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>His specialty was alfalfa, and he made a good thing out of not growing any. The government paid him well for every bushel of alfalfa he did not grow. The more

by desdiv 9y ago

>His specialty was alfalfa, and he made a good thing out of not growing any. The government paid him well for every bushel of alfalfa he did not grow. The more alfalfa he did not grow, the more money the government gave him, and he spent every penny he didn't earn on new land to increase the amount of alfalfa he did not produce. Major Major's father worked without rest at not growing alfalfa. On long winter evenings he remained indoors and did not mend harness, and he sprang out of bed at the crack of noon every day just to make certain that the chores would not be done. He invested in land wisely and soon was not growing more alfalfa than any other man in the county. Neighbours sought him out for advice on all subjects, for he had made much money and was therefore wise. "As ye sow, so shall ye reap," he counselled one and all, and everyone said "Amen." -Joseph Heller, Catch-22

canadian_voter 9y ago
> Many currently profitable conventional farming methods would become uneconomical if their true costs were incorporated into market pricing. Direct financial subsidies, and failure to include costs of depleting soil fertility and exporting pollutants, continue to encourage practices that degrade the land. - David R. Montgomery, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations
- contingencies 9y ago
  Predatory capitalism is based on the privatisation of profit and the externalisation of cost. It is an extension of the fencing of the commons, of enclosures, along with the criminalisation of prior common customs and rights. What we need is a system that fully accounts for all costs. Whether we call that capitalism or not is irrelevant to me. But doing so would fundamentally transform the dynamic of present day capitalism, by making capital open source. - Robert David Steele, The Guardian, 2014-06-19 The point is ... this is indeed symptomatic of a system in which only certain things are valued with money, and everything else (the environment, the future, health, social wellbeing) is left largely unaccounted for. So what's the solution? We tried carbon credits, but they were apparently insufficiently profitable or liquid as an asset class to attract investment, and perhaps the issue was that if country A implemented harsh environmental laws and nobody else did, all the industries left, which resulted in watering down the environmental commitments. While most developed world governments do OK at solving or at least limiting the effect of serious environmental issues locally, the issues that exceed national jurisdiction tend to grow unchallenged. Interesting times.
  - TeMPOraL 9y ago
    Random idea: we need to work on more efficient governance and even faster transportation. Both of that to enable a global government to form, so that when an industry doesn't like environmental regulation, the only place it can move to is Mars.
- chrismealy 9y ago
  That is one of my favorite books ever. Anybody who's interested in history or ecology or civilization would love it.

by desdiv 9y ago

canadian_voter 9y ago

> Many currently profitable conventional farming methods would become uneconomical if their true costs were incorporated into market pricing. Direct financial subsidies, and failure to include costs of depleting soil fertility and exporting pollutants, continue to encourage practices that degrade the land. - David R. Montgomery, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations

contingencies 9y ago
Predatory capitalism is based on the privatisation of profit and the externalisation of cost. It is an extension of the fencing of the commons, of enclosures, along with the criminalisation of prior common customs and rights. What we need is a system that fully accounts for all costs. Whether we call that capitalism or not is irrelevant to me. But doing so would fundamentally transform the dynamic of present day capitalism, by making capital open source. - Robert David Steele, The Guardian, 2014-06-19 The point is ... this is indeed symptomatic of a system in which only certain things are valued with money, and everything else (the environment, the future, health, social wellbeing) is left largely unaccounted for. So what's the solution? We tried carbon credits, but they were apparently insufficiently profitable or liquid as an asset class to attract investment, and perhaps the issue was that if country A implemented harsh environmental laws and nobody else did, all the industries left, which resulted in watering down the environmental commitments. While most developed world governments do OK at solving or at least limiting the effect of serious environmental issues locally, the issues that exceed national jurisdiction tend to grow unchallenged. Interesting times.
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  Random idea: we need to work on more efficient governance and even faster transportation. Both of that to enable a global government to form, so that when an industry doesn't like environmental regulation, the only place it can move to is Mars.
chrismealy 9y ago
That is one of my favorite books ever. Anybody who's interested in history or ecology or civilization would love it.