’ cooperatives were
established, beginning with the Rochdale Coop and their principles used remain to this day.
O John Stuart Mill, a leading economist, helped
shepherd legislation through parliament in the
mid-1800s authorizing mutual aid societies
and co-operatives, and advocated land
nationalization.
Chapter 2: Wealth vs. Commonwealth
O John Ruskin, famous art critic and philosopher of
economics, and Octavia Hill set up non-profit housing
associations in the slums of London at around the
same time.
O The authors also talk about the single tax idea of
Henry George and others. It was implemented in some
parts of the U.S. and was almost passed in Great
Britain in 1910, with the support of Winston Churchill.
O The basic idea is that land would be taxed, but not
buildings and improvements. In theory, tenants would
not be affected, but it’s hard to know if that would
work in practice. It would discourage speculation on
idle land, and ensure that increases in land value
would, in part, be recouped for the wider public
benefit.
Chapter 2: Wealth vs. Commonwealth
O The authors also raise the issue of corporate
charters. Originally, corporations could only
operate under very specific constraints, which
were set by monarchs or by states. In the U.S.,
corporations that misbehaved often had their
charters to operate revoked. This provided
some social control over the private sector and
a guarantee of social responsibility.
O Gradually, all restrictions were eliminated. In
Canada, corporations are still bound by certain
rules, but the provinces have no right of
interference. In the U.S. corporations are
“persons” and have freedom of speech. In
Canada, they do not.
Chapter 2: Wealth vs. Commonwealth
O Corporations have become more and more
powerful globally:
 Over half of the top economies in the world are




corporations
Top 500 corporations account for almost 70% of
global trade
Top 200 employ .82% of the total global labour force,
but constitute 28% of world GDP
Poor countries lose approximately $2 billion a day as
a result of unjust trade, 14 times the amount of aid
they receive.
We’ve gone from tight limits on interest rates to
unlimited rates in the U.S. and Britain. (Adam Smith
advocated a maximum of 5%.)
Chapter 2: Wealth vs. Commonwealth
O They also talk extensively – and somewhat
confusingly – about banks, money, and
alternatives to conventional finance. Main
points include:
 That we now have a money system that is
mostly created out of thin air.
 That national banks used to create money
that was largely interest-free.
 Alternatives experimented with include
‘building societies,’ depreciating money
(called “stamp scrip” in the U.S.).
 Interest-free money (including JAK in
Denmark), and here on the Island: LETS.