Category: Economy

Analysis about economy.

Preparing for Hot Earth
This article was written about 2 weeks before COVID-19^. Within this article, “Beware the falling empire” is of particular interest to the current situation. Please read this extra carefully. To say that COVID-19 is a game-changer is an understatement. COVID-19 will get its own article soon.

It doesn’t matter if you believe that humans are contributing to global warming or not. Doesn’t matter if you believe the current scientific consensus or not. What matters is that Earth is getting hotter. Some of the major consequences are:
- Weather patterns will become more chaotic, with extreme weather to become increasingly common.
- Some areas of Earth will become harder to live in. Yet, it’s to also important to be aware that others areas will become easier to live in. This reshaping of the ecosystem will make and break societies, turn farming upside down and remake transport networks.
- Oceans will rise, risking to cause major conflicts over coastline loss.
- Acceleration of global warming. Sadly, as average temperatures increase around the globe, there will be a number of elements that will further contribute to global warming. For example forest fires (much worse than the ones Australia just experienced^) and, much worse^, the release of methane from permafrost^.
Oh, and a solar maximum is on its way too, currently scheduled between 2023 and 2026^.

Sure, if our civilization finally reaches consensus on doing something about global warming, we may be able to slow or even reverse the process. But, given the current political outlook and economic dogmas, it doesn’t seem that we’ll see any serious measures being taken in the coming years. So, let’s get ready for what may be coming and let’s meet it with the best we’ve got.

Tipping the scales

While it may be discouraging to see that the large polluters seem stuck in the wrong millennium (or worse, they know exactly what’s going to happen), this doesn’t mean small changes won’t help. In fact, it is exactly these small changes that may eventually convince/force corporations & governments to do something more meaningful about global warming.

A powerful intent changes everything. If we set our mind to it, we, the people, can build any world we wish, because we are the civilization. Small changes gather into trends, trends break new ground and, at last, fundamental change follows.

Here are just a few of the changes any individual can participate with:
- The market for ecological and ethical products is growing. Buy healthy and/or local products.
- Choose jobs that benefit society or see how you can improve your current job and/or do what you can to improve your company’s social responsibility.
- Remember that up until last century, before the emergence of monstrous industrial fast-food chains, meat consumption was much lower. It is easy to adjust to a lower meat consumption, focusing on higher quality meat.
- If you own a house, invest in clean energy such as solar panels and heat pumps. You will get your money back while also improving your carbon footprint.
- Consider ethical consumerism^. It’s an interesting instrument for change.
- Do not underestimate the power of grassroots activism. Walk the talk, but also talk the walk: show friends and family what can be done. Some of these people may end up in places of power where they will build a sustainable future.
- Consider ethical economy^ and what can be done to get us there.
There is a (pretty good) chance that enough people make enough changes to start tipping the scales and trigger a chain reaction towards the evolution of our civilization. If not, in time, the change will have to happen anyway. However…

Beware the falling empire

Endless economic growth cannot continue with finite resources. Either our growth will halt and then crash into an unprecedented recession, or the resources we prize (and how we consume them) will have to change, refocusing our economy on growing in other areas. Imagine an economy that focuses on producing quality products that last a lifetime. In any case, the current civilization will at one point go into decline. Global warming will probably accelerate this downfall.

If we don’t invent a better civilization in time, the forced modification of the current world order may be, at times, violent. Like an epileptic seizure, the old structures will thrash and convulse before they finally succumb to their inevitable fate, rendered obsolete by the civilization that has adapted to a new ecosystem. Hopefully, we’ll have something better in place by then. And if not…

It’s wise to plan ahead and make sure that we and our families don’t get in the way of the crumbling titan. Here are some things to watch out for, most of which are already happening:
- Failing public services (particularly healthcare and pensions).
- Conflict caused by societies fractured by inequality and extreme political/ideological polarization.
- Vulnerable geographic areas when it comes to food growing capabilities and food&water supply.
- Military conflicts between nation states stuck in our tribal past.
Consider the long-term outlook of geographical locations on Earth. Coastal, polluted, crowded or already hot areas may not be suitable to live in long-term. Northern latitudes, however, are well positioned to flourish thanks to the warming climate. Consider possible conflicts for land, especially in water-deprived areas or countries that may lose important territory due to flooding and/or raising temperatures.

Indeed, there are countless variables to keep track of if a “survival of the fittest” chaos ensues. Luckily, we now have some pretty amazing technology and communication methods. Well-prepared networks of individuals will weather whatever storm follows.

“Evolution cannot be stopped. It can only be embraced.”

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March 15, 2020
The Corporation as a Lifeform

It is agreed^ that life on Earth started with single cells, around 4 billion years ago. After a very, very long time, roughly 2 billion later, multicellular life appeared. This followed a catastrophic event called the Great Oxidation Event^ (GOE). But what was catastrophic for others was a gift for us. Without the oxygen created during the GOE, we wouldn’t have been here. Multicellular life brought a plethora of evolutionary advantages and soon enough, dominant lifeforms were born. Living longer, stronger and, most importantly, smarter.

So what does this have to do with corporations, capitalism and the stock market? As I’ll show, quite a lot. The current market ecosystem^ is a place where companies undergo natural selection. But unlike the past 4 billion years, the evolution of our economic organisms is supercharged, almost out of control – this, unfortunately, sometimes comes with a steep cost for our environment^ and current social structures.

But what if a new breed of corporation triggers a financial chain reaction (like the GOE), wiping out most of its competition? Already, a new generation of companies is starting to take shape. And, as new ways to apply technology are found, the chance of a new business model emerging is much greater. Capitalism is bound to evolve^.

Take a look from (very) high above

Let’s zoom out at the level where we, individual humans, can be seen as cells, while our various social structures can be seen as multicellular organisms. From this high up, the corporation is a multicellular organism comprised of humans. A nation-state or ethnic group can also be seen in the same way, but as I will show, the corporation has many more behaviors similar to lifeforms than other social structures do.

First of all, companies evolve at a much faster pace than any other previous social structure. Similar to most complex organisms, in a company we can find groups of cells with different roles. In this case, the cells are humans with different education and skills – including the skill of using advanced tools, which are themselves evolving rapidly. The evolution of our tools is very important, because this is precisely what supercharges the current evolutionary cycle. Not only do we evolve, but so does all our technological ecosystem.

This new form of life has appeared for the same reasons why multicellular organisms thrive. The same natural laws of evolution apply: there are many advantages just waiting to be applied due to the synergies between different types of cellular organization. Think of departments in a company as specialized tissues in a body. Think of different technologies as new means of acting on information and generating survival-value for the company.

Corporations are good at inventing new tools. They do so for the same “survival of the fittest” reason as any other lifeform. The only problem is that we humans are evolving slower than our tools^. As our technology skyrockets, so does the risk of catastrophic events, accidental or otherwise.

Capitalism and the stock market

Capitalism is fueled by an extremely strong impetus to produce more. This primal urge is one of the chief motivators for researching new technologies. The problem with this all-consuming focus is that anything that does not create profit (immediate or forecasted) is disregarded.

The superpower of capitalism seems to be the creation of new meta-lifeforms: economic entities that absorb human capital and create other forms of capital, usually in the form of material goods and technological advances. These technological advances allow capitalism to perfect the entities it creates.

As an evolutionary driver, capitalism is pretty damn good. The problem is that this early 21^st century capitalism is obsessed with numbers in fake currencies. The fact is that capital takes many other forms: brain capital, ideological capital, ideation capital and even emotional capital.

There aren’t many corporations that invest in philosophy or the arts. Sure, if the investment can serve towards some economic purpose (for example a PR stunt), then perhaps a company may invest in some artistic or charitable event. The problem with this approach is a short-sightedness regarding what is profitable and what is not. Actually, philosophy and art are extremely profitable because society (which is where the workforce is coming from) is built on ideas and inspiration, not on material goods.

Unfortunately, for the time being, our companies are locked within the context of a money-centric stock market. This makes sure that the corporation is a master of financial efficiency. That’s all fine up to a certain point. When things go awry is when our companies fail in their social responsibility and ethical code. In the rabid chase for profits, this has started to happen increasingly often.

Corporations crush each other without almost any regard for the people involved in the conflict. It’s pretty much like war, except people don’t get killed, they get laid-off. True, that’s a great improvement from our times as barbarians (which haven’t yet passed, just watch the news).

But society is starting to catch on. The people are starting to rebel against corporate irresponsibility. In the near future, expect alternative stock markets to appear. Markets that value a company’s long-term sustainability (ethics, social & environmental responsibility, impetus on R&D). As I will show, such developments are not only necessary, but almost unavoidable.

As technology advances, money will begin to lose relevance (basic income^ will happen sooner or later). Therefore, the corporations that invent new weapons to compete with are those that will survive the next evolutionary leap. Technology will also become too powerful to handle by such crude mechanisms such as the stock market. After all, the stock market is already falling prey to the technology of its own inhabitants^.

The unstoppable march of progress

Every major civilization had at least one mammoth, culture-defining project. For example, the Romans are known for their works of infrastructure and Egyptians are often associated with the monolithic remnants of their pharaohs: pyramids and other massive structures into which their empire has poured enormous amounts of resources (rushing its own demise).

Currently, the most coveted technology seems to be artificial “intelligence”. I used quotes because A“I”, as is currently developed, is not really intelligent^. Humans fear true AI because they believe a sentient “computer” might endanger our species. But we’re very far from creating a sentient being; this is a feat that will require more than just quantum computing. Instead, wherever we read “AI” what they really mean is human-developed algorithms that have certain learning aptitudes (which is why a more correct term is ML – Machine Learning).

But our greatest fear shouldn’t be true AI (sentient AI) but rather this ongoing development of human-defined ML. This is because rather than it being sentient, it is a slave to sentient humans. And because most humans are still very selfish beings^, putting advanced ML systems in the wrong hands might seriously jeopardize society^ (rogue killer drones and automated armies, automatic hackers, stock market viruses, large-scale social engineering).

Corporations are already becoming increasingly complex and will be at least partially ruled by artificial intelligence algorithms (it’s already happening^). The corporation of the future is a master of synergy between humans, computer algorithms and other assets. This sort of company will have a human/machine leadership where machines can work with nanosecond decisions and humans can assist with high-level strategic thinking and ideation.

All of a sudden, we’re heading towards a future that will see thousands of different economic lifeforms, communicating with each other, engaged in perpetual ideation and competition on many more fronts than just money. Could it be that the next stage of life on this planet are corporations? And then, what happens to us?

Ethical capitalism

Just like the cells in our own bodies thrive if we’re healthy, so will we if this higher form of life we find ourselves building is well-behaved^. Quite simply, our future depends on how comfortable and sustainable our corporations will be. And that is why ethics and empathy are important^.

Regardless if corporations will ever be classifiable as life (after all, they eat each other and can spawn all sorts of weird babies), what is certain is that the business sector is far nimbler than government. It is therefore not surprising that governments around the world are becoming the puppets of business interests. Of course, one can argue that it was always so. Perhaps, but now-a-days, the possibilities of buying politicians have increased, because the wealth amassed by various corporations has also increased.

Government has lost its way^ for a good reason: society’s way of ruling itself is not only inefficient and archaic, but it also has very little defense for corruption and other chronic illnesses. A broken democracy^ is like a sick organism: it’s very easy to conquer by infection and disease. As I pointed out in the past, I believe that the only hope for government is a serious make-over, alongside the lines of a Government 2.0^, which is in fact inspired from the way of doing things in the private sector.

Judging by the political circus we’ve all witnessed in the past few years (even decades, centuries), I’m not betting on government ever recovering from this downward spiral. Ironically, this social activist is beginning to think that an evolution of the private sector to higher ethical standards is perhaps the best chance for peace and prosperity.

This evolutionary leap is not only possible, but outright necessary, as many companies have started to discover that an increasingly higher percentage of employees lack motivation. Because the percentage of creative jobs on the market is rising (and will continue to rise) and because lack of motivation kills creativity, the only option for the company of the future is to change in such a way that its constituents are happy and feel a connection with the entity they’re part of.

After all, what’s not to love about a meritocracy based on economic performance and everything this means (intellectual progress of all kinds with happiness as a chief motivator). Combining the efficiency of capitalism with a code of conduct based on empathy may yield a species of corporation that many of us may actually feel happy to be a part of.

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July 2, 2019
Thank You, Capitalism. It Could Be Worse…

My readers know all too well that I’m no fan of capitalism. Throughout the past years I’ve attacked^ several attributes of this economic system (consumerism^, the stock market^, income inequality^). This year, I’m about to step it up a notch, going into how capitalism has facilitated the slow and insidious rotting of most democratic countries. I intend to write about how a broken economic system can drag down education and create immeasurable suffering on a planetary scale, most of which is hidden from sight by the mainstream media so that the machine can keep marching.

But this doesn’t mean that I lack appreciation towards the enormous benefits that have burst from the minds of countless entrepreneurs who, thanks to a free market, succeeded in advancing our culture and civilization. After all, I write these words using capitalist products!

Evolution

Capitalism is just another system that evolved from others before it. Perhaps it’s not the fairest, but it’s definitely more efficient than some that existed before. The gradual development of economic systems that has given birth to capitalism also implies that capitalism will not be the last economic system. And that’s precisely why I’m writing about its flaws. It’s not because I hate it, it’s because there are things that I believe can be improved.

Capitalism will eventually give way to another, better economic system. It’s inevitable. The question, however, is if that system will be better for humans and our ecosystem. It is entirely possible that capitalism will evolve into a system that is even more efficient at squeezing the life out of this planet and transforming it into objects, technological advances (for its own sake) and gargantuan projects.

I believe one such gargantuan project is the development of artificial “intelligence”, in quotes because it’s not really intelligent^. It lacks and will continue to lack sentience, which I consider a prime ingredient of intelligence, for at least until such a time when we have achieved major advances in quantum computing. I went through some of the dangers posed by this sort of artificial non-intelligence in the linked article, or here^, on the more concrete topic of stock markets.

Better life through technology

One of the main long-term goals of capitalistic entities is to discover tools and technologies that allow them to produce more. These discoveries eventually trickle down through all social layers and can improve quality of life. It doesn’t always happen so, but it’s not usually a problem with capitalism per-se, but with the human element (corruption, greed^).

Capitalism has brought a number of major advances in all sorts of fields: manufacturing, delivery, recycling, retail & customer experience, product diversity, the list can go on and on. I honestly believe we’d be far less advanced without the explosion of knowledge that resulted from setting human intellectual capital free to associate in whatever form.

Less is more

Because our civilization is still at a stage where the survival instinct is dominating^ our choices and policies, we can’t expect any economic system to reach a sort of moral high-ground. Communism used to look good on paper. History tells a different story about its implementation. It’s a case of “change yourself before you change others”.

In other words: we have to fix our way of thinking and how we go about daily life before we can even expect a highly efficient and in the same time ethical economic system to emerge. Capitalism is, simply put, the best that some societies are capable of. They wouldn’t tolerate it otherwise.

Capitalism embodies our instinctual thirst^ for more. The problem is that “more”, in this case, is usually not something that contributes to human happiness, but rather provides tangible results (objects, technologies). Even though life in most (truly) capitalistic countries has improved from a material standpoint, psychological health has declined. People feel disconnected and disengaged. A culture of extreme individualism is being promoted, probably because it produces better consumers.

Would less production and less consumption be anti-capitalistic? Perhaps from a purely financial standpoint. But a situation where capitalism “eases down” might actually be the smartest investment ever made: an investment in nurturing human capital. Healthier, happier humans can not only produce more, but will also invent more.

Diversity is beautiful

One of the things I’m most thankful about with capitalism is the fascinating product diversity it led to. But too much of a good thing is not a good thing at all anymore. And while I appreciate the diversity, I also recognize that in the past decades it has started to resemble the behavior of cancer. Too much diversity is a tumor that feeds on our ecosystem, running amok with almost no planetary governmental oversight. Even so, I do believe that with capitalism we’re closer to the ideal product diversity state than with, say, communism.

Economy influences our society and, not only by extent, our way of government. Politics, economy and culture are all intertwined with other pillars of human development to form what we call civilization. As a prime ingredient of civilization, economy shapes not only how we trade, but our attitudes as well.

For example, in capitalism, it’s not profitable to reject minorities of any kind (sexual, racial, religious). This, slowly but surely, trickles into society. True capitalistic societies are more tolerant towards minorities, partly as a consequence of this being the most profitable behavior.

My first 7 years of life happened before the fall of communist Romania, during one of its worst periods (which was still way better than places in less developed parts of the world). I then witnessed the gradual implementation of capitalism, during a slow, painful process during which a number of sly Romanians became rich overnight through various forms of abuse. 20 years later I moved to Sweden, a country renowned for its socialism, but which has become increasingly capitalistic during the turn of the millennium and even more so under my very eyes in the past decade. All these varied economic landscapes have shaped me in all sorts of ways.

I am thankful to the diversity that capitalism has exposed me to. I’m thankful for its contribution to the civilization that I enjoy being a part of. I couldn’t imagine myself happy in a system that would restrict my freedom of speech (even though censorship is definitely on the rise everywhere in the world, including the proud Western democratic block).

I’m even thankful for capitalism’s flaws, for without flaws, there is nothing to improve. I’m one of those humans with a pull towards perpetual improvement. My work on this website is not only about improving the society I belong to, but also about improving myself. Throughout this process, it is vital for me to emphasize that despite my criticism, I am not blind to the luxury I am granted simply by having a roof over my head and warm, clean water at the tap. Oh, and fancy gizmos to play with.

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March 15, 2019
Ethical Economy

If one would be to chronicle the history of illegal or unfair use of economic practices, one would probably need to fill ten tomes of at least a thousand pages each. From rich to poor, almost everybody has, at least once, suffered due to our misshapen financial system.

There are many reasons for this, such as perfectly healthy and natural human greed^. The problem is that greed and other evolutionary adaptations have been allowed to spiral out of control by a broken educational system^. Insufficient education allows profit-seeking entities to exploit evolutionary weaknesses. They profit by making individuals invest into items and activities of no real value (no increase in happiness and no profit for the individuals or their families).

This social weakness has brought with it the perpetuation and success of a class of dangerous individuals^. People of otherwise great potential, but who are successful because of a dangerous disconnection from the society they should (as skilled individuals and leaders) be taking care of. These people only behave this way because it’s possible. They can (still) get away with it.

Fake money

At the very core of economic unfairness lies the manufacture of money out of thin air. Or, more precisely out of paper and ink. Actually, in the Information Age^, money is made out of electricity (lots of it^). Cryptocurrencies, for all their rebellious hopefulness, epitomize the ridiculous of the times we live in: billions are created based on something as fickle as public opinion, unsubstantiated ideas and charismatic individuals (Musk, anyone?^).

The fact that money is fake has never been more evident than it is today. We’ve also never had more debt than today. Most money in the world is, actually, debt. It is an instrument of distraction that has been used masterfully for thousands (yes, thousands) of years. But that’s history and we shouldn’t let ourselves condemned by it. Let history be history and look towards the future. Besides, back when money was invented, we didn’t have the technology we have today.

Ethical everything

We are fortunate to have evolved to a state of awareness that allows us to make some significant leaps forward when it comes to knowing right from wrong^. Economic structures that were inconceivable decades ago are now gaining traction. We have concepts such as ethical consumerism^ and ethical banking^.

Technology today, in fact, allows us to very accurately measure each individual’s contribution to society. And ethics today allow us to discern meaningful contributions from wasteful or even toxic contributions.

What I advocate is ethical everything. The implementation of such a system concerns the fusion between an ever-evolving ethical framework and a super-fragmented decentralized financial system. Let’s see what these terms mean.

The ever-evolving ethical framework

Society usually adapts to new ethical principles on a generational level. But ethics can change from one minute to the next. One of the catalysts of prosperity is a society’s ability to quickly adapt to changes in the way humans relate with each other. A social life with reduced friction ensures that individuals can channel more energy into constructive ventures.

The implementation of ethics into law is sometimes very sluggish. The economic system of the future, however, has to be able to adapt, sometimes in a matter of hours, to people who might exploit it. Think about how an antivirus company works. Once the company is aware of a dangerous application, they release a software update that allows their product to protect users from that application. The same can be done with all sorts of harmful social behaviors.

It is therefore imperative for our future financial institutions to continuously adapt and climb to a high moral ground. Having “Financial institutions” and “moral high ground” in the same sentence is almost laughable in this day and age; but things will change. The alternative is to continue living in a state of perpetual financial seizure where an ever-increasing number of people suffer during economic downturns.

The super-fragmented decentralized financial system

Through the use of cryptocurrencies, we can create a highly adaptable financial system. This would consist of a world-wide currency that would then split itself into regional (state-level) denominations, then city-state level denominations and then further down to villages, families and even per-individual currencies. The purpose of this fragmentation would be to drill down to where actual value is created: the individual.

All currencies would feed back into the planetary currency, a sum yielding the total value generated by the entire species. How such a hierarchical cryptocurrency system could be implemented is homework for those that are experts in this field.

Econoethics

The fusion of economy and ethics can be called econoethics. This could be achieved, for example, through the implementation of an ethical layer within the global cryptocurrency we discussed earlier. Such a construction can bring the concept of dollar voting^ into the foreground of our economic lives.

This ethical cryptocurrency would be both hierarchical, fragmented and subject to localized ethics transformations. This means that for a social structure located in a certain area, the currency’s development will be influenced (transformed) by the ethical principles valid in that area. Indeed, ethics should be culture and region-specific.

What this means, in practice, is that a manufacturer that produces a good that is considered undesired in a certain society will not make that much profit off of it. Or, citizens that have an important contribution to their surrounding society will enjoy better pay. In a society governed by different laws, roles might reverse.

Implementing such systems is not easy and would require a lot of testing and brainstorming. But make no mistake, this is already doable with today’s (primitive) technology. All that is required is some good will and the courage to experiment.

I have faith in the thousands of engineers, thinkers and tinkerers around the globe to come up with the foundations for a new financial framework; one that will give us a more transparent, cleaner and healthier economic development during the following centuries.

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January 15, 2019
Consumerism as Religion

A certain sense of achievement can arise following the break with organized religion. Many people rightly feel they have been freed from a prison of outdated practices and mentalities. Yet, the human need for belonging and confirmation has not disappeared. Neither has the inventive human spirit, always ready to prey upon its own in the quest for profit.

Consumerism is defined as a social and economic order and ideology that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. The way this behavior spreads and elevates its status in society is surprisingly similar with religious traditions. This text is about some rather amusing parallels that all but indicate that consumerism is taking advantage of the power void left by fall from grace of organized religion.

This is not to say that consumerism has any of the spiritual virtues that religion often promotes. That’s exactly the problem – consumerism is an economic tool that is capitalizing on an intimate need. It’s the wrong cure for something that isn’t even a problem. And it’s proving to be increasingly costly for the future of our ecosystem and thus, our quality of life in the coming decades and centuries.

Before we continue, it’s important to note that this text is not against commerce and certainly not against spending or making money. We all need to sustain ourselves. We have to trade. Companies need to make their products known. However, thanks to consumerism, the principle of “profit trumps quality and ethics” has entered a phase of dangerous, accelerated spread.

Parallels

In the past few thousands of years we’ve been quite busy building various places of worship. This hasn’t changed with consumerism. There is a new type of building that has become not only popular but paramount to the faithful in almost any city touched by this new “religion”.

The shopping mall is where consumerism is preached to both those that are already converted and to those that haven’t yet become faithful shoppers. Here, people are busier than they’ve ever been in churches because the shops ensure there is some tangible value associated with the ritualistic visit.

The image above is a perfect example of consumerist indoctrination. What sort of person goes to a clothing store every day? The consumerist faithful, of course.

While religions split into opposing organizations, cults and sects, in consumerism we have companies. These are headed by a sort of bishop known as the CEO or the president – which is sometimes worshiped like some sort of saint. Most respectable companies have a unique “brand identity”, represented by images, slogans and even vague principles. Everything is carefully chosen to provide maximum marketing value with a minimum of transparency and accountability.

Corporate followers are encouraged to wear and disseminate this illusory identity wherever they go. The new breed of faithful has less fervor than those that believe in the gods of old, which is probably good, because it would get pretty chaotic when fans of clothing brand X engage in holy war with those of brand Y. Even so, intense rivalries continue to exist. In what is a fortunate ideological regression, the fanboy has taken the place of the crusader.

Consumerist faithful sometimes undergo pilgrimages to far-away shopping meccas – large cities that host veritable mall-cathedrals. For the most part, this venture is preoccupied with gaining status rather than the acquisition of items with reasonable value. As with any pilgrimage, the result is internal satisfaction. Unlike spiritual journeys however, shopping satisfaction stems from a sense of advancement through society rather than personal evolution.

It’s perfectly fine for people to go out of their way to search and find products they love, including traveling to other countries. But for the consumerist worshiper, this is not a necessity anymore. It has become a habit, a social obligation and sometimes an unrecognized burden.

Social restructuring

If consumerism were to have a creed, this would be planned obsolescence – a well-honed method of transforming value into junk as soon as possible. This is how consumerism funds its spread through the world. A vast amount of profit is generated by a system that takes resources absorbed from the earth, digests them in factories, puts them through the retail distribution system and then flushes everything as quickly as possible into landfills.

A significant part of the profit this organism produces is invested into evangelism. This goes way beyond advertisement. Huge sums are invested into opening new markets. This doesn’t mean only adapting and inventing products for those markets, but also modifying the cultural norms there. Sometimes social reformation takes decades of carefully planned reprogramming via mass-media, but the families behind the biggest names in manufacturing operate on a generational scale. For these pragmatic financial strategists, a century is a rather short time to accomplish the goal of economic supremacy.

A good example of social restructuring is the need to keep in pace with the latest fashion. People weren’t obsessed with perpetually upgrading their smartphones some years ago. But through clever marketing, based on merciless psychological manipulation, cultural norms were reformed. It’ll be “interesting” to see how the arrival of smart appliances and mainstream robotics will shape the commercial landscape.

Divide and conquer

Reward mechanisms in the brain mean that shopping can offer a quick – but very superficial – fix to other issues, either psychological or emotional. In consumerism, happiness is found in four bags loaded with products, deliverance is obtained through status. People educated in this economic environment find material substitutes for various emotional needs such as security or spiritual comfort. Unfortunately, there are few things indeed that are more insubstantial for one’s personal growth than substance itself.

The rampant, almost obsessive individualism that characterizes many societies –especially in the Western world – is a fertile soil for the consumerist dogma. It is quite likely that this was the intent in the first place. A divided society where people feel alone and disconnected is the perfect marketplace for all manners of fake medicine. Ripped from the support of true connection and friendship, many people wander meaninglessly across bland webpages whose only purpose is to guide them to the next shop.

Solutions

Getting rid of consumerism doesn’t mean that companies that depend on it have to suffer. Like I mentioned in a previous article^, economic entities can adapt and invent new ways to compete. What is required is that we, as shoppers, support those companies that embrace sustainable methods. Products that meet such manufacturing conditions will be more expensive, but they will outlast their cheaper alternatives making the investment well worth it.

Consumerism won’t last forever, even if for no other reason that the simple fact that chain reactions, even economic ones, are not sustainable in the long run. The companies that prepare themselves best for the next economy will be those that will rule it. What we can do as members of society is to make everything possible to ensure a soft landing after the inevitable crash that will follow when the consumerist bubble finally bursts. In this case, let’s wish it ends with a whimper, not with a bang.

Completing this article’s tragi-comical mood, here’s an awesome video about the craziness on Black Friday. Perhaps the early third millennium shopper does have a crusader’s fervor after all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3RDTxVCKC4^

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March 24, 2017
Christmas as Avatar of Consumerism

Cultural war is tricky business. As a living entity, culture needs mechanisms of protection from external threats. But intellectual defensive systems can become an obstacle for evolution especially when a culture has fallen in love with itself to the point where criticism is no longer seen as a mechanism for progress. For all its merits, Western culture is affected by a plague of intellectual rigidity.

There is no need to generalize. There are many Westerners who are quite open to change and new ideas, perhaps more-so than any other major culture on Earth. This is only sufficient if these people can trigger an evolutionary step forwards by reaching a critical mass enough to spread a wave of change throughout society.

Why Christmas?

What does all this have to do with Christmas? It’s quite simple really. Changing the way we interpret Christmas is probably a litmus test for cultural evolution. Why do we need to reinterpret this cultural event? Because it is the avatar of a way of doing business that may have made sense in the 20^th century, but will only lead to worsening the quality of life on this planet for future generations of human beings.

Welcome to one of the many “Christmas factories” in China

Christmas and the surrounding period has become a sad proof of how masses can be manipulated into doing whatever the manufacturers of fake value desire. Peer pressure drives people into shops, irrespective if their friends or family require the presents they are (socially) forced into buying.

Healthy products, made by happy workers (Santa’s elves) in excellent working conditions

Adding insult to injury is a plethora of consumerist traditions such as Black Friday. All in all, Western culture is chiefly responsible for the environmental destruction of dozens of countries that occurs while shopping malls have transformed Christmas carols into soundtracks for consumption. Perhaps organized religion deserves its fate of being defiled by capitalism.

Our environment, our heritage, our children however, do not deserve this fate. Perhaps we should do something to stop this rampant consumerism from wrecking our future. This is not to say that we should stop purchasing gifts or merchandise. It simply means that perhaps we should think twice about the value we will extract from a purchase. It also means that we should avoid buying wares from manufacturers that are clearly designing their products in such a way that forces us into a lifetime commitment of perpetual upgrades and spiraling costs.

“But thanks to us, they have a job” is the worst excuse for manufacturing fake value

The trick

Does upgrading a phone every two years even make sense? I’ve used my Galaxy Note 3 for almost 3 years now and, thanks to the replaceable battery, will probably use it for more time to come. Even though Samsung’s software is very bad (fixed via installing custom, de-bloated firmware), they used to produce quality hardware some years ago (no longer the case, new Samsung phones are built to be fully replaced). Actually, most phone manufacturers now-a-days build these devices in such a way that replacing the battery is difficult and costly.

It’s the same racket that the printer industry has been engaged in for decades, but with a more devious implementation – observe how corporations have become masters of milking the population. Almost all industries have various ways of coaxing consumers into purchasing pieces of our planet’s minerals, usually taken from countries that are exploited by developed nations.

Take a deep breath, close your eyes and repeat after me: “This isn’t the job a human being in the 21st century should wake up to”

Even though the Earth will probably survive us, we should not be so sure that we can survive what a broken ecosystem can do to us. And don’t think that those that are chiefly responsible for the destruction of our ecosystem will suffer alongside us. With their money and power, using today’s technology, it’s quite easy to build paradises for the rich & privileged. In the meantime, the rest of the planet will suffer the consequences of having been fooled into turning the Earth in a factory of products built for becoming obsolete, engineered to break as soon as the warranty expires.

In our family, we design our own Christmas decorations. Because maybe he should not breathe toxic fumes.

Solutions

As usual, the solution is spreading knowledge. It’s very easy and everybody can take part in this. Encourage people to think about their purchases. Investigate mercilessly and purchase only those products that are known to deliver quality and can be easily repaired. This will encourage the companies of tomorrow. Such companies do exist.

There are clothing companies that strive to recycle and reward customers for bringing in old clothes, giving them discounts. There are phone manufacturers that design their devices so that the batteries can be replaced. There are software companies that are not obsessed with finding ways to trick users into new purchases with fake features, but instead are happy to remain as small, driven teams, focusing on quality and enjoying the loyalty of satisfied customers.

Ready to bring the joy of Christmas into every home. Would Christ approve of the way Christians celebrate His birthday?

Many times, people end up buying useless gifts due to social pressure. Material gifts are not the only way to reward a relationship. I have purchased no presents this year, even though I love a lot of people in my life. Instead, I have gifted experiences to those that are close to me. I have gifted words, time, love and care. What I received in return was more love, sometimes even tears of joy.

To know exactly what to tell somebody in order to cause a positive emotional response takes knowing that person, or at least knowing how to appeal to something that is a common denominator for us all – love. The effort invested in reaching another’s heart, and the reward thereafter is more worth it than anything any shop will ever offer for sale.

In a certain Nordic country, Western consumers are enjoying the “Santa run”, a sort of convenient pilgrimage for the religion of capitalism. They will then proceed to throw away these garnments, with little regard to those who made them or the wasted material. So much for Western “civilization”.

Except the last one, the picture for this article have been taken from this beautiful and enlightening photographic essay over at Lens Culture:

https://www.lensculture.com/articles/ronghui-chen-christmas-factory^

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December 26, 2016
How the Stock Market Drives Companies Insane

In the past decade, we’ve witnessed countless cases of companies breaking the law and harming the environment in their frenetic quest for profits. The most recent high profile case is Volkswagen’s cheating in the emissions scandal^. Or was the toxic spill from a mine in Brazil^ worse? In case we’re undecided, perhaps the disastrous explosion in China^ can take the prize? All of these happened in the space of four months in 2015.

Now, just think about how many companies get away with extremely dangerous practices just because we haven’t caught them or because disaster hasn’t struck yet. I believe there is an explanation for these behaviors. And, as it is often the case, understanding the causes of an undesired behavior can give us clues about how we can change it.

A life-form analogy

Profit is the motivating force behind a company’s decisions. Following a natural tendency, the individuals that have teamed up to form a commercial entity share the desire for prosperity. This collaboration between individuals is similar to the association of more cells that constitute a multi-cellular organism. Companies can therefore be seen as a sort of life-form. The environment where many of the larger life-forms exist is called the stock market.

One of the most important changes that the stock market has seen in the past decades is the worrying drop in stock ownership time. Actually, this has outright plummeted in recent years. What this means is that companies have less time to prove themselves to investors and, often, this negatively impacts their long-term strategies.

The stock market is forcing corporations to make a profit as large and as soon as possible, lest investors simply pull the plug and move on to the next “growth opportunity”. This childish attitude on the part of the investing public forces many economic entities into a ruthless quest for profit. The alternative is death and, like any life-form, a company will do everything in its power to survive.

As with all ecosystems, there is a relationship of interdependence between companies and the stock market. While companies adapt to their environment, they also have the power to change that environment. The problem is that, for the time being, there’s a lot of greed and paranoia swirling inside this ecosystem.

The rules of the game

If the stock market influences the companies’ behavior, it stands to reason that skillful changes in the market could help companies to become friendlier. The main issue in the investment game is that most of the players are, to put it mildly, uneducated. Fewer investors than ever hold a company’s stock for more than a year. Like hyper-active children, most of them stumble into speculation, fattening the paychecks of brokers and stressing out everybody in the market.

With or without the stock market, companies are bound to sometimes play dirty due to their desire for profit. Unfortunately, the lack of proper investment principles on the part of the public becomes yet another reason to adopt bad policies and take massive risks.

A ruthless stock market may mean better profits for a while, but it’s us breathing in Volkswagen’s fumes; losing our planet under mountains of sludge; having our life blown to bits due to the fact that some manager decided to improve his bottom line by neglecting the security of a warehouse that contains 900 tons of ammonium nitrate. I’m referring, of course, to the three articles that are linked in the first paragraph.

We’ve built a jungle-like environment for these corporate life-forms, and we’re reaping the rewards. As companies are becoming more and more disconnected from humanity, our values and ideals become secondary – all bow in front of the throne of the quarterly financial statements. It’s survival of the fittest.

Solutions

The most obvious way to break this vicious circle we’re in is, of course, education; not only financial education, but also psychological education. Financially, investors need to understand the concept of long-term investments. Psychologically, they need to be prepared to weather the ups and downs of the stock market and to hold onto their assets (provided that those assets are of a company that the investor truly cares about, has vetted and has faith in its long-term vision).

Certain changes of policy must be applied on the companies’ end as well. We should take back our governments from the greedy claws of lobbyists. Through the increased independence thus gained, we can facilitate the creation of a strict code of conduct for corporations, enforceable through larger fines and increased regulation.

Some will cry that this will stifle innovation. Perhaps it will, to a certain degree, which is why any such measures must be taken together with the companies and the people that brought their success. Let us not forget that these entities are comprised of our brothers and sisters.

Too many times have we, as a species, decided that we know best when we intervene in an ecosystem. We must heed the delicate balance of the stock market and the companies that inhabit it. Now is the time for dialogue, for finding a harmonious way to co-exist with these corporations, before they decide that they don’t have any need for humans. Even if we don’t manage to create true artificial intelligence, automated processes will continue to make humans obsolete.

Note 1: For those interested in the stock market, I can recommend one of the best books I’ve ever read on the subject of financial and psychological education in investment: Benjamin Graham’s “The Intelligent Investor”. Warren Buffett is one of the author’s students.

Note 2: I’ve entered the stock market roughly 8 months ago and so far, never sold a single stock. I’ve invested in two established, dividend-paying North-American semiconductor companies, one major software company and a promising (but high-risk) computer games studio in Sweden.

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February 29, 2016