Has anyone else seriously thought about how stupid a concept the economy is?

@SW-User The North American Carbon sink has been well known for over 30 years

@HoraceGreenley From what timeline are you making this assertion? All that's happened is that forest cover has shifted from west to east as farming left the east coast and moved west. America's forests have remained stable for approximately 100 years, but they are losing more old-growth forest that just about any other so-called "civilised" country in the world. Must Do Better.

No it isn't. It is emitting far more CO2 than it is absorbing, just like everywhere. And the reason for that is us.

@Really The suite Mum has has seen me off. It was there when I was growing up and it was still there when I moved out about eighteen months ago!

@jackieash27 Haha; good for Mum! In your own young lifestyle does that seem admirable, or more like just old fashioned & tight fisted?

@Really it's still in good condition so I guess it's just being sensible... 🙂

@RebelFox It will collapse. It's crumbling now....

@jackieash27 .... and accelerating, which I believe it will continue to do. Surely we're long past the point of no return.

@Rhode57 That is the point we're making :)

@Rhode57 I agree with your second statement but not really the first - even though I have had the same phone for years and don't discard anything if I can help it. More & more we're stuck 'going with the flow' because there's no longer any other option.

For example it's difficult to buy anything that isn't at least partly made of, and/or packaged in, plastic. Even our clothing is made of t he damn stuff. Last night on TV I saw an English sheep farmer who shears his sheep - himself - only for reasons of hygiene. The wool - wool! - is discarded because a whole fleece sells for only 25 pence. Professional shearers would charge at least 4 times that.

And that's just a small part of what's going badly wrong,

@Really You are right the world has become a throw away society . I was raised by parents who lived through the 2nd world war where you had to mend and make do . I was raised the same . Taught how to knit and sew and darn socks and also had to fix our cars in Rhodesia as new ones were a very rare commodity . Now everyone throws it away and buys new . A sad state of affairs really . As I have said in many posts we are our own worst enemy and enemy to the planet .

@carpediem Or better yet,those mega-rich entertainment stars and politicians whom profess their admiration for Cuba should live there.Im sure they'd LOVE it.

@DavidT8899 Amen

@badminton Oh badminton, that basic question has been rattling around in my head for a few decades. Do you have a theory in answer to it?

@Really I think it's because corporations, Wall Street and billionaires fix that way. Well, fellow peasants, it's time to get out the torches and pitchforks.

@1490wayb No there is a lot more to it. Economy is the base of a society and it's superstructures are our politics,religions, laws...
The way an economy works shapes culture and so much more.

@DavidT8899 I'd be strongly in favor of a fairer and dramatically simplified tax system in my country, and a decimation of the bureaucracy that administers it; but it would need a great deal of intelligent, thoughtful analysis to 'get it right'. Among the simplifications I'd want is to stop using the tax system to influence social behaviour.

@DavidT8899 We have VAT in Britain. And it is a total rip off. Already over expensive goods and services are made even more expensive with this additional tax. I believe it was introduced by the tory party in the early 1970s (going off research ) and that was the start of inflation problems in this country.

@Really I am a joint partner in a cleaning business (40-60) with another woman. We use resources most local to us and we make a profit. We take some of the profit to get by but when we can, we recycle the profit into the local community and we have taken on a couple of extra people lately because we have grown. What I am against are people who are already mega rich who insist in making more money for themselves just because "they can", It's a psychopathic mentality which does nothing but harm all round

@Really Without the "economy", everything goes away, we become hunter, gatherers again. And when we get to that point, we again start an economy based on barter. The guy that is a better hunter trades with the guy that is a better gatherer. Society, being part of a group rather than individuals, is built on interactions with others.

@Roadsterrider Semantics about what is or is not 'an economy' will not avert collapse. Only a universal commitment to drastically reduced consumption and pollution would have a hope, but I can't see those being voluntarily adopted.

@Roadsterrider The 'economies' of communes - and quite likely of most hunting & gathering communities - do not function by trading. They are generally about sharing, which is an entirely different concept. Thriving societies of the sharing kind have existed on the American continent within living memory. In some remote native communities that tradition is still the norm, despite colonist attempts to enforce 'civilization'.

In a trading economy, I will only give you something if you give me something in return, on which I personally place an equal value - otherwise 'no deal' and you get nothing. In the other system I give you something because we share what we have. Generally that involves quite a lot of personal interaction 😉.

@bleach Of course,space travel may become commonplace in the very far future,where they will no doubt create new industries and opportunities.It is said that outer space may become the new frontier,much like the Old West was for America.

@DavidT8899 Let's hope not. Humanity can't even manage to take care of our earth. No need to fuck up the universe as well.

@SW-User The universe is too big for even us to fuck up.But it will make for a good challenge to explore and profit from.