Entries in the 'Economy' Category

Anti-Consumerism Is Gaining Strength

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from Of Two Mind.com): “The anti-consumerism Degrowth movement is gaining visibility and adherents in Europe. Degrowth (French: décroissance, Spanish: decrecimiento, Italian: decrescita) recognizes that the mindless expansion of mindless consumption fueled by credit and financialization is qualitatively and quantitatively different from positive growth.

“Degrowth is based on a number of principles:

“1. Consumerism is psychological/spiritual junk food (French: malbouffe) that actively reduces well-being (bien-etre) rather than increases it.

“2. Better rather than more: well-being is increased by everything that cannot be commoditized by a market economy or financialized by a cartel-state financial machine– friendship, family, community, self-cultivation–rather than by acquiring more. The goal of economic and social growth should be better, not more. On a national scale, the cancerous-growth measured by gross domestic product (GDP) should be replaced with gross domestic happiness/ gross nation happiness (GNH).

“3. A recognition that resources are not infinite, despite claims to the contrary. Even if fossil fuels were infinite and low-cost … , fisheries, soil and fresh water are not. … Indeed, all the evidence suggests that access to cheap energy only speeds up the depletion and despoliation of every other resource.

“4. The unsustainability of consumerist consumption dependent on resource depletion and financialization (i.e. the endless expansion of credit and phantom collateral).

“5. The diminishing returns on consumption. Investing in clean air and water, public transit, universally accessible knowledge/information–these forms of consumption yield high returns in public health, affordable mobility, etc. Buying clothing to wear once or twice and then throw away does not. …

“6. The failure of neoliberal capitalism and communism alike in their pursuit of growth at any cost.

“7. We have reached Peak Consumption ….

“The Degrowth movement explicitly questions what John Michael Greer calls the religion of progress (i.e. growth). The civil religion that growth equals progress is akin to the Cargo Cult of Keynesianism, the notion that growth is so essential that expanding debt exponentially to drive diminishing returns of growth is necessary.

“But both the religion of growth and its Cargo Cult enablers are merely superficial facades masking the real force: the expansion of global finance via financialization. Expanding capital, profits and power is the key agenda, and the quasi-religion of growth is just the public-relations narrative that mesmerizes the debt-serfs, political toadies and media sycophants.

“What does Degrowth mean in practical terms? Use the thing until it cannot be repaired.“

My Comment: New movements and parties begin to emerge in various countries and with different governments; their programs are partly similar to the ideas of “Integral Education” (IE) but cannot be realized without it. The future is coming. They will start developing their ideas and find the lack of tools for their implementation, then they will understand the need for IE.
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Crisis: The Search For The Solution

Dr. Michael LaitmanToday, we have gradually attained awareness that our existence is harmful, and we call this a “crisis.” We still don’t think that this is a general crisis encompassing all realms of human existence. We still don’t understand and do not connect all the individual crises within the family, in education, in culture, in science, in relationships, and most importantly the crisis threatens our existence—financial,  economic, and ecological. Yet all of these crises are essentially the same crisis.

In general, the word “crisis” in its translation and in its correct meaning symbolizes birth. In ancient Hebrew and also in Aramaic, the term indicated the same thing, a place upon which a woman gives birth. In ancient times there were special birthing stones upon which a woman would give birth with the help of midwives. This place was called a “Mashber.” This concept is found to symbolize birth in many languages, translated as the “birth of something new.”

This is to say, we should not look at a crisis as it’s seen by everyone who wants to get more and more out of this world, who are meanwhile acting as egoists without any deliberation. You can see that there are many who think that in this crisis something now must be corrected and then everything will be okay as it was the day before yesterday.

But lately there are fewer and fewer people like these and we see all these things happening very rapidly. After five years of the crisis it’s now clear that it is continuing and will not just gradually go away by itself. They are already saying that this will take about twenty years to correct as if it would be possible to correct something using the old methods in spite of everything. It has already become clear that this crisis will not end in another year or the following year.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the crisis will continue. It will evolve and deepen. We will yet reach states, which at the present time seem to us as impossible, when people will lose their human visage, becoming like wild animals, taking upon themselves laws, general rules, and norms of behavior that were considered inhuman, beneath the human level throughout the twentieth century. The accepted conventions will be pushed aside by our evolving ego and in general we will gradually descend to the level of the beast.

On the way, there could even be wars. We see how this is happening in the world today, when suddenly for no clear reason these break out in various regions and nations and phenomena begin to appear whose true reasons are not clear to anyone. Essentially these reasons always existed but were buried deep within and were not visibly apparent, or at least not sufficiently prominent to arouse problems, as for example in Syria or Lebanon, and so forth. This is speaking here about the social and political problems.

And in addition to this, there are very deep economic reasons; because the ego is revealed first and foremost in the economic area. This is because the economy reflects the connection between us, who gives to whom, how much and how they receive. Therefore the economy shows us first and foremost how much the system has become uncontrollable. We don’t understand which laws are currently governing us at all because the world is rising to another level. According to its level of development, it has already passed through the egoistic stage and has reached a particular limit. And as Baal HaSulam already hoped at the beginning of the twentieth century, from now on, more and more, we will need to reach the awareness that we must connect.

Essentially all of these conditions also existed in Russia at the time of the socialist revolution. These were all the revelations of the inner development of the human towards a new social order. But in the end, nothing came of it. As you know, Baal HaSulam hoped very much that the revolutions in Russia and Poland would transpire differently, and not just be taking the power into their own hands and establishing a new egoistic order, a new government. World War I was a “trigger,” the first “shot,” the first push toward the fact that the world must begin to change.

Therefore in the wisdom of Kabbalah it is said that if people don’t succeed in understanding that evolution must be through connection above the ego, which is presently leading us towards this connection, the world will then continue to become more and more incomprehensible. This is because the nature that had previously been discovered within each one of us and all of us together had pushed us for thousands of years in an egoistic form. In accord with our ego, we developed science, technology, commerce, and various social relationships; we changed society, we went through a change in form…

But ultimately the ego reached the end of its development and began to “circle” back on itself. Why? This was because nature had developed and exposed the entire ego, expanding it to a state of absolute mutual, global, “round” connection. Accordingly, we must also be “round,” meaning, connected into a single whole, and we are not doing this.

Revealed here is not just some kind of disorder; rather, it’s a fundamental difference between our economic, political, social, and internal mechanism, and everything that exists, that system, that program that nature brings up for us. This is because it began to be discovered not only in a more and more egoistic form, but also in a form of egoistic communication. And yet within this system there are various altruistic connections between us that are beginning to be revealed by which we are becoming completely transformed.

Thus an overlap between the two systems is being formed. Nature, the internal system, is discovered more and more as being altruistic, integral or analog; whereas we came to exist within a system of egoistic mutual connection that we developed over thousands of years. And so, the nature that aroused this egoistic development in us has now changed and continues to change more and more. Essentially, the Creator, the system of integral connection, has begun to be revealed more and more within human society, within civilization.

This state of opposition between the two systems is dangerous and not at all clear to us. Therefore none of today’s leaders, scientists, technologists, political scientists, sociologists, politicians, economists, or financiers, not one of them understands how to manage this system.

This is the greatest problem. We always ruled through the developing ego; we directed it towards various goals and areas. Someone who was more of an egoist, more clever, profited. We tried to do this also in other forms, such as through socialist revolution. But there was no method for connecting the people then, and so in the end the egoists rose to power and began to manage by using socialistic and altruistic slogans but essentially within the same egoistic system. Therefore nothing came of this at all; on the contrary, everything became worse.

And it’s not clear how the world will continue to advance and develop before it is discovered that there is a method of transition from that egoistic system in which all of human civilization is found to an integral altruistic system. So it’s up to us to clarify this and to tell others.
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From the Preparation for the The Convention In Krasnoyarsk 6/12/13

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Unemployed Young People Push Europe To Revolution

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Wolfgang Schäuble, German finance minister):‘We must win this battle against youth unemployment,’ Mr. Schäuble warned, ‘or we will lose the battle to hold Europe together.

“From the suburbs of Stockholm to the streets of Athens, ‘however, the battle is being lost one riot at a time. The unrest that recently rocked Sweden reflects a youth unemployment rate of almost 25 per cent, with young immigrants hit hardest. The jobless rate among those under 25 stands at 60 per cent in Greece. It’s 56 per cent in Spain and above 40 per cent in Portugal and Italy.

“And that’s only half the story, since unemployment rates take into account only those young people who are seeking work. Millions more have simply stopped looking, while two-thirds of those with jobs have been reduced to part-time work or temporary contracts.”

My Comment: A whole generation is not working and does not want to. We are faced with terror up to the point of capturing power. Treatment by any means will not help; distributing drugs is also a temporary measure. In any case, only a change of consciousness and as a consequence, the attitude to oneself, society, and the world will let us continue our civilization. It is time to change the human being …
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The Crisis Has Erased A Decade Of Growth In The Labor Market

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from Euronews): “The International Labour Organisation has painted a grim picture of Europe’s employment future in its annual World of Work report.

“It warned the advanced economies are going to suffer a lost decade of jobs growth and the potential for social unrest in European Union countries is higher than anywhere else.

“What happens depends on what governments do according to the report’s author Raymond Torres: ‘Of course, if nothing is done, there is a risk of a prolonged labour market recession in Europe with a lot of people moving into long-term unemployment or even dropping out of the labour market, which means that they no longer participate.’

“The United Nations agency believes the real employment rate is unlikely to recover until 2018 in the EU and other developed countries – taking into account the growth in the working-age population.”

My Comment: “Leaders” still consider themselves competent to speak about the future, although they cannot do anything and do not understand the present! Everything will be much worse, and it will be impossible to correct anything; an unemployed person should not be considered “disabled,” but someone who needs to learn about a new world.

Unwillingness to recognize that it is necessary to change the human being by means of integral education will lead the world to explosion! The trends of the “Arab Spring” are already visible in many countries of the world. The confrontation with states and nations will lead to global explosion.
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The Strongest Aren’t The Toughest But The Most Flexible

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Alain de Benoist, French academic, philosopher): “The Earth is the finite (exhaustible) space. In the end, there cannot be endless material growth in the finite space. Therefore, we must give up the idea of the quantitative growth. All the classical economists argue that growth is a natural phenomenon, considering that natural resources are infinite.

“In our time, a state is powerful if it is able to meet the challenge of time. If growth leads to disaster, then the countries that have implemented a policy of rational economic downturn will be least exposed to it.”

My Comment: There is no need to induce artificial recession; we need to change society gradually and gently by introducing integral education where individual and social changes will bring about changes in all the structures (political, economic, etc.) in a natural (optimal) way.
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Technologies Make Us Redundant

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (from McKinsey): “The relentless parade of new technologies is unfolding on many fronts. Almost every advance is billed as a breakthrough, and the list of ‘next big things’ grows ever longer. Not every emerging technology will alter the business or social landscape—but some truly do have the potential to disrupt the status quo, alter the way people live and work, and rearrange value pools.

“What technologies will most radically transform human life in the next twelve years? The McKinsey Global Institute looked at more than a hundred possible candidates across a variety of technology fields and narrowed the most potentially disruptive down to a dozen. They are, in order of size of potential impact:

“Mobile Internet defined as ‘increasingly inexpensive and capable mobile computing devices and Internet connectively.’

“Automation of knowledge work or ‘intelligent software systems that perform knowledge work tasks involving unstructured commands and subtle judgments.’

Internet of Things or ‘networks of low-cost sensors and actuators for data collection, monitoring, decision making and process optimization.’

“Cloud Technology or ‘use of computer hardware and software resources delivered over a network or the Internet, often as a service.’

“Advanced Robotics or ‘increasingly capable robots with enhanced senses, dexterity, and intelligence used to automate tasks or augment humans.’

“Autonomous and Near-Autonomous Vehicles.

“Next Generation Genomics or ‘fast, low-cost gene sequencing, advanced big-data analytics, and synthetic biology.’

“Energy Storage.

“3D Printing

“Advanced Materials defined as ‘materials designed to have superior characteristics.’ Much of what we today call nanotechnology would fall within this category.

“Advanced Oil and Natural Gas Recovery

“Renewable Energy Source: World Future Society

My Comment: This is already the immediate future, and to occupy and calm people down, making them creative in life and work, is possible by including them in integral education that teaches everyone how to build a new world “among us and within ourselves.” People will feel this activity the most important in life, moreover, with the benefit to themselves and nature, finding happiness now and always, by creating “eternal harmony” in connection between themselves.
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Is Europe Ready For Integration?

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Yevgeny M. Primakov, Russian politician and diplomat, academician, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, served as the Russian Foreign Minister, Prime Minister of Russia): “Europe shows that no integration can exist without supranational structures. Now in the EU as a whole, things are bad, but I do not think it will lead to the end of the EU. There is a greater need for supranational structures, in which countries pass some sovereignty.

“These national structures manage the banking environment, the budget process of all the members of this union. If this does not exist, the integration will not deepen. It is important that all the EU countries understand that we need supranational structures. But the EU has expanded too fast – you cannot accept many countries in the integration process at once; they sink the union.”

My Comment: The problem is not in the speed of entering the supranational union but in the readiness of its potential members for integration, and this is possible only after implementing the course of integral education for the masses in these countries. Any union will break without changing relationships between nations.
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The EU Will Begin To Fight Youth Unemployment

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from EUbusiness): ”… European Union president Herman Van Rompuy on Friday called on Europe’s leaders for help in fighting youth unemployment, now at record levels across the 27-nation bloc. …

“‘The number of unemployed people in our Union, especially of young people, is at record levels,’ he said. ‘It has become one of the most pressing issues in most, if not all, of our member states. That is why we must do our utmost to deal with it together.’ …

“The June summit ‘will be an opportunity to mobilise efforts at all levels around one shared objective: to get motivated young people back to work or education,’ he said, urging leaders ‘to actively contribute’ to fight youth joblessness.

“Fears are rising of ‘a lost generation’ with almost two out of three under 25-year-olds out of work in Greece and in Spain.”

My Comment: It is good that there are calls because the problem is growing, but as usual, funds will be allocated, plans will be created, hundreds of jobs for office workers will be created, and then one day they will remember them and see the result: wasted money… The only way out of unemployment is to occupy young people with integral education: It is inexpensive, reliable, promising.
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Poverty Will Not Be Eliminated In The 21st Century

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from Brookings): “Over a billion people worldwide live on less than $1.25 a day. But that number is falling. This has given credence to the idea that extreme poverty can be eliminated in a generation.

“The World Bank has recently set a goal to reduce extreme poverty around the world to under 3 percent by 2030. It is unlikely that this goal can be achieved by stronger than expected growth across the developing world, or greater income equality within each developing country, alone. Both factors are needed simultaneously.”

My Comment: A trend should be completely different—not to increase production in struggling regions as there is already too much production in the world, but to evenly distribute the products necessary for rational existence.
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Global Shock As Manufacturing Contracts In US And China

Global Shock As Manufacturing Contracts In US And ChinaIn the News (from The Telegraph): “Manufacturing has begun to contract in the US and China for the first time since the Lehman crisis, raising fears of a synchronized downturn in the world’s two largest economies.

“The closely-watched ISM index of US factories tumbled through the ‘boom-bust line’ of 50 to 49, far below expectations. It is the lowest since the depths of the crisis in mid-2009 and a clear sign that US budget cuts are starting to squeeze the economy.

“The news came hours after HSBC said its index for China also fell below 50, a major inflexion point for the world’s industrial workshop.

“’This is not a good moment for the world economy,’ said David Bloom, currency chief at HSBC.’ The manufacturing indices came in weaker than expected in China, Korea, India and Russia, and then we got America’s ISM.

“’We thought we had a clear picture that the US was recovering, Japan was printing money and were we’re back to happy days, and now suddenly a huge spanner has been thrown in the works.’”

My Comment: There are uncompromising laws of nature, which in any case will destroy the previous (egoistic, consumer) economy and will inevitably lead us to suffering. Feeling it, we will quickly agree to change our nature to the good connection in a united community.
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