The Conservation Economy by Bill Boas Modern economic theories from Adam Smith to Karl Marx are not going to be much help as people look to their future. Popular meanings of `capitalist' and `socialist' economies have become meaningless. It's time to face reality and discard old political and economic buzzwords and theories. For all industrial societies, this means a shift from consumption to conservation-based economics. Financial trends are serving notice that the worship of economic consumption for its own sake is an illusion people can no longer afford. Now, the price for this folly is starting to be paid, and it means change. As the present global financial system unravels, a better one must take its place. Here are seven major differences between a consumption and a conservation economy. Today's consumption economies are: (1) short sighted, (2) link material goods to status, (3) promote goods on perceived, not real needs, (4) are mentally and physically harmful to people, (5) ignore effects to the biosphere, (6) have chaotic finances. and (7) sponsor periodic wars. A conservation economy: (1) looks long term, (2) promotes the use value of material goods, (3) produces for real needs, (4) is beneficial for people, (5) is ecologically sound, (6) is financially stable, and (7) exists to sustain a permanent global peace. Today households and businesses plan only for the short term, often month by month just to meet debts. Public companies, too, must plan in short periods to devise quarterly financial reports to keep speculators happy. Stock and financial markets are skewed to care little for the future. In a conservation economy people plan generations ahead to provide for the welfare of children, grandchildren, and their descendants. By the next generation, a tree seedling planted today could be bearing fruit, nuts, or maple syrup. In seven generations mature forests could be restored. Without trees, there won't be a future for anyone. In a conservation society, people's idea of time will get in synch with the longer cycles of natural events. A major conservation principle is holding material goods as tools instead of status symbols. Possessions are to be used, not displayed. If, before people bought anything, they thought, `How can I use this to enrich my life permanently?', it would test for utility value and slow impulsive and wasteful purchases. Needs and wants in a conservation economy are real, not perceived. In a consumption economy sellers promote the idea of wants. People default their natural idea of needs to an unreal media-generated `standard of living.' A deluded economic cabal now dominates the advertising and media that create and deliver messages to people. They don't even call human beings `people.' They refer to them as economic units - `consumers.' Based on advertising, people pattern buying habits. Stimulation from this barrage of brain-washing causes impulsive purchases and a quagmire of perpetual personal and family debt. Most people in consumption societies tenuously hold jobs that are unrewarding except for making money. Money was originally a means of exchange, not something to be sought for its own sake. Holding a job in this confining and demeaning work setting is economic slavery. Hidden frustrations of this syndrome then erupt in patterns of escapism involving alcohol, drug, family abuse, and violent crime. Witness the `news' for evidence the consequences of consumption societies are life threatening to people. The conservation work setting would be more than a job. It would be integrated with a broader life vision, and linked to hope for a tomorrow that includes today. The perception that one's work contributes to a better future makes it easier to cope with natural stress on the job and encourages a pro-life attitude. Consumption economies also happen to be political states. Political states promote war system economies, which is the most wasteful kind of consumption. Periodically, a political state must prove its dominance of its own and other populations by armed force or it loses political credibility. Wars appear to initially stimulate the riches of the winner, but added up, there's always a global net loss. The idea of sustaining wealth by destruction is a sick delusion. The global economy is nothing new. Ever since there has been pack animals, wagons, sailors and ships, economic exchange has always been people-to-people, and crossed the borders of political states. Transcending political states, conservation economies are global by nature. While nations are logical cultural groupings of people and their environment, political states are only paper legal entities that can't relate to the ecosystem. A nation and its political structure are different. Only political states and groups cause war, not individuals. A subtlety, but once embraced, it can help design the stage for permanent peace. Economies use money to help transfer goods and services. Whatever money is, it must be agreed to by everyone, be tangible and divisible, and define its value by consensus independent of state or banking power. Today, almost all world money doesn't qualify as such. Money now has only symbolic value, supported by a wishful confidence. As such, it's dangerously subject to manipulation by sudden economic and political panics that influences its value. This constant fluctuation of symbolic money is characteristic of debt-driven consumption economies, and is chaotic to natural economic exchange. A peaceful conservation world that plans long term, can grow in a qualitative, orderly way, without steep boom and bust cycles. Its money will be equally stable and predictable. Ultimately, people will rediscover that the historic essence of global trade is barter not financial credit. Banks and banking are not necessary for `money' to circulate. The real issue is conservation vs. consumption. The transition from a wasteful consumption pattern to a natural conservation ethic will cause disrupting, but needed, social change. It'll be easier to cope with if people will first think about what they really value for themselves and their families and always keep those hopes in focus. Advertising is mind control. If they have to advertise it, you don't need it. People must learn to tune out the consumption- promoting radio, TV, daily newspaper and Internet advertising messages. Then each household must become a tiny conservation economy. Family by family, it'll catch on. People will realize again what they've forgotten; that their own optimism, and genuinely productive activity is the real wealth of themselves, and their families. The result can be an enduring and harmonious new order of living. -end-