Archive for lifewithoutmoneybook.blogspot.com

Capitalism, money and our future

A great short video on money, capitalism and our future. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/jA1_vcqvoFs

LIFE WITHOUT MONEY: Building Fair and Sustainable Economies 2017-06-04 21:49:00

Watch what this resident of Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in Missouri has to say about money and living abundantly with very little money:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJc4w6RBL04

LIFE WITHOUT MONEY: Building Fair and Sustainable Economies 2017-03-11 20:43:00

If development is centered on money while the other aspects of human life are ignored such as environment, land, culture or social support systems then the majority of us will be at the losing end.
Money is a game just as soccer that requires the players of the game to understand the rules. In this money game, the rules of the game are not controlled by the players but by the person who introduced the game.

Once Papua New Guineans are hooked into the ‘money’, then it is just like being hooked to alcohol or any other foreign goods where satisfaction is far from being reached that there is a hunger for more.
Quoted from — see more at — https://pngnri.org/png-today-no-money-no-development/

Marx, money and revolution

Marking the release of Marxist Monetary Theory: Collected Papers by Costas Lapavitsas, read this report on the ‘Thinking about Money’ Symposium launching it at SOAS, University of London (18 January).

Marx, Money and our Future

Check out this post for news about the ‘Marx’s Critique of Political Economy and the Global Crisis Today’ conference that will be held on 6–7 April 2017 — organised by members of the Economics and Sociology departments of Hofstra University, New York — one of many events in 2017 to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the publication of Karl Marx’s Capital I. Harry Cleaver is a guest speaker and there will be a discussion on radical interpretations of money and associated revolutionary strategies.

LIFE WITHOUT MONEY: Building Fair and Sustainable Economies 2016-11-17 14:24:00

In this Youtube video David Suzuki explains economics as 'a form of brain damage'. Check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Jlyv1hCTr0

Demonetarisierung: Geld ist das problem!

The Degrowth in Action project of the forthcoming 5th International Degrowth Conference recently posted a 10-page essay in German on the problems with money, written by a small team associated with the Demonetize it! e-discussion group. It should appear soon in English — and ultimately in print — as one of a collection of contributions from various activist groups, campaigns and movements that support degrowth. This collection is an opportunity to read activists’ thoughts, arguments and positions in their own words. Meanwhile, see here:

Exner, Andreas, Justin Morgan, Franz Nahrada, Anitra Nelson and Christian Siefkes. 2016. ‘10. Demonetariserung: Geld ist das Problem!’ Posted 12 July at http://www.degrowth.de/de/dib

5th International Degrowth Conference and Money



Hope to see you at the 5th International Degrowth Conference in Budapest 30 August–3 September where I will join with Francois Schneider and others for a Special Session on Housing and Degrowth, with a proposal for us to edit a book on the topic. I went to the degrowth conference in Montreal in 2012 and it was great so I am really looking forward to this one. More particularly for this blog, I will present a paper on the case for a non-monetary future. I've posted the accepted abstract below.

Non-Monetary Degrowth is Strategically Significant
(Conference theme: The un-common sense)

Even for many radical adherents of degrowth, money is a common-sense — not simply capitalist — tool, so alternative currencies and banks abound. This paper argues against this common-sense logic, as follows. The most direct and efficient form of degrowth requires as-local-as-is-feasible production focusing on people’s basic needs, implying that future distribution is decided simultaneously with collectively agreeing on productive goals and ways of achieving them. Say, each person contributes a number of hours to collective production as a community obligation and, in return, has their basic needs met. Decision-making focuses on bio-physical, environmental and social measures and values; complex bio-physical and social efficiency is paramount in limiting throughput in production and associated exchanges. As a result, money has no place in degrowth, where grassroots political decision-making replaces production for trade and market exchanges. Similarly, so-called ‘alternative’ currencies that serve functions of legal tender or the ‘universal equivalent’ on which capitalism depends, are redundant. In non-monetary degrowth, reward for work is the security of having life-long basic needs met with continuous input in making decisions on both local production and the terms of exchange (compacts) with as-local-as-feasible neighbour-producers. There is personal, but no private, property: the entire Earth is commons with clear, efficient and universal principles and terms for commoning. Such a vision suggests that advancing specifically non-monetary degrowth — consciously breaking with monetary production and exchange — is of crucial strategic significance.

Money versus basic needs for people and planet

It only takes two minutes to watch this ripper of an animated story on 'sustainable development' — a euphemism for capitalism as we know it. It shows a world without money is preferable to one where people's minds and behaviour have been — as if by religious forces — monetised  —

http://www.survivalinternational.org/films/there-you-go

Radical analyst Max Haiven

The first post for 2016, which has started in a work hole that I have only just crawled out of — still two books now in the production stage for publication mid-2016 and late 2016 so not in vain.

Anyway, the reason for this post is to report a meeting with radical analyst Max Haiven, who writes on art and money and financialisation, and has been in my work town of Melbourne — read more here:

http://maxhaiven.com/

And, specifically:

http://maxhaiven.com/2016/01/21/melbourne-and-cambridge/

http://moneyandart.tumblr.com/