A Tale of Two Economies

Have you ever wondered why Wall Street, (I TOOK OUT: "SPECULATORS"- MAKES ME THINK OF INDIVIDUALS RATHER THAN WHOLE SYSTEM)-(I NOTICE PUBLIC PERCEPTION TENDS TO BE THAT THE RESPONSIBLE PARTIES GOT WHAT WAS COMING TO THEM AS SOME OF THE BIG FIRMS FELL, AND THAT WE ARE ACTUALLY RECOVERING) who brought down (OUR) economy, (IS) still being rewarded with vast fortunes? Or why teachers, nurses, factory workers, truck drivers, and all the people who do real work are struggling to put food on the table? The pundits talk about a jobless recovery. But how can it be a recovery when jobs remain so scarce and pay so little? And why do so many people find that the harder they work, the more they owe the bank?

Welcome to the phantom wealth economy—designed and managed by Wall Street bankers and corporations. They profit from packaging and selling worthless mortgages, manipulating share prices, and charging usurious(OUTRAGEOUS) interest rates (& FEES). They thrive (PROFIT FROM) OUR financial bubbles, low wages, foreign sweatshops, tax evasion, and public subsidies. They overcharge us for medicines, tell us we can’t have essential medical treatment, pollute and pillage the environment, corrupt politicians, and get us ever deeper in debt.

When we lose, Wall Street wins. For Wall Street, the current economy is performing splendidly.

But Wall Street’s phantom wealth economy is not our only option. We can have a real wealth Main Street economy, based on goods and services that serve people and restore nature.

(OUR ANCESTORS:) Patriots of an earlier time, declared their independence from a British king and his corporate monopolies. We too can declare our independence—this time from (THE MODERN CORPORATE MONOPOLIES OF) Wall Street—and build a New Economy based on local control and sound (SUSTAINABLE) market principles responsive to our values, needs, and interests.

Millions of modern patriots are already doing it.

They’re moving their money to local banks and credit unions and organizing “buy local” campaigns to keep their money circulating in their communities. They’re reducing their dependence on money by practicing voluntary simplicity, establishing home and community gardens, retrofitting their homes for energy conservation, and biking rather than driving.

They are taking back (THEIR) government by organizing New Economy discussion groups to reframe the political choices, running for political office, and demanding new rules that get big money out of politics—and free themselves from rule by Wall Street corporations.

We can have a New Economy that provides meaningful, living wage jobs for all who (WANT) -(THE LAZY MASSES SELDOM KNOW WHAT TO SEEK,-BUT DO TEND TO KNOW WHAT THEY WANT) them, favors working people over financial speculators, restores environmental health, and provides our children with hope for a better future. It is ours to choose(MAKE). We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

I THINK THIS IS GREAT. WHERE I HAVE COMMENTED IN ALL CAPS ARE PLACES I FEEL THE LANGUAGE COULD BE "DUMBED-DOWN" TO ACCESS THE HEART STRINGS OF THE LESS-EDUCATED. I ALSO FIND MYSELF INTRIGUED BY THE POSSIBILITIES OF IMAGES/FILM YOU WILL CHOOSE TO BACK UP THIS VOICE-OVER. I THINK THE MORE THE "US VS. THEM" IS UTILIZED, & ALLOWS THE UNDEREDUCATED "US" TO IDENTIFY THE "THEM" AS POLICIES THE "US" ALLOWS, THE MORE POIGNANT THIS MESSAGE WILL BE.

Aaron Gustafson

Aaron: Thank you for your thoughtful reply. I will add it to the mix of feedback. David

Aaron: Thanks again. I've been drawing on your suggestions in my current revision. Suggestions for images are also welcome.

Yes it would be highly relevant to our own experience

It was not until 2003 that I got involved personally in this area. a discussion group contsct, Terry Hallman, I'd learned was fasting for economic rights in Chapel Hill NC, and I knew that he'd been mentoring his local senator John Edwards on his pitch about "Two Americas".

It was Edwards a year later who launched the Center for Poverty Work and Opportunity on the UNC campus.

My [now] colleague had returned from Russia and Ukraine where he'd been successful in one instance with a local economic development initiative, in the wake of Russia's 1998 economic collapse and the involvement of Harvard's top down efforts with the Defense Enterprise Fund.

He'd developed an ally in Bill Clinton on his activism for missing US veterans and pitched him the concept of reforming capitalism for human benefit while serving on the steering group of Clinton's re-election committee. That helped him leverage the Tomsk Regional Initiative as a proof of concept project for a model of business investing in community development.

By 2003 he wasn't welcome back in Russia where like Bill Browder he'd become "a threat to national security" and not much welcom in the UK either with the concept of a people-centered business being interpreted as the gambit of an economic migrant.

Ukraine still had potential and that's where we focussed attention back in October 2004 arriving on the eve of a democratic revolution.

The aim was to address several crippling social problems, not least the vicious cycle of poverty which rendered abandoned childrem from state institutions onto the streets and into prostitution and crime helping to fuel an HIV epidemic and having their own children born into poverty to complete the circle by being abandoned to the state. A state controlled by moguls and an extreme interpretation of capitalism, devoid of democracy and compassion.

The microeconomic 'Marshall Plan' was delivered to their government in October 2006 calling on support from the US in any way possible. The investment over 5 years being weighed against what was spent each week in Iraq. Like the original it targeted 'hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos' which at that time were yet to be experienced in the US.

P-CED had become a working model in the UK in 2004 at a time when the concept of a Community Interest Company had yet to be introduced. Of late there's much debate of 'social business' and the non-loss non-dividend model proposed by Yunus. We're sticking to People-Centered Economics and the aim isn't to franchise a model or promote a brand, but to collaborate with like minded others for common benefit.

Focus for us in Ukraine remains on abandoned children and in this regard we're joined by a group of major charities who see the right of all children to a family home as key to reaching MDG objectives for 2015.

I'll leave you with a final thought which comes from a poem by Wordsworth about charity entitled The Old Cumberland Beggar:

"--But of the poor man ask, the abject poor,
Go and demand of him, if there be here,
In this cold abstinence from evil deeds,
And these inevitable charities,
Wherewith to satisfy the human soul.
No--man is dear to man: the poorest poor
Long for some moments in a weary life
When they can know and feel that they have been
Themselves the fathers and the dealers out
Of some small blessings, have been kind to such
As needed kindness, for this single cause,
That we have all of us one human heart."

Creating "fathers and dealers of some small blessings" is what I hope for.

Just finished reading "Agenda for a New Economy." I was delighted to find the book because (to my knowledge) little is being written on the subject. It is nice to see someone questioning the total accepted paradigm of our current economic system. Interestingly, your thoughts are similar to those of Buckminster Fuller in "Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth," and "Critical Path." Fuller approached things from a more "science and technology" perspective, But the basic message was the same. I would add that your work is much easier to read.

Concerning comments on "A Tale of Two Economies," in your above mentioned book you use many factual items such as those related to the false picture presented by GDP. (and unfortunately a book is about as short as one could make a coherent case for a new economy.) Perhaps it might be useful to include some of the more striking facts used in your book in the voice over. Facts seem to lend credibility.

As a sideline - for several years I have taught in an industrial automation program in one of Wisconsin's technical colleges. As we all know there is now incredible technology that effectively removes the need for humans in much of manufacturing. In fact much of the job loss in the USA is due to automation as well as outsourcing. Invariably companies that automate become much more profitable. In a sane economy these companies could continue to pay their employees the same or better wages than before, just to discover even more creative and beneficial ways of benefitting the larger society. In our current economy automation means the people lose their job and even more wealth is transfered to the already wealthy. Technolgy that could be used to free humanity is instead used to impoverish.

David S. I surely do agree that the failure to share the gains of automation is a crucial part of the problem, but perhaps a bit complex to bring into this short animation. I recall when automation was praised as a way to liberate our species from manual labor. The dream turned into a nightmare as a few people monopolized the benefits---which is your point.

I am from Hungary and had read the book from David Korten about the mentioned phantom and real wealth. Thank you for it!
I experience evry day how difficult is to turn the way of living into a real wealth, even in my family. Sometimes I myself make steps, what I know that is not necessary and is close to fantom wealth (for example last time, buying a second fridge, to get the drinks called) but the reason why I did so is, that I did not manage to win over this question with my husband. If we can not win on family level, will it be possible to change the world?
On the other hand I try to show good examples to my sons and show that there are a lot of important value in life over money.
I am editor of a newsletter linked to rural development here in Hungary and will be ready to circulate the animation when it is ready if you will give the link to it.
I am idealistic and believe in partnership.

Judit: There are many millions of people in the world who are ready and are looking for guidance. Apparently, your husband is not yet among them. I assume that the people who read your newsletter are examples of those who are. Wonderful that you have that outlet and I'm delighted to hear that you will help us get out the word on the animation when it is ready. Thank you for your comment.

I have not reviewed all of your linked materials, but I have a suggestion for your short. In the midst of the "meltdown" I could not believe the number of pundits on major networks who repeated almost verbatim a particular phrase: that a key danger from the financial crisis was "leakage into the real economy". I could not believe how many times I heard these exact words with no follow up on the implications of the duality of a "real" economy and a "?" economy. It would be great (albeit time consuming at this point) to briefly string together a chain of different pundits uttering those words. Point being, lets do something about the fake economy where nothing is actually produced except wealth for a networked few - the magical "spring" source for "trickle-down"....?

Scott: Interesting observation. I had not picked this up, perhaps because I don't spend much time listening to network pundits. It does suggest that they recognize the distinction between Wall Street and the real economy, but never address the implication. This would be a great one for Jon Stewart to pick up.

Thanks for sharing this.

I may be off base, but for me the phantom wealth part of this paragraph is "They profit from packaging and selling worthless mortgages, manipulating share prices, and charging usurious interest rates. They thrive on financial bubbles" but the rest of the paragraph "low wages, foreign sweatshops, tax evasion, and public subsidies. They overcharge us for medicines, tell us we can’t have essential medical treatment, pollute and pillage the environment, corrupt politicians, and get us ever deeper in debt." is all about the huge multi-national corporations that exploit all of us in the mainstream, not to mention millions of people around the globe. Admittedly some of these corporations are probably banks, but many if not most are corporations making things somewhere in the world where it is cheaper to do it that in the US, which to me is not the phantom economy but the real economy. Also, I would prefer a more direct hard hitting title to this piece than a "A tale of Two Economies". It does not really convey the message immediately that we need to get out of the phantom into the real. That having been said, I don't have an alternative - yet.

David G: Thanks for your helpful comments. You make a good point about the distinction between creating phantom wealth money from nothing and extracting unearned profits. I'm trying to keep it simple, but they are different---as you note. I"ll work on this.

Regarding the distinction between banks and corporations. Corporations that are owned by private equity firms or are traded on public exchanges function as extensions of Wall Street and march to its tune. They have little freedom to act as independent entities even if their management wants to be less predatory. I'll give some thought to how I might briefly clarify this point

I welcome suggestions on the name. Let me know if you come up with something.

I'm also looking for ideas for imagery for the animation and welcome input on this from anyone who cares to contribute.

For imagery you could use the whole set of characters from the folktale "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by Frank Baum. I believe it's in the public domain. You can find a free copy on the internet. The symbolism for each character and institution is given in Chapter 1 of Ellen Brown's book "Web of Debt" found at webofdebt.com. A few other sites also have comments on the symbolism. For example, the big TBTF (too big to fail) banks are symbolized by the wicked witches of the east and west. Today that would be Bank of America and Wells Fargo in the west, and JP Morgan Chase, Citi, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs in the east. The Tinman symbolizes the industrial worker, the Strawman symbolizes the small farmer, etc. The Wizards of Oz would be Bernanke and Geitner at the Fed and Treasury. Dorothy represents the youth of Main Street who are trying to find a way out of the storm of the Depression at the local level.

i posted other suggestions on imagery yesterday at the Big Picture article (by mistake). that's it for now.