15. Maintain the human community without despoiling any adjacent or distant ecosystem. It is all connected.
16. As we plan the operating systems of our sustainable economy, we must include the entire natural living system; The local ecology of land, water, air, native fauna and flora are full members of the community. We need a “whole systems perspective” to decide the best course of action for each community and the human species as a whole.
17. Account for real ecological costs now hidden. Have those that cause these costs pay for the cost. No more corporate or governmental deferral of real and measurable costs to future generations. Our children deserve this.
18. Always think about how our actions contribute to measurable economic value, not just the movement of cash. An industry may in fact generate a lot of cash, but create huge long term loss to the community in social and ecological costs and damage. We need a new economic measure; RPP, Real Productive Product to replace GDP.
19. Start to reclaim our democracy at the local level first, then as a local populist power base is established, real citizens can reclaim their birthright of political power that’s been usurped by our present political mercenaries that are controlled by special interest groups and multi-national corporations at the state, federal and global level.
20. Work with all of our local business and industries to shift out of economic connections to the military/industrial complex. 60% of all public funds are spent on military largesse and outright waste. Huge portions of the general economy are hard wired into the military industrial complex. This is not sustainable and it will crash. We can maintain real "defense" with an intelligent and effective alternative to our current corrupt empire building oligarchy. We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
---President Dwight D. Eisenhower January 17, 1961 “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, from those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone, it is spending the sweat of its laborers the genius of its scientists and the hopes of children” -Dwight Eisenhower, WWII General/US President Empire is always based on violence and economic overreach through military exploits. There’s never been a sustainable empire in human history. The current U.S. empire is no exception. We’re at an epochal crossroads; Make a conscious choice to shift into a sustainable economy, or let history repeat itself one more time with collapse. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Essay by Michael Richards, founder of Sustainable Ecological Economic Development (S.E.E.D.)author of SUSTAINABLE OPERATING SYSTEMS/The Post Petrol Paradigm (available at www. Amazon. com)For speaking engagements, contact the author by e mail at; postpetrol @ aol. com or phone at; 319-363-1774.
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