Knowing the reality of "US" 2nd of the 6 articles
Expoiting economics to regenerative Economics
The Illusion of Separation: Reimagining Economic Systems for True Enrichment. "Us" in economics
For millennia, human beings have engaged with the material world in a seemingly productive dance, transforming raw resources into tools, shelters, sustenance, and objects of beauty. Yet, a fundamental truth often gets lost in this intricate process: existentially, humanity doesn't produce matter; we can only modify what already exists on this planet. Every atom in a smartphone, every fiber in our clothing, every nutrient in our food originates from the Earth, transformed by human ingenuity. This simple, undeniable reality – that we're not creators of matter but stewards and modifiers of it – forms the bedrock of a truly regenerative economic understanding, one that humanity has yet to fully grasp.
Our prevailing economic systems, however, operate largely under an illusion of separation. They divorce human activity from its ecological origins, often treating the Earth's resources as inexhaustible inputs and the environment as a boundless sink for waste. This incomplete understanding stems from a fragmented view of "us," where the human endeavor is seen as distinct from, and often superior to, the natural world and even other human beings.
The Exploitation Paradox: Needs, Wants, and the Satiation Cycle
The current economic paradigm, driven by a conflation of needs and wants, has inadvertently led to pervasive exploitation. We confuse the primal requirements for survival and well-being with an insatiable desire for accumulation and consumption, often mistaking senseless and meaningless expansion for genuine progress.
Example 1: The Phoebus Cartel and the Birth of Planned Obsolescence Perhaps one of the most glaring historical examples of this distorted view of "growth" is the infamous Phoebus Cartel, formed in 1924 by major lightbulb manufacturers including Osram, Philips, and General Electric. At a time when lightbulb technology had advanced to produce bulbs lasting 2,500 hours or more – some, like the Centennial Light in Livermore, California, still glow today after over a century – these corporations deliberately colluded to reduce the lifespan of their bulbs to a mere 1,000 hours. They actively degraded the quality of their product, even imposing fines on members whose bulbs lasted too long, all to increase sales and profits by forcing consumers to buy more frequently.
This was a strategic shift that profoundly damaged the planet and humanity's concept of progress. It was not genuine growth; it was a cynical manipulation that led to senseless and meaningless production, wastage, and the hoarding of resources that could have been used more efficiently. This engineered obsolescence normalized the idea that products should not last, fostering a culture of disposability that directly contradicts the Earth's finite resources. The "growth" achieved here was merely an artificial inflation of sales figures at the expense of ecological health and consumer well-being.
Consider the concept of "scarcity," a cornerstone of conventional economics. While certain resources may be finite in a given location or time, the Earth, in its totality, possesses an abundance to meet fundamental human needs. The illusion arises when economic models are built on the premise of senseless and meaningless expansion on a finite planet, fueled by an artificial scarcity created by distribution inequalities and the constant manufacturing of "wants." For instance, we see vast food surpluses coexisting with widespread hunger, or an abundance of housing materials alongside homelessness. This paradox highlights how our economic systems often fail to align with the actual needs of the physical body.
Here's where the misunderstanding of "growth" becomes critical: stuff that is produced but not consumed by those who need it, representing either wastage, hoarding, or the active depriving of others, is not growth at all; it is, in effect, degrowth. It signifies a systemic failure to distribute value and meet needs, simultaneously depleting resources and creating social inequity. The deep wisdom in nature, where "milk comes before the birth of the young one" – an intrinsic provision for survival – stands in stark contrast to economic models that extract and deplete, often before genuine need arises, merely to accumulate unconsumed wealth.
Our economic systems often incentivize a relentless cycle of production, consumption, and disposal, mistaking throughput for progress. This linear "take-make-waste" model not only depletes the Earth's non-renewable resources but also generates immense pollution and waste, damaging the very ecosystem that sustains us. This becomes a self-defeating prophecy: we exploit the planet for "wealth," yet undermine the fundamental conditions for well-being.
The Interconnected Body: Meeting Physical Needs from the Earth
The physical body's needs are fundamentally met by the Earth. Water, food, air, shelter, and warmth are all derivatives of the planet's intricate biological and geological processes. When economic systems disconnect from this reality, they cause harm.
Example 2: Unsustainable Agriculture vs. Regenerative Practices Traditional industrial agriculture, driven by maximizing yield and profit, often exemplifies this disconnect. It relies heavily on synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and monocultures, depleting soil health, polluting water sources, and reducing biodiversity. This approach, while appearing efficient in the short term, is fundamentally extractive and destructive to the very soil that produces our food. This is another form of senseless and meaningless expansion, as it prioritizes a narrow measure of output over the long-term health and capacity of the system itself.
In contrast, regenerative economics, when applied to agriculture, understands the Earth as a living system. Practices like permaculture, agroforestry, and rotational grazing mimic natural ecosystems, building soil fertility, conserving water, and enhancing biodiversity. Farmers practicing this understand their role not as exploiters, but as participants in a larger ecological cycle. Their "us" extends beyond their immediate family or community to include the soil microbes, the beneficial insects, and the entire watershed. This is an economic activity that genuinely meets physical needs while simultaneously enriching the planet, demonstrating that truly understanding economics means understanding ecology.
The Non-Material Realm: Sharing, Belonging, and the Infinite Value of Love
Beyond the physical, human beings possess profound psycho-spiritual needs – for connection, purpose, meaning, belonging, and contribution. These needs cannot be satisfied by material consumption. Instead, they are met through interaction, relationship, and the expansion of the "us." This is where the concept of love, in its broadest sense, becomes not just a moral ideal, but an economic value.
Example 3: The Power of Open-Source Collaboration vs. Proprietary Lock-in Consider the difference between traditional proprietary software development and the rise of open-source movements like Linux or Wikipedia. In conventional economics, knowledge is often commodified and locked behind patents and copyrights, creating artificial scarcity. This system aims to satisfy "wants" for exclusive intellectual property. This can lead to senseless deprivation for those who could benefit from shared knowledge, representing a form of degrowth in collective human intellectual capital.
However, the open-source movement operates on a different economic logic, driven by the value of sharing and collaborative creation. Developers contribute their time and expertise not for direct financial gain, but for the shared benefit of a larger community. The value here is belonging, respect, recognition, and the intrinsic joy of contributing something useful to an expanding "us." This "economy of sharing" demonstrates that certain "goods" (like knowledge or community support) do not deplete upon consumption; in fact, they expand and become more valuable the more they are shared. This is the "never-depleting love" you speak of – a form of value that grows exponentially as the circle of "us" widens.
The needs of the psyche or soul are met by this intrinsic connection and the values that manifest when "us" expands: love, belonging, respect, recognition, usefulness, contribution, purpose. These are not commodities that can be bought or sold; they are emergent properties of genuine human connection and shared endeavor. When an individual feels respected, when they belong to a supportive community, when their contributions are valued, their deepest non-material needs are met, leading to genuine fulfillment. This contrasts sharply with the fleeting satisfaction derived from material accumulation, which often leaves the soul feeling emptier.
Regenerative Economics: Beyond Exploitation to Enrichment
The path to regenerative economics lies in shedding the illusion of separation and embracing this holistic understanding. It means designing systems that:
Acknowledge Material Limits and Circularity: Recognize that all physical resources are derived from a finite Earth and must be managed cyclically, mimicking natural processes. This moves beyond "sustainable" (doing less harm) to "regenerative" (actively restoring and enriching). This rejects senseless and meaningless extraction.
Prioritize Needs over Artificial Wants: Focus on equitably meeting the fundamental physical needs of all human beings, rather than fueling a cycle of manufactured desires that result in wastage, hoarding, or depriving others.
Value the Non-Material: Integrate the intrinsic human need for belonging, purpose, and contribution into economic models. This means valuing community building, environmental stewardship, artistic expression, and care work as core economic activities, not just externalities.
Cultivate Reciprocity: Shift from extractive relationships with nature and each other to reciprocal ones, where giving back is as fundamental as taking.
Example 4: Circular Economy Principles and True Growth The circular economy model, for instance, aims to eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials, and regenerate natural systems. Instead of a linear flow, it designs products to be durable, reusable, repairable, and ultimately recyclable, ensuring materials remain in use. Companies adopting these principles are beginning to understand that their economic success is intertwined with ecological health, reflecting a move towards a broader "us" that includes the entire industrial ecosystem and the planet itself. This represents true growth – growth in well-being, ecological health, and collective human flourishing – fundamentally different from the senseless and meaningless expansion that depletes and divides, as exemplified by practices like planned obsolescence.
Understanding this profound truth – that our wealth comes from the Earth, and our deepest fulfillment from our connections – is simple in its essence. It calls for a return to the foundational wisdom that true enrichment is not about taking more, but about circulating wisely, contributing generously, and expanding the circle of "us" to encompass all of life. Practicing this will be difficult, requiring systemic shifts and a re-evaluation of deeply ingrained values. But explaining this in education, creating awareness from childhood, is the essential solution to cultivate a humanity that truly thrives, not at the expense of the planet or each other, but in symbiotic harmony with all. This is the complete knowledge humanity has been seeking, where the infinite, never-depleting value of love and shared well-being finally takes precedence over the transient satiation of material hunger.