Hvem har rett, Charles Eisenstein eller Erik Solheim?

For ikke lenge siden var Erik Solheim i Aftenposten og hyllet skyskrapere, og ønsket flere høyblokker i Oslo for å redde Oslomarka. Denne gangen er han ute og hyller økonomisk vekst for å redde verden. Det slår meg at begge forslagene er like urealistiske, og sannsynligvis er det den samme mennesketypen som støtter begge disse ideene. Men ingenting kan vokse inn i himmelen, hverken økonomisk vekst eller skyskrapere. Sannelig godt at han ikke lenger er miljø- og utviklingsminister! 

Erik Solheim er et godt eksempel på en skyskraperfetisjist, mennesker med denne legningen er gjerne også giret på økonomisk vekst som en mirakelkur for alle verdens problemer. Jeg har tidligere også sett han hylle Kinas omfavnelse av kapitalismen. Underbevisst tror jeg det er alle skyskraperne som bygges i Kina han er forelsket i, da Kina ferdigstiller en ny skyskraper hver femte dag.

Foto: Nordic Council

Den beste vi kunne erstattet Erik Solheim med er trolig Charles Eisenstein, forfatteren av boka Sacred Economics: Money, Gift & Society in the Age of Transition.

Sacred Economics argues that what economists commonly refer to as growth is the expansion of scarcity into areas of life once characterized by abundance. Fresh water, which was once abundant, has become scarce following its transformation into a commodity we have to pay for.

The fractional reserve banking system, which allows bankers to create money out of thin air – through loan generation – accentuates the pressure to convert more and more of the commons into commodities. Because the debt and interest created is always greater than the money supply (current global debt is estimated at $75 trillion, in contrast to global wealth of $30 trillion), there is always constant pressure to produce more goods and services to repay it. This explains why there are always people willing to cut down the last forest and catch the last fish.

As natural resources, such as fossil fuels, minerals, forests, fish and water, are rapidly converted to commodities, a similar transformation occurs in the social, cultural and spiritual commons. Stuff that was free throughout all human history – stories, songs, images, ideas, clever sayings – are copyrighted or trademarked to enable them to be bought and sold.

According to Eisenstein, the main reason for the world’s current financial crisis is that we continue to face mountains of increasing debt – yet have run out natural, cultural, social and spiritual capital we can convert to money to repay it. - Stuart Jeanne Bramhall 

- Conceptualizing Post-Capitalist Economics