A Systems Perspective 1: Resources in Country growth

What we make & have and how we get it.

This is one of my academic posts based mainly on class theory of International Economics, History, Geography, and IR, along with my development economics post Agricultural Trade Doesn’t Work for Poor People , and a sociology posting The Next Globalization is Local . Today I explore the hypothesis that we ascended to economic empire by resource-use (and debt- other post & Other Post Nicole Foss ..) reliance in Economic growth, and use that to extrapolate outwards in my blog about a response to a pending resource recession.

The US ascention to greatness

I hope to prove with this post, like all my other posts, that Economy is not separate from the environment, and history has a large impact on the future of the USA. Information about online
masters degrees is available for people who want to further explore global growth and economics issues. Advanced study is often beneficial for moving toward a full understanding of the complexities of our modern economy.

Economic history growth of the Economy:

World Economic Finance and how we ascended 1879-1945: the United States grew absolutely and relatively in relation to other countries at this time, due to capital intensive production (steel), resource intensity (factories for export and trade), and internal composition of our business sectors during this time. Conditions for growth were ripe, and there was a ton of land for taking. We expanded our transportation infrastructure, cultivated a secondary (internal) demand for goods and services, and invested heavily in our non-renewable resource extraction (table 1). In California, as an example, “earthy goods” of timber, gold, coal, oil, fish, agricultural products, natural gas and energy are a big source of productivity, combined account for around 40%-70% of where people were employed in productive California (table 2). There was a 64% resource intensity gain of GDP during this time period that we grew 1879-1941.. Just look at these tables:

Walker, Richard A. 2001

Often, this value depletes the source it’s built on. It’s sort-of a “resource bonanza” capitalism that made private property, surplus, money and investment; in a word <b>growth</b>. Where did this welfare come from? Since the industrial revolution, production systems did change a lot during this time, and regional transportation networks took off like the modern-day internet. But if we’re looking to replicate real growth in other countries (or our own) in the present day and avoid recession, it necessarily involves real. production. on this sort of scale by human means. And it better be sustainable, too.. It’s hard to imagine a future society with no environment left. FYI, there are plenty of precedents for recovery for the US but most often it’s going to war that eventually gives us the boost.

for a recession: see other post

Paul Farmer, Haitian Doctor for the Poor

From his (great) biography, Mountains Beyond Mountains, the character of Paul Farmer:
“Ophelia thought that Paul had a fairly complex personality, built of oppositions — a need for frenzied activity that verged, she though, on desperation, and a towering self-confidence oddly combined with a hunger for affirmation. She thought she understood; he took on more than he could fix, so of course he wanted reassurance. And yet he also seemed “terribly simple.” She thought he had never experienced true depression, a freedom so enviable she almost resented it. It was as if in seeking out suffering in some of the world’s most desperate locales, he made himself immune to the self-consuming varieties of psychic pain. He’d told me back in Haiti, I may be a more sunny, cheerful person than you. No one believes that I’m cheerful because of what I say and write, but I only say and write those things because they’re true.” He was often sad, of course, but it didn’t take much to cheer him up.”

Paul Farmer has affected change in thousands, and prevented probably over a million deaths in his work with Multiple-drug-resistant Tuberculosis, mainly in the poorest areas.
Questions to think about:
1. Is the quest for perfection always a good thing? What negative character consequences do leaders sacrifice in order to solve immense problems bigger than themselves?
2. If you were [Paul Farmer, Brett Farve, Che Guevara, Indira Ghandi] and had the chance, would you jump off the treadmill? or Be at the top of your game in an international world-scene, even if it necessitates being stressed and demanded under the eyes of a million people?
3. Would you write your own biography? (or press releases..) Or let someone like Tracy Kidder follow to represent your legacy in print? What are some advantages and disadvantages to either way?

-Eddie Miller
BU ’10

SO242 students, chime in!
Systems Change Visionary

10 Reasons any Driver can Understand WHY BIKE

10. Left turn on red
9. Mobility on and off road
8. Bikes can be used to generate electricity
7. The wind in your hair
6. $60-$80 a year to maintain
5. It’s sustainable aka doesn’t use gasoline
4. Don’t have to give anyone else rides
3. Messenger bags
2. Always free parking, always at location
1. I get to class faster.

Boston makes it easy to bike… why bike: http://bubikes.org

-Eddie Miller
https://eddiemill.wordpress.com/

The Crisis in Darfur

What is happening, and what can we do about it?

Just went to an incredible talk from a Darfur refugee- that means he was a Muslim in Western Sudan when government backed militias destroyed 50 villages in his valley and killed 21 members of his family. That was in 1983. From there, what do you do?

1. He fled to Egypt and organized. Wrote for 6 years to Arab and Muslim leaders, press, all to condone the killing. Nothing.
2. Contacted embassies in Egypt: large-scale internet distribution to amazing world response. Awareness hit international community.
3. Mentioned in US and UN circles, but no International backed action.
4. Now travelling around speaking, crying out for peacekeepers who would be welcomed by the darfuri people. But still no action has been taken.

The story ends on a sombering note: 15 years of genocide and murder and rape, until his people can no longer leave their villages for firewood. International complacency (follow the money…). African Union inefficiency and corruption.

But WHAT to do?

People have been trying to get our government to act. Maybe Obama will. The letters are all in…

International action would be best. UN declares genocide= moral obligation to act. Target=Ban Ki Moon secretary general.

International causes have to be stopped. Clog the vein that feeds government war. Locate and destry multinational streams of revenue. Lawsuit or…

Direct action from the people.
Set fire to the oil reserves they want. Shut down the gold mines and release international press. You clearly aren’t benefitting from the revenue, better without. If the trade becomes too dangerous, people will divest and the money will leave. The crisis burns itself out.

My thoughts on how to solve crisis: Any resistance effort has to be led by the affected, charged by a will to survive. Donations could flow much more efficiently through the internet into organizer’s hands than through government or international aid channels.

Any largescale peace effort would instantly give itself away: white people, white vans, white weapons drive the war underground. Instead it needs to be escalated vs. Silent millions.

*SO…*
This is where I must leave you, dear reader. I am not going to be the one to organize for the solution to Darfur. I do know that more visibility is a waste of effort, and untargeted begging is unclassy. What can one person who really cares DO?

Organize! The internet gives us unlimited power of knowledge. Find out what’s going on, look at solutions and then make a better one. People are dying, but every crisis has a best plan of attack. Go, click, thrive.

Amnesty International
BU coalition to save darfur

A New Hope for Darfur (in Water) speaker tomorrow:
Thursday, November 20th
7:00 PM
COM 101 (640 Commonwealth Avenue)

Hope and change must dominate our thoughts, or else we will be lost.
https://eddiemill.wordpress.com

-Eddie Miller
BU ’10
eddiemill@gmail.com