Green Social Thought

Produce less. Distribute it fairly. Create a greener world for all.

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Topic: Labor / Economics

  • Obama Alums Are Pushing Fracked Gas Exports

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    by

    fitzdon

    During his State of the Union address, President Donald Trump exclaimed that the “war on American Energy” had ended and that “we are now an exporter of energy to the world.” What Trump did not say, though, is that several former senior energy officials from the Obama administration — the one Trump said had declared a “war on American Energy” — now…

  • Worker Cooperatives Are More Productive Than Normal Companies

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    by

    rsburke

    Michelle Chen points to studies showing that worker cooperatives are more productive than privately owned firms.

  • Unearthing the Capitalocene: Towards a Reparations Ecology

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    by

    fitzdon

    Settled agriculture, cities, nation-states, information technology and every other facet of the modern world have unfolded within a long era of climatic good fortune. Those days are gone. Sea levels are rising; climate is becoming less stable; average temperatures are increasing. Civilization emerged in a geological era known as the Holocene. Some have called our…

  • Privatizing the IRS

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    by

    fitzdon

    Here are two idioms that have no applicability to the United States Congress: “Once bitten, twice shy;” “The third time’s a charm.” It was all brought to mind upon seeing the headline in the New York Times on January 10, 2018, a few short days before Congress decided it was easier to shut down the…

  • Clear-cuts, Wildfires and Insecticides: My 2017 Pot Farm Observations

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    by

    fitzdon

    2017 was my fourth season in a row working in the Cannabis industry in California, and it might well turn out to be my last, considering how rapidly the industry is changing, especially since the 2016 passage of Proposition 64 for adult recreational use. My employment has always been hourly, arranged with handshake contracts, and…

  • What Happened to the 40-Hour Workweek?

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    fitzdon

    As 2017 winds down, it’s important to remember that this year marks the 200th anniversary for the call for a 40-hr workweek for laboring people.  The 8-hour day movement involves not only changes in the workweek, but the struggle over class power.  Turning points in this history of the workweek outline the reconfiguration of modern capitalism: 1817 – Robert…

  • The Catalan Integral Cooperative: The Simpler Way Revolution is Well Underway!

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    by

    henryr874

    This is a remarkable and inspiring movement in Spain, now involving hundreds of people in what I regard as an example of The Simpler Way transition strategy … which is primarily about going underneath the conventional economy to build our own new collective economy to meet community needs, turning our backs on and deliberately undermining…

  • The Real Causes of Deficits and the US Debt

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    fitzdon

    With the Senate and House all but assured to pass the US$4.5 trillion in tax cuts for businesses, investors, and the wealthiest 1 percent households by the end of this week, phases two and three of the Trump-Republican fiscal strategy have begun quickly to take shape. Phase two is to maneuver the inept Democrats in…

  • The Amazing Benjamin Lay: Friend of Animals, Enemy of Slavers

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    by

    fitzdon

    A decade ago I reviewed “Amazing Grace”, a hagiographic biopic about William Wilberforce, the parliamentary opponent of the slave trade in Great Britain. Since I am far more interested in a film’s politics than tracking shots, I saw it as an opportunity to cut Wilberforce down to size: The film was meant to commemorate the…

  • Maximising Economic Democracy and Justice in a Real-World Economy

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    fitzdon

    There are different views on the meaning of the terms economic democracy and economic justice, which aspects of the concepts that should be emphasised, and how they can and should be achieved in a real-world economy. According to one broad definition, economic democracy is about “… the citizens’ ability to influence economic developments in general…