#1497 A Healthier Humanity Through a Wellness Economy
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 17 June 2022
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Air Date 6/17/2022
Today we take a look at many intertwining realizations that are beginning to permeate society which include but are not limited to the dead-end mentality of infinite growth, the uselessness of growth past a certain point for wellbeing, and the deepening alienation being felt in response to consumerism in place of community.
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SHOW NOTES
“Infinite growth on a finite planet is a recipe for catastrophe”
Some economists have long argued that to really save ourselves from the climate crisis, we need a fundamental overhaul of the way our economies work.
Ch. 3: Degrowth: liberation from growthism - The Taxcast - Air Date 9-23-21
Naomi Fowler explores degrowth and how we liberate ourselves from ‘growthism’ with economic anthropologist Jason Hickel.
Standing Rock was just one in a long line of battles that Indigenous peoples have been fighting against the twin forces of colonialism and capitalism since first contact.
Ch. 5: Eco-Socialist Degrowth? w/ Paul Murphy - Rupture Radio - Air Date 5-2-22
Capitalist growth is destroying our life support systems.
We talked about why the notion of decoupling growth from intensive resource use is ultimately unconvincing.
Tim Jackson joins David to discuss consumption, growth, macroeconomics, the modern economy, and more.
MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S)
Ch. 9: How We End Consumerism - Our Changing Climate - Air Date 6-4-21
How we end consumerism, explained.
We spoke with him about international capitalism during the pandemic and how to fundamentally move to a post-capitalist world
We continue our quest by looking into post-growth.
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 12: Final comments on the climate legislation currently in negotiations and how to win a Rivian EV
TAKE ACTION!
LAST CHANCE FOR BOLD CLIMATE LEGISLATION: Demand the Full $555 Billion in Climate Investments in the Budget Reconciliation Package and get it passed ASAP!
- Call 202-318-1885 (the #Call4Climate number) to automatically contact both of your senators, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
- What to say: CCAN’s email form also includes a call script.
- Learn more about what’s in the current reconciliation bill, what we need to fight for during negotiations, and download state-by-state fact sheets on how the bill would benefit the state you live in.
SUPPORT Grassroots Climate Action: Enter the CCAN fundraiser raffle and win a Rivian Electric Truck (or a Tesla up to a Plaid Model S)!
Written by BOTL Communications Director Amanda Hoffman
MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions)
SHOW IMAGE:
Description: An illustration of a green Earth, with a small plant sprout growing out of it. Green arrows encircle the earth against a pale green abstract background.
Credit: Nature-Earth-Sustainability | License
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of Left podcast in which we shall take |
| 0:07.2 | a look at many intertwining realizations that are beginning to permeate society, which |
| 0:12.4 | include but are not limited to the dead-end mentality of infinite growth, the uselessness |
| 0:18.8 | of growth past a certain point for human well-being, and the deepening alienation being felt |
| 0:25.4 | in response to consumerism in place of community. Clips today are from Double Down News, The Conversation |
| 0:33.3 | Weekly, The Tax Cast, Upstream, Rupter Radio, Politics Theory Other, The David Pakman Show, |
| 0:42.0 | and with additional members' only clips from our changing climate, Upstream, and Circular |
| 0:48.1 | Metabolism. Every human being grows, we grow through childhood, and then when we hit adulthood |
| 0:59.8 | we reach a plateau. Our body has a regulating system which stops growth beyond a certain |
| 1:05.6 | point. Occasionally that system breaks down and a cell begins to multiply and to grow |
| 1:12.2 | without regulation, and we call that cancer. Cancer is basically infinite growth within a |
| 1:18.6 | finite living system, which is the human body. That is exactly what is happening with capitalism. |
| 1:25.5 | Capitalism is dependent on infinite growth within a finite living system, which is the planet. |
| 1:32.2 | Capitalism is the planet's cancer, and just like cancer in the human body we have to cut it out. |
| 1:37.5 | All through my adult life I've been railing against corporate capitalism and consumer capitalism |
| 1:43.8 | and crony capitalism, and these are the real problems. And it's taken a long time for the |
| 1:49.7 | penitent drop. Maybe the problem isn't the kind of capitalism, maybe the problem is capitalism. |
| 1:56.6 | So let's look at the planetary disaster. We're losing the soil, we're losing the fresh water, |
| 2:01.4 | we're losing the insects, we're losing all the other astonishing species that we share this |
| 2:07.3 | planet with. We're losing the coral reefs, we're losing the rainforest, we're losing everything, |
| 2:12.6 | and it's all going at a phenomenal rate. What's causing this? The driving force is economic growth. |
| 2:19.0 | A global economy growing at 3% a year doubles every 24 years, and then it doubles again, |
... |
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